TIL The man that shot Ronald Reagan is a YouTube musician who claims he's the victim of "cancel culture"
TIL The man that shot Ronald Reagan is a YouTube musician who claims he's the victim of "cancel culture"
Would-be assassin-turned-folk singer John Hinckley Jr., who attempted to kill then-President Ronald Regan in 1981, was scheduled to perform at the Hotel Huxley in Naugatuck, Connecticut on March 30…
Dude has like 45k subs on YouTube. Fucking weird.
He genuinely is being blackballed on a systemic level from performing.
Blackballed isn’t even the right terminology because it refers to the entertainment industry colluding to keep someone out of work, what happens to people that book hinkley is more like the kind of abuse cops use on people that testify against them.
He’s spent decades getting well and there’s literally a conspiracy against him now.
1You know, I ain't mad.
Dude was crazy. Did something horrible (regardless of the horrible person he directly targeted, and he did harm two other people). Was in supervision and treatment for decades.
Why the fuck should anyone care if he's trying to do something with what's left of his life? If he had gone to jail, I'd say he served his time, and that's the end of it.
He Was in supervised release at first, and hasn't caused any trouble since.
Fuck it, let the man have a life. If we can't give someone the chance to have changed after over thirty years, we're all fucked. I'm not the same man I was at 25. I'm not the same man I was at 40. Mind you, I didn't try to kill a president, but I was deep enough in the PTSD cycle that I'm kind of amazed I didn't try something that insane. Gods know that I did my own dance with self destructive shit, and that included chasing more trauma sometimes.
Give people a chance to be better.
174Also fuck it he shot Reagan, fuck that guy
52He didn't shoot Reagan for any of the billions of reasons Reagan deserved to be shot for, though... he did it as an attempt to impress Jodie Foster after developing an obsession with her after watching Taxi Driver about fifteen times.
It's important to note that Foster had been twelve when shooting the film, and that even the deranged and mentally ill protagonist of said film abandons any sexual interest on her character the instant he becomes aware of her age, despite her being a child prostitute, and that the character said protagonist was trying to impress by shooting a politician was in her twenties (Foster was barely eighteen when Hinckley shot Reagan).
9
This is the emotional intelligent and insightful response to the grab your pitchforks mentality. Hats off and a respectful bow.
43In the words of Brutus "Brutal" Howell:
He's paid what he's owed. He's square with the house again, so keep your goddamn hands off him.
24The book 'Determined' makes a great point on how schizophrenia victims have been mistreated throughout history.
22Exactly. Thank you.
4
I've been following him on Twitter for awhile.
He sells bad paintings of orange cats that I desperately want to buy.
He keeps booking musical shows and then having to cancel them once the venue discovers who he is.
After Trump was shot at he made a statement condemning political violence
75That last one is crazy
13Is it? Sounds a lot like what I'd hope to hear from someone with his history.
Maybe he learned something. People can change, it's just really frickin hard for every one of us.
36Not really. He didn't shoot Reagan for politics. He wanted to impress Jodie Foster
16
John did his time and just wants to make art and music. He lives close by to me and keeps getting booked and then cancelled at local venues. It’s lame.
50Are we gonna gloss over the fact that he blamed Cancel Culture.
I don't think this guy knows what Cancel Culture is.
16Yeah if think about it he almost saved America, but like another person who I won't name the fucker Regan lived. Wonder what world be like if he had been successful?
14he almost saved America
It would have been entirely accidentally, though.
He didn't shoot Reagan for being Reagan, he shot him because he wanted to impress Jodie Foster after developing an obsession with her (who'd been twelve when filming and was eighteen at the time of the attempt on Reagan's life) after watching Taxi Driver about fifteen times.
17
TIL it's possible to attempt murder on a sitting president's life, and later live freely.
39His charges were reduced because his lawyers were able to make the case that he was schizophrenic.
Pleading insanity became much harder in the US after that Hinckley’s case. The ruling was hotly debated.
44Good. We imagine how our society would have less issues if we focused more on real rehabilitation and reintegration, and less on retribution and *heaping on more trauma.
36For most crimes I agree.
For murderers, pedophiles, rapists, drunk drivers, snd repeat assaulters I think it should be more about "we're not reintegrating you back into society....at all. We're just going to put you into a room and make it so you're not a threat to society anymore"
And considering his was against the president, I'm surprised secret service didn't shoot him dead on the spot.
-9
It's technically possible to do that after committing any crime, but under super specific circumstances and it's a far cry from a "get out of jail free" card.
If you're legitimately, actually insane when you commit a crime you'll get sent to a mental hospital instead of prison. The catch is that the hospital will only release you if you're mentally healthy. That can mean that a person who uses the insanity plea may spend more time in the hospital than they would have in prison.
14This guy shot Reagan to make a celebrity he's been secretly stalking impressed. You think this is the same man?
3
He's have more fans if he'd had better aim.
19No just a bad shot.
13speaking of which, why do these maniacs fail only when it's the worst presidents?
12"You rape one child and you get booed at the olympics!"
-- some hypothetical case, hopefully /s9Any armchair historians care to theorize what would happen had he succeeded?
8He'd still be in prison.
15We would wear t-shirts with stylised image of his face, an image that would become part of pop culture and newer gens wouldn't even understand the full significance.
3
He was a man of vision. I didn't care about his music though.
2