Addressing recent rambles i've seen on twitter and other social media.

The ability of the human mind to rationalize and minimize in favor of what we perceive to be our own tribe or group knows no limits. I've seen three really, really bad arguments plastered all over social media today, and rather than respond over and over again to the endless deplorable trolls making these arguments, I'll centralize them right here:

What happened on Jan 6th was bad, but blah blah Black Lives Matter riots and looting.

This in infuriating for a variety of reasons:

• It equates a common riot with a seditious insurrection that forced congress our of session while it was certifying an election. These are not comprable.
• It is a whataboutism designed to evade admitting the basic truth that something horrible happened
• It equates the actions of an autocrat seeking to stay in power after losing an election (thus gravely endangering our society in terrifying ways) to the actions of a group of petty criminals stealing TVs and lighting dumpsters on fire.

Trump is the victim, Twitter is censoring him.

• Even if Twitter shouldn't censor him (and it should), the idea that in the aftermath of an attempted auto coup, when the orchestrater of that coup attempt still remains in power, outrage over the terms of service on a social media platform in a priority is not credible. This is an attempt to distract, not to engage in legitimate discourse.
• The idea that a private company should be required to continue providing services to someone who uses that service to spread lies and incite mobs that get people killed is truly bonkers, and can only come from the mouth of someone who implicitly supports the bad actor abusing the platform.

Don't impeach Trump, it will make people very mad.

• An olive branch was offered after the election, and it was set on fire by the completely disingenuous election fraud hoax.
• An angry mob stormed the Capitol, forced congress and the vice preisident into bunkers, murdered a police officer, smeared feces on the walls, and the movement from which it came continues to issue terroristic threats on the internet. I think they're already mad...in a way that probably precludes reconciliation.
• Backing down now, after this act of terrorism/sedition, is simply giving into terrorism. If credible leaders actually decide to go easy on Trump because of the feelings of his cult, they will be incentivized towards more terrorism.
• These people won't be happy until a white nationalist dictatorship is established. For God's sake, they were ready to hang Mike Pence! You can't make them happy in any way that is acceptable; it isn't worth trying.

Jan 6th is really an inflection point for America, when reasonable people realized what a dreadful problem we have on our hands. The fact that all it took was 48 hours for those who have sympathies with the regime to begin producing a host of propaganda designed to minimize, deflect and mislead just goes to show how terrible the problem is.