The protestors were not carrying weapons of any real significance. Furthermore, telling the crowd to be strong and to peacefully protest at the capitol isn't an incitement to anything other than naivete. The playbook for that idiotic display was written over the summer. They didn't do anything that they haven't seen hundreds of times from those riots.

That said, using the capitol riot as a pretext to further disenfranchise anyone or anything on the right is unbelievably tone deaf. For God's sake, CNN is trying to build up support to censor Fox News because of an alleged pattern of disinformation and an incitement to violence. Honestly, I don't even know where to begin with that.

The best thing they could do is to treat these protestors with the same kid gloves that they have used for the thousands of protestors from the summer. Equal justice under the law could actually move the needle. Instead, they are pouring gasoline on this while they target, smear and harass American citizens. Anyone on the right is potentially guilty by association.

If I'm not mistaken, there were around 100k at the event. Several hundred of those protestors lost their shit. That is the definition of a mostly peaceful protest. I never blamed protestors over the summer who were there to exercise their right to assembly and to voice their grievances. I do blame the small percentage of them who were agitators and violent. The same applies for the capitol riot.

Antifa and BLM use revolutionary language as a standard practice. I have heard many protest leaders use language at these protests that were incredibly inflammatory. I don't remember them verbatim but they regularly encouraged activists to perform acts of violence and to directly overthrow our system of government.

In terms of, "direct action", they tried to burn down a federal courthouse with officers locked inside for well over a month. They set up autonomous zones in front of state capitols. That doesn't include all the people that were beaten and murdered by activists during that time. The resulting damage and loss of life was shocking for anyone who paid attention.

These people are the definition of extremists who really do want to overthrow and replace our government. I never mistook them for the vast majority of Americans on the left because that would be ridiculous. No group or ideology deserves to be defined by fringe elements that are tangentially related to them.

But it is clear that the right has lost the culture war and the left no longer has the right to call itself liberal. At this point, I kind-of hope that they get what they are asking for. I've got a great spot picked out to watch everything crumble.

I never thought I would see the day when the first amendment was up for debate. There is no nuance or discourse and civil libertarians are now white (or white adjacent) nationalists according to our moral superiors. It is really unbelievable that our great nation will be taken down by woke militants that have been coddled from birth. It's a fucking tragedy.