The Photo-Op Revolution of 17…21

Before the media swoops in over the coming weeks to label the January 6th protestors who broke into the U.S. capitol building as “fascists” or “radical terrorists”, or “conspirators in a coup”, I think it’s important to catalogue what we really saw.

And that starts with the events of the previous year.

In 2020 the world saw changes to daily life on a scale practically unheard of in the modern world. It started with global, coordinated lockdowns. These (initially brief) lockdowns expanded government control, destroyed small businesses, and stole our individual agency.

As the lockdowns turned permanent, radical globalist policies moved from being fringe political ideas into being part of the mainstream. Universal Basic Income became government policy overnight in the form of stimulus checks, cultural genocide escalated with the destruction of historical monuments, and Federal Reserve policy bailed out big businesses (again!) while leaving the average middle class American holding the check.

Throughout it all, online dissent against the mainstream narrative was censored and hidden from view.

Accusing China of spreading misinformation about the virus was considered racist, the summer riots across major American cities were labeled “peaceful” despite causing billions of dollars in damages, and questioning the legitimacy of the US presidential election was an attack on the sanctity of our democracy.

All this despite abundant evidence that would make wild-eyed conspiracy theorists blush.

A majority of Americans can sense that 2020 was a year that our leaders not only let us down, but took advantage of us. For the first time it was impossible to ignore that our voice didn’t matter. And as the year progressed, the anger on all sides went from a simmer to a boil.

Calls for civil war and revolution increased to a fever pitch. And then came January 6th.

But the run on the capitol was far from being a radical attempted take over of the American government.

At its very best, it was symbolic of what our vapid culture has become: an instagram photo-op.

After “storming the gates”, these radical dissidents walked aimlessly through the US capitol like tourists on vacation. And after literally taking the seat of power, these “patriots” did nothing more than snap photos and take videos. They were like the dog who finally caught that car he was chasing: now what?

As a people, we know something is wrong. But we lack the cultural awareness and moral fortitude to successfully stand up against it. We can burn a building down, but we have no clue what to build in its place.

Just like the left has created an identity based solely on being “anti-Trump”, the right has crafted its identity around reactionary opposition to the radical left. The right’s agenda is dictated by the left’s agenda. Neither side operates on a basis grounded in first principles.

The real threat to your comfortable way of life is not these know-nothing dorks who stumbled into the US capitol today, it’s the cultural apparatus that gave birth to an entire citizenry of idiots who stand for nothing.

For those of us watching the events of the last year unfold, and bemoaning the death of American society, we can all take solace in the truth that American society has been dead now for quite a while.

The coup that replaced it is alive and well.