BRIDGEWATER, Mass. — In federal court, Mark Sahady and Suzanne Ianni are facing charges of illegal entry and disorderly conduct for their alleged involvement in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. But at a rally against coronavirus restrictions held last month in a field outside Boston, the pair were hailed as “patriots.”
“Yeah, we are definitely not terrorists,” Sahady, 46, told the crowd. “Make no mistake about it: This is a political prosecution.”
…Sahady and Ianni are members of a right-wing, Massachusetts-based group called Super Happy Fun America, which first drew national attention for organizing a 2019 Straight Pride Parade in Boston. At the rally last month, group president John Hugo praised the two as “freedom fighters” for the roles they played on Jan. 6.
…The riot at the Capitol was “like a dry run,” said Scott Gilbert, an activist with the New England chapter of a group called Refuse Fascism, who was one of a few dozen counterprotesters who came to Bridgewater that day. Trump might be out of office, he said, but “that whole movement isn’t just disappearing.”
…“We’ve seen an uptick in censorship, wholesale suspension of conservatives from social media,” said Hugo, who said he did not go to Washington on Jan. 6 because of a knee injury. “It’s like a snake, a boa constrictor, slowly squeezing us, squeezing us, squeezing us. There’s nothing left. We’ve been kicked out of the virtual public square.”
…
The whole article is disgusting. Yeah, these people were always here, but trump gave them legitimacy and invited encouraged them to crawl out from under the rocks where they were living. The instantaneous and ubiquitous nature of social media sped up their spread. And now they’re being blocked on social media-- well, boo-fucking-hoo!
And trump didn’t encourage them because he believes what they believe, because trump doesn’t believe anything. He has no principles except self-promotion. His so-called “management style” is to create chaos. On a small scale within his staff and, in this case, on a grand scale. And then he walks away from the stinky pile that he has created. Just the way a toddler proudly points to the pile of shit he has left behind-- “Mommy (or in his case Daddy), lookie what I made!”