Every single day new information emerges that January 6th was an attempted authoritarian coup.
We have to recognize every failed attempt can become a successful coup and that there are forces working tirelessly to overthrow America.
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jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/how-an-attem…
Despite witnessing with our own eyes the attempted overthrow of the 2020 Election and our government, people in the media and politics continue to tell us it wasn't that bad, that it was just a brief blip
But the truth is that is was part of an ongoing authoritarian movement
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Though January 6th has been framed as the culmination of that authoritarian movement, its failure does not represent an *end* but a beginning.
Failed coups represent a crossroads. The choice is ours as to whether it grows and is eventually successful in its goals.
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While new evidence emerges constantly that the events of January 6th were part of an organized plan to steal the election through violence, the GOP has continued to embrace the fascistic movement, creating martyrs, shared realities, and laying a foundation for the future.
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To understand what is happening, and the threat we are facing, we must talk about the religious nature of authoritarian movements and how this belief leads to coups and violent overthrows.
It is based in apocalyptic belief that underscores religious action.
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Fascist movements operate with the same apocalyptic fervor of religions, believing that unless their will is served there will be a massive crisis and a final battle between Good and Evil.
This belief means literally any action, including murder and genocide, are rational.
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In the current moment, the Right is embracing "Caesarism," or the philosophy that a dictatorial figure is necessary to overtake society in order to lead it out of crisis and solve the problems of liberal democracy.
This has taken root in the wake of January 6th.
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The Right Wing prefers hereditary power and despises representative government, and so they view legislatures as being corrupted and corrupting.
The dictator is necessary to sweep away the decay of representative government and enforce his righteous will.
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Currently, the intentional incompetence of our Congress is being positioned as proof that a dictator or fascist movement is necessary should our differences be resolved.
The Right paints our legislature as representative of American decline and proof a dictator is needed.
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The religious component is supplied, in large part, by things like QAnon, which paint our modern political crisis as a battle between Good and Evil.
Even Republicans who don't know what QAnon is have been internalized its ideas and beliefs, putting them into action.
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Of course, QAnon and the conspiracy theories of the GOP are inherently anti-semitic and portray a massive plot by Jewish puppetmasters as being at the heart of the crisis, meaning that, in order to restore order, the "corrupted regime" has to be overtaken by force.
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Almost all authoritarian coup attempts emerge out of this conspiratorial framework, including the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, which saw Nazis claim they needed to takeover the government in order to solve the problem of Jewish conspiratorial domination.
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The attempted putsch of 1923 was stopped and its leaders arrested, but sentences were lenient. What happened next should serve as a warning because these attempted coups, if not treated seriously, gain a momentum and almost certainly guarantee future attempts.
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When a coup attempt fails, and the leaders are allowed to continue agitating, what happens is that they are free to revise the events of the failed coup and begin to portray them as heroic moments that should inspire followers to join the cause so that it can succeed.
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What happens is that the failure of the attempted coup becomes a rallying cry and further proof of a larger conspiracy that must be destroyed.
Now, in America, the GOP and the Right are using January 6th as evidence of a need for more action. It's the same old story.
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Quickly - and this is disturbing - those killed in the disruption of the coup are made into martyrs, or religious figures, and their "sacrifice" as proof that the movement is something that people should be willing to die for.
It's the sanctification of sacrifice.
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We struggle with fascism and authoritarianism, talking about "brainwashing," but what we don't acknowledge is that these movements become religions.
Their rallies are services. Their symbols icons. Their martyrs fallen saints.
That's what's happening now.
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I want to be very clear. Donald Trump probably has no understanding of any of this. He's an ignorant grifter. He only understands an ability to profit.
But that doesn't mean there aren't people around him or in the Right who do understand what's building.
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Many of the people around Trump who planned and sponsored January 6th and continue advocating for authoritarian coups understand the religious nature of these movements.
They're capable of growing them, of using them as weapons to achieve their own goals.
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People like Tucker Carlson have already framed the January 6th criminals as "political prisoners" while using their platforms to push for Hungarian-style illiberal democracy.
Their point is clear: representative government is an apocalyptic threat and must be destroyed.
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Meanwhile, lawyers and jurists are working overtime behind the scenes attempting to construct a legal framework wherein elections can be stolen and the government overthrown.
This was the case in every other authoritarian coup. The religion and the bureaucracy.
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And within that bureaucracy we are watching a fast and deliberate attack on voting rights and the institution of representative government itself.
There are so many fronts in this ongoing crisis, but they're animated by the same ideas and goals.
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Again, attempted coups are a crossroads. Denying that fact and living in delusion doesn't make it less true.
What we're dealing with is an ongoing attack on liberal democracy and an authoritarian movement that is growing in size and boldness by the day
Take it seriously.
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