> The fact that there was not more escalation had a lot to do with how many people were watching closely
It had absolutely nothing to do with the rubberneckers (myself included) who were following it from moment to moment on the other side of the country.
Some small percentage of the watchers are in a place to actually do something about it, and if that's you then fine. Most of us don't need to know on the day of, we've just grown accustomed to knowing, and it's probably honestly a net negative for the world that we do follow things that are outside of our control so closely.
Trump was literally watching television news, taking the temperature of people's reactions on Twitter, and deciding in real time what he should do based on that information. The insurrectionists were closely watching the news and Twitter as well. Probably more people would have died or the coup would have been successful if there was lag in the coverage of a few days.
If you believe this you fundamentally misunderstand the kinds of people who were participating in the insurrection.
The opinions of the people who are comfortable sitting by while the conspiracy "steals the election" (or more likely, the astrotufed reactions put forward by sockpuppets of the conspirators themselves) don't matter by the time you get to the point of invading the US capitol.
Trump was being cynical, but the insurrectionists themselves were just nuts. They couldn't have cared less what Twitter thought.
It had absolutely nothing to do with the rubberneckers (myself included) who were following it from moment to moment on the other side of the country.
Some small percentage of the watchers are in a place to actually do something about it, and if that's you then fine. Most of us don't need to know on the day of, we've just grown accustomed to knowing, and it's probably honestly a net negative for the world that we do follow things that are outside of our control so closely.