NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON – In response to remarks from the U.S., the government Feb. 4 compared the violent protests against its farm reforms to the rioting by the supporters of former
Photo: Brent Stirton (Getty Images)
The first few weeks of 2021 have been a lesson in white privilege for anyone who’d still like to deny its existence in America. We saw a mass of domestic terrorists take over the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, threatening to assassinate elected officials and even trampling to death some of their own fellow MAGA members, all because they were mad that other (read: non-white) Americans’ votes count when it comes to deciding who the president is. After the attack, most of them went right back to their white-collar jobs and the businesses they owned, with no fear of repercussions for their actions.
Parler, a veritable breeding ground of far-right extremists, has arguably come under the most fire for its part in the Capitol riots, but let’s not forget that the internet is a big place, and violent radicalization on the scale we saw on Jan. 6 doesn’t develop in a bubble. Case in point: The Federal Bureau of Investigation said this week that a group of far-right militia members used Facebook Messenger to coordinate their actions during the siege on the Capitol Building.