Capitol attack reflects US extremist evolution over decades

[BartenderElite]

There's no elephants in Washington DC either, so obviously the NG scared them away, shit for brains!!

Does that seem like logic to you?

[cancel2 2022]

Does that seem like logic to you?

Ask Jack and Jim, they'll explain it to you!

[BartenderElite]

Ask Jack and Jim, they'll explain it to you!

Does that seem like a clever retort to you?

[cancel2 2022]

Does that seem like a clever retort to you?

Very!

[BartenderElite]

Very!

Were there elephants in the Capitol on 1/6?

[Darth Omar]

Hello Darth,



Our big stick worked.

We spoke softly and carried the big stick of NG presence. The deterrent worked. It is absurd to say it wasn't needed after it worked. Of course it was needed as a deterrent. Had that precaution been taken on Jan 6th, the mob never would have gotten into the capitol. It worked 50 times over. The one case where there were no NG is the one time the mob broke in and caused destruction and deaths.

Where was the NG for the summer mobs that were summoned by the media and the some crowd hyping the death of George Floyd. And how many mobs were there? Too many to count.

How much blood is on the hands of people who failed to respond to and/or incite it? People like BLM.

[Diesel]

Look it up.

If you make a claim, it's your job to support. Only a pussy tells someone else to, "Look it up."

[Diesel]

Umm...Patton’s 5th Army wasn’t there when it happened lol.

But they are there now over something that might happen. How long are they going to be there? Is this another new normal?

https://www.stripes.com/news/us/15-0...-soon-1.659424

[Diesel]

DC looks like Managua with the permanent troops and temporary razor wire fences

Terrifying, isn't it? They wouldn't be there if Trumpists hadn't tried to overthrow the federal government a couple weeks ago.

[PoliTalker]

Hello BartenderElite,

100%.

They did the right thing. Conservatives want to pretend that 1/6 didn't happen - or, even more ridiculous, that "antifa did it."

It's partly an ego thing. Some people can never admit it when they are wrong. There are a lot of conservatives who cannot ever admit it when they are wrong. So they do backflips to avoid admitting a mistake.

The most absurd example of that was sharpiegate.

Trump was wrong about the weather prediction. NHS never said the hurricane was threatening Alabama. It was on a course which, if extended as a straight line long range, went to Alabama, but the NHS expected the storm to turn due to interface with a weather front. Trump missed that part. He saw it apparently headed for Alabama and made up his own prediction. It was wrong. The NHS corrected him. But due to his oversized ego, he could not possibly be wrong. The NHS has no business telling the king he had no clothes. So Trump took a poster of an NHS forecast and used a sharpie to extend the prediction in a straight line to show Alabama threatened. He was wrong.

Then he dug himself in deeper. He tried to order the NHS to change their prediction to match what he had incorrectly said. He dug himself deeper. They refused. It was the most absurd display of ego anybody could remember ever seeing.

How anybody could witness that and still support that man is beyond comprehension.

In the case of 1/6, conservatives who have placed their support in Trump don't want to admit it was a mistake, that it led to the capitol attack.

So they made up this false narrative that it was somehow antifa.

Anything to avoid admitting it was a mistake to support and elect Trump.

At this point it is obvious most of the lingering support is nothing but an attempt to save face.

And that is messed up.

[PoliTalker]

Hello Darth,

Where was the NG for the summer mobs that were summoned by the media and the some crowd hyping the death of George Floyd. And how many mobs were there? Too many to count.

How much blood is on the hands of people who failed to respond to and/or incite it? People like BLM.

Whataboutism is an admission of being wrong. It is like saying, "OK, I had it wrong but I am not going to admit it, so I am going to change the subject and try to completely deflect the conversation and make it about something else."

We are in a discussion about the capitol attack. If you want to talk about BLM I would suggest that you begin a new thread.

[christiefan915]

the SPLC, once a noble organization, is nothing other today than a corrupt and scandalous money machine. Feel free to look that up.

I don't have to look it up. I'm a member.

[Diesel]

Hello Diesel,



Unity is what we must strive for. These are our fellow Americans. Sure, most of the extremists are never going to back off. But for the rest of the right who have enabled them, we have to be prepared to allow rational conversation to happen again. I think a lot of people got a big wake-up call on Jan 6th. People on the right have got to be thinking twice about what they stand for. Most people on the right didn't want what happened. Most of the protesters did not break into the capitol. Many thought they were simply going to assemble outside the capitol and demonstrate. Those people stayed outside the barriers for a reason. They may have bought in and showed up for the rally, but they didn't show up with riot gear and zip ties. Only extremists did that.

Now we've got a choice. We can leave it open for unity if people got a big wake up call and want to rethink where they stand, or we can shut the door and keep things bitterly divided, thus ensuring our nation will fail to overcome this.

But we so desperately need to overcome this.

I'm not shutting the door on unity. I can't do that. It would feel like I was shutting the door on America.

We can have our differences on the left and on the right and still have American unity. Unity allows us to hold our own views. That's what America is all about. But we must always remember how much we have in common. We are all lucky to be Americans. There's a lot of people all around the world who wish they were us, even with our problems. I don't want to let what we have slip away. We have to protect our country from all enemies, both foreign and domestic. Right now, one of our biggest domestic enemies is bitter division.

We protect our country by leaving the door open for more unity. If we are to ask, as JFK proposed, "What can we do for our country," we have our answer. We can strive for more unity.

I appreciate your perspective, your optimism, and your thoughtful post. You sound like me two or three years ago. I am so far past that. The 2016 election was difficult for most people. I didn't vote for Trump (I didn't vote for Clinton either), but I did not hold a vote for Trump (or Clinton) against anyone. I spent at least the first year and probably close to the first two years of the Trump presidency pleading for unity. I joined online forums to learn why Trump supporters supported him. I had long, patient conversations with relatives and friends who supported Trump. I made a monumental effort to come to terms with the Trumpists in my life and Trumpists in general.

Yet the situation only degraded. Trump dug the death grave deeper every waking hour of every godforsaken day for five long years. He never stopped lying. He hired people to lie for him. How did his supporters react? We all know the answer. They swallowed the poison pill hook, line, and sinker. They completely abandoned reality. They denied things that were undoubtedly true. They insisted on things that were undoubtedly false. They even claimed that the word "fact" doesn't have a definition. In fact, they claimed that no words have definitions, that everything is subjective and relative. There is no universal truth about anything. They claimed that their "opinions", however uniformed or blatantly deceptive, were equally as valid as proven science, medicine, and basic, provable facts. They continue to do all of those things to this very day.

So tell me please, PoliTalker, if you can: How are we supposed to achieve unity with people who don't even operate in reality? If you don't agree that 2 + 2 = 4, then a conversation about math is pointless. If you think that purple is a dinosaur and not a color, we don't have any common ground for a meeting of the minds. This is not about political disagreement. This is about honesty. This is about being a normal, rational person who understands words, uses them appropriately, and acts honestly. Trumpists are none of those things. I would love to restrict our disagreements to budget bills and the national deficit and trade agreements and foreign policy. Instead, we have tens of millions of Americans who believe that their political opponents are satan worshippers who rape babies in the basement of a pizza joint.

Lastly, I do believe in forgiveness, but I also believe that once someone shows their true colors, I should never forget it. I don't hate the Trumpists. I watched them proudly display overt, vile, hurtful, unapologetic racism and hatred for at least four years. They can be part of the American fabric. They're already here. But they may never, ever be a part of my life again. I will not unify with people who hate me because I am not white and not straight. I will not unify with people who trade in lies and then use their religion to condemn me. I'm just not there anymore. I will not be a battered spouse who continues to be abused just because I love my country and my fellow Americans. If Trumpists ever come to their senses, I will reevaluate my position, but I have no hope in the world that that will ever happen.

[christiefan915]

All that shows is that they are a political hack organization and got caught.

It means they made a mistake, 'fessed up and apologized. Character, something RWNJ sites don't have.

[Diesel]

Hello Diesel,



Actually, white supremacy groups had an explosion of growth after a black man became president. That's when the whole birther thing began. It simply reached a fever pitch with Trump and his mouth. 2016 wasn't the first time Trump ran for president. He never got far until he figured out how to attach himself to the white supremacy hatred cause. That's what pushed him over the top.

That doesn't negate what I said.