Since the Capitol riot, like many people I’ve been trying to make sense of not just what happened, but what was in the minds of the people who stormed the Capitol. I suspect I will never understand what exactly they hoped they could accomplish; there is no scenario where this results in Trump remaining in office. But, what I think we can begin to understand is what drove them to think storming the Capitol was necessary, what they thought they were trying to save the country from.
It would be easy to write them off as morons, rubes, or schizophrenics (though I suspect some of the more violent of the bunch fit into this category). It would also be easy just to claim “white supremacy” made them do it, as if even if they were white supremacists this would somehow explain their attack on the Capitol. And it would be easy to say “Trump incited them” with no explanation as to what made them so inciteable in the first place.
This essay is an attempt to understand what was in the minds of many of the rioters who stormed the Capitol. It’s not an attempt to justify their actions any more than trying to understand the development of a cancer is an attempt to justify the cancer. I’m also not going to venture into the portion of the mob deranged by QAnon conspiracy theories; that’s a whole other mess for someone else to explore.
According to a YouGov poll, 1 in 5 registered voters and almost half of Republicans thought that the storming of the Capitol was justified. That has to be more than just schizophrenics and QAnon addicts. Somehow an incredible fear has overcome a large number of otherwise normal people. This essay is a hypothesis about what that fear is and how it got there.
The Narrative:
In the early days of Covid, the CDC issues guidance saying that masks are not only not needed for the general population, but may actually increase your risk of catching Covid from increased hand-to-face contact. The CDC later reverses its position, and masks are not only recommended, but now mandatory in most public places, and anyone doubting their efficacy or the wisdom of the CDC is branded as an anti-science lunatic by the press and on social media.
Following the death of George Floyd, Minneapolis erupts in protests, riots, and flames. Hundreds of businesses are vandalized and looted. Dozens of buildings are burned down. Rioters force the Minneapolis police to abandon the 3rd Precinct which is then set on fire. Fire crews are unable to respond until morning. Just in Minneapolis, the riots cause half a billion dollars in damage and claim two lives. One man is shot by a business owner protecting his store, an incident that sparks its own protests in solidarity with the looter. Another man is trapped in a building set on fire by the rioters, unable to escape and dies. The mainstream media immediately downplays the destruction and within days begins describing a blossoming civil rights movement.
After months of issuing guidance on social distancing and limiting crowd sizes, and denouncing anti-lockdown protests, public health officials reverse course by endorsing BLM protests. They not only say that racism is a greater public health emergency than Covid-19, but some go so far as to say it’s more dangerous to not protest. At this point Covid-19 has killed over 100,000. It will soon go on to kill more Americans than have been killed by police, of any race, justified or unjustified, in the history of the country.
The same people who consistently deride Republicans as anti-science are now promoting a movement to “shut down STEM.”
Two police officers in a suburb of Atlanta are attempting to arrest a black man for drunk driving. The officers are polite and professional and the whole affair seems by the book until the handcuffs are about to go on, at which point the driver resists, fighting off both officers, despite their use of a tazer. In fact, he wrestles the tazer away, fires, and misses. He then runs, and turns to fire again, at which point one of the officers fires his gun and kills him. The mainstream media, as well as political leaders, describe him as an unarmed black man shot in the back by the typically-racist police. When the event results in riots and arson, we’re reminded that businesses have insurance and are asked why the police did not simply allow a drunk driver with no sense of what city he was even in to take an Uber home.
Police respond to a domestic disturbance 911 call from a woman whose ex-boyfriend is at her home. The man has a warrant out for his arrest for felony sexual assault against his ex. When the police arrive, the man scuffles with police, refuses orders to drop a knife, fights through the police use of stun guns, and then gets into the driver’s side of a stolen car in an apparent attempt to kidnap the ex’s children who are inside. The mainstream media reports it as yet another unarmed black man predictably shot dead by racist police.
In the ensuing riots, in another city, an altercation breaks out between rioters and a group that has taken it upon themselves to protect business from rioting. One rioter attempts to set a fire, but is thwarted by an anti-rioter. The anti-rioter is armed, and the rioter shouts several times “shoot me n—-r!” (Both men are white.) Later, he attempts to set another fire, but is thwarted by a different (but very similarly dressed) man. He chases and assaults this second anti-rioter, and as he does so another rioter fires a weapon. The anti-rioter turns, and confronted at point blank range, fires and kills his pursuer. A mob quickly forms, and the anti-rioter is forced to flee, pursued by people calling for his death. One assaults him, and he soon trips and goes to the ground. As his pursuers, with calls for blood, attack him while he is on the ground he fires again, killing one and wounding another (this one armed with a handgun). He gets back to his feet, heads for safety as shots are fired from behind, though to no apparent effect. He is quickly painted by the mainstream media as a murderous white supremacist, and pundits latch on to the technicalities of a self-defense claim rather than acknowledging the obvious that he was attacked and defending himself.
If this is all that happened, it’s unlikely the Capitol would have been stormed.
In the same ensuing riots, a Seattle police precinct is attacked. Rioters attempt to seal the police inside with quick-dry concrete before attempting to set the precinct on fire and kill the officers trapped within. The attempts fail, resulting in merely an attempted mass murder rather than a completed mass murder. The story doesn’t appear on most mainstream news outlets CNN or leftward.
In Portland, the city is besieged for over 100 consecutive days of protest which routinely devolve into nightly riots. Police are told to stand down, and a portion of the downtown area is captured by anarchists who force the police to abandon their precinct. The city cedes control of the area for nearly a month.
Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility becomes a smash hit. Its central thesis is that all white people are inherently and incurably racist and must dedicate their lives to self-flagellation. Any disagreement is further proof of said racism.
Ibram Xolani Kendi’s How To Be An Anti-Racist becomes a smash hit. Its central thesis is that everything and everyone that is not actively anti-racist is racist. It further redefines “anti-racist” to mean “anti-capitalist,” creating the absurd dichotomy that one is either actively socialist or else one is racist. His “actively anti-racist” mantra quickly takes social media and politicians by storm, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey donates $10 million to further fund Kendi’s “research.”
Leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement come out as pro-socialist, anti-family, and generally anti-traditional American values. While the vast majority of the victim of police brutality are male, the movement’s leaders focus on black women and the black LGBT community, and affirm that black men will not be the focus of the movement.
Donald Trump issues an executive order prohibiting federal funding for training programs that teach that one race is inherently superior or inferior to any other. The mainstream media widely reports this as the Trump administration prohibiting “diversity training,” and the Biden team commits to reversing the order.
Antifa mobs, adopting the mantle of BLM, sweep through city streets assaulting and harassing random onlookers who fail to endorse their message when commanded to. The same repeats in residential neighborhoods. The mobs routinely chant “If we don’t get it, burn it down.” They routinely do burn it down. While they are at times met with tear gas and rubber bullets, they are often allowed to act with impunity.
As mobs ramp up their violence, the left endorses a “defund the police” policy which, if widely adopted, would further hinder the ability to deal with these riots and attacks.
The Fear:
A growing anti-capitalist, anti-American militant movement is already demonstrating its ability to use violence against both the government and citizens with impunity, and at times seemingly with the cooperation of city or state governments. The mainstream media, aside from a few conservative outlets, are engaged in a widespread propaganda campaign spreading disinformation about this movement, either through ignorance about the movement’s true nature or fear of drawing the movement’s ire. Your neighbors and coworkers, when with confronted with clear video evidence debunking the mainstream narrative, still accept and repeat it with seeming disregard for the truth.
People you once thought of as ordinary, sane folk who happen to have very different political beliefs, but the same general grasp on reality, are now in open defiance of reality in furtherance of a political agenda, and are willing to tolerate or even enable violent mobs as a tool to advance their cause. All the while they’ll tell you the mobs aren’t real, if they are real they’re non-violent, and if they’re violent the violence is justified to further a greater cause. If you disagree at any point, you’re a truth-denying, anti-science white supremacist.
This is how far it has managed to progress even with Trump working against them.
Imagine what will happen when they are no longer thwarted by the Executive, but are instead embraced and supported by the White House. They see barbarians at the gates, and a newly elected gatekeeper ready to let them in.
I can’t imagine that the 20% of the country that believe storming the Capitol was justified believes it could have possibly been effective. And while I do not agree with their narrative, I do see a narrative that could have led them to believe the assault on the Capitol was necessary. I understand the nightmare they’ve envisioned and how they got there.