01-17-2021, 05:30 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-17-2021, 05:38 PM by Eric the Green.)
(01-14-2021, 03:14 PM)mamabug Wrote: From my perspective, this is starting to get very scary. My stance on Jan 6th is the same as it was last week, and the weeks before that - violent groups exist on the fringes of both sides. Everyone is very good at looking at their side and saying 'well, that group doesn't really represent 95% of my side, they are just a distraction the other team uses.' I hear that from people justifying rioters burning down billions in property and killing over 30 people and I hear that from people justifying Charlottesville and the Capitol breach alike. When push comes to shove, they both usually start blaming 'provocateurs' and muttering about false flags.
What can be the motive to believe these exaggerations? Who killed 30 people? Burning down billions in property? I don't agree with the anti-fascist tactics of antifa, but they are not responsible for riots and destruction. They confront fascists, sometimes violently. The Trumpists and Republicans even blame black lives matter protesters, even though they were peaceful and created a necessary renewal of conversation about race and police brutality. I don't excuse the relative few who were angry over horrific injustice and burned a few buildings. But 90% of terrorism in the USA comes from the right-wing. There were provocateurs at the anti-racist riots, but there were none at the Capitol. It does no good to say "both sides do it" if this is not the truth.
Quote:The similarity of how groups think would be scary if it wasn't utterly predictable form a sociological behavior standpoint.
Anyway, the thing I have a very hard time believing is that elected government officials, especially at the national level, would go beyond the usual excuses and 'what-about-a-lism' to actively assisting and engaging in planning a violent assault *on themselves*.
That this is even part of the national conversation, especially without names or any proof furnished as part of the accusation, is the beginning of a dangerous path. Despite pretty much every national level Republican or Republican sympathizer in politics, media, and/or alternative media condemning the events of Jan 6th, the narrative being shaped is that not only were the perpetrators on the right, but all Republicans are evil people who either tacitly or actively support this.
I don't think Senator Hawley or Cruz planned the riot on the Capitol. But those who call for their exclusion from the Senate say that perpetuating Trump's lie about the election was the motive for the riots. Those who objected to Biden's victory in the electoral college, were objecting to democracy. Do YOU object to it? I agree with those calls for expulsion of them from the Senate. Those who planned the riots were certainly various alt-right groups, but these groups have ties to the Trump administration, and Trump sponsored some of them to speak at the rally that incited the riots, and they used explicitly-violent language. There must have been some link from Trump officials and the riot.
Quote:Either the people making the accusation are irresponsible, they are so far into their bubble they legitimately are unable to see their colleagues as human, or they are making a cynical ploy to justify exclusion or outright removal of any Republican who stands in their way. I've read enough on this board to know some of you would be perfectly happy with that because you are also so far into your in-group and the crisis mindset that you have no problem with stomping all over half the country. From where I stand, this is what totalitarianism looks like.
The right-wing seeks to impose a totalitarian, fascist, racist dictatorship on the country, and they have found a leader in Trump they can rally behind, and 140 House members and 8 senators did their bidding. I don't favor violence to exclude right-wingers from our country, but I hope the people have sense enough to vote out the Republicans and send their party into oblivion. To think they are a viable opposition party, is to agree with right-wing goals: racism, trickle-down economics, militarism and super-patriotism, environmental destruction, ridiculous gun rights, religious fundamentalism used against women, gays and non-christians, and so on. I disagree. Today's right wing must be defeated, and the Republican Party must ditch it or go away, and be replaced with a different opposition party, or better yet a multi-party parliamentary republic like all advanced democracies have. Those who advocate terror and violence must be de-platformed, regardless of which faction they support.
Quote:There better be either a complete and public exoneration (including a censure of Rep. Sherrill for circulating this rumor in the first place) or a hell of a lot of proof for me to not see this as Democratic politicians acting in bad faith for the purposes of hurting people they disagree with.
Forgive my impassioned ranting, I've said all along it wasn't the events that alarmed me so much as the response and this is exactly what I mean. I never thought I would live in an America where one major party didn't just impugn the other but sought to convict them as traitors. How this doesn't end in bloodshed and terror is becoming increasingly something I can't see.
Forgive my impassioned ranting, but the Republicans have harbored a nest of traitors. There are some Republicans who have come clean and spoken out, and other have at least not joined these traitors in full. Even McConnell showed some statesmanship. It is up to Republicans to rid themselves of Trump, trumpism, and all of their extreme ideas, or be left out and left behind. If the people wake up and get smart, progress can be restarted after this long 40-year dark age of regression, stalemate and decline. Let's make our country great again, and go back BEFORE Reagan, and progress BEYOND Republicans today. Let's build back better. We are all in this together. We are stronger together.