They claimed their power and, at least for a few hours, they got away with it.
They really smell themselves now, as a pastor friend of mine likes to put it.
(thread)
The investigatory/legal fallout from 1/6 seems by all accounts to be shaping up to be pretty massive, which is not entirely shocking given that fash just humiliated cops and feds at the heart of the nation's Capitol.
None of that will make this go away.
They claimed their power and, at least for a few hours, they got away with it.
They really smell themselves now, as a pastor friend of mine likes to put it.
That's how people start to believe a win is possible.
That realization of, oh, mass organizing oriented towards action can move mountains.
They understand that the absence of a militarized cop presence was a product of their political will.
It's not true, but it's also worth unpacking a bit.
If that were true, Nazism would have ended sometime right around 1945.
You remove the megaphone, they cede to shadow.
It is how anti-democratic reactionaries hijack the organs of liberal democracy, like free speech and right to assemble, and turn them against liberal democracy itself.
It's how you hack that system.
They do not contain fascism.
If compromised, they become infected machines spreading the virus to the rest of the network.
No.
Fascism is a virus.
It's software BUILT to infect the hardware of our civil network.
You fight it at a software level.
You have to figure out how to combat that virus in the context of our civil world, our operating system.
It doesn't come with a built-in anti-virus software that can detect and combat the threat.
We run it by being it.
Running that software it means continually running what we're witnessing against our examples of what that virus looks like, and deleting-- deplatforming-- lookalikes.
You can't just be like "the Hitler version had a swastika on its arm, I don't see a swastika on its arm, this one's fine."
You have to keep updating your libraries.
Whatever you think about liberal democracy as a hardware system, it's what we're living in right now.
As long as that's true, fascism will keep trying.
Antifascist researchers don't lose track of their many evolving faces.
We keep updating those libraries.
Otherwise, we all but agree to get hijacked again.
They'll keep organizing, and it is our job to understand what that looks like and to disorganize them.
It wouldn't be over even if every last one of them went to jail (and, they won't).
Fascism always finds a way, if we let our guard down.
If we don't keep track of the forms they take, that adaptation will give them a critical advantage over us, one they will use to whatever extent we let them.
More from Government
Long thread: Because I couldn’t find anything comprehensive, I’m just going to post everything I’ve seen in the news/Twitter about Trump’s activities related to the Jan 6th insurrection. I think the timing & context of his actions/inactions will matter a lot for a senate trial.
12/12: The earlier DC protest over the electoral college vote during clearly inspired Jan 6th. On Dec 12th, he tweeted: “Wow! Thousands of people forming in Washington (D.C.) for Stop the Steal. Didn’t know about this, but I’ll be seeing them! #MAGA.”
12/19: Trump announces the Jan. 6th event by tweeting, “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” Immediately, insurrectionists begin to discuss the “Wild Protest.” Just 2 days later, this UK political analyst predicts the violence
12/26-27: Trump announces his participation on Twitter. On Dec. 29, the FBI sends out a nationwide bulletin warning legislatures about attacks https://t.co/Lgl4yk5aO1
1/1: Trump tweets the time of his protest. Then he retweets “The calvary is coming” on Jan. 6!” Sounds like a war? About this time, the FBI begins visiting right wing extremists to tell them not to go--does the FBI tell the president? https://t.co/3OxnB2AHdr
12/12: The earlier DC protest over the electoral college vote during clearly inspired Jan 6th. On Dec 12th, he tweeted: “Wow! Thousands of people forming in Washington (D.C.) for Stop the Steal. Didn’t know about this, but I’ll be seeing them! #MAGA.”
Jumping in for @DCist/@wamu885 this evening. The scene rn coming up 17th Street from BLM Plaza. pic.twitter.com/Fn9aukjEPW
— Matt Blitz (@WhyBlitz) December 12, 2020
12/19: Trump announces the Jan. 6th event by tweeting, “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” Immediately, insurrectionists begin to discuss the “Wild Protest.” Just 2 days later, this UK political analyst predicts the violence
On January 6, armed Trumpist militias will be rallying in DC, at Trump's orders. It's highly likely that they'll try to storm the Capitol after it certifies Joe Biden's win. I don't think this has sunk in yet.
— Arieh Kovler (@ariehkovler) December 21, 2020
12/26-27: Trump announces his participation on Twitter. On Dec. 29, the FBI sends out a nationwide bulletin warning legislatures about attacks https://t.co/Lgl4yk5aO1
1/1: Trump tweets the time of his protest. Then he retweets “The calvary is coming” on Jan. 6!” Sounds like a war? About this time, the FBI begins visiting right wing extremists to tell them not to go--does the FBI tell the president? https://t.co/3OxnB2AHdr
They shouldn't be.
The pattern is:
GOP in power - GOP dictates policy
Dems in power - GOP dictates policy
The Dems shouldn't legislate toward the GOP.
The GOP doesn't represent its constituents.
The GOP can push it's agenda on its own time.
If Dems push an agenda that actually helps people, it'll also actually help the GOP constituency.
The GOP won't. So give them nothing.
The Dems should ignore the GOP just like the GOP ignores the Dems.
Make them pay for every moment of obstruction.
Just a hard press on legislation that is unassailable and shine a light on the GOP.
Constant. Relentless. Unyielding.
Shut them out and shut them down.
The GOP is not a legitimate political party. It is an anti-democratic, fascist criminal syndicate with no interest whatsoever in governance.
Nobody should give them the slightest bit of credit or legitimacy ever again.
Not a fucking ounce.
Nobody should engage them in legitimate debate in Congress.
They should be pariahs and treated as unserious occupants of Congress.
Because these people were totally ok with their colleagues being killed in furtherance of the destruction of the insitution.
The pattern is:
GOP in power - GOP dictates policy
Dems in power - GOP dictates policy
Soooooooo what\u2019s the problem. The statement I responded to read as it they haven\u2019t been trying to work together.. but they have so..?
— Othello (@BurberryKid11) February 2, 2021
The Dems shouldn't legislate toward the GOP.
The GOP doesn't represent its constituents.
The GOP can push it's agenda on its own time.
If Dems push an agenda that actually helps people, it'll also actually help the GOP constituency.
The GOP won't. So give them nothing.
The Dems should ignore the GOP just like the GOP ignores the Dems.
Make them pay for every moment of obstruction.
Just a hard press on legislation that is unassailable and shine a light on the GOP.
Constant. Relentless. Unyielding.
Shut them out and shut them down.
The GOP is not a legitimate political party. It is an anti-democratic, fascist criminal syndicate with no interest whatsoever in governance.
Nobody should give them the slightest bit of credit or legitimacy ever again.
Not a fucking ounce.
Nobody should engage them in legitimate debate in Congress.
They should be pariahs and treated as unserious occupants of Congress.
Because these people were totally ok with their colleagues being killed in furtherance of the destruction of the insitution.
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Viruses and other pathogens are often studied as stand-alone entities, despite that, in nature, they mostly live in multispecies associations called biofilms—both externally and within the host.
https://t.co/FBfXhUrH5d
Microorganisms in biofilms are enclosed by an extracellular matrix that confers protection and improves survival. Previous studies have shown that viruses can secondarily colonize preexisting biofilms, and viral biofilms have also been described.
...we raise the perspective that CoVs can persistently infect bats due to their association with biofilm structures. This phenomenon potentially provides an optimal environment for nonpathogenic & well-adapted viruses to interact with the host, as well as for viral recombination.
Biofilms can also enhance virion viability in extracellular environments, such as on fomites and in aquatic sediments, allowing viral persistence and dissemination.
