EDIT: I hate bringing politics on HN, but cnn/nytimes have become the mirror of fox. Biden/Democrats are wonderful and do no wrong, Trump/GOP are always doing bad things. Just as the Taibbi article says.
In CHAZ / Seattle their self-proclaimed warlord was handing out AK47s from the back of a car. They set up blockades with semi-automatic weapons and intentionally murdered two teenagers, shooting at their vehicle.
But yeah, the great superpower almost got couped by the guy in the buffalo hat, walking around calmly like a moron. The Capitol Police intentionally, very plainly, let the rioters walk into the building (opening the doors and standing aside), and it's all on video, which you can find across Twitter. None of this is allowed to be discussed, all of it is being aggressively censored by the big technocrat autocracy.
I heard the term Blue Anon the other day for the first time. So I go to Google to find out what it is. Google had censored the term and results. That was the first time I got the chill of feeling like I was living in firewall China. You'd think that term led to something illegal, but no, it was trivial, and they still couldn't stand it and had to try to control it.
The theater game going on in DC right now with the national guard? I've got one word for you: staged.
It's a sick joke. The cultural civil war is well underway.
edit: and of course now this link is being censored from HN, naturally
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/feb/15/ron-johnso...
So 14 people may have had weapons out of several hundred thousands, and that's enough for Politifact to pretend it's an armed insurrection? They do have a certain sense of hyperbole. So these 14 people were going to take the Capitol in hostage and hold power with what means exactly? It's not like the US military would be afraid of a few guys with guns...
That’s extremely inaccurate.
Several thousand, coming from Trump's rally which only had about 20k total.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/03/04/fac...
"The U.S. Department of Justice has charged at least three people on gun charges stemming from the Jan. 6 riot, including one whom prosecutors said Metro police found carrying a loaded handgun with an extra magazine."
Whoa, three people! They nearly took down the great superpower! Close call.
That being said, the riots in PDX (my brother lives there, and I was there in the summer when it was happening) were an example of a complete, willful capitulation of local government to radicals. The Capital Riot was an involuntary capitulation of the police to radicals. There is something very insidious about the former. It's reminiscent of the local government collaboration/capitulation to the KKK in 1960s Dixie.
Also, what about the occupation of several blocks in Seattle all summer long? People in congress who said absolutely nothing about a months long, armed occupation that took place with no buy-in from residents have moaned and feigned fear for their lives over a single, day long occupation of their workplace. I completely lost respect for Congressperson Ocasio-Cortez over the appalling disconnect between her perception of danger, vs the actual danger she was in during the riot. It really had the hallmarks of narcissism when viewed with the perspective of utter silence and indifference to the armed occupation of an entire neighborhood of Seattle for weeks.
President Obama's final interview before leaving office included a statement of his deep concern for the "balkanization of the media" landscape. He was right.
And they absolutely didn't dismantle the protest zone the next day. They dismantled the protest zone the day after protesters showed up outside of the mayor's house.
The glossed over and inaccurate nature of your comment reminds me of talking to someone who watches highly partisan media. I'm going to take a wild guess that you thought CHAZ was a good idea, didn't you?
You seem to be talking about Lorenzo Anderson. He was shot just outside the protest area. The person identified as the shooter wasn't security. People who knew both of them said it was a long running feud.
[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20200629153640/https://www.seatt...
[2] https://web.archive.org/web/20200630174716/https://www.seatt...
[3] https://web.archive.org/web/20200702035844/https://www.seatt...
The people at the Portland Federal Courthouse are their rioters who are brave dissenters expressing civil disobedience in the tradition of Gandhi and MLK. They are advancing the cause of marginalized communities who lack a voice. Portland is a tertiary city so no govt business of note happens at the federal courthouse hence no disruption of normal function. /s
See how easy it is? Of course when the tables are turned the other side will do the same inversion and law and order will degenerate and so will our society.
A real coup involves the military and people actually taking over the role of government. We were not even close to that. January 6th was incredibly embarrassing, but it wasn't even a proper attempt at overthrowing the government.
The Capitol riots were basically just the kind of thing that happens when you have too many morons in the same place at the same time. Sort of a critical mass of idiocy.
It was a difference of competence, not intent, and even an incompetent attempt poses grave dangers. John Hinkley Jr. didn't make a "proper" attempt to assassinate Ronald Reagan, but he paralyzed James Brady and -- despite not firing a single shot on target, just as "embarrassing" as any of the Capitol rioters -- came very very close to killing the president.
That's called bending reality after half of year of burning and looting in major cities I guess?
Genuine question: what do you think about “autonomous zones”? Isn’t seceding from the state usually pretty serious? The US fought a civil war over it last time someone did that.
Que Bono? Many parties. News Outlets & Social Media get more clicks from the outrage, Agencies get bigger budgets, Shows are made, Startups can build products to "combat disinformation" & "fight censorship", Researchers receive grants to study the population, Politicians have a distracting cover story to pass legislation/EO's that would have caused alarm in calmer circumstances, etc.
It's all theater or Professional Wrestling. Enjoy the show.