Title: The Insurrectionist Next Door
Rating: 4 Stars
I approached this film with trepidation. I didn't really want to watch a film about the January 6th insurrection. I started watching it for two reasons. One was that it wasn't a film about the insurrection leaders. This was not a film about the Oath Keeper leader Stewart Rhodes or the Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio or even the ultimate leader Donald Trump. I don't think that I could stomach hearing those blowhards trying to justify their actions. Instead the film focused on the foot soldiers (as in, the insurrectionist next door). The second reason was that the film was directed by Alexandra Pelosi, as in the daughter of Nancy Pelosi, who had to hide from the January 6th mob or she could very well have come to serious harm.
You'd think that Alexandra Pelosi might have come into this film with a chip on her shoulder. After all, her mother nearly came under attack. She clearly shares her mom's political beliefs. However, the film was an exercise in empathy. She probably talked to around a dozen people or so. Although she challenged them, she did give them leeway to express their beliefs.
Nearly all of these people have been convicted of some crime resulting from the insurrection. Some have already done their jail time. Others, you actually see them heading off to jail. The first surprise is how little remorse is expressed. Nearly all of them are still ardent Trump supporters. One has a Trump themed Christmas tree and has an extensive collection of Trump tchotchkes. Nearly all of them still believe that the election is fraudulent. One person tried to use video evidence from the insurrection to prove that the insurrection was a false flag operation led by Antifa. The fact that over two years later they are still true believers simply amazes me.
The second surprise maybe shouldn't have been that much of a surprise. Several of the people, I hate to say it and I know that it sounds elitist of me to say it, aren't very smart. In this context, when I say smart, I mean analytical. Many of them seemed easily swayed by other people's actions. To some extent, all of us are, but most of the people interviewed seemed particularly susceptible.
One person in particular left me feeling sad. He admitted that his schooling was mostly special ed. He talked about how the insurrection was like 1776 but had no idea what happened, even in general terms, in that year. He was heavily influenced by his sister. She told him that they were going on a road trip to Washington DC. Although she claimed no knowledge of any insurrectionist groups, it was pretty clear that she was lying. The brother just basically followed along with his sister and is now facing years in prison.
When I was in high school, one of my friends was significantly older (maybe five years older). We all called him The Gapper. The Gapper basically had no life plans other than to drive around in his Camaro and buy beer for his underage friends. Of course, being underaged and in need of beer, we loved him. However, some twenty years later or so, I heard that he was basically still the same guy. He was still driving a muscle car and was still hanging around with people much younger than him. It's like he was trapped in some time loop.
Well, there was a guy interviewed by Pelosi that reminded me pretty exactly of The Gapper. He was a single man with no discernible interests. He was a retired semi-pro wrestler. He just seemed lost and directionless. As far as I can tell, the primary reason why he decided to join the insurrectionists was to try to impress his prostitute girlfriend that had just dumped him. Again, that episode, if anything, left me feeling sad.
Another man clearly had a rough life. He was a former gang member. He'd done time in prison. He was covered in tattoos, several of which he now regretted. He had apparently gotten his life in order. He was married with three children. Still, it's apparent that he was missing some of the camaraderie that he received from his gang life. He was a member of The Proud Boys. In fact, he is so devoted to them that he had a large Proud Boys tattoo across his forehead. He tried to tell Pelosi that The Proud Boys is actually an organization of love. It's hard to reconcile that with the fact that he's a rapper that records songs like Fuck Joe Biden that contained actual threats of violence. Once again, the insurrection seemed to draw men that are lost, directionless, and missing something from their lives.
Possibly the most tragic was a young woman. She was twenty-one years old when her uncle asked her if she wanted to go to the insurrection. Without holding any political beliefs of her own but under the influence of her uncle, she agreed. She was recorded, with her uncle, invading Nancy Pelosi's office. For that crime, she was going to be sentenced. However, before then, she descended into a cycle of drugs and alcohol. On the first anniversary of the insurrection, while under the influence, she drove on the wrong side of a highway and got in a collision that resulted in the death of others. She is now waiting to see what her sentence for that crime will be.
It was this woman whom Alexandra asked, "Did you want to kill my mom?". She looked shocked and said of course not. She clearly didn't even have that thought, even though there were so many others that day that would have answered differently.
Of all of the people that she interviewed, only one person expressed remorse and understood that his actions were wrong. Still in prison with his fellow insurrectionists, expressing those thoughts had left him ostracized.
Other than getting a deeper understanding of some of the yelling, frenzied mob trying to stop a duly elected president from being certified, I'm not sure how I feel about the state of our country. The fact that, after all of this time, there are so many believers in the lie is pretty depressing.
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