When it became clear that Trump might face federal charges for stoking violence and endangering the lives of members of Congress, he delivered a statement with a full-throated condemnation of the violence and the mob. No doubt, the speech is intended to be used as “Exhibit A” in his criminal defense, in the unlikely event that he is ever charged with a crime in court. This is all vintage Trump gaslighting. Stoke the angry mob. Subvert basic democratic norms. And then refuse to take responsibility during the backlash by claiming you were never a party to any of it, that you deplore the violence, and that your critics are treating you unfairly....
Counterpunch
Fascism by Gaslighting: Trump’s Coup and the Grassroots Insurrection Strategy
Anthony DiMaggio
Fascism by Gaslighting: Trump’s Coup and the Grassroots Insurrection Strategy
Anthony DiMaggio
See also
Pat Buchanan tries but put as good a spin on it as he can.
The Worst of Days for Trump & Trumpists
I agree with Bernard here. "Terrorist" is a term in which connotation dominates denotation. This means that one has to be careful with the denotation. "Terrorist" and "terrorism" need to be defined operationally and used very carefully to prevent misuse.
I appreciate that the members of Congress feel that they were terrorized and are reacting accordingly. But that doesn't mean that they were attacked by "terrorists" either.
The congressional Democrats and left are maximizing this, but some GOP congresspeople are quite vociferous in their condemnation, too. On the other hand, the right is minimizing it. The truth is somewhere in the middle.
However, in the bulk of the post, I think B sides with the minimizers. It was a lot more serious than he makes out, although admittedly some of the participants had no idea of the serious of what they are doing, and some may find themselves facing federal felony charges over it. That is the fault of those who participated in putting them in this position.
Moon of Alabama
By Wrongly Calling The Capitol Rabble 'Terrorists' Joe Biden Will Likely Create Some
By Wrongly Calling The Capitol Rabble 'Terrorists' Joe Biden Will Likely Create Some
Trump supporters sought to reverse the result of a democratic election on Wednesday at the behest of the president himself. DER SPIEGEL has reconstructed the events of a day that will live in infamy....Der Spiegel
The Dimming Light of Democracy: Trump's Army and the Attack on America
4 comments:
That Lego set is awesome.
The plot thickens:
https://off-guardian.org/2021/01/08/prepare-for-the-new-domestic-terrorism-bill/
Well, if a bill is being written it is going to have to operationalize "domestic terrorism" in terms of specific behavior.
I don't see a problem in criminalizing "hate" and "terror" as long it is reasonable. These are social problems that need to be managed as a matter of security.
The problems arise from not being specific enough in the law and allowing a lot of leeway for the system to decide, or else being too broad in scope so that the net catches the little one along with the big ones.
There will be specific measures that don't exist now. We'll see if these measures cast a precise net, or a wider one.
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