‘What Just Happened?’

[Union columnist Terry McLaughlin asks that pointed question (here) on the 14jan21 edition’s op-ed page.  She goes on to provide and excellent background summary that lets the reader answer her question.  It turns out that we Americans have been given an education over the past year to accept a much more expressive way of protesting everything from public policies to individuals and institutions – in short, we have been carefully taught that riot and mayhem is now de rigueur for expressing collective dissatisfaction.  Ms McLaughlin’s piece provides us with the syllabus for that course.  It is posted below with her permission.  gjr]

Terry McLaughlin

There is no excuse for the violence that took place on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol. What we witnessed is morally reprehensible and I am ashamed and horrified that it occurred.

Americans deserve to know who was responsible, and those persons who perpetrated vandalism or violence should be brought to justice.

It cannot be denied that both the political far right and far left are home to their own share of Antifa-like anarchists, and the chaos at the Capitol has refuted any perception that the left owns a monopoly on widespread political violence. While we can never excuse or defend this behavior, we can make an honest effort to identify the environment in which it happened.

These events resulted from a multitude of causes: concerns and distrust in the integrity of our elections, pent up frustrations of citizens stripped of their livelihoods and freedoms during the pandemic, and yes, the rhetoric of the president of the United States.

But not the least of these causes is the justification, defense, and even apathy of the media and many of our elected political leaders regarding the violence committed across America throughout 2020, including attacks on federal courthouses, burning of police stations, and the establishment of “autonomous zones” in Portland and Seattle. The message was loud and clear: If you are dissatisfied with a political or social issue, violence is an acceptable answer.

Prior to the massive unrest we witnessed throughout 2020, we should also recall the shooting of Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise in 2017, or the activists who stormed the Capitol and Senate office buildings in 2018 to oppose the confirmation of Justice Kavanaugh.

Protestors threatening the White House and Republican legislators this past summer forced the Secret Service to rush the president to a security bunker only to be mocked by the media the next day.

These examples in no way justify the violence that occurred inside the Capitol last week, but the reaction from conservative leaders roundly condemning the violence from their own side stands in stark contrast to the way Democrats and many in the media responded to the actions of militant leftists, and this double standard has contributed in meaningful ways to what we witnessed last week.

Conservatives have spent months pointing out that Democratic Party leaders did not do enough in their own cities and states to crack down on the militant mobs taking over their streets, and in some cases entire city blocks, while many in the media ignored or downplayed the widespread violence that included setting police stations on fire after sealing doors shut with people still inside the building, assault, vandalism, looting and destruction of entire neighborhoods.

Democrats concluded their entire national convention without condemning the epidemic of violence that had been engulfing the nation in the preceding months.

Kamala Harris urged her supporters to contribute funds to bail out rioters who had been arrested for setting fire to Minneapolis.

Joe Biden scoffed at the anarchist Antifa movement, calling it just “an idea.”

When a section of downtown Seattle had been occupied by protesters for weeks, Mayor Jenny Durkan’s response was “Don’t be so afraid of democracy.”

When statues of historical figures were being torn down by rioters in multiple cities, Nancy Pelosi’s tepid response was “I don’t care that much about statues. People will do what they will do.”

CNN’s Chris Cuomo famously chided critics of mob violence, saying, “Too many see the protests as the problem …. Please, show me where it says protesters are supposed to be polite and peaceful.”

“And let’s not forget,” said CNN’s Don Lemon as cameras rolled with footage of riots in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, “This is how this country was started.”

MSNBC reporter Ali Velshi stood in front of a burning liquor store in Minneapolis and called the riots surrounding the camera crew “mostly a protest” that is “not, generally speaking, unruly.”

CNN literally adopted the phrase “fiery but mostly peaceful” to describe events unfolding in Kenosha, Wis., even as reporters stood in front of burning vehicles.

Nikole Hannah-Jones of The New York Times said on CBS that “Destroying property, which can be replaced, is not violence.”

The Huffington Post released a video outlining “How riots built America.”

An article in Vox argued that “riots are destructive, dangerous, and scary — but can lead to serious social reforms.”

Slate Magazine ran a piece, “Proportionate response,” justifying the riots ripping the nation’s cities apart.

GQ Magazine published a feature headlined, “Why violent protests work.”

And Mother Jones joined in with, “Riots aren’t irrational.”

Writer Vicky Osterweil published a book, “In Defense Of Looting,” and earned a feature on NPR for her efforts.

Temple University Professor Marc Lamont Hill commented on NPR that dismissing protesters as rioters “dehumanizes” them, impeding political progress.

I have not been able to find one prominent conservative with any significant platform who has endorsed the mob of Trump supporters who violated the U.S. Capitol.

It was indefensible and wrong, and there is no excuse for their actions. But the dismissive attitude toward violent behavior that has permeated our environment has surely contributed to an atmosphere of acceptance.

The permissive reaction of many on the left to the past year’s eruption of unrest, which claimed the lives of at least 30 people amid calls for defunding police, not only exposes the hypocrisy of Democrats’ current condemnation of political violence, but also illustrates that the blame for the dangerous divisiveness our country is experiencing is shared by all of us.

[Addendum, gjr] In a continuing vein a correspondent and reader of the liberal bent sent me a very thoughtful article by Bari Weiss titled ‘The Great Unraveling’.  Ms Weiss is a disgruntled former NYT reporter who now deports as a left-of-center intellectual raconteur with a mission to provide fresh and incisive perspectives on “politics, culture, and Judaism”.  She argues that “the old order is dead” and asks “what comes next?”  Her exploration revolves around the notion that “thought comes before action.  Words come before deeds.  Media that profits from polarization will stoke it.  Lies – maybe harmless for the moment, maybe even noble – create a lying world.”

The first conundrum she runs into is the endurance of hate in human societies.  She cannot understand why people are not more “immune to these dangerous forces (of hate)” and what makes “people resistant” to abandoning collective hatreds.  History and various workers in the vineyards of sociology and psychology have taught me the somewhat simple and direct answer that collective hate has survival value to its practicing cohort.  It provides purpose to cohesion and culture when focused on some ever clear and present danger to the cohort.  And cohesive cultures, so motivated, are better able to organize, resist, and survive dangers perceived to be directed towards them.

When Weiss comes to giving an example of such hatred, she firmly fastens on her blinders and sees the recent assault on the Capitol as the launch of a new epoch motivated, nay, powered by hate.  Her ‘Hello World!’ moment was Wednesday 6 January 2021.  The summer of 2020 with its riots, lootings, burnings, and killings appear to her to have happened long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away.  A reading of Ms McLaughlin’s piece may help clear her head.

In her favor, the lady does take great umbrage at what the tech titans are doing to the population at large, and flies in tight formation with me when she asserts – “Please spare me the impoverished argument about the free market and private companies not being bound by the constitution. Barring businesses from using online payment systems; removing companies from the App Store; banning people from social media — these are the equivalent of telling people they can’t open a bank account or start a business or drive down a street. … That almost every credentialed journalist and liberal public intellectual appears to be cheering on this development because it’s happening to the Bad People (i.e. conservatives) is grotesque. They will look like fools much faster than they realize.”

In the last week, when I read these uncounted commentaries from the Right and Left about the dastardly Trump supporters, their real identity has clarified.  I refer to those who, in their penetration of the Capitol, have now been identified as “seditious terrorists” who almost pulled off a successful “insurrection” against US of A if it weren’t for the crack corps of Capitol cops (some of whom were caught taking selfies with the terrorists).  If truth be told, the bunch of smiling, milling, and grinning throng that made it into the building could not themselves have been a more spontaneous, surprised, and disorganized ragtag of rioters.  In spite of a few of TBD identity who came prepared, the rest were no more the instruments of a planned overthrow of our government than a gaggle of gleeful kindergartners released onto a playground at recess.  But that’s not how Team Pelosi and the lamestream see things, and hence the impeachment, the growing lists of “to be held accountable Trumpists”, and the resulting frustration of Ms Bari Weiss.

Comments

[Bill Tozer]

‘Left-wing activist charged in Capitol riot after saying he was just there to 'document'
John Sullivan told Fox News last week he regularly attends and takes video at protests

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/left-wing-activist-charged-in-capitol-riot

[scenes]

GeorgeR.

Those are both good points, and oddly I was thinking about both of them this morning.

tl;dr (1)A culture of violent protest has begun with no end in sight. (2)Weaponization of de-personing has been ongoing for some years, is accelerating, is hugely enabled by the internet.

on (1)

The news in DC wasn't that 100 people wandered around the halls of power, Buffalo Horn guy and Holy Podium Swiping Guy among them, but the size and general pissed-off behavior of the people outside. Mind you, a lot of these people flew in. After a few years of a wink and a nod enabling the Blue Mob to burn and loot courthouses, downtowns, nightly Kristallnacht, the inevitable reaction begins to spool up.

As an aside, it'll be interesting to watch the law enforcement establishment swing into action in a NATIONWIDE MANHUNT! against any pro-Trump protesters. While the rank and file may be somewhat sympathetic, management was suborned long ago.

The working and non-urban middle class has more to lose, is more competent, genuinely capable of more mayhem if a Rubicon is crossed. Where she stops, nobody knows.

This is more like an internal religious civil conflict (think Catholic v. Protestant) than it is one that creates cohesive cultures (think Russian v. steppe tribes). More likely to end up with a Torquemada than it is defendable borders.

on (2)

My personal Rubicon. Civil strife comes and goes (usually), and a person can have a heated argument about national health care, marginal tax rates, specifics of gun law. OTOH, there is something wicked this way coming from the Corporate Socialist + Blue Mob social 'justice' cult. Literally thousands of instances of firings, dropping from essentially monopolistic providers of internet and financial services, protests at homes, struggle sessions at companies, the insanity at the modern university, censorship...all due to wrongthink.

Our local liberals are either small-town ignorant of such matters or, swimming in The Party's pool, simply don't care.

This is where the Great Divide lives and if you can't trust your neighbors to not turn you in, you need different neighbors. It's probably the case that a Great Sorting needs to occur.

[George Rebane]

scenes 808am - Agreed; well said Mr scenes.

[Bill Tozer]

Forgive me as I wander into the current favorite mantra of the Leftinistas, aka, Whataboutism. Must not do Whataboutism! Forbidden to use Whataboutism! Well, I did not get the memo.

‘Democrats were for occupying capitols before they were against it‘

“The police retreated in the face of the horde, giving up the first floor, then the second. “The protesters ran amok, chanting ‘­This is our house!’ and ‘This is what democracy looks like!’ ” we wrote. “And they then began searching for the Republican senators who had dared to defy the will of the unions.” As the crowd scoured the building looking for the offending legislators, police sneaked them out through an underground tunnel to a government building across the street. But a Democratic representative posted on social media that the Republican senators were escaping through the tunnels, so when the senators came up into the lobby, the mob was there waiting for them. ­
“The tall windows that framed the lobby were plastered with people yelling and banging on the glass,” we wrote. “They were trapped. ­The senators hid under a stairwell, out of view, while the police ordered a city bus to pull up in front of the building. Officers then formed a human wall on the sidewalk, parting the sea of protesters and creating a pathway for the senators to reach the bus.” ­Once the senators were on board, “the mob on the street began punching the windows and shaking the vehicle. … The police told the senators and staff inside to keep their heads down in case a window shattered.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/14/democrats-were-occupying-capitols-before-they-were-against-it/

What to do, oh what to do? Thiessen writes for both the Wa Compost and the Patriot Post. What’ will the TDSers say about that? Cancel the Wa Post or cancel the Patriot Post?

[George Rebane]

BillT 220pm - Good pick-up Mr Tozer. Let us now batten down the hatches against the din of the progressive crickets.

[Bill Tozer]

@ 2:33 pm: lol.
———-
Wha happened? We used to call that a slam, bam, thank you maam....er.....Madam Speaker.

[scenes]

You can always trust reddit (in /politics) for the hivemind. Regarding "Democrats were for occupying capitols before they were against it"

"Opinion by Marc A. Thiessen

Downvote, move on."
---
"Marc A. Thiessen is one of the Republicans' top propagandists and an ardent fascist.

But the Post publishes his work as a matter of course.

The Washington Post adopted the motto Democracy Dies in Darkness, but frequently publishes the propaganda authored by those working overtime to turn out the lights forever. Which makes the Post's editorial board inveterate hypocrites and renders their publication an unreliable source."
----
That really depends on what you're occupying the capitol for and when.

If people are being murdered, you want that murder to stop, and you are being ignored, then by all means. Don't do it during in the middle of the most fragile time of our democracy, but definitely, go ahead. If you're doing it because you want to overthrow the government to install a fascist dicator, then no.

It's very simple.

Equal rights and democracy = Good

White supremacy and fascism = Bad

I see no hypocrisy here.
----
Gee, I wonder if there is an important difference between workers demanding rights and rabid fascists egged on by a lying grifter.
----

etc....

So, basically the author of the opinion piece (of course, anything in the Washington Post is an opinion piece at this point) is a fascist and a white supremacy hobbyist.

Honestly, all of these folks are so over the falls in terms of histrionics (although it probably should be hysterionics) that you can see where this is all headed. Fail the wrongthink test? Into the camp with you buckwheat. It cracks me up when someone here (usually George) gets called a Nazi as you can just see the Blue Mobbist trying to screw up the courage to put a round into him and charge the family for the bullet.

[George Rebane]

re scenes 317pm - can we come up with a common working definition for 'white supremacist', not as the leftwing fascists variously and gratuitously use the term, but as we would use it in a rational discussion of topics like, say, 'what is the prevalence of white supremacists in America?'

[scenes]

re: GeorgeR@3:23PM

The dictionaries, which are subject to change as we've seen recently, always go something like this:

"a person who believes that the white race is inherently superior to other races and that white people should have control over people of other races"

So, it's a two part definition but still a little fuzzy.

What is 'superior'? That they, as a group, have a higher average ability or feature in some area? All areas?

So far as 'control' is concerned, I doubt that even the most fringe of the fringiest feel like controlling anyone. Heck, as a practical matter, a slave costs more to feed than a tenant farmer and gets less done.

Looking at one of the more holy websites, the ADL, I'm seeing:

"1) whites should have dominance over people of other backgrounds, especially where they may co-exist; 2) whites should live by themselves in a whites-only society; 3) white people have their own "culture" that is superior to other cultures; 4) white people are genetically superior to other people."

Once again, there's 'dominance' and 'superior', which you really aren't going to run into on the ground...but they've added 'should live by themselves'. Evidently the white nationalists are swept up into the moniker of white supremacists. Dunno if 'by themselves' means on the family, local, or national level. Sounds like Iceland has some splainin' to do.

Another expansion of the term by one David Gilborn, a critical race 'scholar'.

"“By ‘white supremacy’ I do not mean to allude only to the self-conscious racism of white supremacist hate groups. I refer instead to a political, economic and cultural system in which whites overwhelmingly control power and material resources, conscious and unconscious ideas of white superiority and entitlement are widespread, and relations of white dominance and non-white subordination are daily reenacted across a broad array of institutions and social settings.”"

So here it expands to equal a community where white people (or pinkish I guess) are merely more well-off. Maybe this lets Trump supporters off the hook as very few of them are in the moneyed coastal city classes. Somehow, fixing the problem always involves someone like, well, David Gilborn getting a great big piece of the pie.

Stormfront, probably the most famous of the online folks on the other extreme, have as a mission statement
"Stormfront is a resource for those courageous men and women fighting to preserve their White Western culture, ideals and freedom of speech and association—a forum for planning strategies and forming political and social groups to ensure victory."

Dunno what 'victory' means. Survival? Are Russians included in this?

Maybe it's like pornography, you'll know it when you see it.

Mr. Frisch could stop by and come up with a pithy definition perhaps, he's the only one from Team Blue with a full set of keys on his keyboard.

[scenes]

By the bye, if you get a chance, here's a fun google game.

Go to google search, type xxxx is racist.. where xxxx is any old noun you like. Hilarity ensues.

It would be interesting to have a copy of a search engine database from 20 years ago and see what the world was like before it was clogged with nonsense.

[Don Bessee]

Well the arabs dont seem impressed by the orchestrated pearl clutching about the so called coup -

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/trump-receives-moroccos-highest-award-190526011.html

;-)

[fish]

Hey.....anybody see Ku Klux Keachie recently.....figured with his penchant for Rube Goldbergesque schemes that he’d have been by with his KKKrazy plan for our rehabilitation .....or execution.

I’m sure he could go either way!

Worried about the daft bastard!

[Bill Tozer]

Fish

Me too. He is 75 years old now and still believes our mouths should be washed out with soap. Would you talk like that to your mother?

Actuall, my Mom never washed by mouth out with soap. I had to hold a bar of soap in my mouth and stand somewhere for a few minutes. Only took twice and only a few seconds the 2nd time for it all to come back and for me to break the potty mouth habit. Heck, I heard those words from the neighbor kid’s dad. Got in trouble for saying “crap” and calling my big brother a “jerk”. Nowadays my parents would have been arrested for child abuse and us kids would be hauled away to foster homes....never to see our siblings and parents again. The State would have made us all orphans.

I miss the real Dougkkkski. Helpful hint. It drives him nuts when your add a Polish flare and misspell Pelosi as Peloski. Bet he told a few Polish jokes back in the day. It was all the rage before blonde jokes. Before both of those fads, where the CA jokes anywhere outside of The Golden State, especially every single one of the Western States. Our Gov sleeping on a floor covered with peanut shells and Frisco’s public bathhouses didn’t help CA’s image.
First time I ever read or heard the word ‘Moonbeam’ was when I was in a city of about 300,000 and the front page headline was about what “ Moonbeam” just proposed in Krazy Kaiiforncation. Obviously, I was living out of state and was not in the bubble no more.

Who is this Moonbeam? Oh, is he the same Governor that blew out the budget on the Brown Streak? Probably figured the not so high speed rail would run on burning peanut wheels or something. Come on kids, let’s take the train to Buttonwillow then over to Bakersfield. First, we gotta drive down to Madera or some place to catch it.

Miss ya Doug. Keep your chemical warfare face diaper on and continue to social distance. And watch out for those storm troopers out there downtown on Mill St.