The language of the 'mob' is understandable as an expression of moral outrage. However, with its implications of group mindlessness and psychological pathology, it depoliticises and obscures what happened in Washington yesterday.

We saw collective action that was perfectly coherent and consistent with the white supremacist ideology of the group. They equate their group identity with the national identity such that anyone who challenges them (or their iconic leader, Trump) is by definition unAmerican.

It follows that the conquest of American office by such 'unAmericans' is unacceptable/illegitimate. It is, by definition, theft of power by those not entitled to it. Crowd action was an enactment of these beliefs and an assertion that they (and Trump) alone represent America.

Trump himself is equally no mindless fool. He ably mobilises the group by articulating this ideology, creating a sense of group entitlement on the one hand, of theft and resentment on the other. He is a consumate 'identity leader'.

This is not to deny that Trump himself and the action of the crowd was pathological. But it is crucial to recognise that the pathology was not psychological but political. Confusing the one for the other will only make us less able to challenge yesterday's dire spectacle.