First Of All, It Wasn’t An “Insurrection”
I’m wondering if my readers are as astonished as I am by something getting a lot of play in our nation’s political “conversation.” Again and again and again, in newsprint, on the radio, on the TV and on the internet, we hear reference made to the January Sixth Capitol “insurrection.”
By any sane definition of the term, January Sixth was no “insurrection.” According to the Encyclopedia Britannica an “insurrection” involves large-scale violence directed against the state by its own civilian population. January Sixth wasn’t, in political terms, “large-scale.” As reported in Wikipedia, the Federal Government itself estimated that only 800 unauthorized people entered the Capitol Building on that day. While that number SHOULD, of course, have been zero, a total of 800 out of a national population 328 MILLION is minuscule. And, only 234 arrests have been made. Compare these numbers to the “for real” insurrection that took place in Egypt in Tahrir Square against the government of strongman Hosni Mubarak in 2011, where, as Al-Jazeera reported, TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND participated, and THOUSANDS were arrested. Now, THAT’s an insurrection. But there’s another important criterion for the term “insurrection.” As Wikipedia states: “An armed but limited rebellion is an insurrection.” Key word: “ARMED.” None of those who entered the Capitol building were armed. The only firearm discharged during the event was by a member of the Capitol Security Force, not the protestors. (A security guard shot and killed an unarmed woman at one of the Capitol’s internal doors). Has anyone ever heard of an UNARMED INSURRECTION?… I didn’t think so.
So, without large numbers and without firearms, the Capitol breech was no insurrection. But, if it wasn’t an insurrection, what WAS it?… It was a RIOT. Plain and simple. A RIOT. And, unfortunately, riots were something America witnessed on a nearly continuous basis throughout the summer of 2020. And much of it was tolerated, if not CONDONED, by the Democrat party and their media lap dogs. Yet, INSURGENCY, INSURGENCY, INSURGENCY, is ALL we hear following January Sixth.
So, what does this verbal “sleight of hand” signify? It’s a strategy, of course. The use of the term “insurrection” in this way can be called a “meme.”
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “meme” as “An idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture. Memes (discrete units of knowledge, gossip, jokes and so on) are to culture what genes are to life.”
So, using “insurrection” to describe January Sixth is a strategic meme used by Democrats and liberals as they try to make the most out of the admittedly stupid, unfortunate and inexcusable events of that day. And, this meme, like many others they use, gets them LOTS of mileage.
Suddenly, DOMESTIC terrorists are America’s BIGGEST threat. Despite the fact January Sixth claimed four lives, in comparison to the 2020 riots which claimed 25. And despite the fact that the property damage pales in comparison to the riots of 2020’s summer. (Although there has been no official estimate yet of property damage to the Capitol, Verisk’s Property Claims Services representative Thomas R. Johansmeyer stated there’s “a lot of mileage” between the Washington D.C. protest and the kind of widespread rioting that erupted after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which caused more than $2 billion in projected damages). And what about the threat from ISIS, al-Qaeda, Iran, North Korea, Russia and China?… DOMESTIC terrorists are our biggest threat?… Please!
Suddenly, crucial internet platforms now find it necessary to censor, not only President Trump, but a host of conservative bloggers that had NOTHING to do with the riots.
Suddenly, conservative Senators and Congressmen are under scrutiny for “sedition.”
Suddenly, America’s whole political “conversation” has been turned on its head.
Yes, they got a lot of “mileage” out of that “insurrection” meme, didn’t they? But, the “insurrection” ruse is only a small part of the larger campaign to use language to obfuscate the true issues of our day. As the old Coleco adds used to say: “But WAIT!… There’s MORE!”
Another, extremely effective liberal meme is the phrase: “without evidence.” This one got an extreme amount of usage on the day after our 2020 election. In response to President Trump’s understandable suspicions regarding the results, the “without evidence” meme got attached to any of his utterances with breathtaking speed – just TWELVE HOURS after the polls closed, every media purveyor across the land immediately plastered their reporting on any accusations of election fraud with the caveat “WITHOUT EVIDENCE.” Ladies and gentlemen, how in the world can ANYONE decide whether there is or there isn’t evidence of election fraud TWELVE HOURS after the polls closed? Obviously, they can’t. But, that didn’t stop the “without evidence” meme from being used again and again and again and again. And, in the end, despite numerous valid grounds upon which to suspect foul play (these were discussed at some length in previous essays titled “Battleground 2020, Endgame, Parts One, Two and Three”), the “without evidence” meme carried the day, didn’t it?
And, it should be noted that this isn’t the first time that the “without evidence” meme has been used. It got a very extensive workout in 2016, after President-elect Trump questioned whether the California vote totals included illegal aliens who voted fraudulently (there were some counties with more votes tallied than eligible voters!). California has VERY lax voter verification laws (and even more lax practices) that may have allowed an untold number of illegals to vote. But, the response to any questioning of fraud in that election?… You guessed it!… “without evidence.”… Now, how in the world do you get evidence of voter fraud when the system used in California is so lax as to make identity verification nearly impossible? Illegal voters don’t come to the voting facilities with a sign saying: “illegal voter here!,” “election fraud here!” and so on. Of COURSE there’s no evidence! But, as taught in the philosophy of logic courses, “absence of evidence is NOT evidence of absence” (just because you’ve never seen a Leprechaun, is not evidence that Leprechaun don’t exist – it just means that you haven’t seen one. There may be one behind you right now!). So, just because there’s no evidence that election fraud exists, it does not PROVE that election fraud didn’t occur.
Another liberal meme you see everywhere these days is the term “thoroughly debunked” (Thanks little sister/LRM). This meme is a work horse for them. Because it’s usage is so ubiquitous, I’ll mention just one example, but it’s a good one. Within days of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were told by our beloved major media, again and again that the “crazy conspiracy theory” that the virus was made in a Level Four Security Viral Laboratory in Wuhan China and escaped from confinement just BLOCKS away from where the first recorded cases were identified, was “THOROUGHLY DEBUNKED!”… That’s what they said!: “THOROUGHLY DEBUNKED!” And they were saying this despite the fact that several respected scientists, even early on, were saying the opposite. Ladies and gentlemen, COVID-19 was, without question, created in and escaped from the Wuhan Virology Institute. Those “thoroughly debunked theories” were NOT DEBUNKED AT ALL! They were… TRUE!
Another liberal meme that gets constant usage is: “nothing to do with Islam.” This one is a doozy. Despite one terror attack after another after another after another, and despite the fact that the perpetrators, when and if they’re caught, quote (correctly) from the Koran and the Al Hadith, liberals, progressives, leftists and Democrats, each and every time, dutifully step up and, in one venue or another, claim that that the attacks have: “NOTHING TO DO WITH ISLAM!” Yep, they have the temerity to say this after each and every horror perpetrated by devout Muslims across the globe (see https://thereligionofpeace.com). This particular meme is wearing so thin, however, that, at this point, the ONLY ones that still believe it are liberals, progressives, leftists and Democrats. In other words, the clinically insane.
There are many more disingenuous memes I could discuss (“undocumented,” “systemic racism,” “misinformation,” etc.), but I think the reader gets the idea. Those with an interest in this topic should read: “The Tyranny of Cliches: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas,” by Jonah Goldberg. A worthwhile read.
So, what can be done about this pernicious state of affairs? I think it’s safe to assume, that the liberal forces will continue to use their deceptions as long as they get away with using them. Accordingly, we must “push back,” in conversations, discussions, letters to the editor, whenever their strategic memes are used: “What do you mean by ‘thoroughly debunked?” “WHO debunked them?” “On what grounds?” “What do you mean ‘without evidence’?” “Who SAYS so?” “Who actually looked at the allegations?” “What do you mean ‘nothing to do with Islam?” “What about the quotes from the Koran?” And, so forth. Unless these liberal memes are challenged each and every time they’re used, they’ll keep on using them. Don’t let ‘em!
And, lastly, dear readers: IT WASN’T AN INSURRECTION!