Sadly, I think something like this was inevitable and it will likely happen again.
I am not ready to say this was specifically a “conspiracy” because I have expected it for a long time. They pretty much guaranteed it over the last year. “Protestors” entered the Governor’s mansion in WA state the same day, but it did not get much press with the hysteria at the capital.
They have been primed with the narrative through years of gaslighting and now they had “video” and a story that fit the narrative they have pushed on the public. It was predictable.
I will admit that I am taken aback at the level of hysteria. I suppose I should not be. I am saddened for the loss of the life of the young lady and I certainly believe that some of what we witnessed was by anarchists who may or may not be Trump supporters, but let us all know the truth. A mob is a mob and many people, even those not predisposed to “mob behavior”, can easily become swept up in it.
“Never let a crisis go to waste.”
To clarify - I think almost all of the people on the mall that day were the same folks who showed up at Trump rallies or those who stand and hold signs in our cities or towns. Just good folks exercising their 1st Amendment right to “protest”.
It only takes a few people with bad intent or caught up in the moment to ruin it for the rest.
They don’t appear to be much of a mob...the thousands who were at the demonstration did not try to get into the Capitol, just a smallish group. And even they were let in and led in by the police. I don’t think they expected to enter, and most of them even seemed surprised when the police moved aside the barriers outside, in one snippet of a video I saw.
I hope somebody is saving all these little video bits taken by participants (or even some press reports) because I’m sure they’ll disappear soon otherwise. They’re frustrating because usually their author isn’t identified and you have to look closely to make sure that this is indeed a video of the event and not some earlier video that was floating around. But somebody with the skills should grab all these things, verify and catalogue them in some way.