From the Capitol to the city council: How extremism in the U.S. shifted after Jan. 6

[Nevilledog]

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/extremism-us-jan-6-capitol-rcna10731


STOCKTON, Calif. — Denise Aguilar was in Washington on Jan. 6, appearing as a featured speaker at the “Health Freedom” stage — one of the many events held hours before a wide range of far-right groups and Trump supporters would storm the Capitol.

Shortly after the riot, Aguilar claimed in a since-deleted Instagram video that “we stormed the Capitol, and patriots broke open the doors” and “we’re taking back our states.” She called the day a “revolution.”

Nearly a year later, Aguilar appeared at a more low-key event with a different tone: a school board meeting in San Joaquin County, just south of Sacramento. That evening, the board would be considering Covid vaccine guidance for the district’s students, and she was there to raise her voice against any government mandates.

The shift from national to local is one with a purpose.

“We figured out that going to the Capitol and working that particular piece doesn’t do anything, because these legislators have already made up their mind,” Aguilar told NBC News in December outside the Stockton meeting.

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One of the authors also did a thread about the article

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school board in Stockton, CA.

It was put on by a woman who was at the Capitol on 1/6. She called it a “revolution.” Some protesters alongside her had no idea.

The meeting was wild. The protesters won.

This is Denise Aguilar, who runs the groups Mamalitia and Freedom Angels.

She was in D.C. on January 6th. After the riot, she said, “We stormed the Capitol, and patriots broke open the doors.”

Then: “We’re gonna keep going, especially in California.”
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A year after 1/6, Aguilar was outside of San Joaquin County’s Board of Ed., pushing back against vaccines for kids.

She has no children in the school district.

“We figured out that going to the Capitol... doesn't do anything,” she told me. “It's all about local legislation.”
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Aguilar told me she didn’t want to talk about where she was on 1/6, but later picked up a bullhorn to address me to the crowd.

“The media asked me if I was involved in January 6th,” she said.

The crowd around her laughed.

Inside the school board meeting, Aguilar pushed back against the “quarantining, tracking, and tracing of our children in public schools.”

Then some other protesters spoke, whom she said she met through local outreach and Telegram, since she's banned from most other social media.

Immediately after the Mamalitia founder spoke, two parents took to the school board podium.

They claimed RF radiation in computers their kids were given for distance learning poisoned them and maybe gave them Havana Syndrome.

Minutes later, the board sided with protesters.

The school board agreed to effectively push back against California’s pending vaccine mandate for eligible public school students.

They received a standing ovation.

“This is a big start. Thank you for being here,” a school board member said. “That’s what America is all about.”

This is how militias and domestic extremist groups are winning since January 6th.

They’ve evolved, encouraging local action at school boards and city councils, while recruiting and spreading their messages through culture-war debates like vaccines, race and education.
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Here's the full story with @BrandyZadrozny on how January 6th rioters, militias, and extremists are looking to take over local governments by insinuating themselves into vaccine and school curriculum wars — and hiding in plain sight.

I hope you read it.

From the Capitol to the city council: How extremism in the U.S. shifted after Jan. 6