The media and government have difficulty managing and maintaining narratives about covid and 1/6. Bits of reality leak out ruining the current story, forcing the quick, shoddy creation of new stories. Observing these two topics, it’s not hard to see how covid fighting methods and the media hysteria of 1/6 preview what the American government would do when battling a real insurgency.

Covid is a virus that is highly transmissible with a low fatality rate. For a variety of reasons (legit and opportunistic), state governments invoked a variety of powers to combat the virus. It’s spread person to person. Due to fears of asymptomatic spread, no one could be sure who was infected. It was most dangerous for transmission in large, group settings. These same risks apply to domestic strife. No one would be sure who a rebel is or level of involvement. Each of these unmarked rebels could recruit others. Large gatherings would be a problem for masking clandestine meet-ups or potentially be high casualty events.

The anti-covid measures would be effective for counterinsurgency as well. Infected areas had different levels of lockdown and limits on when people could leave their homes. Isolation, check. Destroying intermediate economic players. Economic starvation, check. Aggressive tech measures such as the electronic misinfo scrubbing were deployed even as misinfo changed for months. Propaganda, check. Some governments used apps (compulsory or voluntary) that performed centralized contact tracing. Tracking, check! The hotbed for infections, New York, implemented a hotline for informing on lockdown violators. Narcing, check!!! Quarantine for the exposed is similar to a form of detention for unreliables.

It’s all there for government mechanisms to fight an infection; counterinsurgency being a political virus. The governments involved would have even greater justification for enforcing such measures, and doing so in a much stricter manner. This would be an existential threat to the regime, giving it carte blanche.

Covid shows the mechanisms while 1/6 shows the propaganda and social measures. Any counter-government signaling would make one suspect, therefore reducing any signaling of that nature or even adjacent. After 1/6, self-identified right wingers on Twitter declined. Many denounced the actions and gave no thought to motivations of the protesters because of the heavy media spin of what happened. Family members informed on relatives for participating in the 1/6 protest.

The narrative is hysterical even if reality does not conform to it. To this day, the death toll invoked is framed as people killed by the protesters when in reality the only death that day was a protester killed by Capitol Police. In the event of a real rebellion, why would the regime allow any pushback on the regime approved message. Julie Kelly wouldn’t have essays explaining the sham insurrection. Posobiec wouldn’t have a Twitter account. Total memeplex dominance would be enacted.

That might not even be necessary. Look at the covid cult. Think of the bloodthirsty left when they see 1/6. This is why discussions of flip flops and narrative destruction are partially true. The left does not notice the 180s. They enjoy collective amnesia, update their software with the new patch, and support the new narrative as if pure. We have always been at war with East Asia.

The tools for fighting an insurgency enjoyed dry runs with covid. The instant mythology of 1/6 shows how quickly the media can gin up support with the proper framing. The federal government labeled white supremacy as the top threat. The media quickly calls any opposition to government policies as rooted in white supremacy. No resistance to left wing tyranny will be allowed. Totalitarian governments always create resistance but the nature of handling them differs in each instance. We know the why. We know the what. Watching covid and the 1/6 aftermath, we can see the how.