There's a meme going around comparing the Capitol insurrection with BLM protests. Here are a few key differences the meme conveniently ignores:
1. Leadership. The sitting POTUS *called for* the event. Not just responded after. Called for it.

2. Amplification: the sitting POTUS used social media to advertise the event for weeks, giving it legitimacy and voice.

3. Sedition. The sitting POTUS, despite 50+ court cases and 50 states certifying results, still blatantly and knowingly lies and calls the recent US election results fraudulent. He knows -- and we all know -- the results are correct.

Also sedition: the sitting POTUS spoke to the gathered crowd, and sent them down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol. It was recorded and live. Everyone heard him send them. He incited the crowd and directed their actions. Sedition.

Sedition again: timing. What was going on in the Capitol that day? The electoral college votes were being recorded. Trump was actively engaged in trying to stop/sway a particular political process that records the will of the American people. So, sedition in three acts.

Distancing. This is a classic tactic. Social media support withdrawn when public mood swings wildly wrong. Then we get words like 'a few jackwagons' and 'fringe', (and the ridiculous 'antifa'), disassociation, and disavowal. Distancing (that's not us).

Redirecting and false equivalency: we are three days past the Capitol insurrection -- (which was not a failed coup, it is part of a long game. Another is coming, either the 17th or 20th, day of inauguration for Biden). We see memes comparing Insurrection to BLM protests.

False equivalency is when you pretend to compare two things that aren't comparable. And you do it to gain legitimacy.

In the case of BLM protests = Capitol insurrection, its a deliberate use of framing (focusing on single event vs widespread events) as if the two are comparable. Purpse: legitimize the Capitol Insurrection.

And that's truly the goal of insurrectionists: control the narrative so that the actions look legitimate: People are angry. We want (another) recount. It's the people's house. So the initial distancing (fringe jackwagons) are being brought back to the fold. Reframe the narrative.

There's also a *huge* movement to say, both sides need to come together. We need to heal and work together.
That's a tactic to stall justice and retribution, push the 'fix' to committee and talking and steal the energy of law. It's in the insurrectionists playbook.

It also reframes righteous anger as overstated, hypocritical and out of line: you weren't mad about BLM protests but now you're angry? It puts those who oppose insurrection on the defensive.

American identity is built on Revolutionary War iconography: fighting oppression, rising up, taking control of destiny, building the land of the free, home of the brave. Americans soak their blood and bones in this ideology and that *precisely* where the narrative framing is.

It's not a coincidence that 'American Patriots' is the terminology. Home grown militia units, fighting for freedom, Proud Boys, standing by for the call. Every curriculum fills US citizens with this patriotic fervour. What we see is that feeling being weaponized.

You think the event at the Capitol was it, failed, done? No, it's not. You think it's confined to USA? No, it's not. Patriotism can be weaponized. Herr Hitler's Fatherland. Mother Russia. Take back Canada. Freedom Rally USA. It's everywhere.

Sometimes patriotism builds countries. Sometimes, it tears them apart. But those inside those movements fervently believe that they are right. And because that patriotic fervor is now a weapon/ it's bred in the bone, they won't stop.

Yes, America is heading for MAGA civil war. They've already told you. And they made the shirts. Believe it. https://images.app.goo.gl/JXkCFhqeUpUsk8aZ8

For more context, read @SethAbramson thread on the Trump sedition and insurrection call event. https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1347908845281095680?s=19