If you'd been listeningto white nationalists,teen boys with teen girls sex videos QAnon believers, and Trump supporters, you knew to expect the attempted coup of the U.S. government on Wednesday. You couldn't feign surprise like some of the maliciously ignorant pundits of cable television.
Yet few things could prepare you for watching it unfold on social media in real time. As a seditious mob overtook the U.S. Capitol to disruptthe certification of the Electoral College, forcing members of Congress to rapidly evacuate the hallowed chambers, it produced a stream of haunting images and video.
In them, a group of predominantly white men incitedby President Trump make a mockery of America and its principles and institutions. One man, striding through the Capitol, carriesa Confederate flag. Another man, wearing a knowing smile, restshis boot on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's desk. Standing at the Senate dais, a few men posedfor photographs. The poet and artist Noah Caine tweetedone such image with a dagger of a caption: "to make it here without dying is the epitome of white privilege[.]"
Indeed, if you followed the assault on the nation's Capitol on Twitter instead of on television, the chorus of this tragedy might have sounded nothing like the conventional wisdom that this could never happen in America.
Journalists, activists, and advocates who know the white nationalist and QAnon movements well — or are deeply familiar with the history of white mobs asserting and seizing power in America — did not respond with shock.
The Cherokee writer and This Landpodcast host Rebecca Nagle wrote, "Spend enough time with US history and you'll find that angry mobs of white people wreaking violence with impunity is a real theme." The organizer Bree Newsome Bass, who climbed up a pole in 2015 to removeSouth Carolina's Confederate flag, asked: "When can we stop being surprised that white supremacists are the most violent element in America and actually address/end the violence?"
"And for people to now go, "I never knew this would happen," why not? How would you not see this happen?"
Later in the evening, the mother of Heather Heyer, a counter-protester of the 2017 Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville who was killed when purposely struck by a car, told a reporter for the Guardianthat the terrorism at the Capitol was "predictable."
"And for people to now go, "I never knew this would happen," why not? How would you not see this happen?"
That the mob gained relatively easy entry into the Capitol prompted countless comparisonsbetween the lack of police force used against the insurrectionists compared to the state-sanctioned violence deployed against Black Lives Matter protesters.
Then came the horror of two separate videos, one that showeda police officer posing for a selfie with a member of the mob, and another showingpolice stepping aside as rioters opened the barricades. In seconds, what activists have been saying for years was laid bare for all to see.
"Everyone who spent more time attacking ‘defund police' than addressing the very real threat of the alignment between police & white supremacists looks foolish."
"The true nature of policing in the USA has been fully exposed today in a way that no sensible, objective person can deny. Everyone who spent more time attacking ‘defund police' than addressing the very real threat of the alignment between police & white supremacists looks foolish," Newsome Bass wrote.
The siege ended with police officers escorting people away from the Capitol, and the death of Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt. U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement Thursday that Babbitt was shot by an officer when she was among rioters "forcing their way" toward an area were members of Congress were sheltering in place. Three others also died in "medical emergencies" and a Capitol Police officer died on Thursday of injuries sustained in the riot. By Wednesday evening, the police reportedly arrested just a handful of the people who tried to overthrow American democracy.
Steven Sund, chief of the Capitol Police, said the actions of the officers were "heroic given the situation they faced." He rejected the notion that the riots were First Amendment activities: "they were criminal riotous behavior."
When President Trump sympathized with and cheered the rioters on in his own video filled with falsehoods and distributed via social media, he condoned their efforts. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube ultimately removed the video. Later, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram blocked Trump from posting on their platforms, partially because of that video.
SEE ALSO: Photos show stark contrast in police response to Capitol riot vs. Black Lives Matter protestsSince the rise of social media and phone cameras, Americans have witnessed one betrayal after another. When you watch these transgressions, whether it's a Black man being shot in the back or police attacking peaceful protesters, it's calling your attention to the rot that threatens the foundation of American democracy.
The fact that there's no intermediary or referee to soothe our frayed nerves, no one to explain away the sins, can sometimes bring the country closer to seeing itself for what it is: a beautiful experiment in governance by the people that will never succeed if white nationalism, and its worship of dominant masculinity, is given even an inch to flourish.
This is why rejecting Trump and everything he stands for, without equivocation or justification, mattered so much to America's future. There are no two equivalent sides to this moment in history, but there's still time to stand against the forces that would rather topple democracy than lose their power.
Those who came to the Capitol looking for vengeance hoped to restore the natural order of things as they see it. Nothing will quell their desperation but a public ready to see clearly what poisons America.
UPDATE: Jan. 7, 2021, 3:29 p.m. AEDT This article has been updated to note three people died because of medical emergencies during the siege.
UPDATE: Jan. 7, 2021, 9:12 a.m. PST This article has been updated to reflect that police stepped aside while rioters opened the barricades in front of the Capitol. Earlier, it had been reported that police had opened the gates.
UPDATE: Jan. 7, 2021, 10:01 a.m. PST This article was updated to include statements from the U.S. Capitol police regarding the assault on the Capitol and the woman who was shot and killed by an officer.
UPDATE: Jan. 8, 2021, 11:42 a.m. AEDT This article has been updated to reflect that a Capitol Police officer has died in connection with the mob.
UPDATE: Jan. 8, 2021, 12:54 p.m. AEDTCapitol Police have corrected reports of an officer's death, with the force's union chairman telling DC local newsthat the officer remains on life support. This article has been updated to reflect that the current number of deaths linked with Wednesday's events is four.
UPDATE: Jan. 8, 2021, 4:30 p.m. AEDT Capitol Police officials have confirmed that USCP Officer Brian Sicknick died at 9.30 on Thursday evening of injuries sustained in a clash with rioters on Wednesday. This article has been updated.
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