As I said, I don't disagree that people need to keep the hyperbole in check.

It's also true that the people on the receiving end need to check it better in the first place rather than falling apart over it.

I think at this point, we've all pretty much been there where we've been accused of making hate speech. That is the opposite side of this coin: if hatred speech isn't real then accusations of it have no weight to get so miffed over. Sticks and stones...

Yes, the gallows was symbolic but. Slavering crowds get out of hand. It's not like there were not also plenty of trees they could have hung Pence from had they gotten hold of him and they (the crowd) WERE chanting it. They also could have used the ropes and their own bodies to basically rack him, or draw and quarter him.

Your entitled to your opinion and I appreciate your experience. I recognize most went there to protest. The protest was not legal because there are things you have to do and agree to, to protest. They broke bounds in Trump's say so. Further, whatever your purpose for being there was, the moment the minute that noose went up and those chants started or you saw actual armed insurrectionists and attacks on the police, if you didn't turn around and leave right then, then your intent no longer matters. You're now party to and responsible for whatever happens ad a full participant.

That's what we tell our children when tgeie friends goad them into something they damn well know is wrong. Is it not? These people were all adults. Mostly middle aged adults. They allowed themselves to be goaded into providing cover for a coup attempt.

And yes, it was a coup attempt with members of Congress and other high ranking people in on it. There was a capture/kill list. There were bombs placed. There were armed infiltrators in cahoots with those Congresspersons and high ranking persons under the direction-- mob style-- of the President of the United States because he refused to stand down.

44 Presidents before him over 240 years have peacefully transferred power based on the will of the American people.

Trump is no innocent. He knew exactly what he was doing. He's glorified and mimicked the mob for years. He tried to overthrow the government and install himself as dictator.