Right wingers are already reframing the event with whataboutism on BLM and Antifa and are screaming 1984 at Trump being censored on social media. They see it as a massive victory while libs cry over institutions being wrecked or whatever and fawn over Pence and McConnell for not supporting an insurrection that would fuck up a system they benefit from. My own lib friends are convinced that it was only due to lack of police that it got that far but refuse to acknowledge that cops were probably helping them. Every time I say that I get called an alarmist but fuck it, this is probably gonna be the norm from now on.
I've been really trying to get a good material analysis of what happened, what can we expect in the future, and I'm really struggling. What does this look like without Trump? Is there a coherent ideology behind this? What material conditions lead to people's grandmas, neo-nazis, and q shaman storming the Capitol of an empire? I'm not sure.
With that being said, this isn't the first instance we've seen of armed far right groups taking over federal institutions. We saw white supremacist organized occupations in at that wildlife preserve in Oregon, that wildlife preserve in Idaho with that Bundy dude. And there were state officials involved in the planning and execution of these, they were arguably more ideologically driven and successful.
I mention this just to say, I think you're absolutely correct. The Capitol was a shit show, but I think we'd be underestimating these freaks to say that there isn't the obvious potential for more and better organized sieges.
It is the first time a far right movement has taken the capitol. Yesterday IMO was a test run. They not only proved that it was possible, but incredibly easy to do with backing of police. There is no comparison to the Bundy family. The Bundys were in a dispute with BLM (the land management government agency), who are more or less, like the ATF of the west. Many people supported them cause BLM and ATF have a history of shady shit and doing people wrong. The son of that family won his trial by acting as his own lawyer, cause despite all the jokes about him looking like an inbred hillbilly, he was well educated and smart enough to convince a jury.
They've been underestimated for years. Liberals just spent 4 years pointing and laughing at them for worshiping a reality TV star as president. They should've been taking them seriously instead of whining about Antifa and BLM protesters.
The far right have been organizing for decades and waiting for this moment. The militias are far more partisan today than they were in the 90s. Those old militias were more or less, Libertarian types who were individually pissed at the government. What we're looking at in the future is them actually forming paramilitaries and uniting under the same banner. This isn't anything new. They have always been organized and armed to the teeth. They have had decades to prepare for this. What happened yesterday was a test run, but it proved to them they can pull it off in the future.
I would argue the comparison is fair, but I certainly agree with the points you made still. It was an exercise of the power they wield, like you said. Easy if you've got the backing of the state violence apparatus.
I'm not sure it really matters if the libs underestimate them. I don't know if they have any answer for it, regardless of how they view them. I think the libs would have to try to match that power, but they don't do that, just acquiesce.
I'm probably talking out of my ass, but crazy shit anyhow.
I disagree, cause the Bundy family were in dispute over a government agency and in a small town. I live in the rural south. I can attest that the ATF are corrupt and usually in small towns, you have government agencies like ATF, BLM and then the city police who live there outside their jurisdiction whom are also corrupt. Yesterday was an army of far right people taking on the entire federal government. Not over a land dispute or something shady going on a small town. All over a sitting president whom they worship.
Yeah, it don't matter in the long run, I agree there. Libs are still smugly talking about how these people are a joke. Libs are smug, over-educated wimps. They aren't about to arm themselves and spend years training and preparing for something like this. We saw the most they will do yesterday, which is get on Twitter and whine about how the cops aren't arresting them. Libs are absolutely useless and I hope yesterday proved to people they aren't going to radicalize. They'll just sit there and hope for the cops to save the day, then act surprised when the cops side with fascists.