Originally published at: Police says pro-Trump group plans to attack U.S. Capitol today | Boing Boing
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Terrorists. They’re called terrorists. What if we reported on them as such?
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Unfortunately, the groups egging on the terrorists and insurrectionists are about to realise (if they haven’t already) that continuing to feed them an endless series of BS “key dates” like this will in turn create an on-going state of low-level anxiety in DC. This might very well become the norm during Biden’s and future Dem administrations.
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Threat Level Q.
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The current buzz is that the Qballs have moved the goalposts to March 20 now. I have no idea why, other than they get to study how Capitol defense is set-up today, and plan ways around it for the 20th?
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All it takes is one Qidiot to do something to shut DC down.
LoneQ
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The more noise the police and media make about it, the less I expect it to happen - at least there. The targets are gone, the place will be a fortress today.
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Anyone else kinda surprised that the Capitol is shut down today, because something or other might happen? I don’t know how legitimate an actual threat is, but if the problem on 1/6 was that security was told to stand down, wouldn’t it be no problem to have enough security now, and then some?
Shutting down today seems like a capitulation that will further legitimize the power of the Big Lie advocates. Dude, look what we accomplished! We shut them down!
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i would prefer they take all the precautions. but first thing’s first, i think they need to round up Cruz, Hawley, Greene, and Boebert and lock them up until they talk. inside informants, and all that.
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Good question. I think part of the answer is terrorists are perceived as “those violent people from over there” while militia are perceived as “those gun people over here.” Not accurate, but when writing headlines, “militia” may do a better job of conveying these are local threats.
But I have a different reason for not using the word terrorist. Terrorists are defined as “a person who uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.” Sort of a corollary of this is they are trying to force change through terror, not holding territory. These asshats, on the other hand, seem intent on physically capturing the capital. Call them rebels, criminals, insurrectionist, etc. But terrorist seems a forced fit.
Similar for the Jan 6 rioters. Lot’s of ways to describe their criminal activities. But I’m reluctant to label them terrorist for a slightly different reason. Up until they breached the capital, they were violent protestors. I’d rather not see the precedent of violent protestors automatically label as terrorists. After the breach, they were insurrectionists (and there’s a fair argument that many of them were that before the breach). They were attempting a coup, not trying to intimidate for political goals.
Some might say they still fit the definition of terrorist. I just think it’s not quite the right word, and frankly, too weak a word. i.e Some guy wandering the halls with a confederate flag? He’s not a terrorist, he’s a traitor!
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They are terrorizing a nation. Terrorist label fits.
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Let’s rebrand them as insurrection terrorists. Brand them HARD.
Then bulk up on protections across the board, watch them all like a goddamn hawk, and go about our business to get the country back on track.
It sucks that it has come to this, but the only solution is to power through it and make them look ineffectual, or push them to arrestable behavior then lock 'em up.
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Remember the good old days when terrorist weren’t our neighbors or co-workers?
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So, by that logic, ISIS ceased being terrorists once they seized large swathes of eastern Syria and western Iraq?
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I have a bad feeling that this may be a case of the wolf who cries wolf. Constant threats, which disrupt everything and cost a fortune. Eventually, when some number of Big Dates has passed with no trouble, they are no longer taken at all seriously.
“No really, THIS is it!”
Yawn.
And then it happens.
See also: Germany’s Red Army Faction.
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It’s probably semantics, but I think on 1/6 they were insurrectionists because on that day they were specifically committing an act of insurrection. After that, though, using the threat of another insurrection as a means to instill fear is an act of terrorism, which makes them terrorists. Also, the people making the threat today may not be the same people who stormed DC; so, until they actually attempt insurrection, they are terrorists.
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That’s likely the point.
The police don’t WANT it to happen again, so announcing that they’re taking serious precautions this time is the best way to intimidate the Qanon freaks into staying home.
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I think you nailed it there. The difference is Islamophobia (mainly) vs familiarity.
Except that the word militia is used in our constitution and has an implicit validity that terrorism doesn’t. Because the insurrectionists were attempting to obstruct execution of the constitution, they surrender all claim to that title and the legitimacy it lends. They are terrorists. Big “T” terrorists. And anyone who displays a 3 percenter, proud boys or other terrorist symbols is aligning themselves with terrorists and should be treated thusly.
To wit:
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the GOP is happy to throw all these clowns under the bus - and would be overjoyed it we cracked their heads in the process –– because they are foaming at the mouth to use the same treatment on liberal, progressive, and left protestors. They want the dems to create their authoritarian state for them.
As much as its tedious, we are letting it happen the way it needs to happen. You break windows, kick in doors, you get arrested and prosecuted. If we find a deeper conspiracy you are on the hook for that too.
But we are not going to do them the favor of creating a classification of people to persecute, the way the GOP wants to persecute those that disagree with them.
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I remember the days in the 70s when a Chinese family moved onto a street in my quaint Boston suburb and some of their white neighbors were so angry that they got together to burn the Chinese family’s house down to scare them away.
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