What should we call Jan. 6? A riot? A protest? An act of terrorism?
When it comes to describing violence, language always seems to fall short. I think it may be because these words carry so much weight and we are afraid to use them. Their definitions are anchored in some major historical event and any acts that follow just aren’t comparable. Especially when discussing terrorism.
Nothing ever seems to be quite scary or violent enough when, in reality, the word simply means an act of violence to incite terror for political reasons. In that case, shouldn’t we call Jan. 6 an act of terrorism? Trump supporters storming the Capitol seems like politically-charged violence to me.
But describing it as such would force us to look inward and at other acts of terrorism that have never been labelled as such – are we ready for that?
