With the re -emergence of Donald Trump on January 6, the attackers became martyrs, heroes

[ad_1]

WASHINGTON: A cocktail of propaganda, conspiracy theory and disinformation – of the kind that intoxicated the masses in the darkest turn of history – reinforces the delusion of the Jan. 6 sufferings. Hate is “love.” Violence is “peace.” Those attacking Donald Trump are patriotic. A few months after supporters of the then president rushed to the Capitol on a winter’s day, Trump and his acolytes are taking this revisionism to a new and dangerous place – one of martyrdom and hero -like heroes, and in revenge. This is a place where the cries of “blue living thing” are changed to cries of “f — the blue.” The fact of the reversal about the siege is the latest in Trump’s contort oeuvre of the “big lie” compendium, the most eloquent of which is that the election was stolen from him, if not. It’s rooted in the formula of strong propaganda all the time: Say it out loud, say it often, say it with the force of political power behind you, and people will believe. Once spread through brochures, posters and word of mouth, now spread by the swipe of a finger, the result is the same: an intense, unmistakable following. Techniques of glorifying your side and demonizing others with distorted information, if not straight lies, have been playing out somehow since World War I, when the U.S. government aroused emotion for the cause. in posters depicting the German soldier as a man ape-human a willowy American maiden in his arms. That blushed in the ensuing years that passed with the horrific use of Nazi Germany’s propaganda for the murder and conquest of millions. Whether cheating feeds warmongering or just an ego of a defeated president, some of the techniques are the same, like saying the same fabrication over and over until it sticks. Trump perfected the art of repetition-about “election fraud,” the “fraudulent election” and “massive voter fraud,” none of those accusations have been substantiated in dozens of court cases and official audits after the election but still focused on his supporters. . Four years ago, Trump appeared to justify white supremacists and protest racial justice in Charlottesville, Virginia, in his comment that there were “very good people, on both sides.” At this time, in saying this, the very good man on January 6 is on one side: him. For the other side – the police, filled with a lot of time and blood in the uprising – Trump has only one face -to -face question that doubles as a four -word conspiracy theory: “Who killed Ashli ​​Babbitt?” Those words became a viral mantra meant to elevate Babbitt as a righteous martyr to the cause of freedom. They huddle around mainline social media platforms where Trump has been banned for spreading misinformation but his followers have still changed. The woman died from a police bullet and was shot while trying to climb through the broken glass of a cracked window towards the Chamber room as the riot took place. Babbitt became the face of the uprising-emblazoned on T-shirts and reveled in basement ballrooms in hotels across the country where conspiracy theorists gathered to draw. In Washington’s Georgetown neighborhood, flyers were plastered on street lamps and building facades telling of an unveiling of a Babbitt statue in nearby Alexandria, Virginia, on July 27, at “noon.” Trump and many Republicans have cycled through different characteristics of the uprising, each iteration completely unlike the previous one. The attackers were said to be leftist followers of the antifa in hiding. Then they said the tourists were too educated. Now they are declared as soldiers marching for freedom. Each iteration instructed Americans to ignore the anger they saw on their screens, and some lawmakers to ignore that they were among the excited targets of the attackers that day. The hunter now praises the hunters. Taken together, the revisionists and their believers are “swimming in a vast sea of ​​nonsense,” said Brendan Buck, a former top assistant to former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis. Those sea waves are familiar to historians who study what makes some conspiracy theories and propaganda persuasive. When people buy into lies, no one can convince them that they are not true, said Dolores Albarracin, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania and co-author of an upcoming book, “Creating Beliefs in Conspiracy: How Our Thoughts Are Shaped. ”Despite the well-documented facts about what happened on January 6, believers often dismiss anyone who tries to correct them by claiming that they were duped or part of the conspiracy, Albarracin said. “Belief contains a device that protects it,” he said. “Nothing can invalidate a conspiracy theory. Trying to deny the theory proves the theory and signals you as a conspiracy.” DJ Peterson, an expert on authoritarianism and propaganda, is president of Longview Global Advisors, a Los Angeles -based consulting firm, and former director of Eurasia Group and the RAND Corporation. He said that in an online world awash in information and a real world riven by polarization, “you pick and choose what you want to believe, including your sticking to the sand.” Trump, Peterson said, is good at bolstering claims that bolster his core supporters and turn them against other Americans. “That’s where Trump’s strength is,” he said. “He’s good at picking these threads, which lowers the level of trust and creates division.” Recent polls are consistent in describing the country’s disparity against Trump and his post-election histrionics. In essence, two-thirds of the population is against him; two-thirds of Republicans for him. In one of the most recent, Quinnipiac found that 66% of Republicans consider President Joe Biden illegally elected. That number and others like it in many polls represent tens of millions of people thought to believe allegations of election fraud have been thoroughly investigated and refuted, including Trump’s own attorney William Barr. Trump’s fabrications have stalled and are now subject to attempts on him and those closest to him to glorify the mob on Jan. 6. “The consequence of lying is that you’re kind of unable to go back to where you were, “says Harvard historian Jill Lepore, whose podcast” The Last Archive, “investigates scams, deceptions and what happened in reality. “That’s what’s ruining our particular moment.” Of Trump, he said: “His approach has generally just created chaos so that people really don’t know which way to look.” In the case of the uprising, his followers looked away. An aggressive amnesia seems to get everyone ugly, even if the scenes that are broadcast and streamed in real time are forever. Crowded in the Capitol after a rally presentation where Trump told them to “fight like hell,” and swore, in the wrong way, that he was there with them, the attackers beat up an overcrowded number of law enforcement , who injured many of them. In one particularly horrific case, an officer was crushed in a doorway by people pushing to enter, his mouth bleeding as the side of his face stuck to the glass of the door. Lawmakers inside ran for their lives, hiding for hours as mobs roamed the halls of Congress holding Trump flags. The attackers called for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., And wanted Trump’s vice president, who was also there. “Hang Mike Pence,” they shouted. Babbitt was part of the group trying to break down the doors of the Chamber room as Capitol police officers evacuated the floor of the Chamber and because some members were still trapped in the upper gallery. Officers used tools to block the glass doors separating the hallway from the Speaker’s Lobby to try to stop the attackers, who smashed glass with their fists, flagpoles and other objects. Only three police officers guarded the doors on the other side of the stacked furniture while at least 20 attackers attempted to enter, shouting, “F — the blue!” and “Break it!” One broke the glass of the door next to the head of an officer; another warned the officers that they would be hurt if they did not get away. A Capitol police lieutenant pointed his gun. “Guns!” “Guns!” shouts of the attackers as the hysteria reaches a fever pitch. They began to raise Babbitt, to climb out the window. An officer fires a circle. Babbitt was hit in the shoulder. Next he died. The officer was cleared of wrongdoing, and his name was not released. Trump now falsely claims – and with a flow of repetitions – that he was shot “right in the head.” “They’re there for a reason, the failed election,” he told Fox News last week. “They felt that the election was rigged. That’s why they were there. And they were peaceful people. It was good people. The crowd couldn’t believe it. And I mentioned the word love. Love. – the love of the air, I have never seen. anything like it. ”

[ad_2]