Here’s a question a lot of people have these days: How did the U.S. of A. come to have the most fertile ground for cultivating irrationality?
We’ve always had the best soil for agriculture, which helped make us a great nation, but the cultivation needle has begun tilting more toward irrationality the last decade or so.
How did that happen? I wish I could give you the answer, and I’d like to hear your thoughts. I guess technology is a big factor, with crazy people being able to disseminate crazy notions to hundreds of thousands or even millions of people almost instantly. But that can’t be all of it.
I don’t know…What I do know is that Wednesday’s sacking of the U.S. Capitol was the most disturbing evidence yet that, as a country, we are whipping out a way disproportionate amount of inanity.
Let’s take three specific examples.
First, there’s this guy, whom I call Viking Man.
Jacob A. Chansley, a.k.a. Jake Angeli, was arrested this morning (Saturday) in Phoenix and is charged with three federal crimes — knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
My first thought is I could understand dressing up like that if it was for Halloween or a Visigoth-themed party, but why in the world would you don such an outfit for a political demonstration?
Before being arrested, Chansley gave an interview to NBC News and gloated about how the mob infiltrated the Capitol, forcing lawmakers to flee. He said: “The fact that we had a bunch of our traitors in office hunker down, put on their gas masks and retreat into their underground bunker, I consider that a win.”
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Next in our line-up demented thinkers is former vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
In an interview Wednesday evening with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum, Palin suggested that Antifa, the far-left organization, was behind the raid on the Capitol. With her usual circuitous reasoning and grammatical stumbles, she said…
“But Martha, keep in mind, we don’t know who all were the instigators in this, these horrible things that happened today. I think a lot of it is the Antifa folks. I’ve been sent pictures of the same characters, whom were captured on images today storming the Capitol, as had been in protests on the other side of politics earlier in the summer. So I don’t know, there’s a lot of questions out there, and I wish that we could trust the media to do its job to do the research and report who all these people are.”
If the police were looking for people to arrest, by her reasoning, I guess it should have been the known leaders of Antifa, whoever and wherever they are, and the members of the media who were covering the riot.
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That brings us to one of the unluckiest and most mixed-up people in the mob: Ashli Babbitt.
Babbitt, of course, was the 35-year-old Air Force veteran whom Capitol Police fatally shot as she attempted to leap through a broken window of a door leading to the House Majority Leader’s lobby.
It is a terrible thing that she died, but she was not a martyr, as those who sympathize with Wednesday’s insurrection contend. Rather, she was a misguided hothead.
To see that she was a hothead, all you have to do is look at the one minute, 38 second Twitter rant she posted two years ago. (Today’s Washington Post story about Babbitt linked to it.)
One of the most amazing things about that rant is she recorded it while driving! God forbid what might have happened if someone had cut in front of her while she was recording.
Proof of her distorted thought processes is in a sign on the door of a pool supply company she operated with her husband in a San Diego suburb. (The Post’s story, linked above, includes a photo of the sign.)
The sign describes the pool company as a “Mask Free Autonomous Zone Better Known as America.”
The last words on the sign are…
“Tyranny, lawlessness, disrespect and hate for your fellow man will not be tolerated.”
…Like I said up top, how in the world did we become the most fertile ground for irrationality?
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Our First Amendment right to believe anything we want is beyond sacrosanct. It goes far beyond our tolerance of religion, no matter how unhinged from fact or truth. My favorite managing editor once told me his prayer: “Thank you, Jesus, for not making me believe in you so much I go nuts.” Such rationality, sadly, is out of rhythm with the pulse of America.
The big problem is that there are no honest brokers in the media that both sides accept. As a result we are not dealing from the same set of facts, Hence, we rarely have anything to discuss that would moderate our views and, as a result, people keep moving towards the extremes. Leftists read NYT and WAPO. They watch CNN and MSNBC. If you’re lucky conservatives watch Fox. Most have now switched to OAN and Newsmax. There are no papers they trust and so talk radio along with Hannity and Tucker Carlson fill in the gaps (along with their friends’ Fascistbook memes).
Oddly enough, after the events of this week most leftists are now sounding like conservatives. All of a sudden they’re concerned with the safety of police officers and you now understand that being unarmed does not mean not threatening. This was indeed a “mostly peaceful” demonstration and yet I read overblown descriptions of it as an insurrection. Share with me if you will an insurrection that took place where people were, for the most part, unarmed. Neither was it seditious. These people aren’t going anywhere. They’re pissed off because they think the elections aren’t honest. As for Cruz and Hawley they’re simply doing the same thing Democrats did the past three times a Republican won the White House.
In a few days Biden will have his inauguration and Republicans will attempt to do to him what you did to Trump for 4 years. Life goes on and thankfully we have a few thoughtful places, like your blog, where we can chat in a civil manner.
And why do the people think the elections were not fair? Trump and Republicans have been telling their followers for 2 months that the election was “stolen” and that they needed to “Stop the Steal”. Yet when Trump/Republucan lawyers went to court, they had to admit EVERY time there was no evidence of any voter fraud. This is about a portion of the population that will not accept that any Democrat winning an election as a legitimate winner. Only people they vote for can win – everyone else be damned.
Take a watch at the latest video that is now coming out. What happened Wednesday was much worse than it appeared at the time and much better organized. This was a insurrection. It is documented that there a number of them looking for Pence, Pelosi and Schumer to execute them. Even Mitch McConnell former aides Josh Holmes and Scott Jennings say this was an insurrection and those involved should be held accountable.
Some Republicans have started to say we should just move on for “unity”. It is finally time to hold Republicans responsible for their language and incitement. This has been going on for a long time. We are going to find out over the next few months that things on Wednesday were much worse than anyone knows now. Letting people off the hook will not send the necessary message.
Josh Hawley’s ambition for higher office is over. Even Eric Greiten’s ex is dragging him on Twitter. I would surprised if he even runs for reelection in 2024. And Ted Cruz is the most hated man in the Senate. I think it is better than 50/50 as more comes out that he gets at least censored by the Senate.
You’re certainly right about it being worse than it first appeared, Bill, even though the images were incredibly shocking. The best deterrent to further uprisings, in the short term — that is, if those and similar idiots mount another unlawful raid — is overwhelming manpower and strategically applied force. It’s regrettable that Ashli Babbitt died, but it was a good thing in that it stopped that crowd from advancing into that specific area. Seeing a cohort fall backward, shot and bleeding from the mouth, was a powerful deterrent.