Destructive Hyperbole

 I read this article this morning and the following quote came to mind:

"Hyperbole is in common use, as much among the unlearned as among the learned, because there is in all men [and women] a natural propensity to magnify or extenuate what comes before them, and no one is contented with the exact truth." - Quintilian

Modern political discourse in the United States, on both sides of the aisle, has become almost pure hyperbole, to the detriment of our political institutions, to political dialog among the people and, ultimately, to the Republic itself. No, January 6th was not a 'violent insurrection'. It was more a failure of Capitol security than anything else. Some people were hurt, yes, but these trespassers did not have weapons and they certainly did not have any meaningful organization as a whole (there were small groups of folks who came to the protest together). One of the trespassers (Ashli Babbitt) was shot and killed by a Capitol police officer, one police officer died the next day (Jan. 7th) as a result of a heart attack. Two others died of heart attacks during the event and one woman died of an amphetamine overdose. One dead capitol police officer, 4 dead Trump supporters and the only one killed by violence was a Trump supporter who was shot by a police officer. These are the actual facts. Only those who seek to serve their own (or their party's) agenda would argue otherwise. At the same time, we can all agree that those people involved in trespassing at the Capitol that day, along with any of the other illegal activities they engaged in as a result, should and will be held accountable to the law. Many of them have been incarcerated and many of them have been tried and convicted of crimes. It is possible to believe that the events of January 6th were, at the same time illegal, but not insurrection.

I would argue that if you believe in the "January 6th was a violent insurrection" narrative, then you haven't read anything that disagrees with that narrative. There are actual facts surrounding these events and it is worth the time to find out, insofar as one can, what actually happened that day. A failure to do so is to abdicate on your responsibility to think critically. Once you're into that kind of habit, you can be lead to believe pretty much anything.