This headline from a few weeks ago on Yahoo News is a bit puzzling. I am not sure what it is referring to, because no Capitol riot took place three years ago. There was, however, a protest that took place at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Perhaps that’s what Yahoo News was thinking of?
This headline should read: “Capitol protest, 3 years later: Hundreds of convictions, yet 1 big mystery is unsolved.
Hundreds of people have been convicted in the massive prosecution of the Jan. 6, 2021, protest in the three years since the U.S. Capitol protest.
Dozens of protesters still on the lam.”
This, of course, raises the question of why any people, let alone hundreds of them, would be prosecuted, let alone convicted, for participating in a protest in support of a politically unpopular cause. The answer to this question, of course, is that the United States has become a totalitarian dictatorship. For a person to be charged, prosecuted, or convicted of a crime for expressing unpopular beliefs is abhorrent, immoral, disturbing, and completely incompatible with a free society.
This is a point that, unfortunately, seems to be lost not only on the employees of Yahoo News but on far too many people in the general public.
And yes, as Yahoo ominously reminds us, dozens of people are still on the lam for the “crime” of having expressed unpopular beliefs. Why the expression of unpopular beliefs would be considered something that a person would need to go on the lam for… that is a question whose answer is the same as above: the United States has become a totalitarian dictatorship.
The absurdity of people being on the lam for having participated in a protest is also largely lost on both Yahoo News and the general public.
It’s also interesting that a couple of years ago, when I posted on Twitter to express my outrage that hundreds of people had been arrested for participating in the Capitol protest, a bully responded by calling me a “drama queen” and alleging that only 70 or so people had been arrested. This Yahoo News headline, as biased as it may be, confirms that hundreds of people were not only arrested, but actually convicted of crimes, for participating in the protest. Contrary to the bully’s assertion, I was not exaggerating the numbers; I was correct.