As I write this, Kyle Rittenhouse is on the stand testifying in his defense. By the time you read this, the jury may have made its decision in this extremely divisive, contentious case.
Not coincidentally, I decided this might be a good time to nuke my Twitter account - again - and take a break from Facebook for a few weeks.
There has been some intelligent commentary about the trial on social media, but to get to it you have to wade through increasingly unhinged mobs of right-wingers holding up this deluded kid as some kind of hero, and left-wingers who have suddenly re-discovered their enthusiasm for cruel and unusual punishment just this once.
Yet again, we’re seeing mobs getting whipped up in real time. Just as online mobs likely encouraged Rittenhouse to take an AR-15 into an active riot zone. And, as this Washington Post article illustrates, most of the Beer Belly Putschists of January 6 weren’t active members of extreme-right groups, but radicalized from their basements:
Several dozen of those charged with storming the U.S. Capitol explicitly prepared for violence in the effort to thwart Congress’s confirmation of Joe Biden’s election that day, according to court records. Some arrived in combat gear, wearing the logos of self-styled militias or violent right-wing clubs. More than 30 of those charged in the Capitol attack face felony conspiracy charges, according to an analysis of court records by The Washington Post.
But court records show that the vast majority of the roughly 650 people federally charged in the riot were not part of far-right groups or premeditated conspiracies to attack the Capitol. Rather, many were an array of everyday Americans that included community leaders, small-business owners, teachers and yoga instructors. One wore his work badge, another a jacket with his phone number on the back. About 573 have no known affiliation with an extremist group, according to a Post analysis of court filings and public records as of Nov 3. Federal prosecutors have not identified serious criminal records in the cases of most suspects, although at least a dozen defendants have been accused or convicted of domestic violence.
[…]
How was it that — as one federal judge asked during the plea hearing for a 59-year-old CrossFit trainer who talked about shooting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the head — “good people who never got into trouble with the law” on Jan. 6 had “morphed into terrorists”?
Brian Levin, who runs the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, said that in the right circumstances, even those with weak attachment to extremist views can turn violent.
“Responsibility gets diffused across the group, and you have the immediate lure of peer validation, plus a cloak of anonymity,” he said. “It’s almost like a sport.”
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