“They called themselves citizens or patriots, and the demonstrators and media often called them militias, but it would have been most accurate to call them paramilitaries: young-to-middle-aged white men, mostly, armed with assault-style rifles and often clad in tactical gear, who appeared in town that evening arrayed purposefully around gas stations and used-car lots … Law-enforcement officers seemed to have broadly tolerated, and occasionally openly expressed support for, their activities, despite the fact that many of them were violating the same emergency curfew order under which dozens of demonstrators were arrested.” Charles Homans in The NYT Mag (Gift article for NextDraft readers): Kyle Rittenhouse and the New Era of Political Violence. (We’ve got to understand this stuff so we can address it. 2020 was the earthquake. We’re experiencing the aftershocks.)