Naturally, the insurrectionists and their supporters have been celebrating all day. On the pro-Trump site TheDonald.Win—the new home of the banned Reddit forum r/The_Donald—forum users gathered for a “watch party,” cheering the mob on. Commenters called for those on the scene to find the “Congress filth,” and posted all-caps approval: “DEATH TO THE WEAK AND DECADENT REPUBLIC! HAIL TRUMP!” Some claimed to actually be at the Capitol, though they could have been posturing for a clearly receptive audience. “I just left … I had a pitchfork and it was heavy! It was damn amazing to see,” one wrote.
These celebrations were happening even on mainstream platforms. On YouTube, for example, The Verge found several pro-coup live-streams tagged #StopTheSteal, broadcasting from outside the Capitol. I watched another titled, in part, “DC the Day Has Come!!!” that had been running ads and collecting donations from viewers for three hours. (It was at $1,308 when it ended.) On Twitter, new tweets with the #StopTheSteal hashtag were posted every few seconds throughout the day. Users who had been tweeting #HoldTheLinePatriots ever since Election Day were still doing so, but now speaking literally. QAnon believers tweeted that what they were seeing was just like a movie, and the greatest one they’d ever seen. As of 6 p.m. ET, many “Stop the Steal” Facebook events and groups were still online.
