In a comment on this platform, a reader accused me of using “exotic language” in my essays. I thought I was just using the English language and benefited from a mother who never told me what a word meant when I asked but rather replied, “boy, get a dictionary, look it up.” I advanced from this for each word I looked up stayed with me and informed my current vocabulary. This got me to thinking and as such, have decided to explain the concept of hyperbole.

From what I know (thanks to dictionaries not yet banned or canceled), hyperbole referees to the use of exaggerated statements in a rhetorical manner to advance claims not meant to be taken literally. As it stands, this definition is basically misunderstood for I am constantly advised that the folk that constantly chirp (proffer a signal in which the frequency increases or decreases with time) that US Citizens, especially conservatives or cats that voted for Trump are more dangerous than Al Qaeda is just hyperbole. This my friends is not hyperbole for the folk that openly opine such mean it.

There is a mounting refrain of security experts and politicians that continuously cast anyone that doesn’t tout liberal talking points in a characterization that is typically reserved for ISIS and Al Qaeda. These people most likely occupy elitists positions and would never vote for anyone without Democrat in front of their name yet lack the sanity to see the authoritarianism they support for the rabid Maoism it is. They call what happened in January a terrorist attack and armed insurrection albeit no one apprehended possessed a firearm.

This direction of the intentional use of misinformation and outright lies to control and limit conversation is dangerous for several reasons. Not only does it eventually end up as an attack on free speech or the banning books they don't agree with, it also becomes authoritarian control. Censorship and authoritarian behavior, for socialism to succeed, requires conformity and massive government control gained through the promotion of an identity politics agenda where everything is based on sexual orientation, race or sex. This is the methodology for all formulae of the Socialism mandate - greater and greater state supremacy and control over time. Either all of us are free to speak our minds, or none of us are. That this is such an unassuming principle of human rights should even need to be conversed is petrifying.

The fact that it is even being presented to compare nearly have of the electorate and US citizens in the same description with ISIS and Al Qaeda is barbaric. Not one person wore or exploded a suicide bomb. Not one collective assemblage of persons that day, nor any day, burned people alive in cages or held a mass beheading. I wish it was hyperbole, but it isn’t, the dumb among us believe this to be true. They do not whisper in the dark amongst themselves about how this could have come to pass nor are they oblivious to the fact their votes and personal political desires have ushered in these strange times. Some commentators have even begun to call for a new American war on terror in response to the Capitol breech aimed at all conservatives and supporters of President Trump. While presiding over Trump’s impeachment in the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi referred to the rioters as “domestic terrorists,” a phrase that President-elect Joe Biden has also used to describe them. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has openly requested for this group of people to be put on a “no-fly list” of terrorism suspects, a measure that the FBI said it was “actively looking at.” On the House floor before it voted to impeach President Trump, Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Texas Democrat, said that “terrorists attacked the United States of America.” Not to be out done, Senator Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, informed the media that he would reintroduce the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, which passed the House last fall but went nowhere in the Senate. The law would establish new offices at the FBI, the DHS and the Department of Justice dedicated to assessing and countering threats from far-right extremists.

The world saw what Al Qaeda did. They demonstrated a willingness to kill thousands of civilians in order to send their message of extremism. It was understood that their bloodiest attacks were aimed toward mass killing. Likewise, the Islamic State’s actions inveterate the same. In addition to the mass slaughter of thousands of innocent civilians, they incorporated sexual slavery, beheadings, and mass executions of Kurds, Christians and Sunnis. 

Personally, I feel every American should have a problem with responding to what happened on January 6 with the tools of counterterrorism, especially if they will not be equally applied to what happened in Portland, Seattle, Chicago, New York, Kenosha, Rochester , Los Angeles or any other city during the Summer of 2020. The use of the word extremist now simply means people who voted or preferred the wrong candidate. No discussion or argument rather agree with their positions or be silenced for dissent will not be accepted. It is the communist/socialist way – fight your own people over foreign enemies. There are more troops stationed in Washington, DC presently than there are in Afghanistan. China and Russia must be laughing at us right now.

All the above are antithetical to the Bill of Rights. All laws against free speech will and do result in harm. So, the current popular argument that people like select groups of people and news outlets or writers need to be muzzled because they're inspiring harm or hate to happen are specious. Politicians that suggest “those who came and participated must be found and prosecuted,” or “those who aided and abetted must be found and prosecuted” are the true extremist akin to ISIS. I heard Trumps speech to the people, and I didn't hear him say attack the Capitol, but I did hear the democrats and media say that the riots were necessary over the Summer of 2020.  

The standards and bar for these accusations are so extremely politicized and low. The impeachment proceedings were meaningless, and nothing said about Trump can be taken seriously anymore. News is presented and reported on by dishonest journalist and its citizens are huge hypocrites that only pretend to care about riots when the group are part of a side that they dislike. Riots went on in other cities for years. Democrats loved them. They never ever condemned violence. This is what is still happening in Portland and Seattle.

Seventy-four million Americans voted for Trump, and tens of millions believe that aspects of the November election were troubling. This was worsened by refusing to hold a formal hearing on the concerns raised. If you did nothing wrong, what is there to hide?  Treating the pro-Trump collective like a terrorist measure will fail. If you think such, you will fool yourself into thinking that the United States can mollify and extinguish it using the methods that have destroyed al-Qaeda and ISIS. MAGA is far more deep-rooted and cannot be exterminated using any means of counterterrorism. This movement cannot be truncated like a terrorist movement, and it will not go away even if one tried to employ such measures.

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