[Pulling this from the comments.]
"This thread is full of Tribalist Rs who excuse the terrible behavior of Trump cultists because woke leftist also act badly in other situations."
I don't give a crap whether Trump won. And I've argued with Trump supporters that their claims that the election suffered from anything more than normal levels of corruption are unfounded.
What I do care about is the media treatment of the Jan 6 protests vs the BLM protests (and other misbehavior) during the 9 months that proceeded it. From my perspective, progressives violated liberal norms of polite society for most of 2020. I saw progressives looting and burning businesses in city after city, as their allies in the media either hid or downplayed the violence as "mostly peaceful protest".
I saw giant tech firms impose widespread censorship, blocking access to truthful information and cut off long established lines of communication between friends and family, a practice which continues to this day. I saw those same tech firms collude to crush small competing startups for ideological reasons. At critical junctures in the election, I saw them collaborate with media firms to suppress damning information about their preferred candidate, even as they knowingly spread lies about their opponent.
I've seen government imposed price controls cause massive shortages. I've seen government imposed lockdown orders crush thousands of businesses, resulting in tens of millions of people being put out of work. I've seen more money than has been allocated to all other causes of death combined redirected to combat a single disease.
And I've seen Democratic controlled institutions use witch hunts / redscare style blackballing of dissidents to suppress anyone who questioned these actions.
In the face of all of this violence, censorship, and crushing of dissent, my "progressive" friends at best stood silent, and in most cases, cheered it on.
Yet, when Republicans stage a single protest of the integrity of elections they flip their shit, and pretend like it was a coup attempt. (And, keep in mind, that Democrats have been beating the drums about alleged Russian election tampering for years.)
The Democratic hysteria about the Jan 6 protests is both absurd and frightening. Absurd, because a crowd full of cops, soldiers, and other gun enthusiasts who actually wanted to stage a coup and kidnap/kill some Congress people would've brought a lot more guns and used them more effectively. And frightening, because by exaggerating the magnitude of the risk/harm caused by the protesters, the government sets the stage for even greater censorship and suppression of dissidents.
"This thread is full of Tribalist Rs who excuse the terrible behavior of Trump cultists because woke leftist also act badly in other situations."
I don't give a crap whether Trump won. And I've argued with Trump supporters that their claims that the election suffered from anything more than normal levels of corruption are unfounded.
What I do care about is the media treatment of the Jan 6 protests vs the BLM protests (and other misbehavior) during the 9 months that proceeded it. From my perspective, progressives violated liberal norms of polite society for most of 2020. I saw progressives looting and burning businesses in city after city, as their allies in the media either hid or downplayed the violence as "mostly peaceful protest".
I saw giant tech firms impose widespread censorship, blocking access to truthful information and cut off long established lines of communication between friends and family, a practice which continues to this day. I saw those same tech firms collude to crush small competing startups for ideological reasons. At critical junctures in the election, I saw them collaborate with media firms to suppress damning information about their preferred candidate, even as they knowingly spread lies about their opponent.
I've seen government imposed price controls cause massive shortages. I've seen government imposed lockdown orders crush thousands of businesses, resulting in tens of millions of people being put out of work. I've seen more money than has been allocated to all other causes of death combined redirected to combat a single disease.
And I've seen Democratic controlled institutions use witch hunts / redscare style blackballing of dissidents to suppress anyone who questioned these actions.
In the face of all of this violence, censorship, and crushing of dissent, my "progressive" friends at best stood silent, and in most cases, cheered it on.
Yet, when Republicans stage a single protest of the integrity of elections they flip their shit, and pretend like it was a coup attempt. (And, keep in mind, that Democrats have been beating the drums about alleged Russian election tampering for years.)
The Democratic hysteria about the Jan 6 protests is both absurd and frightening. Absurd, because a crowd full of cops, soldiers, and other gun enthusiasts who actually wanted to stage a coup and kidnap/kill some Congress people would've brought a lot more guns and used them more effectively. And frightening, because by exaggerating the magnitude of the risk/harm caused by the protesters, the government sets the stage for even greater censorship and suppression of dissidents.