Pissing Off the Readers – Capitol Siege Edition

I am still working my way through my thoughts on last week’s riot in the Capitol Building. I know what my initial thoughts were and how some of them have lessened/modified over the last week. Here’s my current thought processes. In true fashion, it’s probably going to make everyone hate me.

1. President Trump needs to be impeached for conduct unbecoming. The assault on the Capitol was the culmination of his refusal to accept that he lost, his consistent promulgating and/or repeating of discredited conspiracy theories, and him using his base like expendable pawns. He needs to be impeached with an eye to holding him unsuitable for office. Then let Trump run through the courts before he could even hope to make a 2024 run.

2. This was yet another round of political violence. I do not like how political violence is becoming more and more acceptable among the general public. Here’s where my internal contradictions begin to show themselves. There is some nuance in that it was focused violence against a particular institution than just general mayhem. Like I said when the BLM riots started up, I can understand attacks on the buildings of the institutions much more than I can understand attacking the local merchants. I can’t condone it, but I can understand it.

3. The swiftness of the various tech platforms to de-platform Trump and others has me concerned. Yes, they are private companies. Just like Wal-Mart can tell disruptive customers to leave, so can Twitter and Facebook. Here’s the nuances. Wal-Mart never held itself out as a public forum, which the social media firms have done. It’s part of the reason so many people feel violated. It’s also creepy how they work in concert against specific individuals, groups, and companies. There’s something wrong about that, but not something I can put into words. Particularly when it appears to be only one side that’s subjected to such treatment. Another part of the nuance is that leaving people without reasonable avenues to express themselves leads to bad things. Look at how many bombings the US had during the late 60’s into the 70’s. Many of those were less to cause death/destruction and more to bring notice. I am not saying tech firms would be responsible for any uptick in such happenings. I’m saying it’s something to take into consideration as a possibility.

I’m going to stop with those points as the rest of things swirling in my head aren’t really ready for prime time. Maybe a subsequent post. Honestly, I’m starting to get politic fatigue.