THERE'S NOTHING PROGRESSIVE ABOUT OUR PROGRESSIVE OVERLORDS.

Their mind-set is the same as that of the overlords of the Thirty Years' War.

Werner Schuch, Two Riders of the Thirty Years' War and Farmers, 1881, oil on canvas.

Painting from the collection of the Grohmann Museum at Milwaukee School of Engineering.

Donald "Cafe Hayek" Boudreaux elaborates.

Yet for centuries, priests and monarchs and court toadies issued such determinations.

It’s nothing short of astonishing that those who today call for a return to such dark-ages’ practices call themselves “Progressive” – and are so uninformed about history as to believe their self-flattery.

It's on the oppressed peasants to push back.  Perhaps they are.  Two experts on domestic terrorism reported some of their work in an establishment magazine, and what they didn't find was the most meaningful finding.

[A] large majority of suspects in the Capitol riot have no connection to existing far-right militias, white-nationalist gangs, or other established violent organizations. We erred on the side of inclusion; we counted an arrestee as affiliated with such an organization if any court documents or news articles describe the person as a member, refer to social-media posts expressing an affinity for a certain group, or attest to patches or apparel that directly indicate support.

Tip of the iceberg?

[T]he demographic profile of the suspected Capitol rioters is different from that of past right-wing extremists. The average age of the arrestees we studied is 40. Two-thirds are 35 or older, and 40 percent are business owners or hold white-collar jobs. Unlike the stereotypical extremist, many of the alleged participants in the Capitol riot have a lot to lose. They work as CEOs, shop owners, doctors, lawyers, IT specialists, and accountants. Strikingly, court documents indicate that only 9 percent are unemployed. Of the earlier far-right-extremist suspects we studied, 61 percent were under 35, 25 percent were unemployed, and almost none worked in white-collar occupations.

Is it too soon to hypothesize that many of the participants had been deemed "nonessential" by lockdown-mad governors or seen depression and cabin fever among their kids?

Let the ruling classes tremble.

What’s clear is that the Capitol riot revealed a new force in American politics—not merely a mix of right-wing organizations, but a broader mass political movement that has violence at its core and draws strength even from places where Trump supporters are in the minority. Preventing further violence from this movement will require a deeper understanding of its activities and participants, and the two of us do not claim to know which political tactics might ultimately prove helpful. But Americans who believe in democratic norms should be wary of pat solutions. Some of the standard methods of countering violent extremism—such as promoting employment or waiting patiently for participants to mellow with age—probably won’t mollify middle-aged, middle-class insurrectionists. And simply targeting better-established far-right organizations will not prevent people like the Capitol rioters from trying to exercise power by force.

It's unlikely that the kind of "truth and reconciliation" attempts at "dialogue" will have much effect. On the other hand, if the political class stops ordering people around, that might work.

The exact share of the GOP coalition responsive to extremist White nationalist beliefs or the use of violence to advance political goals is impossible to measure precisely. But polling and other research suggests that the best way to think about it may be through concentric circles radiating out from hard-core believers willing to commit violence themselves to a much broader range of GOP voters who might not become violent personally but express sympathy or understanding for those who do.

Don't say I didn't warn you.  "Did the thought leaders really think that they could stick their fingers in the eyes of normal Americans, and that normal Americans would refrain from being transgressive when everybody else's transgressiveness gets celebrated?"  That was four years ago, and a year of "fifteen days to slow the spread" including a summer of "fiery but mostly peaceful protests" have done nothing by way of counterarguments to the claims of the hard-core believers.

But Our Progressive Overlords show no sign of getting off their high horses.