I Want to Make Two Points

Before I wind down for the day, a few more thoughts.

I want to make two points. I'm just going to make everybody mad, but I think this needs to be said. There are a lot of people on the right, including a lot of people on talk radio saying, "What about the media handling of the riots this summer?" Now is not the time to say “what about” about what we saw in Washington yesterday. I condemned the riots and violence this past summer and thought the police should have been able to use extreme measures to stop the people from burning down cities and storming federal buildings.

And I said that on the record, but I also said and noted that I think we on the right need to understand that the anger and the outrage came from people being shot by police. Whether you think they should have been rioting or not, there are people who thought that the police shootings unlawful and there were instances where it clearly was. Look at what happened with Ahmaud Arbery. Look at what happened with George Floyd. That inspired violence over the summer and riots. Peaceful protests turned to riots, riots turned to mobs, and the mobs turned violent. And that's what caused it. What happened in Washington yesterday was a group of people believed two months worth of lies and conspiracies and they thought the lies were true and the truth was the lie.

They stormed the United States Congress to stop a democratic action in our republic because they thought they were actually stopping an antidemocratic action. They thought they were the heroes when actually, they were the villains, and they believed the lies. And the lies had become truth to them. So this past summer was outrage based on the rage of watching people be killed, see e.g. George Floyd, with a knee on his neck for over eight minutes, and it turned to violence. People died and people rioted. What happened yesterday was people believed lies and rioted and people got killed in the process. No one would have died in Washington yesterday had for two months Donald Trump and others not lied to them and told them the election was stolen when it wasn't true.

There's something else.

In the last 12 to 14 hours, a lot of progressives had said, "Well, if these were black people, they would have been shot." I realize in your smug progressivism, you think that's true. But here's what you need to understand. I saw this past summer, and I condemned the violence, and you know what y'all were doing? Y'all were cheering on a lot of it and trying to justify it, just like a lot of people justified yesterday. You're no better than the people yesterday. But you know what happened? Black Lives Matter's got a street named after them in Washington DC — it got painted with Black Lives Matter. You got a bunch of people to put black squares on Instagram to virtue signal their solidarity. No one was killed by the police in those riots any more than what happened yesterday in Washington DC. The rioters were welcomed in some places. They were condemned by some. They were praised by many. We were told to understand them. You had Democratic politicians encouraging people to get on the streets. You had Democrats and progressives say that people needed to get in other people's faces at restaurants and chase them out of restaurants. They've shown up at homes.

The police weren't gunning them down.

Washington, DC burned this summer. Police weren't gunning down everybody. Save me your smug self-righteousness that if these were black people storming the Capitol, it would have happened. No, the media would have said it was a mostly peaceful protest, even as they stood by the wreckage. That's what they did this past summer. I realize you feel good in your talking point, but you're really no better than the people justifying what happened yesterday, so you can save it.