These Capitol riot pictures shouldn't surprise you. They show an American truth. | Opinion - Philly Enq.

To say "this is not America" suggests that Wednesday's events were an aberration or anomaly. But for those who have chronicled the president's supporters for the last few years, it was the unsurprising and even inevitable culmination of consistently violent, racist, and autocratic rhetoric.

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Pictures are powerful not only because they provoke an emotional response, but also because they constitute a critical part of the historical record. They encourage society to reflect on, and remember, the events that cumulatively form the American experience. When you examine the photographs of Wednesday's insurrection alongside images of other historical events, you begin to realize, perhaps, that this is America.

This European was not familiar with past US events like the Battle of Liberty Place in NOLA in 1876 or the Wilmington Massacre of 1898, so I really did learn something.