January 6 Riots Not Very Quiet

I have friends on both sides of the spectrum. And yeah, my son is autistic, but that is not what I mean. Some of my friends are very conservative Republicans, and some of my friends are mildly liberal Democrats. And both of them have a very different take on the January 6 incidents of last year in Washington DC.

Very likely nobody is here looking for more facts about the situation, and that is good, I don’t have the resources to do in depth investigative reporting. At this point I’m just a tired citizen trying to make sense of the world, blogging because of an intense need to write but lacking the time or discipline to stay in the habit. But perhaps some of you are in the same dilemma I am in.

I’ve been told a lot of very controversial things about January 6. So I’m going to do the very opposite of what a real reporter would do. Instead of telling you what I know, I’m going to share what I’ve been told, but don’t know the truth of.

1. Donald Trump actually won the election. Biden stole it.
2. Donald Trump planned a coup and meant to steal the election.
3. The protests were intended to be peaceful, but “bad elements from Antifa and BLM started violence that cascaded out of control.
4. The FBI was behind the violence, which they instigated as an excuse to arrest right wing believers (but to my knowledge no home coming queens….what…..? That was in the seventies? Never mind!)
5. Donald Trump had colluded with Russia to win in 2016, and was upset because he thought their collusion would help him again.
6. The ballot counting machines were built by a company owned by Nancy Pelosi’s husband, and he had them programmed to ignore ballots cast for Trump instead of Biden.

Likely every one that looks at that list will say “Curtis you ignorant Republican” ! Of course that item is true!” I realize I’m beginning my second (or is it third) blogging career at a disadvantage. I’m likely one of the least informed people in America at this time. So you rightly ask yourself, “why read this?”

Here is the answer (for those with the patience to keep reading). I think there are tens of millions that are confused about at least one of these points. Maybe one man trying to seek the truth can inspire the others. Maybe if enough of us seek the truth, (not the advantage of my party, not what Rush Limbaugh said before he died (may he rest in peace), not what Anderson Cooper said (though he is pretty cool if you aren’t so partisan you can’t listen:)). But what is the truth?

Seeking those answers, predictably enough, is proving very difficult. For one thing, I’m attempting to get this written in a forty eight hour time frame (likely impossible), and the internet is just being frustrating. I look up the question, and I find that there is a plethora of posts “proving” that the election was not rigged (which I would actually love to support, but the articles are strong on stating it and often short on evidence, i.e. who are you quoting, what is causing people to believe one way or the other, when was this study conducted, where did you find this evidence, why has this happened, the only good question being asked is “to what extent is Trump to blame”).

Are we the people, whether liberal or conservative, simply going to bury our heads in the sand and let the media of whichever wing do our thinking for us? Are we humans or are we rabbits?

Thus far, the best posts I’ve found for the question as to the claim that Biden stole the election are these:

• https://www.npr.org/2020/12/09/944385798/poll-just-a-quarter-of-republicans-accept-election-outcome
• https://www.npr.org/2020/12/02/941610826/government-controlled-media-in-eastern-europe-promote-claims-of-stolen-u-s-elect
• https://www.justsecurity.org/74622/stopthesteal-timeline-of-social-media-and-extremist-activities-leading-to-1-6-insurrection/

All three articles support the claim that Biden won legitimately, but two of them are as close to concession as I can find that there may have been at least a grain of truth to Trump’s claims that the election was rigged. The first one is telling in that it frankly says little about the truth of any claim, it just mainly reports the demographics of who believed what just weeks prior to the insurrection. The second reports on how Hungarian news media believe Trumps claims (I notice there is no evidence given there either….we just believe or disbelieve random reports that illegal ballets appeared and legal ballets disappeared). The last point blank tells us they believe Trump is full of it, but instead of reams of polemic and denouncement, they do honest reporting on attempting to give us a timeline of the social media posts of insurrectionist leading up to January six.

I’ve frankly bitten off more than I could chew in 750 words or less. I’ve already gone over that self imposed limit, and still have come to no conclusion, nor have I even answered a single question. Hopefully I have at least set out a tolerable outline for how to attack this subject, what questions should be being asked. Now I have to figure out where to find those answers.

I end with a heartfelt plea. If you have read this far and can forgive my ignorance, please help me, yourself, and your Republic. Ask these questions. Unless you have definitive proof already, please ask them and ask them again. Search the internet. Search your libraries. And get a dialogue going. If you don’t think I’m good enough fine, but find a platform and get the questions rolling. Quit letting the biased media of both sides steamroll over our intelligence. Neither Trump nor Biden could get away with any lies if we lived in a true Republic full of intelligent, informed citizens. Ultimately, it’s not even about who stole what election. Are we intelligent enough to know if it happened, and are we intelligent enough to know the appropriate reactions to what has happened and to strategies preventative action for the future.

As always, please please comment and let me know what you think. I’m going to finish with a quick video about a scholar who researched a question about Martin Luther King Junior till he found an answer. If his quest for truth is relevant, surely so is this. may God bless America and our troops!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBq7VB21Lac