January 6 and the Triumph of the Justification Machine Highlight

The function of this bad information was not to persuade non-Trump supporters to feel differently about the insurrection. Instead, it was to dispel any cognitive dissonance that viewers of this attempted coup may have experienced, and to reinforce the beliefs that the MAGA faithful already held. And that is the staggering legacy of January 6. With the justification machine whirring, the riot became just more proof of the radical left’s shocking violence or the deep state’s never-ending crusade against Trump. By January 7, Google searches for antifa and BLM (which had not played a role in the event) surpassed those for Proud Boys (which had). In the months and years after the attempted coup, the justification machine worked to keep millions of Americans from having to reckon with the reality of the day. December 2023 polling by The Washington Post found that 25 percent of respondents believed that it was “definitely” or “probably” true that FBI operatives had organized and encouraged the attack on the Capitol. Twenty-six percent were not sure.