To all those who failed to object to the lies, to all those who failed to speak out against the bullying and who followed where Donald Trump led, to those who refused to call witnesses for the impeachment and who voted against a removal from office…  you do not get to be offended; you have no moral right to condemn those who acted on your words.  From your positions of responsibility, you have asked the people to put their faith in you; can you really be surprised then that those to whom you have lied again and again are now caught in a place where they are no longer able to reconcile the difference between your lies and the truth?

This is the environment that you created.  For the past several years – going back even further than the election of Donald Trump, trusted politicians and the media outlets have continued to push the legitimacy of the unfounded questioning of election corruption.  Their public statements supporting the groundless legal campaigns and their unwavering support for the erroneous claims that postal voting is fraught with corruption are the supporting beams for the false reality that those who stormed the capitol building now take for truth.

To the politicians and the media I say this, “These people you now seek to condemn have followed your words, they have trodden the path that you laid down… you should be ashamed of yourselves far more than you are ashamed of them.”

For the past 4 years, much of the media environment (yes I mean you Fox News, yes I mean you too Twitter) and much of the political status quo have sought only to enable an environment fuelled by lies and misrepresentation.  During this time, the actions and words of Donald Trump have been defended or ignored by many – and this simple failure to condemn that which is wrong has allowed a shift in the understanding of what is acceptable and what is not: Mexicans described as racists, Neo-Nazis described as “very good people”… the list goes on.  Just as conspiracy theories and false narratives gain weight through the wideness of their circulation, the failure to criticise the flagrant abuses engaged upon by Donald Trump validate  them in the eyes of many.

To all those who followed Donald Trump because you thought that you could be closer to power, to all those who refused to condemn because you were scared of the bully…  YOU created this environment.  YOU are responsible for this.  (This applies to the politicians outside of the United States of America as much as it applies to those inside.)

Perhaps an apposite example of this hypocrisy: the galling statement by the losing Senator Kelly Loeffler, who only hours before the violence said that she would object to the certification of the US President Elect Joe Biden – and who now seeks to condemn the violence which was brought about by the very animosity she and her ilk stoked.  This statement is only surpassed by that of Senator Ted Cruz, who also condemns the violence but at the same time says that his objection to the certification of Joe Biden as President Elect was the right thing to do!  Really?  How do you expect people to react when you tell them that their democratic right to vote has been usurped by a corrupt election?  You reap what you sow.

The continual failure to condemn Donald Trump’s actions for ‘reasons of diplomacy’ play directly into the reinforcement of the acceptability of his actions: there is nothing to be gained by not speaking out immediately.  Sitting on a political fence so that you can ‘ride the whirlwind’ and yet maintain some semblance of dignity when it all comes crashing down because you didn’t actually actively support it…  I call bullshit!

I am more offended by the actions of the media and the politicians than I am by the the violence demonstrated by those who stormed the capitol building.

On a wall in Gaza the street artist Banksy once wrote: “If we wash our hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, we side with the powerful – we don’t remain neutral.”

Well I would add this: if we fail to immediately condemn lies and abuses we are not neutral, we side with the liars and abusers.