It’s isn’t just what Trump did on Jan. 6th to incite violence. This is what he has done ever since he began to run for president. Aside from the right wing news outlets, the rest of the did a good job laying the blame for the Capitol insurrection on Trump inciting his crowd at the rally. However he has encouraged his followers to act violently ever since he began to run for president.
The media far too often doesn't lay the blame on many acts of violence were it belongs: squarely on Donald Trump.
Illustrated above is just one story of many. This just was on TV and it prompted me to write this short diary. It happens to be about bad behavior on airplanes, but there are too many stories to count about similar or worse behavior from, for example, the Proud Boys up to murdering racist cops. They all have one thing in common. Trump has sent the unambiguous message that if you feel someone is a member of a group he has demonized it is acceptable to harass or hurt them.
Trump has been the catalyst for all but a very few of these behaviors. He made the wearing of masks into a something akin to taking a blood oath of loyalty to him. From the organized Proud Boys to the people beating up elderly Asian women, they are committing acts of violence to prove their fealty to Lord Trump. Even the killer cops believe at some level that their brutality towards Black people up to and including murder would be something Trump would applaud. If he could he’d hang a Medal of Freedom around their racist necks. Of course justice would demand a noose for those like Derek Chauvin.
Remember when Trump said “please don’t be too nice” to a group of police officers about putting people into the back of police cars to cheers from the cops in the audience. What he really was telling them was to smash their heads into the doorframe.
How about Trump telling his crowd he’d pay their legal bills if they beat up a protester at a rally:
I am tired of the media glossing over the fact that Trump has made hate and violence his credo and sent the unambiguous message to all of his supporters that to be a dutiful acolyte worthy of his admiration they should act out on their most antisocial impulses even when this results in harm to others.
