"They weren't really that organized and didn't really do that much damage" is already a conservative talking point (and that writer is very conservative).

I appreciate the information about the writer's politics. I read the article with knowledge of the deaths caused, the near-deaths, and as many details of the inside job as were available last night when I encountered the piece, and it interested me as an observation of how many people approached a coup as a lethal kind of cosplay, really seeming to believe that the state—the true state, not the deep state, the global cabal, the usurping elite—would reward them, so they had no reason to reign in their behavior and nothing to hide. I would think it is clear from context that I do not believe armed insurrection to be negligible or harmless.