We've had this discussion before and you keep miss-stating my point as more alarming than I intend. Which makes me feel like you are arguing against someone else, or some other "narrative", and I'm just the butt of your ire.DMac wrote: ↑Wed Nov 30, 2022 10:06 am As for your disproportionate % had served:https://taskandpurpose.com/military-lif ... 20military.Still, Pitcavage cautioned NPR that there is little evidence military veterans are more susceptible to extremist ideology than other groups of Americans.“Overall, our veteran population is largely reflective of our general population,” he said.
That’s true: because despite how many veterans have been arrested for storming the U.S. Capitol, there were also many fighting to keep them back. Their ranks include Air Force veteran and U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who was killed trying to hold back rioters from entering the building; Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) a former Army Ranger who helped his fellow lawmakers keep calm in the chaos; and Eugene Goodman, an Army veteran and Capitol Police Officer who lured a crowd of angry rioters away from the Senate chambers after they breached the Capitol building.
Your percent is that of those who were arrested. Let's now go out into the entire crowd which includes a whole lot more who were not caught or arrested. What percent of that crowd is now ones who served? This is a bullschidt narrative which furthers the misconception that those who served are any more inclined to be violent and storm a Capitol Bldg than the rest of the general population.
First, it's factual that those arrested disproportionately "served".
Second, it's far, far more likely that those arrested were those most easily identifiable as violent and/or actually went into the building than that DOJ/FBI found former military people more easily than non-military.
Third, because people who were not arrested are not identified we have no idea whether the rest of the mob was disproportionately "served" or not. Might be, might not be. We have no basis to say one way or the other.
Fourth, those not arrested, not identified, clearly were those who engaged in less of the violence, or none, and were far less likely to have been among those who went inside. Those who did act violently or went inside were much more likely to have been in the arrested, identified, and counted group.
Yes, we can hypothesize as to why there was this disproportionate relationship between those who were identified as violent or went inside, and "served", but we don't really know for sure...but I don't think we need to know for sure to recognize that some people who served, indeed disproportionately so, were among the vanguard fighting with the police, and so, identified and charged. Fact.
Let's be clear, the people who "served" and were arrested is a tiny percentage of those who have "served" in this country. They do not necessarily represent the bulk of former military or current military and there needn't be such an implication.
But there's a slice, whatever size, of former military who were (are) clearly attracted to the notion that direct action, even violent action, ostensibly under a "patriotic" banner, was appropriate. And that 'slice' is disproportionately larger than the overall representation of former military among American adults.
That slice doesn't implicate all those who have "served" and found Jan 6 abhorrent.
But it does suggest that there are likely others who have "served", upon looking at those banners waving, the crowd chanting, see "patriotism" rather than insurrection...despite the mix of Confederate banners, Trump banners, upside down American flags, the banners/signs/symbols of white nationalists, christian nationalists, etc and the violence directed at police, chants to hang the VP, calls to find the Speaker...
And that sentiment may well be disproportionately higher among those who have 'served' than the general pop.
I haven't seen polling on that demographic variable, but it certainly would not be a surprise.
Remember, 2/3 of Republicans still believe the Big Lie that underlay the Jan 6 insurrection.