Via City-Journal, we get possibly the best distillation of the current suicidal stupidity on the right:
If you condemned the Antifa/Black Lives Matter violence that took place around the country in 2020, as all conservatives did, then you must condemn the Trumpist riot at the U.S. Capitol in 2021. Period.
By the exact same token, you must condemn firefighters who break windows and smash doors to rescue people from burning buildings. There is no “whataboutism” here; the moral, social and political contexts are worlds apart. The breach of the Capitol was a justified act of civic virtue. The Antifa/BLM riots were violent terrorist acts. Period.
[I whipped this up in HTML, because I intend to footnote it, but it’s unreadable with the stupid text styling of this theme. here is a PDF of the same table, perhaps more readable.]
| |
Antifa / BLM |
Capitol Protesters |
| Event |
Riots 2015 – 2020 |
Capitol Incursion |
| Putative Motivation |
- A numerically non-existent trend of white-on-black violence
- An imaginary trend towards totalitarian / fascist government
- Opposition to capitalism
- “Social Justice”, a morally bankrupt cause based on the false premises of systemic racism, disparate impact, and critical race theory
|
- The election was stolen
- Every institution and official with Constitutional authority and duty to stop the steal, broke oath with the American people
- The Murder of the Constitutional Republic, the gravest possible crime in America, had been consummated in the Capitol that day
|
| Actual Motivation |
- Simple greed
- Thrillseeking / Anger issues
- Social / sexual in-group status
- Feelings of worthlessness from not being able to create anything of beauty or make the world a better place in any way
- Millions of dollars in funding
|
Same As Above |
| Immediate Effects |
- Disruption of the public order lasting weeks or months
- Terroristic threats and physical assaults against individual public
- City blocks burned to the ground
- Irreplaceable public art defaced and destroyed
- Roughly thirty wrongful deaths, including five police killed in one attack and the suicide of a man who defended himself and was falsely accused and canceled
- Roughly 2 Billion in property damage
|
- Windows broken
- Rostrum stolen
- Four deaths, including Ashli Babbitt, a protester wrongfully killed
- Irreplaceable public art actively protected and preserved
|
| Media Take |
- Mostly peaceful
- Reform movement for justice
- Protesters
|
- Terrorists
- Insurrectionists
- Racist / white supremacist
- Violent
|
| Long-Term Effects |
- Destroyed lives and livelihoods, primarily in black communities
- Gutted neighborhoods and cities
- Beseiged, collapsing law enforcement
- Massive increases in violent crime
- Violent recidivists released into communities
- Roughly 10,000 excess violent deaths
- Zero positive reform
- Loss of confidence and trust in public institutions and officials
|
- A propaganda coup for Democrats, aided and abetted by Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit
|
| Consequences |
- No indictments under Soros-funded DA’s
- Perps released without bail, even under felony charges
- Millionaires establish bail funds
- Bail funds not needed, perps released without bail
|
- Dozens or hundreds of indictments and convictions in the works
|
