Quilt coats by Kathleen McVeigh If 2020 made you crave a simpler life, you re not alone. The pandemic year motivated Americans to take up embroidery, install chicken coops in their backyards and, for those who could afford it, buy property sight-unseen in rural states, including Vermont. Aesthetics, both in fashion and home design, quickly followed. News media documented the proliferation of the nap dress, a flowing dress-nightgown hybrid. Pressed and dried flowers proliferated. Hand-knitted sweater tutorials abounded on social media. Terminology sprang up around the trends, too, and words such as cottagecore and cabincore quickly became part of the online lexicon. To better understand the style and whether your clothes fit the definition you can ask yourself:
It had never happened before in this country. We re going to take our country back! was the battle cry of the day and has been the rebel yell of the radical right for some time. The question: Back from whom? Back to where?
It looks a lot like the Lost Cause dating from the late 1800s and Reconstruction following the defeat of the South in the Civil War, repackaged for working-class white Americans who feel aggrieved. It also bears similarity to fascist movements and the failed 1923 Nazi coup known as the Beer Hall Putsch. It is white nationalism.
The attacking mob on Jan. 6, 2021, numbered in the thousands mostly white men who believed the election had been stolen based solely on the word of President Donald Trump who had lost some 50 court challenges to the overwhelming victory by Joe Biden. Republicans in Congress reinforced the lie. But the mob didn t need much convincing. These self-described patriots had been spoiling for a fight for some time.