Peaceful Protest or Capitol Riot? Where You Stood Determined Your Point of View
Unpacking 120 seconds and 120 viewpoints from Parler videos
Volumes of evidence from media and user-generated content can now be used to assemble the sequence of violent events of January 6 at the Capitol Building. There’s the planned coordination by some groups who removed barricades while weaponizing the mob, to the chaotic frenzy of rioters who overran police afterward, culminating in a widely viewed attack involving the beating of a Capitol officer with a flagpole.
So how can some, even in D.C. that day, claim rioters instigated no violence? Putting aside outright dishonesty, some may be based upon the willful filter to fit a narrative — “the cops instigated the violence, spraying us with mace unprovoked,” summarize the sentiment of a few videos uploaded to Parler. Other times, an unconscious bias allows for fanciful leaps, like the person who assumed a smoke flash-bang shot by police intending to harmlessly disperse the crowd was Antifa because he saw a “red hat worn backward.”
The ignorance amplifies when we realize that there were so many people at the Capitol, and there was so much noise, smoke, and chaos, that some people might have witnessed nothing when filtered through hysterical blindness. In fact, analysis…
