From the Desk of the Night Watchman
- No Punching Down
- Jan 6
- 3 min read
To the Garbage Who Did January 6: This Is About You
Donald Trump does what Donald Trump always does. He lies. He rewrites. He hands out pardons like coupons and calls it leadership.
But this isn’t really about him.
This is about you.
You’re not misunderstood. You’re not oppressed. You’re not martyrs. You’re the same people who scream about “personal responsibility” while refusing to take any. The same people who can’t hold a job but want immigrants deported for holding one. The same people who chant “law and order” while beating cops with flagpoles and then crying when consequences show up.
You didn’t storm the Capitol because you loved the Constitution. You stormed it because you lost — and you’ve never learned how to lose like an adult.
You believed Hillary Clinton ran a child-trafficking ring out of a pizza parlor. You believed Jewish space lasers caused wildfires. You believed the FBI staged January 6 while also believing you were heroes for participating in it. You believe everything except the one thing that would require you to grow up: that you were lied to — and you chose to believe it because it made you feel important.
Many of you never finished high school. Many never earned a GED. Many never served a day in the military. Yet you wrap yourselves in the flag like it’s a substitute for contribution — bleeding red, white, and blue while offering nothing in return but noise, grievance, and entitlement.
You weren’t brave on January 6. You were weak.
Weak enough to confuse vandalism with meaning. Weak enough to mistake a tantrum for patriotism. Weak enough to think shouting “USA” turns criminal behavior into virtue.
You were told the election was stolen. You liked how that sounded. It made your failures feel justified. It gave you a story where you weren’t falling behind — you were being robbed. So you acted on it. And when it blew up in your face, you didn’t own it. You demanded absolution.
And Trump gave it to you.
The pardons weren’t mercy. They were a handout — innocence without effort, forgiveness without accountability. And like every unearned benefit, it didn’t fix anything. It just made you angrier that the rest of the world didn’t rearrange itself to reward you.
Now you want more.
You want prosecutors jailed. FBI agents arrested. Judges punished. Cash reparations. Revenge dressed up as justice. You don’t want fairness. You want guarantees — permanent exemption from consequence, permanent validation for failure.
And here’s the part you never say out loud, but everyone sees anyway:
All of this — the lies, the rage, the conspiracies, the rewrites, the demands — it’s easier than the alternatives. Easier than showing up on time. Easier than learning something new. Easier than admitting you were wrong. Easier than building a skill, earning respect, or competing in a country that doesn’t hand out meaning for free.
Believing you were betrayed is cheaper than accepting you were beaten.
Calling yourself a patriot is easier than becoming one.
Demanding absolution is easier than doing the work.
Trump gave you a story where you never have to grow up. Where failure isn’t failure — it’s sabotage. Where violence isn’t disgrace — it’s destiny. Where the world owes you meaning because you refuse to earn it.
And sure — that beats getting a job.
It beats finishing school.
It beats learning how to live in a country where losing happens and adults deal with it.
But don’t confuse convenience with righteousness.
January 6 wasn’t about freedom.
It was about avoiding adulthood.
And now you want the government to make that permanent.
That’s not patriotism.
That’s entitlement with a flag wrapped around it.
I get it. I see the trade you made.
You chose grievance — because it was easier than getting a job or an education.
And no amount of rewrites, pardons, or lies will ever change what that makes you.
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