January 6 was part of an attempted coup d’etat in America. Don’t let Trump and his allies tell you otherwise | Arwa Mahdawi

Four years on, it’s the most astounding case of collective amnesia. That so many seem willing to normalise that anti-democratic outrage is frightening

The sun shone brightly on 6 January 2021. The birds chirped, children frolicked and thousands of unarmed patriots gathered peacefully in Washington DC for a “day of love”. It was a beautiful gathering in support of US democracy. In the words of incoming president Donald Trump, “nothing done wrong at all”.

Perhaps that’s not quite how you remember the scenes of violent mobs storming the Capitol that were broadcast around the world four years ago. Perhaps that’s not how you, personally, would characterise an event in which more than 140 police officers were viciously assaulted and four people died; a furious riot in which crowds chanted “hang Mike Pence” and set up a makeshift gallows. But it’s certainly how a significant number of people seem to remember it: 6 January seems to have been alarmingly normalised – a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll published last year found about seven in 10 Republicans think too much fuss is being made about the event and that it is “time to move on”.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist and the author of Strong Female Lead

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