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What Trump did on January 6 was an insurrection attempt. Its goal was to overturn the democracy of the United States and replace it with a dictatorship.

==On the January 6 coup attempt==

This “protest” and storming of the capitol is not based on any reasonable, rational fact, but is instead based on baseless lies and conspiracy theories. They are protesting and attempting a coup based on facts which have no basis in objective reality. I never thought I would see a coup attempt in the US; I was wrong.

The famous quote “you’re entitled to your opinions, but not to your facts” comes to mind. The problem we have right now is that the right wing is living in a world of lies.

No, Obama is not a Muslim born in Kenya. Yes, we actually landed on the moon. No, there is not a pedophile ring going on at a pizza joint. Yes, a number of children my daughter’s age were senselessly killed by a madman at Sandy Hook. No, the election was not rigged. And so on.

This is not a policy debate about whether to lower taxes or the government’s role in society. This is a question of whether we accept and act on objective facts, or whether we choose to live in a world of lies and fantasy.

George Orwell’s novel 1984 is not, by and large, about universal surveillance. It is about fascists creating a world of lies so that they can get and stay in power. Winston Smith was tortured because he did not believe the lies of Big Brother. The world of 1984 would not had been possible if there were not so many people unquestionably accepting those lies as truth, even when they are self-contradictory.

Just like Orwell’s nightmare world, Trump’s attempts at fascism would not have been accepted by so many if they critically examined facts and learned to distinguish truth from fantasy.

The picture of Trump flags during the storming of the US Capitol was taken by Tyler Merbler and is available under an open license. The picture has been modified from the original.

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