I have a bit of ambivalence writing about this. I wanted to talk about it but with people so emotional and divided I was not looking forward to pushing that rock up the hill. I tried to stay away from social media but like many, I often fail in this endeavor. About a half hour after I read the first news headlines of the Capitol being sieged my phone began to chime with social messages and texts, and that drew me into the squaller that is Facebook news feed. All it’s been since is a sea of one-sided narratives and thoughtless threats. People justifying the continuation and expansion of abuse, lawlessness, and crime. Social media being the worst possible place to share the nuances of language and dialog, I felt it was best to refrain from engaging others. I would be a liar if I said that I don’t poke the friends that poke back, but I never do it with intentions of personal attack, only as using levity as a communication tool. Yet this time felt different. I was finding myself berated from both sides for suggesting that we in these first hours have little information to form a complete knowledge of what happened or to call for the collective actions I was seeing in posts. It was around that time I knew this wasn’t going anywhere. So paused from it and I spoke to me wife later that night and again the next morning about each other’s thoughts, and it was great. Being able to have an open discussion about things before hitting social media might be the best tactic for anyone. And memes, though often funny or poignant but can be misunderstood as easy as acknowledged. Now to follow is my current thoughts on the state of our Union.
The similarities and of the DC election protest riot, Black Lives Matter protest riots, the AntiFa riots are striking. However, there is much different with them as well. All of these groups had people in their numbers that violated law to dominate, abuse and crush people they felt are opposition to their causes. They did not follow instructions of the police and fought them to access that was not theirs to take. They destroyed property.
All of them have said these actions are a result of their concerns and voice not having been heard or carried to the public eye. However, if you feel this is true for all, I can say this very misguided. Over the course of 2020 BLM has been given continuous platforms with businesses, elections, major news stations, social media, ect. In 2020 they have made over a billion dollars in donations. On the other hand, Trump supporters have had it quite different. While mostly small businesses have contributed, major news outlets have not given such a platform and in many counts were disingenuous in speaking for them. They had the same treatment from social media platforms, having post deleted and buried, having their posts be countered with read warnings, letting users dox them for harassment, or being banned from the platform altogether. However, one thing they did have was the feeling of being heard within the elections. Hence Trump being elected in the first place. Once the 2020 election came and went…on and on, they saw the one platform they had to be heard turn into a questionable mess and possibly stolen, they began to panic. This brings me to how Trump handled things.
Trump is known as a boorish, often inarticulate tough guy weighted with an ego. He big on slogans and idioms but he muscles in results. These are all reasons why some people love him and hate him. However, unlike seasoned politicians but like many Americans, he addresses everything thru a very opinionated, bias and black & white lens. This slightly more problematic than not taking a stance on anything, but far more stimulating. So now I’ll go over how he handled the protest.
Trump used the absolute worst platform to communicate to his audience, that platform being Twitter. It’s 140 characters of abridged thought farts. He filled twitter with promises exposing fraud and winning back a stolen election. One by one the courts refused to see his election tampering evidence be presented. It was very much looking like he was not going to make good on promises as this was being taken to Congress to try and overturn the Electoral College results. He tweeted for everyone to join him at the capitol building in protest, later celebration of his big win and promising them a wild event. I believe he wanted numbers there to not only witness the outcome but to show all in one place how many people believed this election was stolen. But that’s not what happened. He addressed the crowd with the same slogans and information they were becoming used to. No shock and awe. On top of that it wasn’t seeming to be going his way. Shortly after the riot began. Here is where I’ll go over how he address the rioting.
To the BLM and AntiFa riots Trump acknowledged control with local governments, though not refraining from arm-chairing from Twitter. Some local officials refused to aid the quilling these riots and even exacerbated the problem with encouraging the rioters. Trump did, over months of continuous rioting and destruction of federal facilities, make the calls to end it without support. During this time, he Tweeted out “when the looting starts, the shooting starts”, which as a warning I don’t disagree with. With rioting being destruction and violence, it is safe to say, people have the right and law enforcement have the duty to protect the lives and property of law-abiding citizens. However, during the DC riot Trump’s bias was in view and he did not address the rioters directly and told everyone to go home and that the election was stolen. This is a poorest way to address what just happened. Though the protesters did disperse confused and defeated, the rioters who destroyed federal property were largely left ignored from the same Twitter warnings deserved to be seen. This is a failure, as was leaving calling of the National Guard to Pence. Now a deeper summary of my current view.
In my time with Trump, a president I didn’t vote for I observed the fringe left take over the public narrative in many ways, using it as a weapon. People I saw do nothing, cut up because of hyper fear and hate for Trump. People like Nick Sandmann took it to court but that doesn’t change the fact. And Trump spoke up for them. People will blame this aggression on Trumps rhetoric but that also is rhetorical and victim blaming. This is the times that we are living in, where the divide is so wide our language and thoughts are incompatible yet comparable in unreasonableness. If you stop and really reason it out, it’s not anyone fault but our own.
As far as the riots I’m against all of it. I do see the damages caused by the DC riot as lesser to the others, but that is back up by body count, property damage totals, span of time and other aftermath. The Capitol building was not the only government building sieged in within a year’s time, and a lot of people lost their lives and livelihood in the riots throughout 2020. These are riots and violence, no one in a free society should feel compelled to condone them. The fact I can write this without fear of being arrested, charged, or hanged still means it’s free for other venues of action. In my view 2021 is not the first step to civil war, it has been going on for years. The citizens of the United States of America are the only ones that can and would dismantle the hostility, but you must let go of the fear and hate, temper yourself with reason. You must address each other with respect and cultivate honest dialog. You must give people time to state their concerns and observe what they have to offer. And to the very best of yourself, honestly and reasonably make a judgement, not for them but for yourself. If you can’t adult like this you’re never going to be a solution to anything. I know there is more I could say, but I think I said enough. I want all of you to know I love my country, I value the friendship and times I’ve had with you, I want the best for all of us and my mind is always open for discussion for you. But right now, I need a break from digitally socializing about these types of things. It’s extremely unfulfilling, and until we can all make that turn, there is no good coming from it.