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Remember how significant the response was by certain arms of the United States government when more than two million people said they were going to Storm Area 51, but only only around 75 people actually ended up at the base’s gate back in 2019?
The FBI showed up at the event creator’s door to make sure he wasn’t some sort of terrorist, the United States Air Force issued a very stern warning slash threat, and the United States Department of Defense threatened to bomb any event attendees if they came too close to the base. (The DoD later apologized.
)These government agencies were made aware of the potential for thousands of people showing up at Area 51 and were taking preparatory measures basically because it was so widely discussed on social media.
“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” President Trump tweeted on Dec. 19. “Be there, will be wild!”
“If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism,” a member of the Red-State Secession Facebook group posted the day before the riot.
Guess what other event was widely discussed on social media before it happened? Wednesday’s riot at the United States Capitol.
Where were the warnings this time? What are they hiding?
It wasn’t so long ago that President Donald Trump proclaimed “when the looting starts the shooting starts” and that anyone who vandalizes any Federal building in America would be prosecuted and face a “MINIMUM TEN YEARS IN PRISON,” as he tweeted in late July 2020.
Sadly, the events of January 6, 2021 at the Capitol seemed to not have been taken nearly as seriously by law enforcement and government agencies as the rather obvious tongue-in-cheek threats to Storm Area 51 back in 2019.
This dichotomy was not lost on many folks on social media following the violent insurrection in D.C. on Tuesday.
