Something tells me the storming of the capitol building wasn’t so much a putsch attempt as just a release of pent-up anger – more Storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 and less the takeover of the Winter Palace on October 25, 1917. However, we all know what the Storming of the Bastille eventually led to.

After the 2020 Summer of Love, where left wing protestors and rioters took to the streets, the MAGA mob breaking into the capitol building doesn’t come as much of a surprise. I follow people both on the left and right on Twitter, and I read news sources that lean both ways, and the dissonance between how both sides view reality could not be larger. From COVID to the election to the state of bigotry in the U.S. to who’s protesters/rioters are worse or more justified, both sides have their true believers. The failure of both the left wing and right wing radicals to achieve every one of their aims will only foster more radicalism.

None of this is all that surprising. The United States is an empire on the decline. It’s unlikely that we would be conquered or vanquished from external enemies, but history teaches us that threats from the inside are just as dangerous, if not more so. We do, indeed, live in interesting times. I suppose we should all be grateful to be living through history – future historians will likely talk about what caused the fall of the American Empire for centuries to come.