On Wednesday, January 6, 2021, as Congress performed the perfunctory procedure of certifying the electoral college votes that would confirm Joseph Biden as President-elect, an armed mob of thousands of Trump supporters who believed the President’s false claims that he won an election he decisively lost invaded the Capitol building. They were state legislators, veterans, conspiracy theorists, and members of dangerous, far-right organizations such as the Proud Boys. Hoping to overturn the results of a democratic election, this hodge-podge of domestic terrorists stormed, looted, and vandalized the Capitol, forcing lawmakers, staff members, and kitchen and cleaning employees  to evacuate or shelter in place. Five people, including a Capitol police officer, were killed. 

Much attention has been given to the obvious culpability of Trump and his Republican allies in inciting this riot – the mob came from a Trump rally, and even in the wake of the destruction, Trump told them “We love you. You’re very special.” That’s not to mention weeks and weeks of Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that the election was fraudulent. But we as a society haven’t spent much time processing the why of it all, the questions we’re all asking ourselves: Why did this happen? What did the mob hope to accomplish? Why would so many people subscribe to something so ludicrous? Why?

Honestly, we’ll probably never know for sure. However, there are a few key factors that led to this catastrophe. 

1. Misinformation. Beginning on the message board 4chan and exploding across social media patterns, the Qanon conspiracy theory has spread like wildfire in the past few years, especially in the last six months. Widely promulgated by Trump and his cronies, the main tenet of the theory is that Democratic elites belong to a global pedophilic Satanic cult where they drink the blood of children and Trump is secretly fighting them; disturbingly, 54% of the country believes it might be true. One Qanon supporter, Marjorie Taylor Greene, was elected to Congress this November. There’s a clear correlation between the conspiracy theory and the riot: many of the rioters who were arrested have since been identified as active in Qanon, including one who calls himself the “Qanon Shaman.” Trump’s insistence that his supporters “fight like hell” combined with Qanon’s portrayal of evil liberals that only believers in the theory can take down appeals to a fundamental, innate human desire: to be a hero. This compulsion probably strikes a chord with white, conservative, cisgendered straight men, many of whom are uneasy with mainstream society’s promotion of egalitarian partnerships, LGBTQIA+ rights, and sensitivity to emotional pain,  and want to assert their masculinity in a society where they feel like it is no longer valued. We saw evidence of this in the insurrectionists’ military-style outfits, banners reading “f*ck your feelings,” and proclamations that “it’s a revolution” and “it’s [their] 1776 moment.”
2. Disenfranchisement. Contrary to popular depictions of Trump voters, the outgoing president fared better with wealthier voters: he won those with an annual household income over $100,000, while Biden won those with less. But nearly 70% of white men without a college degree voted for Trump in 2020. This demographic often feels left out of the growing multicultural, intellectual mainstream. They’ve faced endless condescension from both party establishments. (In fact, in 2016, Hillary Clinton referred to Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables.”) Then came Trump, who speaks at a 4th grade level, loves KFC, and promised to “drain the swamp” of Washington bureaucracy. (He didn’t do this. He handed massive tax cuts to the rich). Part of Trump’s genius is that even though he’s a billionaire, a member of the oppressive elite class, he assumes a persona of a regular working-class guy. So the white, working-class members of Trump’s base remains faithful to him because he acknowledges their grievances, often in racist, divisive, and profane language, when they feel no one else will. And when Washington consistently left this group behind, they felt a need to make themselves heard. 
3. Racism. Both party establishments have insisted for years that everyone in this country can go “as far as their talents will take them” – this kind of narrative incorrectly insists that individual failures, not meritocratic capitalism, are to blame for economic inequality. For those who haven’t “made it” in life, it creates resentment of the successful. But then came Trump, who blamed immigrants and people of color for the struggles of the white working class. While the research shows we’re not born racist, our biases develop as we’re conditioned into a white supremacist society, and Trump’s scapegoating exacerbated those biases. Extremist ideologies are easy to embrace if you feel you have nothing to lose. 

So how do we prevent this from ever happening again? First of all, we need more regulation of misinformation on social media. The first amendment merely states that the government cannot abridge free speech. That doesn’t mean there are no consequences to saying whatever you want. In fact, speech that presents a “clear and present danger” is Unconstitutional, and Congress needs to establish penalties for those who spread it. Additionally, if Facebook and Twitter, two private companies, label misinformation on social media for what it is, remove violent language, and block the accounts of those who perpetuate false claims or hate speech, it wouldn’t violate civil rights. It would actually protect public safety and prevent more people from falling prey to harmful organizations.

The other solutions are much more complicated. We need to restore the idea of the dignity of work and condemn the patronization of unskilled workers. The pandemic has laid bare that our society depends on grocery store checkers, cleaning staff, truck drivers, and nursing home aides. It’s time they get their due, not only in wages but in recognition and respect. And finally, we need to combat institutionalized racism in every aspect of our society, beginning in our schools. Children should be exposed to role models of every color and taught a history that doesn’t glorify colonialism, but instead criticizes our country’s brutal history and elevates the struggle for racial justice. 

Otherwise, white nationalism and domestic terror will come to define our nation.