I find them harder to separate in the capitol incident. The event they were attending was named "Stop the Steal". At some level people there were invested in a tenuous narrative about how functional our elections are.
It's obvious they did not all commit crimes, but they somewhat tacitly encouraged what brought it about. I generally don't feel the same way about BLM activists. There were situations in BLM events where the boundary was overstepped, and inexcusable mob behavior took over. Perhaps I give a big pass because I am sympathetic to the overall aims of the movement, and for the "Stop the Steal" event I see a lot of malice in the lies that caused people to deny (not just question) the outcome of the election.
there were 70M+ that voted for Trump.
estimates say about 1M folks were somewhere around in DC
A few thousands walked to the Capitol
A few hundred got into the building
There were known provocateurs from the other side..not an opinion, charges filed against Antifa and also a CNN reporter who was recorded being excited about the whole thing.
My comments were specific to attendees of the Jan. 6th event. I would assign (varying) culpability to a large majority of that group for the events that followed. 70M have varied reasons for choosing one of two candidates, but people who attended "stop the steal" event have mostly self-selected as buying into an absurd take on our election process and safeguards.
I see one alleged provacateur, John Sullivan, acting on his own volition because he's been rejected from groups for his violent behavior in Utah earlier this year. So far identified and charged participants don't support the early fabrications about the attack being an anti-fascist operation.
It's obvious they did not all commit crimes, but they somewhat tacitly encouraged what brought it about. I generally don't feel the same way about BLM activists. There were situations in BLM events where the boundary was overstepped, and inexcusable mob behavior took over. Perhaps I give a big pass because I am sympathetic to the overall aims of the movement, and for the "Stop the Steal" event I see a lot of malice in the lies that caused people to deny (not just question) the outcome of the election.