Right-Wing 'Reacher' Fans Flip Out After Alan Ritchson Calls Trump A 'R*pist And A Con-Man'

Spitzspot@lemmings.world to politics @lemmy.world – 1184 points – ’Reacher’s Alan Ritchson Gave A Scathing Takedown Of Trump — And Conservatives Are Not Happy
huffpost.com

“Christians today have become the most vitriolic tribe,” said Ritchson, who himself identifies as a follower of Jesus. “It is so antithetical to what Jesus was calling us to be and to do.”

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Alan Ritchson pls don't stop giving me reasons to love you, lol.

This dude is definitely my favorite Hollywood rising star.

I didn’t know his name before today, but now I think he’s awesome! I might even give his show a try.

He has three main shows that he's part of, the first is Blue Mountain State, it's a raunchy college football comedy, not that great, but Ritchson steals the show, the next is a comic book series, Titans, based on DC's Teen Titans, he plays Hawk and as someone who read Hawk & Dove he plays Hawk near perfectly, so the third is Reacher, this is the first series where he's the star, very good detective style series about a former Military Police Officer who headed a special investigations squad, but now lives a "Billy Jack/Rambo-esque" lifestyle of traveling and putting down villains.

All three are fantastic in their own way, Ritchson also has a few movies he's been in as well.

Blue mountain state is such a hilarious parody of US college sports culture.

Ritchson is always type-casted as a jock cool-guy because of his looks, but I think he has quite a decent acting breadth.

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I'm impressed just by this. It isn't often that you see a self professed Christian celebrity actually calling out the hypocrisy of evangelical Christians and pointing out they've become antithetical to Jesus' teachings.

He's using his platform in a way that's been sorely missing in society. For evangelicalism to properly die, it needs to be defeated at both the polls and from within.

Every "real" Christian I know can't stand Trump and all of this other garbage, it always seems to he the fake Christians who tell people that they should go to church while they themselves don't, and similar folks who seem to love Trump and the prosperity gospel.

Don't get me wrong, I know there are whole congregations of idiots, but I'm just saying the ones I know personally who are very into their religion yet retain their open mindedness seem to be the ones who are against this crap, meanwhile "religious types" like my own father who never go to church and constantly try to push religion on me and the rest of the family, always seem to be the Trumpers. (Also not surprising my dad is a retired LEO)

Yeah that's my general experience too. "Real" Christians understand that they're not supposed to judge, because they're sinners like everyone else. They might not like abortion, but they don't want to legislate their beliefs nor judge someone who does get one.

Jesus chose to hang out with prostitutes and poor people. He protected them from self righteous crowds, and fed the hungry and healed the sick. He even happily paid his taxes lmao. He didn't go establish a theocracy or force people to do things. He told people to love each other, no matter who they were. The Good Samaritan is a parable against xenophobia and racism.

Biblical Jesus is actually a pretty cool dude. The WWJD crowd would do well to actually act like him.

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He's on point. Christians have attached themselves and their religion to one of the most depraved celebrities alived

By their own criteria, trump is the antichrist.

The number of contradictions between conservative Christian nationalists and the parables/stories/teachings/fiction of Jesus Christ is humongous.

Nahhhh he’s white couldn’t be.

/s of course. Lol

But that's why they latch on to him. They WANT to kick off the rapture so they can all get to ride the escalator to heaven while looking down on the world and say "told ya so."

doesn't that part say they're gonna follow him tho? still just doing as the bible says to.

I’ve read a couple Ritchson interviews. He seems like a good dude. I watched Reacher and figured him for just some muscle that looks good on screen, but he’s had to work pretty hard and been through a bit to make it to where he is. Most commentary by him seems pretty good, even if I don’t necessarily appreciate religion, and I hope he stays on the rails for a good career.

The dceu should bring him back as alternate universe aqua man

He’s actually being eyed for Batman I think.

I like him but he'd make a bad Bruce Wayne. You can't hide that bulk, everyone would know he's Batman right away. His Batman would be a beast though, just crushing everyone

There's going to be two Batmans?

I think one of them is called Bruce, and the other is called Wayne. Or something like that.

With the way multiverses are so in right now, more likely he'll reappear as Hawk from Titans

My favorite Alan Ritchson bit is when he played young Scully on Brooklyn 99. Also he seems like a gentle giant.

Wrong, I think you'll find "Thad" is your favorite character played by Alan R. (/s)

Thad Castle is a hilarious character and Ritchson committed to it to the max. Wouldn't have been the same without him.

After watching the new road house, gf and I noticed that shitbird Connor walks just like Thad in the cookie race

I could never remember his name but he always stood out in every role i saw him. Not just because he's soch a handsome big boy.

Seems is the keyword here.

I hope he is.

Read his response to the Fraternal Order of Police being their usual self-aggrandizing crybaby selves. He's cool as hell so far.

I remember when he was on Smallville. See him then to Reecher gotten buffed. Great actor glad to hear this from him.

I wish more Trump Supporters were media literate so that these words might reach them.

I wish more Trump Supporters were media literate so that these words might reach them.

Ha! Jokes on you, lib man, I caint reed.

Fuckin' words n' shit is socialism.

They allow you to share ideas, possibly without monetization! How is that not communism?!

Only word we both recognize there is communism! And that's communism!

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Went to a family friend's pool party and one of the guests was a full MAGA chud. She bounced between singing Trump's praises as this immaculate saint figure and slapping shoulders because he was such a big swinging dick who loved snatching the poon.

The Trump crowd doesn't even strictly disagree with Ritchson. They're just mad at the phrasing. If he'd made some cavalier remark about how Trump can fuck any woman in America if he feels like it and you should be honored when he grabs your pussy, they'd be singing his praises. If he's joked about how Trump can pull the wool over every one of those idiot liberals' eyes cause he's just so wily, they'd cheer.

The words do reach them. They don't care. They have their iconic superhero of a President. He's living the life they want, sexual assault and financial dirty tricks and all.

I don't think that's entirely true. He's got an online following that is an extremely vocal minority, but that hardly accounts for the full 74.2 Million people who voted for him in 2020. Maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle.

It might be true that the ones you meet online are very vocal, but there are a lot of people in person who will sing his praises, put flags on their car, their house, and everything else they can reach. They'll deride any 'liberal' and come up with every straw man they can to lampoon for the amusement of the circle around them. I see them when I visit family, when I converse with people at the local park, and even in casual conversations in the workplace. They are everywhere, and it's crazy how comfortable they feel with being open about their vitriol.

What I'm saying is if those people, an incredibly too large demographic who put up flags and crosses next to pictures of Trump, actually knew more about what is going on in the world and in politics other than a shallow biased conservative media outlook, they probably wouldn't support Trump. Only a small fraction actually know what he's done and still support him.

Studies support this theory with more educated individuals leaning democrat than republican, the trend continuing as level of education increases, and additionally studies also show democrat voters are more capable of discerning fake news from real news on a wide variety of topics. Another recent poll showed Texas conservatives were unaware that their political party's abortion ban held absolutely no exceptions.

Studies support this theory with more educated individuals leaning democrat than republican

That's dubious. More people with college debt lean Democrat, but that's largely thanks to age and population distribution. People with high incomes skew Republican, and plenty of them are in law or medicine or finance.

And even this tend isn't reliable long term. The collapse of the Union movement combined with the right wing radio consolidation killed the blue collar Dem voter base. Hardly someone to brag about. Republicans were historically the intelligencia minority and took a hard right popular turn under Nixon/Reagan.

The Texas "liberal turn" has been confined to major metro areas and squelched by the same vote suppression tactics state officials employed in minority ghettos for decades. There's very little reason to believe this state will turn blue any time soon.

Lmao wtf do you mean "collapse of the Union movement"? The railworkers got the paid sick leave they were striking for, UAW is making the GOP sweat and cry, the SCOTUS (compromised as they are) just made it easier for people to file discrimination suits when workers are forced to relocate or lose their job.

This is exactly the shit I'm talking about. More conservative mindsets like this are purely due to lack of awareness of events.

The share of U.S. workers who belong to a union has fallen since 1983, when 20.1% of American workers were union members. In 2023, 10.0% of U.S. workers were in a union.

This, while the size of the US labor force doubled.

Yes, but casual insults aside I do actually wish they were more aware of the things happening around them. A lot of them go through the day to day life barely catching a glimpse of news from Cable TV, and they think themselves the "normal ones".

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If right wingers can watch two seasons of Reacher and be fans until this moment then they're just too dumb for life.

Literally both seasons baddies were stereotypical right wing criminals.

But they are so happy the show is "anti-woke" with its lead being a yoked-up hobo manly Mary Sue male fantasy.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it for the light entertainment but I find it hilarious that conservatives get mad when a slender woman beats up a whole bunch of strong men but find it perfectly normal for a guy who never works out, eats exclusively fast food to have a bodybuilder's body, be more or less unbeatable, get the ladies and know all the things he needs.

damn - you just connected some obvious dots for me. The reacher character is their gravy seals fantasy personified.

He's the ultimate "lone wolf"/"alpha male". Zero attachments, no daily grind, on the road, yoked, badass, solves all the cases, never afraid, no fucks given, plays by his own rules.

I find it highly entertaining but he's as realistic as the Black Widow character from Marvel. Lee Childs was in talks to write James Bond books and when the deal fell through, he made his own ultra-macho superhero fantasy.

Ritchson should totally play the lead in a Wolfenstein adaptation. Have him smash Nazis and make closet-Nazi conservatives angry.

Yes, of all the books of that ilk, Reacher just never resonated with me, and I feel like you may have helped me come to realize why. Jack Ryan (amongst others in Clancy books), Mitch Rapp, they all kind of gave a background on how the character got there, and even took time to show them training in some fashion. Jack Reacher just did.

They're all smut for men though. And that's okay.

Ive read two reacher books and they're fucking hysterical. I cant believe how god damned dumb they are (first one was a gift from a client and I felt obliged to read it. second my wife got me as a joke).

Two bad dudes, thick as oak trees squared up to me. Bad choice. One made a move to see if I'd flinch. I didn't. His friend's eyelid flickered just a tiny but when his fake-out plan failed. Fear. I span around and swept my leg through both of their legs. All four of their kneecaps exploded into red mist and sent pressure shockwaves up their vascular systems with enough force to blow their eyeballs out of their sockets. Four peach pit sized occular orbs with red ribbons arced across the parking lot. Your move. Checkmate. I went back inside the bar and finished my beer looking like I'd been airbrushed with crimson. The beer was warm.

Lol. Is that an actual quote? It is hilariously bad. Reminds me of the Remo pulp fiction series I used to read as a kid when there was nothing else to read. That was even more over the top, but by much less than I would've thought from watching the Tom Cruise Jack Reacher movie. Might have to read one just for shits and giggles.

its not, I was riffing, its not that exaggerated but its like that.

Its like: Two guys square up to me. Big mistake. I swing wide with a right hand hay maker and he crumples like wet newspaper. His friend steps back. Too late. I gave him his chance. My fist fire out and collapse his solar plexus. He's gasping for air as I stand over him. "Whos's paying Franly to follow me?", I demand. etc etc

Yes, simple fantasy/escapism is fine for entertainment. Speaking of Jack Ryan, the current TV series pretty much turned him into a Mary Sue character but very seriously and drily.

I do savor the irony of conservatives preaching Reacher as their "anti-woke" hero while crying when a fantasy features people not fitting their archetype doing the same things (notably women).

But the hero also engages in vigilante behavior in order to get the bad guys, and they're all for that, so I can see the confusion.

Almost nothing Reacher does is laudable in real life, no more than Bauer in 24. It would be a poor morality play...if that's what you thought it was.

You've never booted a bumper to set off an airbag?

How do you say hello?

Well, there's a neighborhood handshake where I live. It starts with a knife and ends in the other person's guts, so I guess there's that. 🤷‍♂️

I'm surprised they didn't realize he wasn't right wing, when neither season baddie was a migrant caravan.

Their ilk aren't receptive to subtlety. Everything has to spelled out for them like little children.

Thad Castle keeps winning

TIL: Kevin "Thad" Castle is the tritagonist of Blue Mountain State. He is the ever inspiring team captain of the BMS football team. He is also the main protagonist of Blue Mountain State: The Rise of Thadland. He was portrayed by Alan Ritchson.

Blue Mountain State is a show that was awesome when it came out, felt like it might be problematic a few years later, and now is awesome again

It's possibly the peak of bro comedy. It's fairly tongue-in-cheek and mocks it's own hyper-macho characters enough that I think all the toxic masculinity works. As long as you watch it with that in mind it ages pretty decently.

Somewhere, Kid Rock and Ted Nugent are using Jack Reacher blu rays for target practice..

Which would be even funnier that it would be Tom Cruise's version of Reacher since Alan's version streams on Prime as a TV series.

Just a daily reminder that Ted Nugent is an admitted and proud pedophile.

waiting for kid rock to publicly join the right wing diddle train.

I read Kid Rock as The Rock and was like ahhhh fuck, not him too.

I mean, the Rock Rock did just recently come out with his whole “yeah but both sides” cowardice. Apparently too many right-wingers buy his stupid energy drink and tequila for him to feel comfortable defending democracy in even the laziest, most minimal ways.

Had no idea. That's a fucking shame.

In 2020 he publicly endorsed Biden.

This year, he did an interview with Fox News and said that he wouldn’t endorse anyone this year because his 2020 endorsement caused “division” that “tore him up in the guts”.

Because speaking out about a terrorist, traitorous, fascist, narcissistic, violent, fraudulent, rapist, criminal mob-boss who is running for POTUS is less important than being accepted by dangerous cultists.

What a fucking coward

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.

~Mark Twain

Yeah, sorry. Hate to be the bearer of bad news. I’m mad too, because I’ve enjoyed a lot of his work.

I’m absolutely convinced I read something about him regarding a controversy with China and Fast & Furious but I can’t find anything about it now. Am I just imagining it?

I know that a lot of celebrities like LeBron James have kowtowed to China while they openly commit crimes against humanity, so I wouldn’t be at all surprised. That film series is a big worldwide franchise of the type that stands to make a lot of money off Chinese release. But in that case, the studio may have tied his hands contractually on the matter. This situation is 100% him.

Alan Ritchson > The Rock

Pretty much everyone > The Rock

Wait, why does the Rock suck?

He suck to me because the big ego isn’t just an act. Dude literally thinks he is gods gift to the world. I don’t like people like that.

Right wing Reacher fan? Has he actually read the books?

It's just the woke mind virus getting to everyone. You know, like that Rage Against the Machine band suddenly becoming all political.

Those Maga people unironically dancing to killing in the name of is my favourite piece of real life comedy, up there with the curb your enthusiasm inspired press conference at a gardening company.

Wait. For real? These asshats were unironically listening to RATM and didn't realize the songs were about them?

Wow.

Paul ryan, the former conservative speaker of the house and VP canidate, told reporters that rage against the machine was his favorite workout music.

The lead singer guitarist of rage, Tom morello, replied "youre the machine we are raging about!"

"Suddenly" lol

Nobody tell them the Starship Troopers movie is a parody.

A bright red brick to the face is too subtle to some people.

Of course not. The bible isnt for reading, its just for bludgeoning others with.

I wouldn't be surprised if these are the same guys with punisher emblems on the back of their truck along with their blue lives matter flags...or for bonus points, a mashup of those 2 things

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I only read the first one. Isn't Reacher just a swole ex-Marine turned PI?

I only read the first one. Isn’t Reacher just a swole ex-Marine turned PI?

Yes, but you have to look at whose nose he's breaking. The typical villains in a Reacher novel are evil corporations or greedy tyrants. In "Gone Tomorrow", the villains are the post-Patriot Act feds who represent a country where civil rights are a myth.

But the people on the right who love Reacher for his mighty masculinity are the same people who were shocked that Rage Against The Machine "went political". I wonder how long it will take them to realise that Reacher usually kicks the butts of people they would like to vote for.

I always thought he was a large man who existed to solve problems in the way only a very large man can, namely with large manliness and possibly physical violence, but I only really watched clips of the show so idk

The point is, Jack reacher is extremely anti-authority.

In one story while reacher was still in the military he outright murdered in cold blood his Superior officer because he was going to get away with a crime

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Some people hate those who see the world as it really is. The people who killed Jesus were just like that. The so called christians who are angry at this guy are just like the people who put Jesus up on that cross. The pathetic part is that they can't see what they really are.

I wonder how many ultra conservative Reacher fans realize that the author is British. Probably very few, which is entertaining for the irony although doesn't really matter much in general.

Alan Ritchson is quite likeable and I say that as an atheist. He's one of the good ones :)

If Christians followed the teachings of Jesus then I don't think we would have as many/ any problems with Christians.

We are supposed to be identifiable by our love according to the Bible, I'm having a real hard time identifying Christians recently.

see: things we have to say about evangelicals

vs

things we have to say about quakers

Well shit, guess I'm gonna start to watch Reacher now:)

You're going to watch a round of Reacher? A..Reacher round?

I am simultaneously criticizing this joke and pissed at myself for not thinking of it first.

I started watching it a few weeks ago. I really like it. So much better than the Tom Cruze movie based on the same books.

Especially cause just like book, Reacher is huge.

I mean, he would have to be, right? Otherwise he wouldn't be able to reach things.

For sure! If you have read the books then Tom Cruze is pretty laughable in that role.

First season is very good. Second season not so much. Acting is quality in both seasons.

That’s too bad. I just finished the first and was about to start the second. I’ll still give it a go though.

If Reacher is your first introduction to this man's acting capabilities, allow me to take the pleasure of introducing you to Blue Mountain State. All hail Thad.

Can't believe he'd say that about Home Alone 2 star and friend of Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump.

Oh look, a "we found some people on the internet tweeting their opinions" story.

The membership of Trump's personality cult flip out at everything, all the time. It's not really news worthy of report when it happens. Not even when their gary stu power fantasy icon's actor makes them feel bad.

This is par for the Huffington Post, if you happened to notice the source. But yeah I'm with you that this probably shouldn't qualify as news in the first place.

Oh no. Someone doesn't like when opinions say what other people are saying to be heard. Because MAGAs don't want to accept they are in fact electing a con man rapist. But keep dismissing it. It totally doesn't come off as Trump support.

Big thumbs up for Ritchson. I don't know you, but, hey man, you are good!

Tax dodger, draft dodger, or loser? I can go on.

Thankfully you censored rapist.

Family trauma so I do it automatically.

Not sure how censoring a word helps but more power to ya

A compassionate person will do things that actively avoid trauma triggers. (I.e. if you know a dog will gringe away from a raised hand due to being abused you tend not to raise your hand to continue to see the reaction.)

Good answer.

You also reminded me of something. A guy I knew had the happiest, friendliest, most well behaved dog you’ve ever seen (ironically named Grizzly). One day, he was carrying a magazine rolled up in his hand. Grizzly freaked out, which he had never done before.

Grizzly was a rescue dog. Apparently, his previous owner had beaten him. My friend was so, so pissed at Grizzly’s previous owner.

I'm asking this genuinely, because I don't understand. Does the removal of the single letter of a word actually lessen the "triggering" the word can do? In my mind you're reading it the same regardless, so I don't get how it makes it actually better without more fully obfuscating what the word is.

On the flip side, I've heard what seems like a reasonable theory that some people with these triggers will filter things by keyword. Granted, I'm not sure if Lemmy or any of its clients have that kind of functionality, but let's say something does. By replacing a letter with a character or similar workaround (to which I echo the question of if that really has a significant effect when the meaning is still obvious) you're bypassing that filter someone may have set.

This is entirely true. Censoring words you type like this is actively working against the main way people who are trying to avoid such triggers can take care of themselves.

You can set up a filter to block stuff containing a sensitive word, but your filter will fail against the countless ways there are to censor the word with asterisks or whatever. The censorship is well-meaning but misguided.

But you still know it's that word and read it as that word, all you did was replace the A with an asterisk. It's odd that it is supposed to help prevent a trigger when the word is still there and very obvious what it is still. It's not completely blacking the word out so you can't see it anymore.

Huh. TIL. I always read that word as 'ropist'. My brother is one. Will talk for hours about sailing knots. Not joking, hours. Has different ropes at. the. ready. for demonstration. Not cool. Though way better word choice than the correct one. I understand that much.;

Funny how you can get away with talking shit about the Right in Hollywood, but not the Left..imagine if he had said "I support Trump and Biden is a senile old man!" Lol...his career would be over.

Typically, supporting senile old rapist con men is a worse look than supporting senile old men.

We know it's not even that...it's literally if you support anything conservative, you're black listed.

The reason for that is because conservative values are shit and sane people don't like being covered in shit.

That's just because you guys seem totally nuts, not from this world OR super evil.

We in Europe have to decide which one it is, yet. But we can see your shit from way over here. It's really not rocket science to see the GOP is a filthy bunch of individuals, that are out of real answers as soon as you scratch the surface.

'Hurr durr, MAGA!' - yeah, that's all you understand, huh?

It would be pathetic, but actually you guys are dangerous for everyone on this planet.

You're spending too much time on Reddit/Lemmy. That's like me saying all Democrats are nuts because they want to take away your guns, allow all illegal immigrants to enter the country, and allow homeless people to live on the streets and take drugs. Republicans are not "totally nuts." They just question things more, especially when it comes to financing wars. I love how Lemmy/Reddit is always okay with the US government intervening in world conflicts/politics, when THEY agree with it...

Not only is this comment stupid, but it isn't even remotely true. There are tons of famous, powerful individuals in all stretches of the public sphere that actively support Trump and the Republican party.

In Hollywood or the Entertainment industry? I mean, yea, maybe a couple...but let's be honest here, the vast majority align with the Left because it's "better" for their career...many of them even lie just to get that liberal support.

I highly recommend you watch this. Hollywood isn’t nearly as leftist or liberal as you think.

Some very powerful and very successful people in Hollywood/the entertainment industry are pretty conservative. And the industry really likes to pay lip service to left or liberal causes without actually doing shit.

Or take a look at all the Disney villains saying things like "imperialism is bad" and "maybe take care of poor people" or "the system is inherently corrupt"

Except Biden isn't senile, and Trump is a rapist. So ya know, just try saying things that are true. It's not that hard.

It's amazing republicans even show their true face in public with all the persecution they endure.

They should hide themselves better or people might identify them as conservatives.

And that's the problem, they only get persecuted by the left and democrats, they don't really care about those as long as their base are donating to them they don't care.

Like me? LOL...I'm literally the only Republican/Conservative around here and I get crucified all the time for my opinions. You know good old Lemmy/Reddit...it's one way, or the highway!

If you're the only one, could you please retire your other accounts? I don't overly have a problem with you voicing your opinion, no matter how poorly thought out I may believe it to be, but I don't need to see it from all these different accounts.

talking shit

Do you disagree Trump's a rapist, because that was a court ruling, or do you just think that's ok as long as no one talks about it?