Read on Twitter
As a scholar of social movements, I think it's important to remember that the riots in our capitol are not the byproduct of racist ideology, irrationality, or entitlement alone. Individuals must be held accountable for their actions, but long-term solutions must be structural.
To be clear, racist and conspiratorial beliefs are clearly present as documented by protestors' flags, banners, and slogans. However, ideology remains relatively stable over time and cannot account for protest by itself.
Public education in the U.S. does not sufficiently prepare students to discern credible facts from misinformation, nor does it teach students about the brutality and ongoing ramifications of racist, nativist and sexist policy (occupation, slavery, disenfranchisment, etc.)
After deregulation, news media is highly polarized, using spin and outright deception for profit and political gain. Social media exacerbates this problem. Empirical scholarship suggests that the political right produces and consumes more misinformation.
Electoral politics has also become highly polarized as a result of strategy that prioritizes short-term victories over long-term functionality and a wave of elected officials from the Tea Party and Alt-Right in addition to previously mentioned issues.
As a result, many rioters genuinely believe that an election was stolen, that the coronavirus does not pose a serious threat, and that the dignity and wellbeing of patriotic white Americans is at stake. Given their beliefs and values, their actions actually make sense.
U.S. institutions must be reformed. In their current state, they produce citizens prone to conspiratorial thinking, in-group favoritism, and partisanship who see extrapolitical action as their only viable option. Educators, activists, and policy makers have a lot of work to do...
