What do you do when you know people who were there? Processing January 6th
It’s been about 48hrs since January 6th, not since 9/11 have I been stuck in front of a TV watching in horror, watching our Democracy get attacked. But back in 2001 when I was in highschool the terrorism happened from an external threat, this time it happened from within. Little did I know on 1/6 a day I almost cried on for what was happening, did the bigger shock happen the next day. I knew people in that mob! People I used to call friends, people who called themselves “christians” no less. What do we do with these (possibly 2 million) people?
The day after the attempted coup I watched a video of a former friend give his perspective on what happened that day as he drove home with others back to TN. In what totaled out to be a 15 min disclaimer video I suspect he put together and posted on his social media to have as a social proof that he didn’t break the law. Update: He deleted the video the day it was announced that national hero Officer Sicknick passed away from his injuries he suffered from that terrible day. What was most troubling was what my friend said about the rally, and bear in mind he recorded this video around the time Tucker Carlson was spewing his lies on Fox news that first night. Here is what he said “there were hundreds of thousands of people there,” “all the Trump supporters were peaceful,” “all the people in Capitol Hill that were causing trouble were antifa” “the media lies and manipulates the truth,” and “Trump was docile, and didn’t incite anything”
Reading this was sickening to my core, I checked the comments section of his post. This person has a massive following, what did his friends say? The vast majority backed him up and supported him, and congratulated him. One of his most vocal supporters was a woman who was also there and added to the conversation by saying. “it was 99.9% peaceful, the only troublemakers were antifa.” “the police let us in,” and “if you weren’t there then shut up.”
I am struggling to process these lies, this is not what my channel is about but I need to vent this frustration in some form in a productive way. I believe these people think they are telling the truth, I pitty them. But I have 2 problems if we are to take them at their word.
1: If its true that 99.9% of 100,000’s of people at the Capitol Hill Mob were pro Trump patriots and there were only a few antifa people causing trouble, why didn’t these patriots try to stop them?
Why did the indifference of so many “good” men and women allow evil to prevail that day? From overwhelming the barricades, and 1,500 Capitol Hill Police (the real Patriots)? Where were these patriots when the windows started getting beaten in? Where were they when the doors were getting broken down, the cops getting mobbed? Why didn’t you stop that cop from getting beaten to death? In the face of what happened there are only two correct responses: A) Leave immediately so the cops can do their jobs. or B) pick up something heavy and defend Democracy? Why did the indifference of “good” people let our symbol of Democracy get defiled, and 1 police officer get beaten to death? To stay in that mob is to be complicit in their crimes. There are no inccocent bystanders at a lynching. And gallows were erected that day on the lawn for all to see. We don’t view the people who sat back and watched civil rights workers get beaten, or hanged by the police and klu klux klan and say their experience was the only one that matters, that only a few were violent. If you were there, and could see those windows and doors getting broken down, and the fighting with the cops, if you stayed it can only be surmised that you agreed on some level with what was going on. And I pitty them.
2: How can you deny the experiences of other people, people who were in that building, when you claim to have been only on the perimeter, any say your experience is the only one that matters?
How can you say with certanty, that only antifa was causing trouble out of hundreds of thousands of people? Just like I can’t say with 100% certainty that there weren’t any of your people instigating the violence. How can you know? How can you deny the experiences, testimony, and most importantly video recordings of the fighting, looting, destruction, and the shots that killed that pour woman trying to crawl into a room she had no business being in? How can you deny the testimony of the men and women of congress, the videos of threats of violence made to vastly outnumbered cops who were told to get out of the way or get put down? Or the support staff, and news, and the police who said they were scared, felt threatened, and hid for their lives? Even if 99.9% of the people there were peaceful, and your experience on the lawn of capitol hill was valid, fine, but so is theirs! It’s fair to comment on what you experienced (thesis), but we must all acknowledge the evidence that contradicts it (antithesis), and reconcile a more accurate truth of that day (synthesis). Most were peaceful, never threw a punch, or went into the capitol, but they watched and more importantly cheered as the symbol of our democracy was attacked in open revolt and police were beaten and killed.
Moving on, and trying to reconcile this impassable chasm.
As I said before I write this for my own catharsis, this is not what I want to write about on my platform. I love stories, and movies, and narratives, and good writing. My words may not matter in the grand scheme, but they matter to me and that is enough. If you know people who were there, and have relationships with them, reach out to them. I get it, I’m angry too, I want to scream in their faces, call them traitors, and then burn all bridges and sever all ties, I may still end up doing that last part, but I am going to try to reach out to the ones I know, and see if I can have a conversation with them. They are lost and decieved. We are Americans, we need to help our brethren. At least those we have relationships with and are not a threat to us, or others. We can’t save them from their own choices, but a conversation and cognitive dissonance can go a long way to planting the seeds that will eventually lead these people out of this deception. Don’t attack, they already felt attacked before 1/6 thats why they attacked our capitol in the first place, or were complicit in cheering on it’s attackers. Instead hear them out, THEN: talk about your selves, how you felt, what you saw, try not to attack, try not to be angry at them no matter how justified you are, no matter how much they deserve it. Anger will only harden them. Be empathetic to them, so they can empathize with your plight in return. They are victims, in their own right, stuck in a cult/mis-information bubble creating crimes and lies in the name of someone else. Fixing the mis-information campaign and the lies of the republican party is going to bring on dark times, and they know it. Tucker Carlson and others are aredy casting lies that this is going to lead to an assault on freedom and free speech. They know what is about to come, and they are proven ready to fight to resist fixing it.
The rhetoric of Nazi Germany was not effective until it silenced all dissent in the media and the public. If we abandon them, (83% of the republican party, and maybe +45% of this country) cast them out into their conspiracy bubbles they will lose orientation and forget which way is up. There may be a civil war in our future, it may already be too late to avoid it. But we have to try and talk before we get to that point, where we have to make our own choices about what to do, and when that day comes and I pray it doesn’t, there may be only 2 options. 1) Leave this country as refugees, or 2) Stay and Fight for it. To stay on the sidelines is to be complicit in it’s outcome.
