This Is America #134: Memes Come Home to Roost

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Welcome, to This Is America, January 7th, 2021.

On today’s episode we jump straight into a discussion about Wednesday’s events at the US capitol, where thousands of far-Right Trump supporters overwhelmed and fought with police, broke windows, and stormed the capitol building; forcing Congress to flee and delayed the scheduled electoral college vote counting.

The far-Right coup took place directly following Trump’s speech at a ‘Stop the Steal’ rally and was a direct attempt to overturn the election. Members of white nationalist and far-Right groups were seen in the crowd, as well as Qanon supporters and groups like the Proud Boys. The attempted coup led to the deaths of four individuals; as one person shot and killed by law enforcement attempting to enter the capitol, and three others passed away due to heart attacks and other medical issues. Pipebombs were also reportedly found near both the RNC and the DNC buildings.

Throughout our discussion we talk about the events of the day; how Trumpism’s embrace of white nationalism and conspiracy theories and Centrism’s hatred of social movements and direct action have both led to the creation of our current reality. We then ask: what does this mean for the Republication party, the DNC, and social movements? We also touch on the new round of conspiracy theories launched by the far-Right targeting ‘antifa’ and anarchists, thoughts on Biden-era repression, and the need to not loose sight of our larger project of organizing and building in our communities.