Please rethink using "bad apples" in this context in the future. The saying about bad apples is a warning about the corrupting influence of a single corrupt person on a group.
It's always confused me, too. You don't leave rotten apples in your fruit bowl.
I’ve given this quite a bit of thought recently because, well…
The common usage of “a few bad apples” has changed to mean the group isn’t responsible, as a whole, for the actions of a few instead of the old warning about removing the bad ones before they corrupt the bunch.
Like during the “peaceful” protests a couple years ago. It was the “bad apples” who were burning police cars and looting stores, the group has no responsibility for their actions.
Not so for the Capital Insurrection though. They don’t get to claim “a few bad apples” and the people who were there to peacefully protest and merely held up a sign on the lawn were equally as guilty as the ones who entered the capital to forcefully stop the election results.
I hated the rioting of 2020 as much as the next guy, but it’s worth remembering that the bad apples doing the rioting because another group of bad apples kept killing black people and getting away with it.
You do have a point about the flattening of everyone who came to Washington on January 6th down into a caricature of the worst of them. That happens a lot in the media these days. See also, protestors, Antifa, Black Lives Matter, etc. One side highlights the worst of each group, and the other selectively highlights the best.
Sucks, but apparently everyone decided we have to pick sides about everything, and stick to them at all costs.
It's always confused me, too. You don't leave rotten apples in your fruit bowl.