Doom Scrolling

The last few days have been filled with DoomScrolling the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.  

As I write this (Saturday) there's a small Pro-Trump rally at the Wayne Morris courthouse in downtown Eugene. 

I think everyone who stormed the capitol should be arrested and tried for insurrection, sedition, and murder.  I think Donald Trump and his enablers should be tried (at least) as well.

I'm attempting to draw parallels between the events of the last few days and the Crusades, based on my very sketchy reading of those events and the German darkwave version of the song "Palästinalied."  The song was written during the Crusades, and ends with the singer claiming that God meant the holy land should grant the land for Christians, and not for Jews or Muslims.   I have to wonder if the insurrectionists see themselves as crusaders.

I think the majority of them are are unmoored fools who wanted to feel special in their victim-hood.  I can't decide if their perceived victim-hood made it easier for them to believe the lies and conspiracies told to them, or if they know the untruths are untrue and are repeating them as an excuse.  They mostly seem disappointed that their white privilege didn't deliver on their expectations of worldly goods, position, fame, or respect.  And I have to wonder how many professional saboteurs and terrorists used the Flying Monkeys  as a cover for espionage or more lethal operations.  

Could the Flying Monkeys have made a different choice?  How could changing the offerings of our society changed their circumstances?  What could be done to deflect them from the ranks of -ismers?  Better education?  More showing of "South Pacific" and "The King and I?"  More Ethics and Civics classes?    Better job opportunities?   ... and then I think of comfortable, educated folks I know who I could imagine being in D.C. last week, who voted for Trump in the first election because they thought he would be good for the economy, and who were white and well off enough to look the other way at his promised domestic policies... and I don't have an answer for how can we make people less selfish.