January 6th, the Epiphany, the Shitshow of the Century.
It was the Fake Election spectacle and yet another riot, this one at the Capitol building in broad daylight while they’re in session. I’m not shocked about the riot, I’d been watching riots for months at that point so another one was no surprise to me. Life has changed a lot in the last couple of years to say the least, it’s deeply disturbed an already fractious political climate and I expected there would be some fires. There are many still burning and there will be more that will burn.
Protests and riots everywhere on what seemed like a daily basis for half a year. No central organization or anything, just slogans and chanting and scattered cells of various activists and extremists, all filled with lots of anger and lots of fear. A lot of people went to DC looking for trouble, that much is clear, but an insurrection? A coup? Not convinced. Too many idiots. Too much poop.
Memory picture: a strange kind of shock that the capital building is breached and invaded by a huge mob of angry people, all of it recorded on thousands of cameras and broadcast to billions of people all at once worldwide — no subtitles required.
Packs of simian dorks from a huge 4chan cult flood in there, none of them with any real weaponry except maybe that terrifying lunatic with the horns and the paint who lives with his mother — he had a short little flag with a cute little spearhead. Guy waltzes in like the President of the United States himself, right into the Senate temple, praying to Jesus for the crowd then droning like a wannabe Norse Tibetan Buddhist. Him and some random laborer with his work boots on someone’s desk were the face of an insurrection? Dumbest shit ever.
How would an insurrection there even work? QAnon cultists and cornpone rednecks hold down the capital and hang Mike Pence until… what? The military swoops in, declares Trump President for life (lol), arrests all the pedophiles, writes up a new Constitution and outlaws Liberals so we can finally achieve True Freedom? Trust the Plan. No one bothered to make a plan but yes, Trust the Plan. Madness.
The riot at the capital swarmed into the seat of power, temporarily interrupting a ritual certification of electoral votes that picked up where it left off later that evening. BLM protestors and their friendly rioters (rioters for “Black Rights”) destroyed a lot of property, assaulted cops, firefighters, and anyone else in their way and held entire regions of urban centers hostage but I don’t remember them breaking into any congressional buildings to hang Kristen Sinema and skullfuck Republican women. It’s not as if there aren’t any “BLM” rioters going to prison for the destruction and mayhem they’ve caused.
At least one cop is dead secondary to reasons deemed very unrelated to the riot, numerous others hurt, a few reportedly committed seppuku. Lots of rioters were hurt, trampled, scuffling with police, etc. At least two up and died of heart attacks with all of the peace and love going on and one died of a meth overdose making it all feel like a rave to be remembered. The only person shot and killed by police was a rabid QAnon freak who tried to jump through a busted out door in the Capital. A single cop was covering the door and the escape of members of Congress and you can see various members in the hallway, they were just evac’d when she was shot in the throat. Cop had his gun out and warned them not to do it, she did it anyway and she died for it. Numerous camera angles of the incident, but, of course, she’s being portrayed as some sort of sainted martyr by the right framing the riot as a peaceful demonstration, because peaceful riots are a thing people think are real I guess.
It’s been exceptionally difficult for the first responders, not just the cops, but the EMT/paramedics, fire fighters, having to respond to injuries sustained by large mobs of angry rioters — DC feels like a climax at the end of long crescendo of violence in which hundreds if not thousands of city police and firefighters were injured over time. The injured and dead DC Police have many people to thank for the way they’ve been politicized and mistreated for the last year.
Government staged thousands of national guard in the Capitol, no one seemed phased by this, which is weird to me. We haven’t had troops in the Capitol since the Civil War and from my recollection the South had several armies with guns and artillery and platoon sergeants and shit roaming about the countryside. Where they worried about a real insurrection? From where? Who? All these scary white supremacist militias? If so, why haven’t said militias been turned into dog food? If they’re so dangerous, why was the response to the crowd and rioters so tepid?
AOC crying — she’s great at crying, publicly testifies after the fact about her past trauma and says Ted Cruz tried to have her murdered. I’m a trauma survivor, and now I’m traumatized again and now TED CRUZ TRIED TO HAVE ME MURDERED! Cruz called the riot terrorism and said Left or Right violence is always wrong, but this was obviously a coded signal for his friend the Zodiac Killer to murder AOC like some kind of mob hit. Her being traumatized now or ever does not make this any less gross and ridiculous, it was simply a fine opportunity to use a sad story to fuck with Ted Cruz and the Republican party to leverage social and political capital. Ted Cruz would suck off Satan himself for a cheeseburger but I don’t know that he’s trying to have anyone murdered.
Hundreds of people arrested and hauled in to federal court. Prison sentences. The constant trickle of stories about the prosecution of some Proud Boys or repentant QAnon cranks is ongoing, and the explosions of loathing from across the internet when the next Republican President pardons them will be a sight to see. I imagine a lot of these people are going to be pardoned, and the President that does will wear it like a badge of honor in the name of freedom. Magical.
Hundreds of people hauled in to federal court because they broadcast pictures and video of themselves at the riot on the internet. Everyone is on camera all the time. Willingly. This was never as disturbing to me as it is now. Random basement goblins dutifully looking for people on the internet after the event, doing the FBI’s work for them. A million bootlicking amateur detectives. Cameras everywhere and free researchers full of patriotism and resentment. “Look! Look Mr. G-Man, I found one of the bad people! Here’s his Facebook page, please go hurt him! Lock them away! They’re fascists and white supremacists and won’t obey Comrade Fauci!” It’s totalitarian nightmare fuel.
Burroughs was right when he said that America was a nation of finks.
It’s saddening to me that what happened January 6th, 2021 in Washington DC remains increasingly confused, with increasing amounts of unreality imposed on how the events are interpreted for political capital. It’s a riot, a coup, an insurrection, a peaceful protest, and a political witch hunt all at the same time. It’s sad that we have come to this moment, a bubbling anger between opposing teams getting increasingly strident and out of control, as the fear of sickness and death lingers.
Be safe out there.
