A bit H/T today to photog at Orion’s Cold Fire, whose blogging and re-reporting on the riots have helped me keep abreast of events amid my illness.  I’ve linked to several of his posts throughout as reference.

One thing that’s struck me about the rioting is the utter lack of response from authorities in large cities.  It seems that the prudent response should have been, from the moment the first brick flew through the window of a Wendy’s, an overwhelming yet restrained show of force.  Make some arrests, crack some skulls judiciously when warranted, and send the clear signal that rioting is not allowed.

Instead, blue cities are completely kowtowing to the rioters.  Minneapolis’s City Council voted—ludicrously!—to disband the Minneapolis Police Department.  The mayor of Minneapolis—a radical Leftist—has washed his hands of the looting, essentially endorsing it.  In Massachusetts, the Attorney General has justified rioting as a positive good, saying, “Yes, America is burning, but that’s how forests grow.”

While the violence is shocking, the reasons it’s gone largely unchallenged are obvious.  For one, the political and social elites—the so-called “goodwhites” in John Derbyshire’s parlance—endorse the radical worldview that, at best, washes its hands of race riots, claiming, “I haven’t walked in their shoes, so I can’t judge whether or not blacks rioting is just justified.”  At worst, they actively support the riots, as the chilling quote from the Massachusetts Attorney General attests.  In general, they’re part of what is essentially the new imperial cult for the elites, what the Z Man calls “The Cult of Inclusion.”

The cult-like elements are clear:  to outsiders, the thought processes of the cult are insane, but to members, it’s the only lens through which to make sense of the world.  Even orgies of violence become justified in the genuflecting towards race.  Note the rituals, too:  whites kneeling, almost literally worshiping black people; the repeated chants of racial solidarity; the invocation of justice.  Those who breach the cult are essentially persona non grata, and are read out of it completely.

Of course, what’s terrifying is that practice of this new imperial cult is widespread among people with actual power.  That’s why we see police departments standing down—and police chiefs lying on their faces in absurd, tragicomic displays of piety, conceding to the rioters their inherent righteousness.

There is another reason, though, that the riots have gone unchallenged, and it’s one that’s instructive for conservatives:  the mob has sheer numbers on its side.  According to this past weekend’s Radio Derb, some mobs outnumber the police and National Guardsmen available to fight back.  The mobs are just too large.

A commenter on photog’s post “Which State Will Grovel Least to the Looters?,” Josh Aegis, related the story of how his Idaho town prevented looters from destroying it:

We heard that looters in Spokane WA were thinking about coming over to CoeurDalene Idaho, and we FLOODED the streets with armed patriots, people carrying rifles on every street corner downtown, in front of businesses, etc. dozens and dozens (some say well into the hundreds) of armed patriots cane out and held the line. The Antifa jerks drove over, saw us, and hightailed it. One carload was so pissed they couldn’t riot, they tried to yell cuss words at the armed people as they fled out of town st high speed. NOTHING happened here, even though a ten minute drive away in Spokane there was looting, riots and arson and curfews and attacks on cops.

After that night, they didn’t even bother coming back to Idaho again. Oh, and PS, our police were absolutely fine with it (not that there was anything they could do anyway, our laws allow our citizens to wear level IV armor and carry an AR15 in broad daylight on downtown streets). We only do it when we need to. Usually we just carry pistols.

Antifa are cowards.  Note that when faced with the least real resistance, they crumpled—and pitched a childish fit.  That’s worth remembering:  these aren’t cool, hardened warriors (like the good people of Coeur Dalene, Idaho); they’re spoiled, mentally unstable rich kids LARPing as revolutionaries.

That doesn’t mean they aren’t dangerous, or that their ideas and actions are radically revolutionary.  They are.  What it means, though, is that they are easy to stymie with a show of force.

It’s also worth noting that armed conservatives could put up a good resistance against government tyranny, if need be.  Conservatives are, naturally, far more reluctant to throw bricks through windows, and should largely avoid doing that.  But if the point arrives when such drastic actions are required to defend liberty, conservatives should take solace in knowing that they can resist the authorities just as Antifa has.

I will add one caveat to that:  Antifa has the advantage of having the authorities on their side. The police might hate them for destroying their cities and then whining when they get pushed by a police officer, but the upper brass and the municipal authorities are in bed with the looters.  Conservatives won’t enjoy that kind of support, and I imagine official crackdowns of conservatives would be far more brutal than what we’re seeing from municipal authorities now.

We’re living in some bleak times.  But we can learn some lessons from our enemies, the better to defeat them.