My Thoughts on the Events of Jan 6th
Equal condemnation of extremes is the only option for civilized society
I will be the first to condemn the violence against policemen and the injuries inflicted. I will also be the first to lament the unnecessary deaths of 4 protesters and 1 cop. Every single major conservative commentator and politician has condemned these things. The desecration of our hallowed halls of democracy was disgraceful and highly embarrassing to almost every person watching.
However. The time for embarrassment on behalf of the right is over. It is now the time for strength, and reasoned questions. Who was the person who was shot? Who was she shot by, and why? Will the left uphold their own principles and protest police brutality and the unnecessary death? Of course not, because the left is too busy holding all the millions on the right responsible for the actions of a small number of extremist Trump supporters.
I’ll say this right now, and it needs to be repeated clearly. This was a truly, mostly peaceful protest. You cannot put those who assaulted the press and assaulted policemen in the same boat as those thousands upon thousands of others who didn’t. The distinction could not be clearer. The hundreds or maybe even less who were inside the Capitol building were different from those thousands upon thousands who stayed outside. It was only on the literal fringes where violence occurred.
Furthermore, NOBODY on the left has any right to complain about what happened on Wednesday after condoning and supporting violence against policemen the ENTIRE summer. Nobody on the left has any right to complain after setting free extremist Antifa members because “well, they were angry so its ok.” The time for embarrassment, weakness, and caution on behalf of conservatives is over. It is time to call out the hypocrisy of the left, and the moral relativism of the left.
If you spend months condoning violence and killings of policemen, this is what you get. You get anarchy. If you apply different standards of ethics to different people, then you have no ethics. If you condone political violence, for any reason, then this is what you get. You cannot expect the extreme right to stand by idly and behave if you make it acceptable for the extreme left to commit political violence because they’re angry. If you normalize and propagate over-the-top rhetoric like ACAB (All Cops are B**chs) then you have no right to act surprised if the right responds in kind.
You cannot demonize, insult, censor, deplatform, and cancel conservatives for so long and expect there to be no consequences. Society cannot stand when there are double standards, and different rules for different groups of people. Either we condemn all political violence, or we normalize all political violence, there is no in between. The left likes to claim that cops are responsible for the violence that is committed against them. If they can say things like that with a straight face, then I have every right to say that the left needs to accept some responsibility for what happened on the 6th. The right has had enough of being pushed around and being made to feel that the entire mainstream hates them. The left’s moral relativism, double standards, cancel culture, demonization of religion, and hatred of those they disagree with are fueling the destruction of civilized America. The message of the Jan 6th mostly peaceful protest was exactly that. We want to be heard. We want to be respected. We want to be listened to. We want to be treated like human beings. We want our politicians to listen to our concerns, and we want them to never forget that their loyalty is to those who elected them.
We want to be part of We the People again. The Silent Majority will not be silent any longer, and the left must accept some responsibility. If the left refuses to ask themselves “why did all of this happen?” they are not only stupid, they are willfully contributing to the collapse of society as we know it.
Postscript: The media is of course blaming Trump for what happened, despite Trump being on tape calling for the planned march on the Capitol to be peaceful. The media is also blaming social media based QAnon conspiracy theories, in my opinion so that they can push the narrative that governmental control of social media/censorship is necessary. They are not entirely wrong on either front, but they are mostly wrong. Trump and QAnon nonsense are not to blame here. People did not protest because Trump asked them to, people protested because they felt that the government cannot be trusted and that nobody was addressing their concerns.
If you want to blame specific third parties for the actions of the violent extremists, and I don’t think you should, I think every individual is responsible for their own actions that day, but regardless, if you feel the need to blame people, blame the fiery speakers at the Stop the Steal rallies the media refused to cover, who compared January 6th to the Revolutionary War. Blame the left for creating the atmosphere where such anarchy is acceptable. If BLM can riot, why can’t the far right? Blame the media, for refusing to cover the Stop the Steal rallies which would have provided early warning of what was about to happen. You can also blame the DC mayor, for making the catastrophic choice of asking DC police to stand down the day before the mostly peaceful protest.
People stormed the Capitol because they believed they were living under a corrupt government, and that they had a duty to remind said government to listen to their constituents’ opinions, to remember the constituents who elected them and gave them power. People stormed the Capitol because they were frustrated with their apparent lack of any other recourse, and frustrated with self-interested politicians on both sides. Calling for social media censorship is not the answer, shutting off these peoples’ voices is what caused this in the first place. Only corrupt dictatorships and liars need to censor people to maintain control, and increasing censorship will only make things worse for everyone.
