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A man I’m related to (calls himself a Republican, but doesn’t like Trump) wrote a Facebook post calling for unity. He didn't say the word unity, he used language like "building bridges" and "validating viewpoints from both sides."

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He’s not the only one. Republicans everywhere are waving the unity banner. Let’s not dwell in the past, they say. Sure, we called for a mob to kill Pence and encouraged people who built bombs to storm the Capitol, but it’s time to move forward, let’s forgive and forget asap.

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And I just want to say as your Internet Mom: Hey Kiddos, you're skipping some steps. Coming together WON'T happen, literally CAN NOT happen, until there is justice.


We could try and skip the justice and just *pretend* we're sincere about coming together. Only, we tried that for about the last 50 years, and turns out, it doesn't work.

Pretending to come together benefits those in power, protects whiteness, and hurts everybody else.

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So before we wring our hands about togetherness, we need to tackle justice. Justice = appropriate consequences for those who hurt people, and for the people who were hurt.

Consequences for those involved in the attack on the Capitol may look different for each person.

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The NRA is already trying to juice gun sales by creating fear around a new Biden administration. “Stay vigilant and engaged” sounds a lot like “shoot people who disagree with you” to their supporters - too many of whom have been radicalized by the gun lobby’s extremist agenda.


This NRA owns much of blame for the armed white supremacists trying to undermine American democracy: “The gun-rights movement cleared the path for insurrection. It blew a hole in the rule of law—and Donald Trump’s would-be soldiers clamored through it.”

Many members of the mob that rioted inside the Capitol lead or belong to so-called “gun-rights groups,” and were motivated by the warnings of tyranny issued by the @NRA.

Guns are an integral part of anti-government and white supremacist violence. In 2017, a joint report from the FBI and DHS said “firearms likely will continue to pose the greatest threat of lethal violence by [extremists] due to their availability and ease of use.”

Here’s an example. In October 2018, Donald Trump claimed a “caravan” of migrants was heading to the US from Mexico. NRATV, then the propaganda arm of the NRA, claimed Jewish billionaire George Soros was conspiring with Venezuela to send migrants here to influence the election.