A small-town Alabama pastor and mayor killed himself Friday, days after a local conservative news website published a story that included photos of him wearing women’s clothing and makeup.

F.L. “Bubba” Copeland, who was the mayor of Smiths Station and the pastor at First Baptist Church in Phenix City, shot himself in front of police during a welfare check, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office said.

Copeland’s private life was exposed Wednesday by the conservative blog 1819 News, which was once owned by the right-wing Alabama Policy Institute and whose top editor is a former Breitbart News contributor.

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[+] 190 points 2 years ago (4 children)
  • [–] 100 points 2 years ago (10 children)

    I fully agree with your comment. That said:

    Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones said that deputies who tried to pull Copeland over for a welfare check witnessed Copeland step out of his car and shoot himself.

    Why are we taking the word of the cops for what happened? We know the right-wingers don't distinguish between cross-dressers and pedophiles. We know that some of them find great satisfaction in abusing, torturing and even killing those that they consider "other". And we know that cops cover for other cops.

    Yes, it's entirely possible and plausible that this guy killed himself, but why are we just blindly accepting the cops' version of events here?

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago

    I more or less trust the cops in this case. There's really no reason to say he killed himself if they killed him, and in doing so create a whole bunch of evidence to cover up. They could just as easily say he was armed and they were scared so they shot him. That's enough for them to get away with murder, so why would they put themselves in a position that could be proven as a lie later?

    Never take a cops words at face value, but also recognize they can freely murder if they want to, so if they aren't taking credit for a kill, especially someone armed, they probably didn't do it.

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  • [–] 47 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    Conservatism Kills.

    Literally. Abortion bans increase maternal deaths, and a report by the ADL found that right-wing extremists are responsible for 75% of politically motivated deaths, compared to only 4% by left-wingers.

    A review of the research on the ideological basis of political violence explains why conservatism is more deadly:

    Whereas most terrorist attacks result in zero fatalities, casualties associated with attacks vary across instances. It is thus possible to examine whether followers of certain ideologies are more likely to use fatal violence, relative to, for instance, property or infrastructure crimes that do not cause deaths. Ideologies that more capably address individuals' needs should be more 'successful' at causing fatalities. Past research specifically suggests two candidate ideologies that are likely to be effective: ideologies on the political right (versus left) and religious (versus secular) ideologies. Analyses of terrorist attacks committed between 1998 and 2005 revealed that organizations subscribing to religious ideologies were the most likely to engage in lethal attacks and were responsible for a greater number of deaths. 'Leftist' groups were significantly less likely to kill than religious groups, and anarchist groups were the least likely to engage in lethal attacks. Eco-terrorists were responsible for zero lethal attacks during this period, so they were excluded from analyses. Religious ideology has also been found to increase the lethality of suicide attacks, whereas attacks perpetrated in US regions known for propagating a ‘culture of honor’ were more deadly than attacks perpetrated in other regions.

    Why might this be the case? Conservatives are more likely to see the world in absolutist, dogmatic, and closure affording ways than are liberals. Conservatives are also more likely than liberals to moralize values that effectively promote violence. Conservatives value loyalty, authority, and sanctity. This is important, as research has further found that the sacralization of loyalty was positively related (whereas the sacralization of other values was either unrelated or negatively related) to the justification of violence. This suggests that conservative ideologies should have an easier time moralizing political violence than liberal ideologies.

    Religious ideologies are similarly suited to addressing the previously outlined needs. Religious ideologies can provide greater certainty than secular ideologies because they rest on the authority of God. In addition, through the promise of a blessed afterlife to those who act as prescribed by the ideology, religion offers a potent avenue to significance that is unavailable to secular ideologies. Religion can more naturally moralize political values, as interpretations of Holy Scripture can convincingly link violent means to religious values and provide convincing rationale for acting on behalf of those injunctions. Furthermore, because religious ideologies cannot be directly verified, people are more reliant on social validation to demonstrate the correctness of their beliefs. Consequently, religious individuals tend to be collectivistic and are more prone to derogate and act with hostility toward adherents of other ideologies. Finally, religious fundamentalism—the form that religious ideology is likely to take among extremists—is positively related to the need for cognitive closure that foments group-centrism, and this relationship partially explains the derogation of outgroup members.

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  • [–] 19 points 2 years ago

    This is really sad. An alternative life for this guy is dressing the way he wants as appropriate to his activities that day and the only remarks are to compliment his outfit here and there. What a sad world those people have made for themselves.

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    [–] 102 points 2 years ago

    This, in a nutshell, why people become conservative. Because shame and a toxic community keep them from being who they really want to be. Because they need to belong to something so badly that they'll even join a gang of bigots rather than admit they're actually the target of that bigotry.

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  • [–] 90 points 2 years ago

    "The party of personal freedoms"

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  • [–] 89 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

    Conservative blog 1819 must be very proud of themselves.

    Edit: I just emailed them asking which Republican they plan on killing next. Will let you all know if I get a reply.

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  • [–] 68 points 2 years ago (20 children)

    Poor guy. This is sad. I hate hearing stories like this

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  • [–] 73 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I wouldn’t feel as bad if he was a raging bigot about lgbtq issues, but apparently he didn’t have much to say about that which is pretty impressive for a BAPTIST PREACHER IN ALABAMA.

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  • [–] 24 points 2 years ago

    Yeah, he obviously dealt with a lot of cognitive dissonance between his experience and the culture he was raised in. He wasn’t some hypocrite who was preaching ‘family values’ or some other nonsense, just a tortured soul driven over the edge.

    The world just lost another potential ally. He could have helped shape the discourse in his town for the better, but instead he’s being buried. This is a sad day.

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    [–] 49 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    The cognitive dissonance from being a transitioning person and a Republican politician at the same time must be agonizing.

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  • [–] 85 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Crossdressing isn't transexuality by itself.

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  • [–] 38 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I wish more people understood this. Seems like so many are simply incapable of accepting any nuance anymore. Everything is binary. This or That. With me or against me.

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    [–] 45 points 2 years ago

    Fuck I just feel sorry for them

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  • [–] 37 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS! If people won't listen to Jesus, maybe they can listen to his modern day apostle Fred Rogers when he said "I like you just the way you are."

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  • [–] 23 points 2 years ago

    maybe they can listen to his modern day apostle Fred Rogers when he said “I like you just the way you are.”

    Right. That would be Presbyterian minister, children's show host, gave-out-full-size-candy-bars-at-Halloween Fred Rogers, yes? The one that Fox went out of their way to describe as "an evil, evil man" who was [in effect] responsible for corrupting today's youth? Well, sadly, I think I can explain why they don't listen to Mr. Rogers ...

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  • [–] 15 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    They do listen to Jesus. Not the Middle-Eastern Jewish Socialist Jesus. They listen to white racist Conservative American Jesus, they listen to Supply Side Jesus, they listen to the Jesus who can fit a rich man through the eye of a needle and who's death gives them the right to sin.

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  • [–] 32 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I checked the conservative site so you don't have to: yes the inciting article is still up, and no there isn't a comment section

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    [–] 27 points 2 years ago

    "he shot himself in front of us" -trustworthy police

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  • [–] 23 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    I'm absolutely horrified by so many folks in the comment section blinded by partisan hate.

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    [–] 22 points 2 years ago

    Republicans love stuff like this. If you're different they think you should die.

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  • [+] 22 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)
  • [–] 20 points 2 years ago

    Repression is the cause of much suffering.

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  • [–] 16 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    One of the sad things is how big he's smiling in the picture. Looks like a jolly guy.

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    [–] 13 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    This is extremely sad. His own GOP community first outed him, then rejected him.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago

    charge the owners of the blog with 3rd degree murder.

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