Recently I have been seeing some conservatives online equating the race protests (and a few riots) with the insurrectionist attack on the capitol building. They talk about Kaepernick, quote him, and go, "Aren't these two things the same?"
They both started with protests and there was some level of violence in each case. That is exactly where any similarities end.
There were plans for violence at the capitol and there are people still planning more violence. They stormed, vandalized, and defaced the Capitol Building. They killed a policeman. There were people who went planning to take hostages. There were people there who discussed hanging the sitting Vice President for doing his Constitutionally mandated duty (much like they planned to do with a governor a few months back, but were caught and stopped in time). They wanted to disenfranchise the entire country and instate Trump as ruler. All of this was done with the support of Trump after he deluded his followers into thinking he had won the election with solely his lies to back up that allegation. If there was any proof at all, any proof AT ALL, they would have been plastering it on every media platform available. Anyone who says differently is trying to sell you a lemon.
The race protests were almost all peaceful. Less than 10% got violent and a good bit of that violence was shown to have been instigated by people on the opposing side to try to make the movement look bad. (The opposing side, you know, the ones who stormed the capitol looking for blood?) The protests were because people of color were being killed in cold blood by authority figures who were facing no more than a slap on the wrist, if that, for their crimes.
Consider a family where there is an abuser. The abused spouse puts up with the abuse (including ER visits and excuses to doctors) because they have a child and they do not feel they would be capable of leaving safely with that child and surviving (due to years of abuse warping their sense of self and self-esteem to the point that standing up to the abuser seems impossible),
The abuser goes for the child in a fit of rage. The abused spouse finally finds the courage to stand up to the abuser to protect their child, hits the raging abuser with a pan, and flees the house with the child, calling on friends and the social safety net for support. One headline reads, "Terrified parent bravely stops abuser from harming child." Another reads, "Spouse hits partner with a pan, injuring them, kidnapping child." While both generally describe the situation, which is more true to the actual facts of the story?
In another version, the abuser thinks the abused is cheating on them with no evidence other than a drunken hunch. The abuser riles up some drunken buddies, destroys their spouse's most beloved possessions, smearing them with feces and blood, breaks the spouse's car windows, slashes the tires, and then goes hunting for the abused spouse intending to beat them to a pulp for daring to "cheat." The headlines this time are, "Cheating spouse gets what's coming to them," and "Abused spouse fears for their life after coming home to drunken destruction."
An abuse victim standing up to their abuser is brave. Other people helping the abuse victim and saying, "Hey, abusing people is bad!" is a reasonable (and should be the expected) response. While no one wants or condones violence for violence's sake, hitting your abuser in the head with a pan to escape with your child is, in that situation, a reasonable choice.
An abuser claiming to be a victim to escape from the consequences of their violent actions and to twist the narrative and garner sympathy is gaslighting, manipulative, and in my opinion, evil. It is violence for the sake of intimidation. It is violence used to abuse and manipulate people through fear. They are not a victim. They are the abuser and anything they say about the abused is immediately suspect.
Do not equate the abused with the abuser. Look at what is actually happening. Look at why choices are being made and what the end goal is. Look at the intent. If you put forth the effort to actually deconstruct what information you are being fed it is not hard to figure out the truth.
