Insurrectionists in training

Chamberlain high school students at a basketball tournament.

If you wonder where the January 6 insurrectionists come from, look at events in places like South Dakota. We have an academy for aberrant behavior that is fully accredited by Misfits For Trump. 

The photograph to the left was taken at a basketball tournament in Huron.  I posted it in March and noted that at a time when we were being asked to mask up and maintain social distance, these kids were doing the opposite, in addition to displaying a campaign banner for a president who had been voted out of office.  The ostensible purpose for this gathering of students was to support their high school team in a tournament.  The question it raises is what influences were exerted on these kids to turn a sports event into a political rally for a deposed president?  

When I posted the picture and the question, a former legislator responded:  "What a bunch of crap ! These students are free to express themselves even if you don't agree with them ! I am proud of them ! Leave them alone ! White power hand signs ? Really ? If these students had all been black would you feel the same way ?"

That response answered the question in part, and revealed the kind of influences that were diverting the students' interests away from competitive sports into an irrelevant political issue.  The stupidity and racial malice of the comment displayed the kind of intellectual environment the students are living in.

High school age boys pissing on a sign they vandalized.

A more recent event involving high school aged students took place at the state fair.  The South Dakota Standard gives a full account of a bunch of kids harrassing people and vandalizing the Democrat building, and no one, aside from a few Democrats, much caring.  Again,  this behavior seems to have the full approval of adults.  Part of the adult population has adopted the malicious belligerence of Donald Trump as the standard of behavior.  It's what we have to look forward to in South Dakota.

It is just people expressing themselves.  Stupidity and malice on parade.