Matthew Yglesias has set up quite the strawman here: it’s not Democrats, it’s “the whole Democratic Party”; it’s not “rioters” but “arsonists and looters.” But as a lot of people are pointing out, our current vice president encouraged people to donate to a fund to bail out protesters who’d been arrested in Minnesota … some of whom ended up committing other serious crimes. If “half of conservative Twitter” thinks that Democrats cheered on the riots (or ignored them, or called it “the summer of love”), there’s probably a reason — that being Twitter posts from Democratic politicians like AOC and coverage by the mainstream media, which is made up almost exclusively of Democrats.
Half of conservative Twitter seems to have sincerely convinced itself that the whole Democratic Party spent 2020 cheerleading for arsonists and looters but I promise you it’s not true, that’s something Donald Trump (who lies a lot) made up to try and win. pic.twitter.com/ety11uykXS
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) February 11, 2022
What's weird is that I've had a dozen "what about when Democrats" replies in the past week, but it's always the same AOC screenshot https://t.co/ueb7AFdzfH
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) February 12, 2022
The one where she says protests are supposed to make people uncomfortable?
Let's not understate things though either: the reason Matt had a write a "Riots Are Bad Actually" piece in the first place a huge chunk of lefty Twitter thought otherwise, and even got mainstream Democrats fired for denouncing violence
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) February 12, 2022
(and not even *denouncing* violence really, Shor's argument was that it's bad tactically)
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) February 12, 2022
Another data point would be that the New York Times reportedly held onto a story about the human cost of the rioting until after the election, presumably because they knew how left-wing Twitter would react. https://t.co/hgkhZp1wOW
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) February 12, 2022
My general recollection is that with some notable exceptions! the mainstream Dem reaction was not "riots are good" but "mostly peaceful," i.e. diminishing the extent of the lawbreaking for fear of appearing racist/harping on something that probably would help Trump
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) February 12, 2022
Stop being so disingenuous, Griswold. Biden's VP helped bail out arsonists and looters in Minneapolis
— GroovyYetBehaved (@pqstemple04) February 12, 2022
I actually think the Harris thing was basically a research failure, the fund link said it was to bail out “protesters” and a lot of the folks who spread and donated didn’t vet any further than that. https://t.co/gLXeoMzjLC
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) February 12, 2022
An editor was fired for the headline "buildings matter too."
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) February 12, 2022
— Aaron (@ARCAMMON) February 12, 2022
My gawd, matthew. Clearly I missed all those posts from liberals/progressives, like your self, denouncing what was clearly chaos, in large cities, meanwhile, I have endless amounts of examples of politicians cheering it on or excusing it. Bless your heart, tho
— Mike Hamilton (@MikeHam44923201) February 11, 2022
That’s true that basically every politician was against it, but at the same time there were also way too many generally speaking “on the left” folks who were cool with it.
— John Ellis (@Jellis581) February 11, 2022
And covered for it in the media (“mostly peaceful”). And the public health apparatus (“it’s unsafe to be in groups unless it’s about a fighting racism”).
— Ben Wiele (@WieleBC) February 11, 2022
Dude. MSM and experts spent weeks justifying the protests as not spreading Covid and being non-violent. All while rioters caused over 2 billion in property damage throughout the country. pic.twitter.com/TTTAQnIQK4
— Robert (@Ruhroe) February 11, 2022
A good portion did.
— AG (@agusername) February 11, 2022
I was still watching CNN that summer. I call b.s. on this.
— Comma_Chameleon (@CommaChameleon6) February 11, 2022
Sorry bro I remember it pretty clearly. @AOC even tweeted about how ‘riots were the language of the unheard’ – nice attempt at top tier gaslighting. Everyone remembers the Chiron that said “fiery but mostly peaceful protests” etc lol
— gabbaghoul (@yespigeons) February 11, 2022
I did not hear much pushback.
— Spring-heeled Jack (@zodiacjs) February 11, 2022
This is some serious gaslighting. We literally lived through it. 4 screenshots doesn’t change that.
— Chris (@CML_Texas) February 11, 2022
Sorry, Matt.
I lived through that period. We all know what we saw.
Democrats cheered on the arson and violence because they believed civil unrest was a path to the White House.
Max
— Max Murray (@MaxMurrayShow) February 11, 2022
Yeah, it's true & we have receipts.
— Agamemnon López (@tasmaniacal1) February 11, 2022
I don’t think enough left leaning media condemned the violence. I think you’re cherry picking here.
— Rusty (@notdustyrusty) February 11, 2022
Some overtly cheered. Some downplayed. Some didn't cheer, but insinuated that being too critical of arson was a sign of racism. Some were principled.
— Dr. Dad, PhD 🔄🔼◀️🔽▶️ (@GarrettPetersen) February 11, 2022
The Democratic Party and mainstream media expressed support for the 2020 riots by a wide variety of means, both active and passive. Many of us lived through that period and paid close attention to the details. This post is far off the mark.
— Sean McBride (@seanmcbride) February 11, 2022
Gee, I wonder where they got that idea. By the way, aren’t you the same guy who tweets like every other day that the Democratic Party needs to do more to distance itself from defund protesters?
— Finally a Wife Guy (@TheBaltimoreSon) February 11, 2022
Whole Democratic Party? Strong "not all men" energy.
— Stewart Dompe (@stewartdompe) February 11, 2022
I notice how carefully you've phrased this claim.
— Colin Duffy (@itcamefromthed) February 12, 2022
Sorry, those of us who lived in Seattle, lived through it all. I will not forget. And no one will forget “fiery but mostly peaceful.”
— sailbeyondthesunset (@2sailbeyondsun) February 11, 2022
Revisionist
— ernie.usd (@ernestothedude) February 12, 2022
They didn’t cheer on the violence. They denied that it was even happening. You can act like we didn’t live through it, but we did.
— YetiPersisted (@YPersisted) February 12, 2022
I saw it with my own eyes. This is vile, low gaslighting.
— Woke Bob Butterbur (@ersatzkulak) February 12, 2022
Matt woke up and decided to turn his gaslighting up to 11
— Prof. Corn Pop (@profcornpop) February 12, 2022
The fact you had to say this pretty much tells the real story matt pic.twitter.com/AEl01Rp2J8
— Paul Rudd (@IuRgayLoLI) February 12, 2022
"Looting is bad. WE CAN SAY THIS."
What does the capitalized portion mean? Does it mean that at the time you were arguing against the then-current bluecheck consensus that looting isn't bad?
SPOILER ALERT: yes
— Zero Wing (@zerowing0) February 12, 2022
Some nobody dem politician about federal agents in uniform with id responding to violent attacks against a federal court house pic.twitter.com/VrlQyxgTOw
— John Tremain (@johnntremain) February 12, 2022
Its got everything. Tacit approval. Lies: "unidentified." Downplaying violence: "graffiti" (in fact many agents went to the hospital) and finally calling sworn civil servants "storm troopers"
— John Tremain (@johnntremain) February 12, 2022
Matt has deluded himself with the mostly peaceful arson narrative.
Happens all the time 🙁 pic.twitter.com/wABfgVDodd
— NewMark Respector (@NewMarkRespect1) February 12, 2022
Yet it only happened once the Democrats got backlash.
— Rougarou1776 (@rougarou1776) February 12, 2022
The gaslighting won't work.
— Brian (@bhg70) February 12, 2022
Ah yes the wink wink nod nod “this is bad, stop doing this” public facade they put up while doing nothing to substantially to end it
— Tor Cotlands (@TorCotlands) February 12, 2022
“Mostly peaceful” will be remembered for all of time
— a reasonable person (@sportlawpoltics) February 12, 2022
What a mostly peaceful lie
— Lucio Martelli (@LucioMM1) February 12, 2022
No, they actually denied it was even happening. There was literally an area in Portland taken over. Wide spread looting and rioting over most major cities. Its pretty easy to find most of the democratic figure heads like AOC, Kamala, etc all fine with it.
— Adam (@apsmith) February 12, 2022
sorry Matt, you are completely wrong here, where does one start?
— sotruth reply guy (@Michaelstm23) February 12, 2022
the fact that so many treated this obvious garbage as if it was an idea worth engaging, let alone publishing on NPR, seems like low-hanging fruit:https://t.co/ESj6o8AgiS
— shangtr0n (@polyminnow) February 12, 2022
Ah yes, conservative NPR interviewing the author of “In Defense of Looting” and nodding along the whole time.
Can you name 1 person who accused the “whole” Dem party of cheerleading? The argument was always Dems downplayed (“mostly peaceful”), excused (“only property”), encouraged (“get more confrontational”), and fomented (Rittenhouse/Chauvin are racist).
— Arthur Pensky (@ArthurPensky) February 12, 2022
Yeah, not the “whole” party. Just, like, most of it.
— Palmer D. Smith (@P_DeBakey_Smith) February 12, 2022
How many times did you hear the words “mostly peaceful?” Do you hear it now?
— M (@glibbergabber) February 12, 2022
Related:
NPR does a fact-check on Mike Pence saying there was ‘rioting and looting’ in Minneapolis (Hint: ‘Taxpayer-funded gaslighting’) https://t.co/sXNLCj7LNO
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) October 8, 2020
