"Just Like They Did To The Jews In Germany"

Being White can be SUCH a terrible burden

“They’re making fun of my skin color. They’re calling me an ‘insurrection Barbie,’” she said in the interview that aired on “NBC Nightly News” Tuesday.

“They have no idea who I am as a person, what my beliefs are, what I’ve been through, who I am,” she added. “They see me as a one-dimensional caricature. They don’t see me as a human.”

Ryan pleaded guilty on Aug. 19 to the misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building and was sentenced to 60 days in jail. She maintains that she did not see any violent activity at the Capitol Building that day last January and she only spent about two minutes inside herself.

“And so, that is the epitome of a scapegoat. Just like they did that to the Jews in Germany. Those were scapegoats. And I believe that people who are Caucasian are being turned into evil in front of the media,” she told NBC News and was then asked if she was comparing the situation she faced to the Holocaust.

“You know what’s so sad?” she replied. “That I’m afraid to answer your question because I will be attacked for saying that.”

NBC News further noted that Ryan said “other people have made the same comparison and that she ‘definitely’ feels she is being persecuted.”

Say hello to Jenna Ryan, who, as you will come to understand, is the personification of Trumpian White privilege. First, she participated in storming the Capitol on January 6, 2020 (we know this because she posted much of her escapade on social media). Now Ryan believes she’s being unfairly targeted for being a wealthy White woman taking part in an attempted coup.

She admits to having walked around in the Capitol for just over two minutes during the riot on January 6. But, despite the social media posts that prove her willing participation, she believes her sojourn in the Capitol to be of no concern- certainly not for a wealthy, well-connected White woman.

So, either Ryan was too dense to understand that participating in a riot, which she could see and hear going on around her, was illegal, or she felt just that privileged. Of course, some might choose to believe both those things are true, especially when she took to Twitter and posted this after being charged last March:

“Sorry, I have blonde hair, white skin, a great job, a great future, and I’m not going to jail.”

Unfortunately for Ryan, the choice of whether or not she was going to jail wasn’t up to her. There were consequences for her actions, after all, primarily because she used social media to hoist herself on her own petard.

Though she claims to have “remorse” for her actions, it seems clear that Ryan feels nothing of the sort. She’s always had a ready excuse or pat explanation for her participation in the attempted coup on January 6, 2020. There’s nothing in her words or demeanor to indicate she understands that she’s guilty of a federal crime. Jenna Ryan is culpable for her participation in an attempted coup that took the lives of five police officers and injured dozens more.

Ryan appears to view her 60-day sentence as an extended “vacation,” an opportunity to do some yoga and lose 30 pounds since she won’t have access to alcohol or junk food.

Nonetheless, Ryan dares to portray herself as persecuted for being who she is- “just like they did to the Jews in Germany.” That repugnant analogy requires no elaboration. Either she’s just that ignorant and self-absorbed, or she lacks the self-awareness to understand just how thoroughly abhorrent her self-portrayal is. I have to believe both are true.

Ryan’s upset that people see her “as a one-dimensional caricature” and that they don’t see her “as a human.” She’s offended that people call her “Insurrection Barbie.” Wow. Perhaps she could profitably use her time in prison to engage in some self-reflection and consider WHY people see her in such an unflattering light?

It might just be that people are right about Jenna Ryan. Perhaps she can’t handle the truth that she’s a repulsive and supremely self-absorbed human being. Then again, self-awareness isn’t one of Ryan’s strengths.

Of course, Jenna Ryan, as reprehensible and repellent as she may be, is merely a symptom of the sickness currently gripping America. When fully half of Americans- give or take- no longer believe that January 6 was a big deal, we have a problem. It’s not just the fungible reality or the squishy morality; it’s the sense that the old rules no longer apply. The majority no longer rules, and a well-armed and sufficiently angry minority can seize power via the barrel of a gun if they feel sufficiently (if unjustly) aggrieved.

It’s possible that January 6, 2020, was only a dry run for 2024 and that American democracy may well be entering into its death throes. If so, it’s people like Jenna Ryan we’ll have to thank for destroying what the Founding Fathers worked so hard to build.

I mean, if you have “blonde hair, white skin, a great job, a great future,” why should you have to worry about accountability or, even worse, jail?

That’s for losers and Liberals.

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