The U.S. will mark the anniversary of the January 6 insurrection on Saturday, a milestone that will confer upon the reality-dwelling citizenry a grim reminder of the potency of propaganda and how quickly it can warp perception when introduced into the public square.

Just three years ago, most of the country watched with dismay and horror as a violent MAGA mob beat back authorities and stormed the country’s citadel of democracy. The Donald Trump-incited crush of disillusioned rioters, fueled by a stream of fantastical lies, believed that the 2020 election had been stolen by sinister forces working to undermine the democratic election.

Of course, not only was their belief flatly incorrect, but evidence later emerged indicating that it was Trump who, in fact, had tried to subvert democracy.

Facts, however, have little bearing on the sentiment inside the Republican Party, which has been fed a steady diet of lies and half-truths by Fox News and the rest of the sprawling right-wing media machine. To wit, the false notion that Joe Biden nefariously stole the 2020 election is now widely shared inside the GOP. A CNN poll conducted over the summer found that nearly 70% of Republicans believe Biden’s win was not legitimate, a number that has continued to tick up.

  • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    IMO, this event was worse for America and the world than 9/11. What goodwill and credibility can America exercise on the world stage when Trump can incite a violent attack on the US Congress, and he is still the front runner?

    If he had convinced the Capital Police to get rid of the metal detectors, as he tried to do, America would be under a Trump dictatorship right now.

    As if his capitulation to Russia, Saudi Arabia, China, or North Korea shouldn’t immediately disqualify him, or the millions of dollars he personally received from foreign governments during his presidency.

    • ASeriesOfPoorChoices@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      when Trump can incite a violent attack on the US Congress, and he is still the front runner?

      remember Adolf Hitler tried to start an insurrection, got caught, thrown in jail, wrote a book, and then got elected and started World War 2.

      And remember how much Trump loves dictators.

    • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Nothing personal against Mike Pence, but there’s a part of me that thinks it would have been better if he’d gotten in that car and been disappeared.

      An assassinated vice president would have forced Biden to crack down on fascism harder.

      But without effective leadership, the problem’s gotten worse.

        • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          I don’t think that’s accurate.

          Every other aspect of the attack was unsuccessful, and not only that, but pathetically so. But if they’d manage to assassinate a VP, Biden and his administration would not have been able to simply ignore it. They would have had to act, even if it pisses off the billionaires.

          • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Pence stopped Trump’s group delivering the fake electors to steal the election. If Pence disappeared Trump would have never left office.

            Pence made the the last minute stand to save our country. Terrible viewpoints and politics, but at the end he did his job

            • Uglyhead@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              Because Dan “Potatoe” Quayle told him to not go along with the coup.

              Mike fucking Pence and Dan fucking Potatoe Quayle saved our Democracy and the US Democratic Republic.

              What a timeline.

              Still,… there are many many timelines where it worked, Trump is the Orange King, and I’m dead now from being put up against a wall; so I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.

          • GroundedGator@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            If they would have assassinated Pence on J6, before the certification, someone else would have stepped in, most likely Grassley. He would have accepted the alternate slate of electors and Biden would not be president.

      • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Man, I had forgotten about that car thing. I don’t know. They wouldn’t have harmed him. They would have delayed him enough that he couldn’t certify the vote. Then Trump had plans to use the military to seize voting machines (after which he would have obviously lied about whatever his goons found).

        The Joint Chiefs memo was very comforting regarding the transition but it came on January 12th and cited the Congressional certification in saying “we will evict him with force on January 21.” If the certification didn’t happen, the transition and the election would have remained uncertain.

        I think there is very little appetite in Washington for such uncertainty, but one side of the aisle is treasonous and would gladly acquiesce.

    • S_204@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      Ya but…9/11 was brown people, 1/6 was white people.

      There is absolutely a difference in how Americans view the people involved. That’s only been reinforced with this incident.

    • Illuminostro@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      The ONE, and ONLY thing that stopped the coup was Pence growing a backbone at the exact time it mattered. It wasn’t out of honor or duty, it was out of narcissism. He didn’t want to be known forever as the man who facilitated The Corporate Theocracy of America.

    • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      imo the genocide in Gaza is far worse

      America is geopolitically isolated on its support for Israel, to the point where it’s rapidly accelerating the collapse of its hegemony. We might lose Turkey in NATO, we might lose Egypt’s cooperation on migration, dedollarization is accelerating, normalization between Israel and the surrounding neighbors is dead, international law is a joke, and this is happening at the same time that French imperialism in Africa is also collapsing with coups and revolts.

      It’s Joever

      EDIT Downvoting me won’t bring back American prestige you fuckin libs. What is Biden going to do when South Africa’s suit against Israel finds them guilty of the crime of genocide? When America is compelled by international law to take available actions to stop genocide?

      I’ll tell you what he’ll do! Nothing. When he does, the rest of the world is going to continue leaving America behind. Good riddance. 😜

      • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        They’re not down voting you because they’re liberals. They’re down vote you because you’re likely an accelerationis hypocrite. With shitty unconstructive hot takes and zero actual solutions.

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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          11 months ago

          An accelerationist would advocate voting for Trump to hasten to collapse of America. I’m not doing that. I’m just not voting for Biden.

          Hell, I’m voting down ticket Democrat in case Trump wins and they need to obstruct his agenda! Hardly accelerationism.

        • Diva (she/her)@lemmy.ml
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          11 months ago

          I have a proposal, stop sending weapons to the fucking genocide, stop trying to use the military to protect a genocide. It’s not a poster online doing this, it’s our fucking government accelerating things you twat.

          Love when a quisling shows up to say I’m the threat

          • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Here’s a proposal for you. As a non linenist Marxist and socialist I agree. As do many Democrats and liberals even. The thing is, our goals have to be realistic and achievable. And realistically what’s achievable is likely either a Biden or Trump presidency. And believe me things will be worse under Trump. For democrats to be able to make any sort of positive change they have to be in control. Even if that means a flawed candidate like Biden.

            Had I seen the name of the person I replied to. I either probably would have just downloaded and not replied. And definitely would not have used the term likely hypocrite. It’s a 100% thing with them. And likely with a twat like yourself. U ml are like perpetual 10-year-olds. Your own worst enemies and saboteurs. And a threat to everyone else.

          • Illuminostro@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Sadly, it’s more complicated than that. See, you have multi-billionaire shareholders in the companies manufacturing the weapons we’re selling, and they will absolutely sue the federal government over lost profits, and The Federalist Society SCOTUS stooges currently in office will rule in their favor. Thanks, Capitalism.

        • Diva (she/her)@lemmy.ml
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          11 months ago

          America is the only country in the world with a nuclear first strike policy, and to have used nuclear weapons on civilians. The best thing that can happen for the rest of the world is for it to fall to internal power struggles.

            • Diva (she/her)@lemmy.ml
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              11 months ago

              I have, and I would say that the circumstances/implications are very different. One was the unforseen negative health impacts of a nuclear test site the other was the use of nuclear weapons on two population centers.

              Also that’s whataboutism I think lol. We’re talkin about US crimes

                • Diva (she/her)@lemmy.ml
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                  11 months ago

                  Which is pivoting to USSR bad propaganda in a thread about how the real issue in everyones minds should be the ongoing genocide in occupied Palestine?

                  Yeah I’m calling that whataboutism lmao

                  • SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world
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                    11 months ago

                    You can call it whatever you want to.

                    You said something wrong I called you out.

                    No need to get all pissy about it, it wasn’t anything personal.

      • Illuminostro@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        You’re telling the truth. The only thing Israel is to the US is a another military staging area if shit kicks off in The Middle East. That’s it. That said, Biden is not the entire admisistration. No President is. It takes Congress to change this shit, and way too many defense contrators and their shareholders are making way too much money for this to change.

        And also, I can’t remember the exact quote, and I’m paraphrasing, is “People tell you they want to hear the truth, but they’ll hate you for saying it.”

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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          11 months ago

          As we saw in 2008 and 2020, it requires such an impossibly huge majority to change anything that it’s a pipedream. Structurally impossible.

      • PopularUsername@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        As an outsider, I find American obsession over Jan 6th to be absolutely bizarre. At worst it was a riot. How exactly is a riot at the capital going to cause a coup? I’m guessing you too probably have overblown Jan 6th concerns but peoples response to your comment only confirms my thoughts. People are so entrenched in maintaining the “most dangerous thing since the civil war” that they are willing to consume their own over the smallest disagreements.

        Also, these people claiming Trump would be worse in Gaza, but it’s not clear the US would be worse in Gaza if Trump won, the US has put up zero road blocks currently and with Trump in the Whitehouse the democrats would actually push back against the genocide because Trump is now president. Plus more negative press from the corporate media, again, because Trump is in charge. Not saying it’s the most likely case, but it can be argued.

        • Illuminostro@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Fuck Putin. Ask him how Democracy’s Dick tastes, and how civilian volunteers with drones kicking his ass feels.

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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          11 months ago

          Yeah the riot had no realistic chance of success. A much more realistic coup will be one done by the 6-3 Supreme Court!

          I still think it’s fair to call them insurrectionists and treat them as such, but it was hardly “worse for America and the world than 9/11”