I was in a mood, I still think Ong is an idiot, but I do want to acknowledge that he's shown a lot of candor and civility in the face of being called an imbecile by multiple people. Also I won't deny that he is right that much of this is a matter of opinion-- do these set of facts sum to a coup? An insurrection? Do we even share the same set of facts? With information sources so fractured, we really can't assume we're anywhere near on the same page, but often this is assumed and just causes heals to be dug in.
From what I've seen, if anything such as an objective opinion existed, I think that what happened on the 6th in DC had a terrible damage to democracy:value of the cause ratio. Meaning, while I don't think it's true, I could see someone arguing that the actions over the spring/summer had more potential to dislodge American democracy. However, I think it's an "objective opinion" that the grievances were both actual and inherently more worthwhile than those that underpinned the actions of the 6th. Thinking of this ratio in the extreme, a German opposition coup would have been justified in the aftermath of Hitler's democratic ascension.
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