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Comment by lolinder | Hacker News Reader

And what harm to you would it be to not be aware of whatever nonsense is happening for a few days? Would you have been extremely damaged if you had not heard about January 6th until a week later?

Unless you sincerely think there's going to be widespread political violence in your specific area, knowing about what's going on in at this exact moment is honestly as much about entertainment as anything else. And if you need local news, the NYT is typically not the best place.

I'm as guilty of rubbernecking as anyone, but I wouldn't go so far as to claim that boycotting my favorite news source for a few days would be extremely damaging to me.

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One way I get to have faith in our country and pride in being an American for the next four years.

You're talking about Jan 6 like it was just some minor scuffle. And I agree that it did not ultimately amount to more than that, but do not forget that at the time there were two live bombs on the ground, we were in a constitutional crisis, the president seemed to be hoping that if he maintained silence his supporters would carry out a forceful takeover of the government which he assured them would be righteous in his view.

The fact that there was not more escalation had a lot to do with how many people were watching closely, as well as with the actions of a few individuals like Mike Pence and Brad Reffensperger who, at the most important moments, decided that their duty was to all Americans and not just to one man.

> The fact that there was not more escalation had a lot to do with how many people were watching closely

It had absolutely nothing to do with the rubberneckers (myself included) who were following it from moment to moment on the other side of the country.

Some small percentage of the watchers are in a place to actually do something about it, and if that's you then fine. Most of us don't need to know on the day of, we've just grown accustomed to knowing, and it's probably honestly a net negative for the world that we do follow things that are outside of our control so closely.

Trump was literally watching television news, taking the temperature of people's reactions on Twitter, and deciding in real time what he should do based on that information. The insurrectionists were closely watching the news and Twitter as well. Probably more people would have died or the coup would have been successful if there was lag in the coverage of a few days.

If you believe this you fundamentally misunderstand the kinds of people who were participating in the insurrection.

The opinions of the people who are comfortable sitting by while the conspiracy "steals the election" (or more likely, the astrotufed reactions put forward by sockpuppets of the conspirators themselves) don't matter by the time you get to the point of invading the US capitol.

Trump was being cynical, but the insurrectionists themselves were just nuts. They couldn't have cared less what Twitter thought.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6HnqV6jzTU

People were beaten, trampled and shot in the face. Subsequently, most are convicted and/or in prison. It was not a "scuffle."

> The fact that there was not more escalation had a lot to do with how many people were watching closely, as well as with the actions of a few individuals like Mike Pence and Brad Reffensperger who, at the most important moments, decided that their duty was to all Americans and not just to one man.

... and in no small part due to the actions of police officer Eugene Goodman [1], who diverted away the incoming rioters with about 60 seconds or so to spare - had he not done that, the mob would likely have been able to take hostages.

It was sheer fucking luck and a couple of very VERY brave individuals that kept the death count of Jan 6th in the single digits (at least if one excludes the police officers committing suicide in the months after).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Goodman

Well Trump claimed to have a secret strategy to deploy if he loses. The rhetoric of violence and retribution is increasing from that camp. I don’t think widespread physical violence and an assault on the institutions of democracy are out of the question. It’s not unreasonable for the poster to want access to their trusted source of news in this trying time.

The judges will rule swiftly and for the betterment of democracy. I expect zero support of any consequence for election denying maggots.

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