comment: >
  
  Le duh!
context: "Had the tables been turned, and President Trump won the election and those were tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and Antifa protesters, I might have been a little concerned." - direct quote of Republican Senator Ron Johnson, March 11, 2021 >
  
  If he wasn't concerned or felt in danger in any way then why wasn't he out there greeting "his people" instead of hiding away like the other congresspeople? I mean he didn't feel endangered or concerned at all and he was all for "stopping the steal" to the point of trying to get fake electors to Pence, so why wasn't he out in front of the riot leading the way? >
  
  He was probably in his office directing them. >
  
  Over his phone like Green, Bobert, Gosar, Gohmert, et al. Hawley too but he was running…away. >
  
  Brave Josh Hawley ran away.
  Bravely ran away away.
  When danger reared it's ugly head,
  He bravely turned his tail and fled.
  Yes, brave Josh Hawley turned about
  And gallantly he chickened out.
  Swiftly taking to his feet,
  He beat a very brave retreat.
  Bravest of the brave, Josh Hawley! >
  
  This was already obvious to anyone who has an ounce of critical thinking.  Those Bundy family nuts pointed assault rifles at cops and then later took over a government office in an armed assault.  They were treated with kid gloves the whole time.  I’ll let you guess why. >
  
  I can’t qwhite figure it out. >
  
  It's not even that they were white. This was fully a pre planned attempt at a coup. They knew what was coming and even pre emptively made sure the National guard was delayed >
  
  The Bonus Army was met with tanks because homeless WWI vets wanted benefits from the government. >
  
  Thanks Patton. >
  
  And Eisenhower. >
  
  Don't forget Douglas MacArthur. >
  
  Or the Alamo. >
  
  What was that thing we were supposed to remember? >
  
  Not to run with scissors >
  
  No shit >
  
  Right. We literally have pics of a hundred Nat Guard soldiers lined up on the steps of the SCOTUS during peaceful BLM protests like a year before. >
  
  As a White person I always thought those folks were beyond stupid. This country enshrined Slavery in the constitution… >
  
  Should have just formed a northern union instead of making a 3/5ths + senate compromise with the south. >
  
  Nah, we should have just strung up every rebel when we had the chance. >
  
  As soon as they seceded anyways,  we should have ripped the compromises out. >
  
  We did. Conservatives on the Supreme Court just made sure systemic racism could continue after they destroyed the 14th amendment for 80+ years >
  
  No we didn't,  we left the senate alive. We should have tossed the compromise of having a upper house (the senate). >
  
  So here's how I see that conversation going:
  North: We've won. We kicked your asses. You lost. Now it's time for some freedom for the slaves and comeuppance on the slave holders/masters.
  South: Now lookee here. You won, we lost, fair and square. But look around you. See how many Negroes there are? Do you know how to deal with them? No. You don't. Why, I bet they'll be rebelling within the month.
  Naw, you need us to stay down here and regulate them Negroes. Keep an eye on em. We know their tricky and sloth-like ways. We know how sneaky they can be first hand! Why, they'd just walk all over yous. >
  
  I was convinced that even the white Walmartians were going to be repelled with force. I’m surprised as hell that they got in alive. For me, it’s proof that law enforcement is at least MAGA sympathetic. >
  
  They got helping hands down the stairs on the way out.  If this was a mob of black people the Capitol steps would have run red with blood. >
  
  Would cops have moved barricades aside for a crowd of black men yelling anti-government slogans and waving flagpoles and hockey sticks?
  Yeah, didn't think so. >
  
  They would have been shot long before their crowd was allowed to even be that big >
  
  They would have been shot before leaving their bed without committing any crime. >
  
  Finally we're starting to talk about the elephant in the room, that if the terrorists weren't white and mostly Christian they would have been arrested the night before for transportation weapons, and conspiracy , and if there would have been an insurrection it would have been a blood bath. >
  
  
  if the terrorists weren't white and mostly Christian
  
  Ah yes, those who follow the teachings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
  Teachings such as: "Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. And HANG MIKE PENCE!" >
  
  By their fruits ye shall know them (according to some dude or other, not important who, I guess, somebody Paul knew?).  
  I guess what I'm trying to say is that when churches churn these folks out and reinforce that behavior every Sunday, that defines what white-christianity actually is.  
  Would I prefer to live in a country where my neighbors are Episcopalians or Friends instead of SBLC?  Sure!  But fact is that the SBLC vastly outweighs those other churches in scale and influence. >
  
  Episcopalians have been growing on me. >
  
  I went to an Episcopal high school, I actually pretty much agree with the denomination on most outcomes of moral considerations.  
  But taking the Bible classes and seeing the hermeneutics and logical twists and turns they had to engage in to make those moral conclusions compatible with the plain language of the Bible?  Really made it clear where the general positivity of the denomination came from, certainly not from the ostensible holy book. >
  
  So they are genuinely nice folks… and reluctantly Christian… that’s awesome.  We need a religion that just focuses on being nice to people.  Like the one commandment should be, don’t be an asshat. >
  
  Oh they very much considered themselves Christian and were passionate about it.   I just didn't think their moral reasoning had much to do with the Bible (all to the better in my opinion). >
  
  Walker’s testimony echoed the observations of many Americans, including President Joe Biden, who noted the stark difference in the law enforcement response to protests in D.C. following the May 2020 murder of George Floyd and the lax security at the Capitol on Jan. 6. >
  
  None of them would have been allowed to leave the area. They all would have immediately been arrested and charged with crimes - at least the ones that weren't shot to death. And many would have been killed that day had the crowd been black instead of white. >
  
  Yep and would not have needed “help” finding them either >
  
  
  A spokesman for Jan. 6 panel member Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., told The Washington Post last month that committee staffers had “submitted subpar material for the report that reflects long-held liberal biases about federal law enforcement” and that she would not “sign onto any ‘narrative’ that suggests Republicans are inherently racist or smears men and women in law enforcement.”
  
  so regardless if they were facts, she wasn't including them.  definitely not bias.  Thanks, Liz.  We celebrate your mediocrity.
  Edit: this is an illustration of how "back the blue" became about preventing critique of the police IN OPPOSITION TO protecting the police when the two options are at odds which they often are. >
  
  what is often a "narrative" for sheltered white people is quite simply "reality" for a lot of other folk, either non-sheltered (aka poor) whites or PoC >
  
  precisely. >
  
  The real bombshell (not really) is that Cheney insisted that any language on this topic be excised from the final report. >
  
  If they were black nobody would’ve died inside the Capitol Building, they all would have died on the steps. >
  
  Just like George Floyd would still be alive if he were white yeah?? >
  
  Yes. >
  
  We've been saying this since it started on January 6, 2021. 
  Now we're approaching the second anniversary and it finally gets a headline. >
  
  Tell us something we didn't already know. >
  
  Cats use their tails for balance and have nearly 30 individual bones in them! >
  
  A bobcat is a cat does it have 30 tail bones? >
  
  
  I have nipples Greg, could you milk me? >
  
  Thank you Tom >
  
  There would have been semi trailers full body bags. >
  
  Yup. It would be called the "Capitol Massacre" if they were black. >
  
  Naw they would give it some heroic sounding name and call it “the first terrorist attack on American soil since 9/11.” 
  Then every Black person from D.C. to California would be harassed, searched and monitored by law enforcement just for knowing or looking like someone who was there. Including every Black officer on duty at the Capitol that day
  Edit: A word >
  
  Truth! And every black person flying into DC would be subject to "random" enhanced security screening. >
  
  if anybody saw Joe Scarborough's angry response the next morning, he put it out there plain as day: if they were black they'd be gunned down on the steps, if they were Muslim there'd be snipers on the roofs.
  We hardly talk about Jan 6 from a racial perspective, but if you know you know and America's collective racism was on full display for the world to see on that day, because ONLY American white people can storm the fucking US Capitol and only suffer a handful of casualties and still be fellated to this day as "heroes" by a significant portion of the population.
  And please hold off on the usual "well I'M not that way" responses. If you're on this sub I'm sure you're not, but you know damn well who I'm talking about >
  
  Would of been the Jan 6 massacre. >
  
  Just ask Fred Hampton…except you can’t because the American government killed him >
  
  Failure to make swift and severe examples of the perpetrators of an attempted coup will serve as encouragement to future plotters. It is written. >
  
  They let those Nazis waltz into the Capitol building and smear shit on the walls.
  I am sure some of them would have even joined in if we didn't live in the age of the camera phone. >
  
  I was seething about that the day it happened, I'm pretty sure I said as much here, on the day and several times since.
  We had just watched a solid years of BLM protests being met with violence, and then we watch a literal coup attempt be handled with kids gloves. >
  
  I was saying the exact same thing as it was happening. I was remembering the BLM protests that summer and how rampant police brutality was. I couldn’t even keep up with all the videos of it. 
  Then these shitheads had an hour and a half to waltz around the besieged capitol building. Police kindly asking them to leave. >
  
  If they would.have been black they would all be charged with murder for the people that were killed during the insurrection. I don't know why more people aren't talking about this. The sentences would be much harsher if they were sentencing black people. >
  
  There would have been scores of dead people >
  
  I've also heard that income inequality is a thing in the United States too. >
  
  I mean... He's not wrong. >
  
  Oh 100%. Black people can't even protest peacefully without a police response. >
  
  Or even better, the police send in plain clothes officers to stir up trouble so the uniformed ones have an excuse to go ham. >
  
  Or disabled.
  A couple years back a relatively small group of people with disabilities gathered in Congress and participated in a completely peaceful act of civil disobedience. Why? To demand affordable healthcare. They were literally dragged out, many were elderly, or in wheelchairs. Many were arrested. Simply for asking for the same rights to healthcare 99% of every other major industrialized nation provides.
  Whereas on Jan 6th domestic terrorists stormed the Capitol with intentions to kill members of Congress and the VP, install a dictator, and overthrow democracy. The vast majority walked away from it with literally no consequences whatsoever. Many still consider themselves heroes, and only wish they had used more violence. >
  
  Anyone who’s not a “not-all-republiQans” republiQan knows this. >
  
  We know >
  
  
  “You’re looking at somebody who would get stopped by the police for driving a high-value government vehicle. No other reason,” Walker said.
  
  solid truth
  insert conservatives saying "but we had a black president, racism is dead" >
  
  
  insert conservatives saying "but we had a black president, racism is dead"
  
  Quote said black president: "[had I stormed the white house like the white guy just did] I would have been shot." >
  
  “…would be vastly different if ______ were Black” applies to most areas of life in the US. >
  
  theres no wouldve, blm protester were shot at >
  
  While the statement is though provoking, I'd classify it under the "No shit Sherlock." section of my brain. 
  Jan 6th was orchestrated by a white president backed by a mob of predominantly rural white men, to grab for power, that they didn't earn in a democratic government.
  They used everything at their disposal, from meritless legal cases, social media misinformation, and physical violence when they didn't get their way.  
  The way I look at it, is that it's January 6th taught us that white supremacy needs to be stamped out as an ideal with much more force than we've been doing thus far. >
  
  I hate how they limit this to black in the media. Police hate the left and the poor, and respond violently to things they do. >
  
  So many people forgot how the police responded to the Occupy Wall Street protests >
  
  Or the G20 summit in Toronto >
  
  Well, so many of the MAGA crowd are softies and weenies underneath their tough veneer, they needed to handled softly and gently lest they become upset. >
  
  This is obvious as fuck and we all know it, but I don't feel like it's going to be a very effective argument, either legally or culturally. >
  
  They would have rolled tanks down Pennsylvania Avenue had the insurrectionists been black and not a bunch of toothless fucking white hillbilly idiots, intermingled with your standard overly privileged rich white hillbilly idiots >
  
  Exactly what a lot of us thought that day… >
  
  They would have gone full auto. >
  
  That much was obvious, but it’s important that those in positions of power actually say so publicly so the terrorists and co. can’t further twist the narrative. >
  
  Yeah. They’d be dead. >
  
  This was obvious since the day after Jan 6. >
  
  Black folk would have made better looking t-shirts. >
  
  It's just so insane that Republicans who instigated the event are just walking free. Republican terrorists having free reign with no consequences shows a broken system where certain people live outside of the law. This country is shameful as long as Republicans are allowed any power. >
  
  Or other minorities. Or women wanting abortion rights. Or LGBT people also looking for more rights. Or democrats.
  Rly just anyone that wasn't MAGA and this would have been treated like the darkest time in your countries history >
  
  The BLM protesters got way worse treatment and they didn’t invade the nations capital >
  
  I love posts about Jan 6 because the dumbest possible takes are always there, equivocating it to the "Antifa/BLM" riots, and the talking points are so well rehearsed half the time they refer to it as 'last summer,' as if it isn't almost 2023. Just silly.
  That and they'll trot out the "$1 billion in damages" line as if that means something in reference to dozens of unaffiliated protests over the course of months in every single state where 90+% of demonstrators were peaceful and orderly >
  
  Jan 6th wouldn't have happened if it was black protesters. >
  
  ...because they wouldn't have have stormed the Capitol...
  There finished your statement. >
  
  File this under "Things we've known for quite some time" >
  
  Lafayette Square was a police riot against BLM protestors because Trump wanted a photo op. The protestors didn't even have to attack police, and they were assaulted by thousands of heavily-armored police just for being there.
  Now put the same protestors on the capitol steps on 1/6, the same riotous police on the other side, and fucking tell me they don't just cut loose with every automatic weapon in reach.
  We haven't even caught up to the white privilege that kept Congress from even opening a fucking investigation until June of that year. And no hearings for months after. And STILL NO GOD DAMNED DOJ ACTION AGAINST THE ORGANIZERS.
  But if the 1/6 insurrectionists had been black, you better believe every black community organizer in the country would be under police surveillance.
  We've been there before, and it's like we haven't progressed at all. >
  
  We’ve seen this time and time again. 
  Think of the Bundy standoff in 2014 where ranchers had an armed standoff occurred between state and federal officials and ranchers, who were assisted by the likes of groups like the Oathkeepers, because their feelings got hurt when their cattle were to be confiscated after they let them illegally graze for years on publicly owned land. 
  Now think of every protest against things like white supremacy, nationalism, and police brutality that has transpired in the last several years. Isn’t it peculiar that the police virtually always put their backs to the likes of white supremacists and face BLM protestors while holding their weapons? 
  Of course, it’s basic math, but what the house sargent said is true - had the January 6th seditionists been a few shades darker, they wouldn’t have even made it to the steps of the Capitol Building. >
  
  They would’ve been mowed down, by the cops. >
  
  The response from Republicans would be "vastly different" if the tables were turned and it were so called "BLM, ANTIFA, radical left terrorists" that had stormed the capitol that fateful day. 
  Let's say for the sake of argument that Trump had actually won the election and it was a mob of "radical leftists" that rioted throughout the capitol that day, violently clashing with police, carrying out a coup, calling out for the death of political leaders, seeking to overturn the results of the election. 
  The Republican/conservative response would be fucking sensational. They wouldn't be demanding that you "get over it", they wouldn't whitewash and downplay what happened, they wouldn't make excuses, they wouldn't search endlessly for a way to rationalize or justify it, they wouldn't call it a "false flag", they wouldn't dismiss the gravity of what happened, they wouldn't have voted against an investigation.
  They'd take it to an excessive level, they'd be willing to go much farther than any current investigative effort has gone. They wouldn't roll their eyes at the use of the term "insurrection", "terrorist", "coup", they'd be eager to use these terms and more, Tucker Carlson and every Fox News segment, hell, every damn right wing broadcast would devote a portion of their time every week to reminding us of the heinous and egregious actions committed by the radical left. 
  Trump would be blasting it every day across conservative social media, calling for justice in every form, perhaps retribution and retaliation, while it would give him the perfect pretext to play the victim and call for the institution of new laws that extend his term indefinitely. 
  Republicans would go on a crusade, they wouldn't stop until democrats are deprived entirely of their authority and power. Their voters would support any method, any measure, any piece of legislation. 
  Conservatives far and wide would do a complete 180, there would no downplaying, no rationalizing, no false flag conspiracies, there would be a counter-revolutionary campaign, perhaps even a manhunt, it would result in the further vilification and stigmatization of every self proclaimed liberal or progressive inclined to even criticize Trump. 
  I shouldn't have to explain all of this though, it's pretty obvious that Republicans are entirely disingenuous in their petty efforts to minimize the events of January 6th, in their efforts to make light of it, to demonize investigators, to paint themselves as the victims in all of this, the politically persecuted, to continue using whataboutism to deflect from the issue, to even justify violence, it's fucking shameful. >
  
  If the rioters were Black or any sort of POC, there would have been fries about how un-American they were, how they should be grateful to be in America, etc. >
  
  It’s scary to think about. Trump wanted the military to gun down protestors at the White House, remember? >
  
  No shit >
  
  Goes without saying, really. >
  
  No shit >
  
  I remember thinking just that when it was happening. If you recall the police response to BLM protests… If the Jan 6 response was proportional to many of those, we wouldn’t be calling it “January 6”, we’d be calling it “Bloody Wednesday”. >
  
  Yeah no shit >
  
  Man says what we all know >
  
  Fact! >
  
  Uh, yeah. He's right. There would have been a lot of people shot in that crowd, by either the police or National Guard. But a bunch of white folks? Nah they're not terrorists; that's just "legitimate political discourse." >
  
  They'd still be trying to bleach the blood off of the steps. >
  
  We saw evidence of this before the 1/6 attack when armed white people were occupying state capitols without so much as an order to disperse v. unarmed journalists being hit with rubber bullets and tear gas while reporting on unarmed BLM protesters. >
  
  I still don't understand why these cops didn't unload on them once they breached the building.  don't need to be fatal kill shots, but I'd bet that'd have scattered the vast majority of those idiots >
  
  As a white person in America I have definitely noticed the privileges I'm allotted in life. >
  
  Yeah. No fucking shit. Watching it unfold on live TV being met with the most impotent law enforcement response of all time was about as clear a display of white privilege as there has ever been in history. If the the 1/6 insurrectionists were black, they'd have been killed before they got to the doors. >
  
  The police endorsed MAGA. >
  
  We saw what happened all year when the protesters aren’t white >
  
  I try to avoid going to race right away but, you'd have to be delusional to think otherwise.
  If it had been any other ethnic group on January 6, there would have been a blood bath. >
  
  I mean, yeah. >
  
  It means something that a black sergeant at arms, who was running the national guard on site at the time, is willing to come right out and say it. >
  
  
  who was running the national guard on site at the time
  
  Ahem... there was no national guard on site during the insurrection on 1/6.  In fact the whole issue is about how Trump refused to release any national guard. >
  
  Or native American or LBGTQ or just obvious left leaning like climate activists. >
  
  They would have been all been arrested weeks in advance for just making the threats. >
  
  No fucking shit! Biden said it a day afterward.
  Every black man, woman and child there would have been killed if that happened.
  FUCK ANYONE who says otherwise >
  
  This is nothing but whataboutism lol What is the point of this except to create MORE divide? >
  
  He is 100% correct. Remember in I think it was 2020 or 2019 when a bunch of white republicans with semi auto rifles walked into a state capital to intimidate? Shit didn't happen to any of them. >
  
  They brought out swat for peaceful protests after Ferguson and arrested people who were just in the area. >
  
  If it had been BLM or "Antifa" protestors who were storming the Capitol for the numerous injustices that Trump and the GOP were carrying out they for sure would have been gunned down on sight. >
  
  Reddit ffs. Ofc it’s an obvious point. 
  It’s still important to say. >
  
  First, they’re terrorists and not rioters. Second, no shit. The response to largely peaceful BLM protests were orders of magnitude more severe than the terrorist assault on the nation’s capital. 
  Pathetic >
  
  That was entirely his point. >
  
  Yeah, if a horde of black guys were attacking the Capitol Building you guys would have just opened fire into the crowd. LIKE YOU FUCKING SHOULD HAVE. >
  
  In other news, water continues to be wet. >
  
  In other news: Pope, catholic. >
  
  Probably right >
  
  He’s not wrong! >
  
  I think most all knew that, tells us something we didn't know like why we did not shoot the 1/6 insurrectionist of the wall? >
  
  You don't fucking say >
  
  Would have been like the end of The Last Samurai >
  
  Most people know that except for the delusional individuals who don’t want the neighbors to know their racist as shit.