“Remember this day forever,” Trump urged his staunch supporters, who in the meantime, were destroying one of our nation’s greatest symbols of democracy: the United States Capitol. “You’re very special,” Trump assured them as they swarmed the Senate floors with weapons, hate symbols, and a disturbing cult-like mentality. These white supremacist groups, far-right conspiracy theorists, and anarchists are not the “patriots” that our undignified leader claims them to be, but rather, the very antithesis of liberty itself.

This attack on the Capitol was far from a surprise and was essentially organized by the President himself. Back in December, Trump tweeted out a message to his supporters encouraging them to organize at the Capitol on Jan. 6 to contest the results of the 2020 election. This December tweet contained one of the few truths uttered by Trump over the last four years: this event would be “wild.” The event was so “wild,” unsurprisingly, that it grew into what was indisputably one of the most significant instances of domestic terrorism in the history of the United States. Although several factors besides Trump’s initial tweet led to the escalation of what could have been an embarrassing, but controlled demonstration, almost all of them can be tied back to the lame-duck president. 

According to reuters.com, the National Guard and other arms of the U.S. federal security force did not arrive at the Capitol for hours despite the fact that the date, location, and time of this demonstration had been known for weeks. This slow and ineffective response was not just an embarrassment to our nation, but it also allowed for neo-Nazis and QAnon believers, among others, to swarm a sacred monument as if it were a mall on Black Friday. When the police did show up, it was much too late and much too ineffective. Many people who have preached that “Blue Lives Matter” for months did not hesitate to defy police orders and forcefully push past or injure officers in acts of “protest.”

To truly understand how poor the police response actually was, we cannot only look at this one incident but instead compare it to what took place during the Black Lives Matter protests of last summer. On June 1, a group of peaceful protesters gathered outside the White House to demand social justice reform, only to be met with tear gas, batons and other acts of unwarranted violence.

According to forbes.com, between May 30 and June 1, 427 arrests were made in connection to Black Lives Matter Protests, whereas just 52 have been made in connection to the recent riot as of Hi’s Eye deadline. Unlike the rioters on Jan. 6, who sent two pipe bombs to both the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee headquarters and posed a clear threat to national security, the BLM protesters were not simply told to “stay peaceful.” They were not told, “We love you.” Instead, they were met with an insurmountable wall of thousands of officers sent by the President himself, and are now met with the reality that their far more destructive white counterparts will never experience such a degree of police brutality, let alone a slap on the wrist. 

While preaching the importance of transparency to his supporters, Trump encourages this disruptive and hateful sector of humanity that he so ironically calls the “silent majority” to act on his pathological lies. After over 60 failed election lawsuits, after judges at all levels have dismissed allegations of fraud, and after the majority of federal and state officials from both sides of the aisle have stated their confidence in the validity of the 2020 election, Trump still manages to make his supporters believe that every institution is rigged against him without any evidence. State authorities and poll workers participated in interview after interview to convince the public that our election was fair, and yet, they cannot reach who they so desperately need to convince  — those who get their news from incoherent blasts of 280 characters or less.

Although Trump was temporarily banned from Twitter for a brief period of time following the chaos, the company’s move was too little, too late. The riots that took place were a culmination of years of misinformation; over time, Trump led his supporters down a rabbit hole of extremist media that may be too deep to escape. With a small base of Republican Congressmen, such as Senator Ted Cruz, doing Trump’s bidding, Trump supporters will always be able to find the “credibility” they need to support their perspectives, no matter how widely-disputed. 

By the time he had regained access to his Twitter account on the night of Jan. 7, Trump immediately returned to spreading the falsehoods that got him banned in the first place. Even though he appeared to condemn the rioters that he had praised just a short time ago and acknowledged that he would no longer be in office come Jan. 20, in a two-minute video addressed to his supporters, Trump falsely claimed that he had quickly ordered the National Guard to the Capitol to combat the rioters and once again refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the 2020 election. Thus, much like Trump’s temporary ban from Twitter, his muddled call for an “orderly” transfer of power was also too little, too late.

Given that our nation has reached a clear point of no return when it comes to the spread of falsehoods and extremism, it is up to us, those who accurately represent American values, to educate ourselves as well as everyone who may have fallen victim to Trump’s lies. Whether it be the truth about our election process, the truth about social justice movements, the truth about certain politicians, or even the truth about marginalized groups of people, the truth is the only way to prevent our recent history from repeating itself. 

When future generations of Americans look at the images of armed men and women endangering the lives of our Congressmen and Congresswomen, the anarchists proudly wearing “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirts among a sea of Proud Boys and Confederate flags and the criminals stealing government-owned property, I hope more than anything that they are surprised by what they are seeing. If the Americans of the future are unsurprised by the events of the present, if they are still desensitized to the racism, antisemitism and cruelties of Jan. 6, 2021, then we as a people have failed to do our job.