As I think about and hope is the case with most of the readers at Inside Larger Ed, I’m nonetheless ruminating over final week’s occasions on the Capitol. I had deliberate to write down and publish a weblog publish about productiveness final week, however I’ve to admit that my well-laid plans for the primary week of 2021 had been shot to hell once I spent a number of hours doom scrolling on Wednesday afternoon.
After studying Matt Reed’s (aka Dean Dad’s) plea to “write it down,” in reference to the continued occasions that included final week’s assault on the Capitol, I made a decision to do exactly that.
I thought of easy methods to strategy writing about what occurred and determined that sharing among the tweets I used to be studying can be a means of sharing how I skilled the afternoon.
So, that is what the afternoon of Wednesday, Jan. 6 seemed like:
I used to be upstairs in my work-from-home workplace. It was my first day again at work. It had been a improbable morning. I had simply come from a Boston common pre-Ok advisory board assembly, and I used to be impressed to do all of the issues. I used to be catching up on electronic mail and had the New York Occasions stay feed of electoral hearings happening my second monitor with commentary from reporters and editors. It was simply after 2:00 p.m. when it began to crumble.
At that time, I pulled up my TrumpWatch record on Twitter — the one I created the day after means again in November of 2016. I created this record to cease myself from limitless doom scrolling on Twitter. I added a few of my favourite journalists, writers, lecturers and editors to an inventory, and every time I’ve felt the necessity to know what was happening within the final four-plus years, I’d go to this record and spend 5 minutes or 60 catching up. I might rapidly dive in but additionally get out simply as rapidly. With the election of Biden and Harris, I had been cautiously optimistic in regards to the prospect of deleting this record, however I in a short time turned grateful that I nonetheless had it.
I share a few of my favourite tweets under:
@nhannahjones 3:36pm 1/3/2021 You’ll be able to’t be shocked by Trump and but have accepted the obtrusive anti-democracy insurance policies of the final decade. Nicely, let me rephrase, it’s a luxurious to be shocked by Trump, and what very effectively could occur is Trump will fail, however the effort to erode democracy will succeed.
Nikole Hannah Jones is a New York Occasions reporter and revealed this three days previous to the occasion on the Capitol, however it was on heavy retweet that afternoon. For me the phrase “it’s a luxurious to be shocked by Trump” actually resonated. If you’re shocked, the place have you ever been?
@davidfrum 2:15pm 1/6/2021 Violent pro-Trump insurrectionists have simply interrupted debate within the US Senate.
David Frum is a employees author at The Atlantic and writer of Trumpocalypse. For me, this was the mark of the start of my afternoon of doom scrolling, speaking to household and buddies, and consuming purple wine.
@chrislhayes 2:18pm 1/6/2021 I feel it is good police are performing with restraint. However let’s not child ourselves about how that is normally handled when it is a completely different set of protestors!
Chris Hayes is a information anchor at MSNBC and editor-at-large of The Nation. I embrace this tweet as a result of it speaks to the Nikole Hannah Jones tweet and her level in regards to the luxurious to be white and oblivious and the racialized relationships we now have with police.
@sethmoulton 2:29pm 1/6/2021 We’re being informed to shelter in place not due to a overseas terrorist assault however due to a home coup try. I anticipated this as a US Marine in Iraq. I by no means imagined it as a US Congressman in America.
Seth Moulton is a Massachusetts rep (my state), and this assault jogged my memory of the Oklahoma Metropolis bombing in so some ways. Seth’s tweet simply bolstered that reminder.
@kailijoy 2:42pm 1/6/2021 When Democrats misplaced in 2016, they knitted pink hats and donated to Deliberate Parenthood.
Kaili Pleasure Grey is an government editor at The American Unbiased. About this time, I wanted a little bit of humor, and he or she offered it. My response — I do know! Proper?
@sbg1 2:51pm 1/6/2021 There’s an armed standoff on the ground of the Home of Representatives proper now. Donald Trump’s coup, supported by many members of the physique now underneath assault.
Susan Glasser is a employees author at The New Yorker. I embrace this as documentation. As I used to be tweeting, I used to be considering of buddies and colleagues within the U.Ok., Australia, Turkey and Egypt and the way necessary it was to share this with the world.
@NewBlackMan 3:12pm 1/6/2021 No want for deep evaluation right here. That is #WhiteSupremacy and #ToxicMasculinity unhinged.
Mark Anthony Neal is a professor at Duke College, and the title of my publish and my renamed watch list is a nod to this tweet. It’s what it’s.
@chescaleigh 3:15pm 1/6/2021 They don’t do energetic shooter drills on the US capitol? Or is that just for center & excessive schoolers?
Franchesca Ramsey is a author and former contributor to a present on Comedy Central and creator of the video “Sh*t White Women Say … to Black Women” (SWGSTBG). Because the mom of a highschool scholar, this resonated.
@thequeengeek 3:15pm 1/6/2021 A pal simply stated to me “Are we presupposed to be working through the coup?” and truthfully it was probably the most American factor I’ve ever heard.
Dani Indovino Cawley, a really humorous girl. Once more, as I used to be making an attempt to work and watch Rome burn, this made me snigger out loud.
@NAACP 3:29pm 1/6/2021 And also you thought “Taking A Knee” was an excessive amount of!?!
The NAACP (Nationwide Affiliation for the Development of Coloured Folks) — once more, context and the posh of white obliviousness.
@BadiaAhad 3:58pm 1/6/2021 I don’t suppose range coaching can repair this.
Badia Ahad is an affiliate professor at Loyola College in Chicago. This was core increased ed and actually made me suppose — how did we get right here? How can we transfer ahead?
@staceyabrams 7:46pm 1/6/2021 Whereas as we speak’s horrible show of terror and meanness shakes us, let’s keep in mind: @ossoff, Jewish son of an immigrant & @ReverendWarnock, first Black Senator from Georgia, will be a part of a Catholic POTUS & the primary girl, Black + Indian VP in our nation’s capital. God bless America.
After which this tweet from Stacey Abrams was what I wanted on the finish of a really lengthy afternoon and early night.
I’ve renamed my TrumpWatch record on Twitter to the WhiteSupremacyToxicMasculinity Watch record, and I don’t plan on deleting it any time quickly.
Mary Churchill is affiliate dean for strategic initiatives and group engagement at Wheelock Faculty of Schooling and Human Improvement at Boston College, the place she additionally teaches within the increased training administration program. She is co-author of When Schools Shut: Main in a Time of Disaster (spring 2021, Johns Hopkins College Press), which particulars the merger of Wheelock Faculty and Boston College.