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PaperclipPerfector  12d ago (text post)   28333 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 6, 2025

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I've seen someone else on The Motte say that Republicans view political violence as an on-off switch, while Democrats view it as a dial. On that day, in the context of the BLM riots that weren't that long beforehand, I think Trump saw violence as a dial. People who continue to see if as a switch either condemn Trump for attempting a coup (switch was on) or dismiss the entire thing as a nothingburger (switch was off).

This doesnt make sense. Trump is clearly telling people to go home, AKA OFF SWITCH.

Also, on/off isn't about coup/not coup. It is about what the proper police/citizen response is. If people are mullling around you let them mull until they do something other than mulling. If people throw shit, you hose/pepper spray them. If people steal shit or try to hit you at a disarming distance you shoot them.

Coup/not coup is about intent, prep, etc. That sort of thing isn't particularly important to the on/off switch discussion. You can (and usually should) execute a coup in "off" mode.

This doesnt make sense. Trump is clearly telling people to go home, AKA OFF SWITCH.

Hours later, too late to make a difference anyway. Was someone stopping him from speaking out earlier?

He responded significantly quicker than Pelosi and McConnell and there is significant evidence that Trump was spending most of his time attempting to convince Secret Service to take him to the Capital so he could lead his people towards a peaceful outcome.

He was in the middle of a speech at the time?

He really wasn't. His speech ended at 1:10pm. The first barriers were breached at 1:50. At 2:38 he tweeted "Stay peaceful." At 3:13 he tweeted "No violence." By 3:19 the Rotunda is cleared and fitting is moved outside and into the tunnel. The video linked above was posted at 4:17pm, and is the first time he tells people to go home.

Giving a speech preventing someone from speaking seems like a tough argument to make!

Depends on when you think Trump knew about what was happening.

  1. He pre-planned it. Then ya doesn't stop him, but you've also already assumed his guilt. So who even cares if he called it off.
  2. He knew it immediately. Not sure what mechanism you propose for him knowing. It wasn't seeable, and if he is in the middle of a speech no one is seen actively interrupting him to tell him.
  3. He found out later. This seems to be the actual case. What and when he found out could easily impact his outgoing message.

I'm pretty much just here for the joke that "speaking" and "making a speech" are essentially synonymous.

He was on Twitter during the riot, tweeting multiple times with messages to the rioters, including to "stay peaceful," although he didn't say anything like "go home" until after the rioters had already mostly been cleared from the building.

There's lots about Trump's inner thoughts that isn't publically known, but he clearly knew about the riot as it was happening. Even if he hadn't been tweeting to the rioters, it would be a difficult to defend the stance that the President of the United States of America in 2021 could go for literal hours without knowing there was a riot at the US Capitol.

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