I was napping when they broke into the Capitol. My wife, Martha, woke me to tell me the news. At that point, the riot (or āinsurrection,ā if you prefer, although I wasnāt thinking of it in those terms at the time) was a couple hours old; it appeared that Congress was safe, our representatives tweeting and cuddling each other in their undisclosed safety bunkers. Ok, I donāt remember any reports of ācuddling,ā but I like to think of Susan Collins and Chuck Schumer holding each other tight.
Martha said she thought we were watching an important moment in American history. I said I didnāt think so; thereād already been so much insanity during Trumpās four years in office that the scene struck me as just another exampleāthough a particularly dramatic oneāof MAGAās criminal exuberance. It was, I thought, Trumpās political death knell.
Five years after the fact, with our criminal president reinstated for a second term, I understand that dayāand especially its aftermathādifferently. January 6, 2021 was the day America broke.
Archive: http://archive.today/L3hAL
Iām not convinced the Fairness Doctrine is all that relevant. France still has something akin to it, and the French Republic is also about to fall to a fascist takeover. Social media, where the bulk of fascist and malicious propaganda thrives, is mostly unregulated.
It always bothered me how Fox News had such low viewing numbers, but its stories were always disseminated exponentially beyond their immediate viewers. Facebook knows how this happened