That, as you may recall, was the explanation attorney Joseph Hurley offered recently at a court hearing for his client, accused Capitol insurrectionist Anthony Antonio, who is facing five federal charges for his role in the attack. “You want war?” he reportedly yelled to police. “We got war! 1776 all over again!”
But as it turns out, the fact that he allegedly broke into the Capitol and threatened police wasn’t Antonio’s fault alone. As Hurley told the court, Antonio “believed what was being fed to him” on Fox News. Meaning the smorgasbord of lies, slanders, calumnies, hogwash and fraud the network has served up for 25 years. In the wake of last year’s election, it devoted that talent for mendacity to a dumb, but dangerous, thesis: Donald Trump was cheated of victory by massive fraud.
“I got wrapped up in what was being told to me and what was on the TV,” Antonio, newly contrite, told CNN Monday night.
In other words, he had contracted Foxitis.
Well, beg pardon, but if Antonio had “Foxitis,” then Osama bin Laden had “jihad-itis.” If that sounds ridiculous, it’s because you cannot imagine a Muslim terrorist trying to explain his fanaticism as some pseudo disease. He would know he had zero chance of empathy. In fact, if Antonio were revealed as a Muslim terrorist, we’d know exactly the word to use for the forces that influenced him. We’d say he was radicalized.