The storming of the Capitol.
The storming of the Capitol.
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Invoke the 25th Amendment

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 5 min

Buildings can be powerful symbols when they house the seat of government power. We realized that when the mob seized the U.S. Capitol building yesterday. Blood was spilled, and pro-Trump followers stormed inside. The rioters tossed aside the American flag and raised the banner of Donald Trump supporters over the building. The whole world watched in horror — or, worse, derision — as the seat of American power was desecrated.

We’ve seen this kind of fighting over symbolism before throughout history, like when the Reichstag was burned in Berlin during the Nazi era and the act was blamed on communists. Adolf Hitler used scapegoating to consolidate power.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.