The following are quotes from Donald Trump himself; they come from his speech on the 6th of January, just before the insurrection:

Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore and that's what this is all about. And to use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with: We will stop the steal.

We will not let them silence your voices. We're not going to let it happen, I'm not going to let it happen.

We're gathered together in the heart of our nation's capital for one very, very basic and simple reason: To save our democracy.

You're stronger, you're smarter, you've got more going than anybody. And they try and demean everybody having to do with us. And you're the real people, you're the people that built this nation. You're not the people that tore down our nation.

Republicans are, Republicans are constantly fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back. It's like a boxer. And we want to be so nice. We want to be so respectful of everybody, including bad people. And we're going to have to fight much harder.

[Y]ou'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated.

We will not be intimidated into accepting the hoaxes and the lies that we've been forced to believe.

You will have an illegitimate president. That's what you'll have. And we can't let that happen.

The radical left knows exactly what they're doing. They're ruthless and it's time that somebody did something about it.

The Republicans have to get tougher. You're not going to have a Republican Party if you don't get tougher. They want to play so straight. They want to play so, sir, yes, the United States. The Constitution doesn't allow me to send them back to the States. Well, I say, yes it does, because the Constitution says you have to protect our country and you have to protect our Constitution, and you can't vote on fraud. And fraud breaks up everything, doesn't it? When you catch somebody in a fraud, you're allowed to go by very different rules.

We must stop the steal and then we must ensure that such outrageous election fraud never happens again, can never be allowed to happen again.

The Democrats are hopeless — they never vote for anything. Not even one vote. But we're going to try and give our Republicans, the weak ones because the strong ones don't need any of our help. We're going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.

Now, I’m sure you want to mention all the times he brought up marching peacefully and whatnot. Don’t bother; I’ve skimmed enough of the transcript to know those parts exist. Instead, I want you to read each of those quotes, and notice some of the verbs/verbal phrases he uses: “stop”, “save”, “fight”, “take back”, “get tougher”, “show strength”, “protect”. Then look at the overall gist of those quotes: “we’re fighting to stop the steal”, “we have to get tougher on the fraudsters”, “we’re here to save democracy”, “we need to do something about this”.

He isn’t explicitly calling for violence, no. But between his planting the idea that his “patriots” must stop the steal by showing strength and doing “something” about the Democrats/“weak Republicans” to save the country, his talking for months about how the election would be fraudulent only if he lost, and his continual(ly rebuked) efforts to overturn an election he lost both electorally and popularly, those quotes⁠—his words⁠—become a form of his mob boss–esque stochastic terrorism. He didn’t need to directly call for violence; all he needed to do is make his wishes known and let his followers do the rest.

And yes, his followers will do the rest precisely because they’ve already been radicalized by right-wing news sources and pundits. Conservative voters are, more often than not, trapped in a media bubble that tells them outlandish and often contradictory lies about…well, everything and everyone, really. No Democrat goes undemonized; no Republican goes unglorified. Trans people are freaks of nature who are going to destroy society. Critical Race Theory is both a laughable theory and a danger to the educational system. Stay in the bubble long enough without reading, seeing, or hearing anything that opposes what’s said in the bubble and you’ll drift further to the right. That is the space where anti-Semitism, open racism, and the most dangerous conspiracy theories live⁠—and without any sort of guardrails against the lies and the extreme rhetoric, those who are continually exposed to it come to believe the lies are the truth and actual facts are a “liberal plot”. Hell, once they believe in a Big Lie⁠—like, say, the 2020 election being stolen⁠—the smaller lies become much easier to believe…which is exactly what conservative pundits and GOP politicians alike want out of their audience. I mean, look at what these other people said at the same event those Trump quotes came from:

Over the next 10 days, we get to see the machines that are crooked, the ballots that are fraudulent, and if we’re wrong, we will be made fools of. But if we’re right, a lot of them will go to jail. Let’s have trial by combat. [Rudy Giuliani]

This has been a year in which they have invaded our freedom of speech, our freedom of religion, our freedom to move, our freedom to live. I’ll be darned if they’re going to take away our free and fair vote. And we’re going to fight to the very end to make sure that doesn’t happen. [Rudy Giuliani]

These guys better fight for Trump. Because if they’re not, guess what? I’m going to be in your backyard in a couple of months! [Donald Trump Jr.]

But let’s be clear, regardless of today’s outcome, the 2022 and 2024 elections are right around the corner, and America does not need and cannot stand, cannot tolerate any more weakling, cowering, wimpy Republican congressmen and senators who covet the power and the prestige the swamp has to offer, while groveling at the feet and the knees of the special interest group masters. As such, today is important in another way, today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass. [Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL)]

Americans will stand up for themselves and protect their rights, and they will demand that the politicians that we elect will uphold those rights, or we will go after them. [Katrina Pierson]

He has more fight in him than every other one combined, and they need to stand up and we need to march on the Capitol today. And we need to stand up for this country and stand up for what’s right. [Eric Trump]

There is a significant portion of our party that says we should just sit idly by and sit on our hands. They have no backbone. [Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC)]

Take a bunch of people who have already been manipulated by right-wing media and Donald Trump into believing the election would be/was stolen, and put them together in one place. Tell them that the literal last line of defense against the stolen election⁠—the last defense of American democracy itself!⁠—is a Vice President who has already sworn himself to the duty of his office (i.e., to confirm Joe Biden as the President-elect). Gin them up further by referring to them as true patriots, telling them to toughen up and show strength, and implying that they alone can save American democracy from its left-wing enemies⁠—with all of the language laced with rhetoric that invokes images and thoughts of violence. What do you get as a result of all that?

You get an insurrection.

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Pub: 17 Aug 2023 23:50 UTC
Views: 80