I've been saying that our language fails us when trying to describe the violence of January 6th because the violence is endemic to the system. I'm actually not even sure it's possible for white supremacists to be "insurrectionists" when the government itself is white supremacist.

Oxford defines an insurrection as "a violent uprising against an authority or government." What we're witnessing is more like a violent uprising within an already violent government, utilizing the ideology, logics and tactics upon which that government was established.

It is an extremist movement, yes, but then again, the "extreme" is also mainstream. It is a popular, thoroughly patriotic movement with the explicit support of wide swaths of the citizenry, public officials, police officers and representatives.

I do not think most people who see themselves as "liberal" have the moral imagination to really grapple with the fascism, racism and violence that's *endemic* to the political project of the United States as a settler colonial, white supremacist, imperial power.

This crude, pathetically patriarchal, brute force in the name of liberty for "white" people is the Frankenstein that's always been at the heart of our national project. It's been enabled, tolerated and even celebrated across the political spectrum for centuries..

Many have pointed out that we didn't even see a Capitol invasion during the Civil War -- But that's a really odd thing to say, actually. There was a whole ass CIVIL WAR between pro-slavery and anti-slavery white supremacists that resulted in the the deaths of over 700,000 people.

What difference does it make that the Capitol was not invaded during the Civil War if the whole entire country was torn apart with nearly a million people slaughtered and then the pro-slavery white supremacist "traitors" were all promptly forgiven and reconciled with?

The thing about the Civil War that most people still ignore to our collective peril: It was not a battle against white supremacy. It was a battle between different factions of white supremacists. That's why they all reconciled in the end..

It's important to recognize that we're *still* seeing a kind of intra-familial battle between different factions of white supremacists. This is especially true for our political and economic elites, despite how ideologically "polarized" they appear to be.