1-2 billion dollars? Over 2 weeks across 20 states? That's horrible.

January 6th damage was estimated at $2.7 billion dollars by the GAO. That riot (more of an attempted coup) actually was coordinated by actual, tangible right wing extremist groups rather than the shadowy "Antifa" fiction that hides underneath all of your beds.

https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-106625.pdf

>It is riots like those mentioned that I presume this executive order is targeting.

You presume? This administration has lost the benefit of any doubt. This is a cabal of shameless liars and they should be denounced at every turn.

This is yet another transparent attempt to circumvent basic American rights and you're defending it like I said something mean about your local sports team.

▲ stale2002 15 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> That's horrible.

Indeed it is. And any other whataboutisms you bring up doesn't change that.

The topic was about if there was any leftwing violence. Which there has been. 1-2 billion dollars worth in just that time period. Anything else you bring up doesn't erase that.

> I said something mean about your local sports team.

Actually, you seem to be the one who brought up other teams or sides when I stated a true fact. A fact that you haven't disagree with. You tried to downplay this in your original post and you were wrong to do so.

"You brought up this bad thing, oh yeah, well what about this other completely unrelated bad thing that the other team did!" is precisely the team sports thinking that you have engaged in, not me.

▲

Smeevy 14 hours ago | parent [-]

One fun thing about talking with right wing internet commenters is that they don't really have any firm beliefs (protecting pedophiles is okay now, the government can take guns away from some people, etc.) and they love to feign grievance about darn near anything. I've got a little time so I might as well take the bait.

>The topic was about if there was any leftwing violence.

Was it? I mentioned the leftist violence, and absence thereof, in particular circumstances that you ignored. There was a slew of other stuff in there, but the main gist was attempting to counteract the other poster whataboutsing Biden saying that MAGA are awful people which, in turn, caused a whirlwind of hurt feelings that forced them vote in an authoritarian. You ignored that and wanted to review financials about black people rioting, thereby missing the forest for the trees and I should not have bothered to respond. Mea culpa.

>"You brought up this bad thing, oh yeah, well what about this other completely unrelated bad thing that the other team did!" is precisely the team sports thinking that you have engaged in, not me.["]

I hope you are not expecting me to take you seriously. I've been whatabouticized so many times by conservative pearl-clutchers online that it has no effect anymore. Near as I can tell, there's only one "team" here and I ain't on it. It seems to revel in disgusting me.

If you can spend even a second defending this administration running roughshod over our Constitution then I have no interest in your political viewpoint. The best time to have been shaming conservatives was decades ago, but I guess now will have to do. My only hope is that the America Right can rediscover their sense of shame.

▲

stale2002 10 hours ago | parent [-]

> I mentioned the leftist violence, and absence thereof

Yes you did mention this. And it is wrong. As proven by the evidence that I showed you.

> review financials about black people rioting

That actually super racist of you. There was not some overwhelming majority of black people engaging in violence during those riots and I am not sure why you insinuated at such. The demographics of the people rioting were generally about the same as the demographics of relevant location of where the events. As should be expected.

Additionally, the demographics of the more serious revolutionary/anarchist (and sometimes called antifa) type groups tend to be overwhelmingly white.

The more peaceful protest groups that are focused on police reformed tend toward being full of people of color and aren't focused on overthrowing the government and implementing socialism/anarchism/whatever like the revolutionary groups are.

> I've been whatabouticized

I am not sure why you think a stupid fallacy is justified just because there is some other person in the world engaging in the same stupid fallacy.

You have ironically just engaged in the same whataboutism again. In order to justify you engaging in whataboutism, you have once again appealed to "well some other person did it to me!". Team sports once again.

If I were writing a joke about politics and fallacies in which I made fun of this behavior of justifying whataboutisms with a literal whataboutism, it wouldn't even be funny because it would be too over the top and on the nose.

	▲	Smeevy 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I've just been called racist and accused of engaging in whataboutism AND tribalism by a Republican online. That's a bingo, everybody!

▲ throwacct 15 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I'm independent, and the $2.7 billion (which is a crazy amount of money) was basically to pay to procecute +1000 rioters.

That is vastly different from burning cities, etc...

Now, I've seen what antifa militants do almost every time they protest, and to be honest, they should have been declared domestic terrorists sooner rather than later. You can protest without having to vandalize/burning buildings, etc.

▲ defrost 14 hours ago | parent | next [-]

From the GAO report:

   Over the course of about 7 hours, more than 2,000 protesters entered the U.S. Capitol on January 6, disrupting the peaceful transfer of power and threatening the safety of the Vice President and

members of Congress.

  The attack resulted in assaults on at least 174 police officers, including 114 Capitol Police and 60 D.C. Metropolitan Police Department officers.

  These events led to at least seven deaths and caused about $2.7 billion in estimated costs.

The footnote on the cost estimate reads:

  This amount reflects, among other things, damage to the Capitol building and grounds, estimated costs borne by the Capitol Police, the District of Columbia, and federal agencies, and estimated costs to address security needs and investigations as described in budget and funding requests, appropriations, agency estimates, and other publicly available information.

~ https://www.gao.gov/assets/d23106625.pdf

▲

throwacct 12 hours ago | parent [-]

> These events led to at least seven deaths

Context is everything:

$2.7 billion, where a big part went to:

U.S. Capitol Police (USCP)

Costs: Over $620 million (as reported by GAO).

- Overtime pay for officers during and after the attack. - Mental health services and trauma support for affected personnel. - Recruitment and training of new officers to address staffing shortages. - Enhanced security infrastructure (e.g., fencing, surveillance, communication systems).

Judicial and Prosecution Costs

- Total DOJ Expenditures: Estimated at $100–150 million. - Salaries and overtime for prosecutors, FBI agents, and support staff. - Court operations, including hearings, trials, and detention. - Legal representation for defendants unable to afford counsel.

And if you keep digging, the amount of money spent was basically on human labor and overtime pay.

Now, tell me again how this compares to $2 billion in actual damages to businesses (arson, looting, and vandalism, etc.), with this event being considered the costliest insured civil disorder event in U.S. history?

	▲	Smeevy 12 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I thought it was 1-2 billion dollars.... Are we just sticking with 2 billion now? Do I hear 3? Anybody?
	▲	defrost 11 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I'm unable to tell you again given I've not yet made any comparison between the two, merely quoted the relevant passages from the GAO report. I do note that the damages number you cite has risen from between 1 & 2 to definitely 2 and these damages are associated with a multitude of legitimate peaceful protests that became a magnet for others to stir trouble, loot and riot on a pretext, start gunfights, etc. It's a clear false equivalence to compare the single Jan 6th event of faction aligned protesters who invaded and damaged a building disrupting a democratic transition to a multitude of other events and locations across a lengthier time frame that involved many factions across the political spectrum including apolitical criminals of opportunity.

▲ Smeevy 14 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

>I'm independent

That's great and I totally believe you. Thumbs up emoji and all that.

>I've seen what antifa militants do almost every time they protest,

Oh my gosh, you were serious. Can you point out the "Antifa militants" to me? How would someone go about training to join the Antifa Elite Guard?

I see there's a whole process to get into the Proud Boys and all sorts of other right wing extremist groups on Facebook, but I'm not quite seeing the path to membership for Antifa. Is it because they're so well organized and funded by billionaires?

▲

throwacct 13 hours ago | parent [-]

This is interesting since I'm from a minority group, don't even know who the Proud Boys are, and even though I told you I'm an independent, you assumed right from the get-go my political affiliation. If antifa is not a group but a rabble of misfits, then this classification won't amount to much, would it?

	▲	Smeevy 12 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The road to authoritarianism is apparently paved with people telling me I'm overreacting. This classification, just like every other action taken by this administration, is a means to inflict damage on their ever-expanding list of enemies. The great thing about vague nonsense like this Antifa EO is that they can control who is and isn’t defined as Antifa. With regard to your political affiliation, I honestly do not care. If you want to gabble on about Antifa as if it's a real threat, you might as well just fly the Trump 2028 flag and drop the silly pretense.