For any who may be bothered by Ashli Babbitt's story receiving press attention, please consider...

[better]

That while we certainly do not want to martyr the woman, the reported aspect of her having been an Obama supporter who switched to Trump because she hated Secretary Clinton does, in fact, have profound relevance, and is something with which we very much need to grapple as a nation.

Her story is, I would argue, the absolute clearest possible demonstration of the extent to which the constant propaganda for political gain, completely unmoored from objective reality (particularly as has been directed at the Clintons for literally my entire adult lifetime) is indeed a demonstrable threat to national security.

Her conduct was reprehensible, of course, and absolutely should not be glorified in any way, but at the same time, it is also the entirely predictable tragic culmination of a problem we have been warning about for decades.

She shouldn't be made into a hero.
But she should be made an example.

She is exactly who we should be pointing to saying, "We told you so", as we decry radicalization, whether willful or negligent.

[beachbumbob]

1. I have a simple rule, I offer NO empathy or sympathy to those who are traitors, none to their family

outside to thank them for raising a traitor who got the just ending

[Bev54]

2. I watched some of her old rants

and someone close to her should have encouraged her to seek mental health assistance.

[subterranean]

8. How do you know they didn't?

You can encourage someone to seek mental health assistance, but you can't force them to do it. These cultists are convinced that they are right and the rest of the world is wrong.

[rso]

3. Capitol

I don’t believe that we should have an ounce of sympathy for these cultists. As far as her military service, it is totally meaningless when viewed in a vacuum, lest we forget that Oklahoma City mass murderer Timothy McVeigh was also a veteran.

[llashram]

4. this

a victim to the major propaganda stream from MSM. And the 'orange' fuhrer.

[rso]

5. Capitol

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9122477/Trump-rioter-shot-dead-storming-Capitol-rap-sheet.html?fbclid=IwAR2oi_GFuNsnrTXwCzLHpe6SOuMWbjLv_CzFQU5ZWskFBqX0kY1dy6uO6I0

She also has a considerable criminal record.

[better]

6. I think some here are missing the point.

I'm not saying she deserves any sympathy.

I'm just saying the story of how she got to the point of deserving no sympathy is, in fact, newsworthy.
And important to tell.

[Biophilic]

9. I heard you, better. I got your point.

I've been sitting here thinking about it. There have been so many stories here on DU about friends or family members who were sane, reasonable people until they started listening to RW radio or Fox news or social media. The task to counter those sellers of distrust and untruth seems almost insurmountable. But if there is to be future then it needs to be addressed.

[redstatebluegirl]

7. People with untreated mental illness seem to be easily led by a guy like 45.

[better]

10. Agreed, but that's only a fraction of the battle.

Perhaps the much greater threat is that people with inadequate comprehension of our civics, particularly down to the level of understanding the normal process of government, seem to be easily led by a guy like 45.

Or more accurately and importantly, I think, a network like Fox.

Lest we forget, Trump himself is largely a product of Fox, NOT the other way around.

Understanding, for example, that the original language of H.R. 748 was gutted by Mitch McConnell and replaced with the CARES Act, makes evident the lie that H.R. 748 having been introduced a year before COVID appeared is proof that COVID was all a Democratic hoax, because it makes obvious the irrelevance of the bill's date of introduction.

And of course the same phenomenon is visible at work in people believing that Congress could have possibly handed Trump a win despite the states having certified their electoral college votes.