Name: AOC Made the Capitol Attack Personal | by Nicholas Grossman | Arc Digital | Arc Digital
Brand: arcdigital.media
SKU: arcdigital-media-4
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

AOC Made the Capitol Attack Personal | by Nicholas Grossman | Arc Digital | Arc Digital

preview

ep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) went to recount her experience of the January 6 attack on the Capitol building. In a 90-minute video, AOC described her rising sense of anxiety as protest turned into riot, and a spike of fear as someone started banging on office doors. She and her legislative director hid, and when they heard a man come inside and yell “where is she?,” AOC says she “thought everything was over.”The man said he was a police officer, but she wasn’t sure if she could trust him. He told them to leave, but not where to go, and they moved through the halls, fearful and uncertain, until sheltering with Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), who calmed her down.This is a powerful new type of public communication. As notes in Variety, “There’s an incredible, immediate intimacy in opening your phone, seeing that someone is live on Instagram, and clicking over to see their face staring straight into yours.” It feels personal, more like a phone call than watching an interview or speech on TV. In three days, over 5.5 million people have seen it, getting a sense, unfiltered by media, of what it was like to be her in that moment.The MAGA right fixated on AOC’s video, scrambling to discredit it. There’s Pizzagater and Claremont fellow , activist/ , Fox commentator , Fox contributor , Fox host , freshman , the Intellectual Dark Web’s , Dave Rubin wannabe , Daily Wire podcaster , “anti-woke” troll , self-described “theocrat” , Parkland survivor turned gun rights activist , conservative blog that purged non-Trumpists , and joke even by the standard of briefly tenured Trump administration officials , among others.Their criticism focuses on how much Ocasio-Cortez was actually in danger, which mostly misses the point. It’s true that her office is in a building connected to the Capitol, not in the Capitol itself, and did not get invaded by insurrectionists. And it’s true that the person who banged on her door was an officer there to help.But she never claimed otherwise. She simply recounted how she felt and what she was thinking in the moment.There are downsides to this too. Some who watched the video or heard about it thought AOC said the officer came to attack her, showing that the Capitol police conspired with insurrectionists. She didn’t say that, but it’s not unreasonable that some got that impression from her expressions of fear and doubt about the officer. National leaders have a responsibility to anticipate how their words will be .But unfortunately for those trying to discredit her entire account, feeling frightened and unsure who to trust are reasonable reactions in that situation., a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, wrote that the events of January 6 reminded him of combat. who were there say something similar. Journalist , who’s covered violent protests, shootings, and a terrorist attack, called it “one of the scariest events I have ever witnessed.” Many Americans far from DC were unnerved watching it unfold on their screens. If it was happening outside your office building, you’d probably feel afraid too, even if the violence didn’t make it inside.And that’s more true for AOC than just about anyone. She’s a go-to villain for right-wing media. She’s received death threats, including from a man who’s been charged for . It’s safe to say there was a real risk some of the rioters would’ve hurt her if they had the chance.The effort to dismiss AOC’s account is partially driven by partisanship — she is, after all, a prominent left-wing Democrat — and partially driven by misogyny, the sort that dismisses women recounting traumatic experiences as rather than legitimate expression. But a lot of the reason why this crowd reacted so strongly is they realize, consciously or not, that AOC’s video heightens attention on an event they’d rather sweep under the rug.A key element of Trumpism is feelings over truth. It doesn’t matter that there’s no evidence of mass voter fraud, . It doesn’t matter that many have money and influence, they feel like they’re oppressed. And if you don’t respect these feelings — if you place factual reality above politically convenient false beliefs — then they feel disrespected, and they feel that’s your problem, not theirs.MAGA media, both professional and social, understand the power of emotion. They’re reacting so strongly to AOC’s video not just because they find her a useful foil, but also because they know it resonates. It complicates their efforts to downplay the Capitol attack, to move on, forget, treat it as just another partisan tiff, rather than what it was: an attack on America, a violent insurrection stoked by the now-ex president’s lies, causing the first non-peaceful transfer of power since Reconstruction.AOC’s video revived raw feelings of anger and fear that typically fade over time. It connected with audiences most politicians can’t reach, including younger Americans who don’t consume traditional media, and women who have experienced assault. It took the Capitol attack out of the realm of detached news coverage and made it personal.No wonder the people who want us to let it slide are so upset.Written by

ep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) went to recount her experience of the January 6 attack on the Capitol building. In a 90-minute video, AOC described her rising sense of anxiety as protest turned into riot, and a spike of fear as someone started banging on office doors. She and her legislative director hid, and when they heard a man come inside and yell “where is she?,” AOC says she “thought everything was over.”The man said he was a police officer, but she wasn’t sure if she could trust him. He told them to leave, but not where to go, and they moved through the halls, fearful and...

AOC Made the Capitol Attack Personal | by Nicholas Grossman | Arc Digital | Arc Digital

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS