Here's why:
Befuddlement #1:
Why are members of the Congress allowed to receive protection with weapons, even resulting in the deaths of some protestors, but business owners across America were not allowed to do that, nor did police or military offer the same effective protection as rich politicians in suits received?
After all, many of these businesses destroyed by rioting & looting will never bounce back due to covid-19 regulations and neighborhoods changed for the worse by lack of police & an increase in hoodlum activity.
Many of these people suffered a permanent downturn in their economic situation as a direct result of the riots.
Not to mention, the people terrorized across America or who suffered harm to themselves or their property as a result of the riots.
Befuddlement #2:
I thought that looting & protesting were okay!
After all, so many politicians demanded that the police stand down & not harm the looting little sweeties.
Furthermore, didn't Icky Vicky say stuff like how rioting & looting:
...provides people with an imaginative sense of freedom and pleasure and helps them imagine a world that could be.
And I think that’s a part of it that doesn’t really get talked about—that riots and looting are experienced as sort of joyous and liberatory.
(source)
Ultimately, what nonviolence ends up meaning is that the activist doesn’t do anything that makes them feel violent.
And I think getting free is messier than that.
We have to be willing to do things that scare us and that we wouldn’t do in normal, “peaceful” times, because we need to get free.
(source)
Because, according to Icky Vicky the Great Expert (he even wrote a book defending looting & rioting), it's only violence if the perpetrator—oops, I mean the protestor— feels violent.
As long as the protestors weren't feeling violent, that means the Capitol protests were not violent...so why all the barricades & handguns?
Before defending themselves and even shooting protesters, did anyone in the Capitol think to ask them, "Excuse me, but do you FEEL violent?"
Did any of the security personnel take a moment to ponder whether they should be interfering in the "imaginative sense of freedom and pleasure" of the protestors?
According to Icky Vicky, these people were most likely expressing joy and liberation.
Should they really shot or pepper-sprayed for that?
In her book's description, she explains that "rioting & looting" uplift "the poor and the marginalized."
Based on that, security personnel really should have stopped being so defensive and tried to be more uplifting of these protestors who are mostly just poor & marginalized.
Befuddlement #3
Also, I noticed a serious breach of social distancing. Those policemen crowded by a door with their guns out stood far less than 6 feet from each other! What's more, the Congressmen crouching down by their seats also showed a serious lack of social distance from each other.
If they protestors wouldn't get them, then covid-19 would! Why aren't they practicing what they preach?
Befuddlement#4
Furthermore, I thought guns were bad. Guns kill people! So why were police brandishing them at the Capitol? Like, for example, in England, cops don't carry guns and so while the British suffer more knife deaths & assaults than America (source), gun deaths are less common. If guns were banned, at least one of those protestors might still be alive. We should be more like England. Right?
Befuddlement #5
Finally, when protestors took over the police precinct in Seattle (in a neighborhood also called Capitol Hill, ironically) and when they also invaded City Hall, that was okay—at least for a little while.
Why is it suddenly so horrific when they merely try to do something similar at the Capitol Building?
I'm sure that one of my super-smart readers can explain all these seeming double-standards to me.
Note: Though Icky Vicky claims to feel like a woman and everyone refers to him as "she" 'cause that's how he feels, he's actually a man. But I understand all this stuff about feelings. After all, I feel like the Great Spaghetti Monster and from now on, I insist that everyone address me as "Her Supreme Spaghettiness." Come to think of it, "Her Incomparable Majesty" is also acceptable. If you don't, I will slander & defame you for making me FEEL bad about the fact that some people refuse to see me as the Great Spaghetti Monster. So there.