I'm not going to run down an article that uses that exact quote, but you get a great sense of the acquiescence in WaPo pieces like this[0]. They hilariously glamorize rioters vandalizing, trespassing, and attempting arson on a federal building, all the supposed hallmarks of the Jan 6 "insurrection". An "insurrection" that had the same level of agent provocateurs and subterfuge and flame fanning by government agents. Simply put, if a riot is left-wing then journalists glamorize it. If a riot is right-wing then they'll demonize it. It's that simple. It's not difficult to track this mentality out of universities and into newsrooms.
Reporting on lockdown/mask/covid protests has been so egregious and lopsided as to put Poe's Law to the test. Peacefully protesting business closures and weird, shifting mitigation mandates are apparently the worst kind of racist (journos' favorite smear). [1][2] If by "simple steps" you mean people losing their jobs because they can't Zoom into work from their pajamas or the "simple step" of showing medical papers to get sushi or the "simple step" of not seeing a dying loved one because of a bonkers government covid policy -- we might have different ideas of simple.
I'm not conservative, so the persecution complex insult doesn't really work on me, but I agree. Partisans love to feel persecuted because it gives them a sense of purpose. Conservatives are full of hypocrisy, just like liberals. But leftists and liberals are certainly not against abuses of power. They simply want state power to come down on political enemies in the right-wing.
[0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/08/08/trump-sent-...
[1] https://www.salon.com/2020/05/04/anti-lockdown-movement-powe...
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/08/opinion/sunday/anti-lockd...