David Neiwert’s summary of the status of the erstwhile Insurrectionists is salutary:
The movement’s true believers who participated in the Jan. 6 Capitol siege and are now facing federal charges are similarly perplexed and outraged by the large numbers of fellow MAGA “patriots” who are now claiming that the insurrection actually was the work of violent “antifa” leftists. This fraudulent claim—promulgated not just by conspiracy theorists and fringe partisans, but by elected Republican officials, including members of Congress—has spread so widely that one poll found that a full half of all Republicans believe it.
This infuriates the people who participated and now face charges, because they all are ardent Trump supporters who believed then that they were participating in a nation-saving act of patriotism—and many still believe it now. They can’t fathom how quickly their fellow “patriots” have thrown them under the bus and are now depicting them as actually acting on behalf of their hated enemies.
“Don’t you dare try to tell me that people are blaming this on antifa and [Black Lives Matter],” wrote insurgent Jonathan Mellis on Facebook days after the event., prior to being charged with multiple crimes. “We proudly take responsibility for storming the Castle. Antifa and BLM or [sic] too pussy … We are fighting for election integrity. They heard us.”
“It was not Antifa at the Capitol,” wrote “Stop the Steal” organizer Brandon Straka, who has ties to Trump. “It was freedom loving Patriots who were DESPERATE to fight for the final hope of our Republic because literally nobody cares about them. Everyone else can denounce them. I will not.”
When a political movement doesn’t value honesty, truth, and facts, it’s no longer a movement, but a machine that pitilessly grinds its adherents into dust. What we see above is the screams of those being dusted. Neither they nor their fellow Trumpists had taken the subject of group epistemology, the study of how groups ascertain truth in an uncertain and difficult world, as seriously as it must be taken.
Instead, they took the five-year old approach to politics – they didn’t like the outcome, so they screamed like a five year old kid denied their treat, just like their leader.
And now they’re paying for it – in many cases with years and years to be spent in jail.
