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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 20, 2025

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The vast majority of Biden supporters did not riot in 2020,

Enough of them did to cause billions of damage, and enough of them did for me to see Amazon delivery trucks looted on the streets of my city, within walking distance of my house, and downtown storefronts being all boarded up. For me, instantly ending up in a third-world country where there's no law, safety or security is a very significant and unique event. The vast majority of Biden supporters saw it as a positive development and encouraged and protected the rioters, including Biden's VP personally fundraising to help them avoid responsibility.

I don’t see this systematic pattern ‘for decades’ of the left doing things equivalent to J6

"Equivalent" in what way? They occupied government buildings many times. They fought with the police many times. They disrupted official proceedings many times. They perpetrated political violence many times. Did they do exactly the same, to the tiny detail, as happened in J6? No, some details were different. The general picture though is consistent - the left has been deploying political violence - including breaching into government buildings, disrupting official procedures, fighting the police, setting fire to government and commercial buildings, and more - many times, for a long time. You can pretend not to see it as much as you want, it's still exists.

I’m honestly curious what you think the correct course of action was there

From Byrd's side? Doing absolutely nothing. The protesters were removed from that area by the police in very short time after shooting. If some people in the building felt unsafe, he could escort them into a different place. But there was no threat justifying using lethal force there.

Let her climb through and start scuffling with her

There would be no scuffling - he is a large strong male and she is a 5 feet 115lbs woman, he could literally subdue her with one hand tied behind his back, while drinking a beer and tap-dancing at the same time. Not to mention she did not present any threat at all at the time of shooting.

making some comparison and saying “See? They’re the same”

No, I am saying they are way, way worse. But they are treated way, way better. The treatment of J6 protesters that did no worse than just walking through the Capitol or adjacent lawn, while often being directed there by the police, is nothing short of horrendous if you read the individual stories. People literally got their lives ruined for walking for a couple of minutes through a building. It is absolutely infuriating what the FBI did to them, and even more infuriating is that they did it for partisan political reasons only - most of those people weren't hardcore criminals (or any criminals at all), did not harbor and harmful intent and did not cause any damage. Objectively, their "crimes" deserved a ticket and a small fine, at best. Sure, there were some that fought the police and broke stuff - but the vast majority did not. And they were treated same or worse than Gitmo terrorists - they left actually cared about what was done to Gitmo terrorists and criticized the government for treating them too harshly, but J6 people were subjected to horrendous abuse which did not get any pushback to that at all. The only correct way to stop this abuse - even though nothing can undo the damage by now - is to pardon them all. Yes, that means also that a small group of people who did commit the violence would be pardoned too - it's a small price to pay for the cessation of this horrible ordeal.