Who was in the mob that stormed the Capitol?

Watching the insurrection at the Capitol unfold on 6 January, it was hard not to be struck by the sheer weirdness on display. The QAnon shaman with his bison-style headgear and topless torso covered in white nationalist tattoos; the man dressed in furs, round glasses perched owlishly on his face, who looked as if he’d stumbled out of an amateur Lord of the Rings re-enactment; an old woman in a cobbled together Statue of Liberty costume.

But, as one paused to think, perhaps the stranger spectacle was how unashamedly the weird arrayed themselves alongside apparently normal people. Well, that is to say, apparently normal people who nonetheless were ready to storm the Capitol based on fevered conspiracy theories about stolen elections, Satanic paedophile rings, and hoax pandemics…

Now the personal details about some of the participants are beginning to trickle into the public sphere. The sheer variety of backgrounds seems to testify to the dangers of radicalisation as white nationalists and online conspiracy theorists joined up with people who had led relatively normal lives until they found themselves drawn to extremist views percolating into the mainstream.

Take, for example, Adam Johnson, a 36-year-old Floridian father of five and stay-at-home dad married to a physician – now made infamous by the cheerily grinning picture of him carrying Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s lectern. Public records show he isn’t formally affiliated with any political party and only voted in 2004 and 2020. His only previous brushes with the law were for possession of marijuana and violation of probation.

This is hardly a picture of someone of radical political commitments – except, it seems, to Donald Trump who managed to pull this politically disconnected man out to vote last year. When interviewed, a neighbour of his commented that “I wasn’t surprised, but I was shocked”. In the view of all it seems Johnson had been radicalised.

Brandon Fellows’ family was also wearily unsurprised when they found out he had broken into the Capitol and posted photos to his social media. Made unemployed by the pandemic he was denied benefits. Meanwhile, his consumption of content made by right-wing provocateurs like Ben Shapiro and Steven Crowder led him to ever more extreme views – alienating him from his own family.

And what are we to make of the case of Ashli Babbit, the 35-year-old Air Force veteran who was shot as she tried to break into the House Chamber and later tragically died. Babbit hardly strikes you as having the typical profile of a right-wing extremist. Hailing from San Diego Babbit’s unconventional relationship with her husband and mutual live-in girlfriend might, in other circumstances, at first glance suggest someone who lived up to the stereotypes of a certain sort of hilariously liberal Californian.

Admittedly, she had flirted with fringe politics before – once expressing support for the libertarian Ron Paul to run for president – and had voiced frustrations about immigration which she blamed for California’s social problems. Still, in parallel to Trump endorsing on social media a series of ever more radical political positions, she moved from support for Trump, to the Blue Lives Matter movement (never mind the Capitol police it seems), to QAnon, the conspiracy theory which claims the world is run by Satanic paedophiles.

Indeed, for many in the crowd as their details began to leak, one theme resounded again and again. Doug Jensen, 41, a former employee of Forrest & Associate Masonry with a history petty criminal offences – QAnon. Tara Coleman a 40 year-old mother from Pennsylvania – QAnon. David Blair, 26, who carried a knife for fear of “Antifa” and attacked police with a lacrosse stick only to then apologise said he would “accept everything” when arrested – QAnon.

This conspiracy theory – which has made surprising inroads among surprising groups such as Instagram lifestyle gurus and their followers – seems to have been vital in pushing many Trump supporters down ever more dangerous paths that finally lead to Capitol Hill.

It is fitting that the face of the protests for many was the horned QAnon shaman Jake Chansley, AKA Jake Angeli. On one level an expression of pure gonzo, his tattoos associated with white supremacist groups show how the QAnon conspiracy has metastaised in conjunction with more traditional racist and violent far-right extremism.

Arrest reports show the presence of the Proud Boys – an ostentatiously armed far-right group that Trump infamously called on to “stand back and stand by” in one presidential debate – were present in the insurgent crowd. Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, the chairman of the group, and Nicholas Ochs, the founder of the Hawaii chapter, have both now been arrested. Also present was prominent alt-right media personality Anthime Joseph “Tim” Gionet AKA Baked Alaska who livestreamed his participation in the rampage through the building. Meanwhile, Richard “Bigo” Barnett, who posed for photos in Nancy Pelosi’s office and stole her mail, enthusiastically identified himself as a “white nationalist”.

Dozens have now been arrested for their part in the siege that left five people dead. They are perpetrators, but they are also victims of a grand con that, for the time being at least, shows no signs of being wound down.