Before and after teaching class last night, I heard the news. Though not official until 0300 ET this morning, it was clear that The Donald’s defeat was certain. That creepy, sleepy Uncle Joe is now going to be Massa in another 13 days.

Even more creepy was the news of intrusion, fighting and more at the Capitol (and at least a dozen Statehouses).

But this morning, what do I find? I try to visit a half-dozen or more libertarian websites regularly, finding new information, new insights (better than mine, usually!), and new ideas and encouragement. This morning, I am surprised to find something odd. Virtually NONE of the usual sites even discuss the events of Wednesday.

The exceptions I’ve found so far? First, Tom Knapp’s Garrison Center. Read his thoughts here. Now, I don’t think it was really a putsch – by intent or not. But he raises a good many excellent points. Thanks, Tom.

And Caitlin Johnstone, who published a very pointed article, MSM already using Capitol Hill Riot to call for more internet censorship. Way to go, Caitlin.

But nothing at all – not yet – from the usual places. Nothing at FFF, AIER, EFF, RRND, LewRockwell, Reason – except a few news articles reporting what happened. Articles either echoing the mainstream media, or just reposting them. But NO opinion, NO analysis, NO commentary. Not even Ari Armstrong or Kent or Vin. Weird!

Why?

Perhaps it is because everyone is still stunned and unable to get their thoughts together well enough to write up to their usual standards. Maybe.

Maybe it is because they are trying to get more information than JUST what is portrayed in the mainstream media. A possibility – though unusual.

Or… Is it fear?

Now that a Biden-Harris regime is going to be a reality in just over two weeks, are people who live, at best, on the fringe of American political life, running scared?

Scared that it is not just their YouTube and Twitter accounts and monetization that is threatened, but the very existence of their outlets: their websites, and more. Perhaps even their freedom or the future of their families. Or perhaps, their lives?

It has been clear for years that the agenda of the SJW, the “progressive” regressives, AND THEIR BACKERS, includes gutting freedom of speech. In political terms, the “resetting” of the First Amendment. Caitlin’s article (above) includes reports of the NYT and other MSM calls for more and more control of speech. Especially the internet, now that the printed page is a dying media, quickly being followed by broadcast television.

Is this the case? Am I impugning the honor of a lot of good people, indeed, accusing them of cowardice? Maybe.

Of course, they are in “good company.” Look at the photographs of fearful, yes, COWARDLY, representatives of the people and the States cowering in the Capitol and fleeing. Watch more and more politicians and bureaucrats – especially the so-called Deep State senior civil service – proudly and publicly abandon the sinking ship of Donald J. Trump and the GOP itself. (Even though it is clearer than ever that the GOP – at least its leadership and “stars” – are as anti-Trump as any Democratic operative or mob.)

Fear is always an important element of human, involuntary government. But today, more than ever, fear is a major factor in political decisions. More and more people have become physical and moral cowards. We see in the actions (the “non-decisions”) of the Nazgul and other courts. We’ve seen it on the floors of the House and Senate even when there was NOT a howling mob streaming in. We’ve seen it in Statehouses and city halls. Being a coward is “in.”

I’d like to think that is NOT the case with libertarian commentators.

Of course, there is a minute possibility that there is another reason, as my wife pointed it… Maybe the arrests are already happening. Maybe Vin and Kent and Jacob and even Leonard and some of the others have been rounded up, as part of an ongoing effort to “secure democracy” in these Fifty States. I sincerely pray not.

So let me toss my hat in the ring with Tom and Caitlin.

What happened in DC yesterday was disgusting, sickening, and saddening. Not just the invasion of the Capitol, but much else. (I do NOT consider the Stop the Steal rally to be disgusting: that was politics as normal, and I do not consider what Trump said to that very large crowd to have been inciting violence or encouraging an attack on the Capitol and Congress.)

Whether or not a false flag attack (as some are claiming, with support from eyewitnesses), the invasion of the Capitol was wrong. Evil. Divisive. STUPID and counterproductive for both of the factions: Red and Blue. (Even if most of what is being reported is exaggerated and inflammatory. One of the videos Caitlin posted of the “occupation” of the Capitol showed a few weirdly-dressed people taking selfies while small crowds of other people stood looking at the paintings in the Rotunda – not much different than the pictures I have from my visits to that building back in the 1970s and 1980s.)

I do not think it was a serious (or farcical) attempt at a putsch. Much less an attempted coup. Regardless of who first let the crowd (not yet a mob, at that time) in (again, video shows cops willingly opening the barricades to let them in), there were clearly people who had planned to do nasty things. And frustrated by reports and the past two months and more, there are no doubt sincere supporters of Trump who joined in the madness. And thereby severely damaged their cause. And that of liberty.

In doing so, they of course played right into the hands of the never-Trumpers, in the media, and in the Democrat and Republican parties and the bureaucracy. Stupid.

But what it was is yet another incident in this continuing civil war, destroying what is left of these “United States.” Indeed, cry, the beloved country.