Source: The Atlantic
by Charlie Warzel & Mike Caulfield
“Fairly quickly, the narrative emerged that the attack was a false flag, and the media were in on it. … For a while, the rush to gather evidence produced a confusing double narrative from the right. In one telling, the riot was peaceful — the Trump supporters in the Capitol were practically tourists. The other highlighted the violence, suggesting that anti-fascists were causing destruction. Eventually, the dueling stories coalesced into a more complete one: Peaceful Trump supporters had been lured into the Capitol by violent antifa members abetted by law-enforcement instigators working for the deep state. The function of this bad information was not to persuade non-Trump supporters to feel differently about the insurrection. Instead, it was to dispel any cognitive dissonance that viewers of this attempted coup may have experienced, and to reinforce the beliefs that the MAGA faithful already held.” (01/06/25)