Amber Ruffin
Amber Ruffin

For months now, single ladies all over the country have been reporting their ex-boyfriends and other random dudes they’ve been chatting with on dating apps for bragging about participating in the January 6 riot at the US Capitol. All this, in addition to the selfies and live streamed videos of the attack that rioters posted to their own social media feeds, have been helping authorities identify and round up these wannabe insurrectionists. Which, naturally, leads most sane people, like Amber Ruffin, to wonder why so many people have been so casually upfront about having participated in an armed uprising against the government that resulted in the deaths of five people?

Well, as Ruffin explained on this week’s episode of The Amber Ruffin Show, it turns out white supremacist groups, like the Proud Boys who stormed the Capitol, had very little reason to think they would be held accountable for their actions. Because they pretty much haven’t been for the past decade. Prior to 2009, domestic terrorist attacks had been on the decline since the feds cracked down on them in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing. But then Barack Obama was elected, and, according to Ruffin, “White people lost their whole dang minds!” In a 2009 report, the Department of Homeland Security warned of a rise in right-wing domestic terrorism, which caused Republicans to complain that they felt very attacked! Because…republicans = white supremacists. Just following their logic here!

But here’s the depressing part: the Obama Administration buried the report and disbanded the unit that tracked right-wing terrorists. Ruffin said it best: “Obama, baby, I love you but, you really f*cked up!” Then, in 2020, the Trump administration shifted resources from tracking right-wing groups to focus on finding supposed left-wing threats to bolster the president’s campaign message. And that’s pretty much how the Proud Keepers and Oaf Boys and, I dunno, your uncle’s golf buddies, managed to plan the Capitol riot on Facebook without anybody paying them any mind.

Except their ex-girlfriends, I guess.