08

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "The Tucker Carlson videos are dropping" and posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. As you can guess from the subject line, this thread was about video footage of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by supporters of former President Donald J. Trump. Speaker of the House Keven McCarthy gave Fox News host Tucker Carlson exclusive access to the footage and Carlson has been presenting select portions of it to his audience. The discussion in this thread is divided between those who believe that it completely exonerates the January 6 insurrectionists and those who argue that it is deceptively edited and that the facts of January 6 are well-known and indisputable. The thread is 21 pages long so I can't summarize much of it, but it looks like many of the posts consist simply of embedded tweets that support the poster's viewpoint. Many of the pro-Trump posters argue that the videos show that the public has been mislead by Democrats and believe that those convicted of January 6 offenses deserve new trials. Posters with opposing viewpoints insist that the lawyers of those convicted had access to the video and could have used it as part of the defense had they so chosen. The January 6 Congressional Committee was also the target of considerable criticism, particularly from posters who seemed to confuse its role with that of the Justice Department and the Courts. It is notable that Carlson's presentation has not only been criticized by Democrats, but also by leading Republicans including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. As is so often the case these days, discussions like this one do little to inform or educate, but instead are simply venues for amplifying previously held viewpoints.