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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums🧵The crazed conspiracy nuts & vast bulk of obvious rioters were not the most insidious threat
Link to tweet
Tweet text:
Mac William Bishop
@MacWBishop
listen
people like Bison Man, T-Shirt Nazi & Lt Col Livestream are some of the more visible faces of all this
but as someone there all day
the crazed conspiracy nuts & vast bulk of obvious rioters were not the most insidious threat
there were organized teams of individuals
4:05 PM · Jan 13, 2021
Mac William Bishop
@MacWBishop
listen
people like Bison Man, T-Shirt Nazi & Lt Col Livestream are some of the more visible faces of all this
but as someone there all day
the crazed conspiracy nuts & vast bulk of obvious rioters were not the most insidious threat
there were organized teams of individuals
4:05 PM · Jan 13, 2021
Unrolled thread here (video referenced at the link)
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1349492674500431874.html
listen
people like Bison Man, T-Shirt Nazi & Lt Col Livestream are some of the more visible faces of all this
but as someone there all day
the crazed conspiracy nuts & vast bulk of obvious rioters were not the most insidious threat
there were organized teams of individuals
there were tens of thousands of people at the rally and subsequent march & it would be difficult to categorize all of the various groups & their ideologies accurately in the absence of a wide-ranging survey of participants
among the crowds of trump flag-waving maga supporters there were states-right militiamen, III%ers, oathkeepers, neo-templars, neo-nazis, neo-confederates, revolutionary war cosplayers, conservative media thinkfluencers, south-vietnamese-refugee anti-communists...
...falun gong-affiliated anti-communists, anti-iranian regime activists, qanon enthusiasts, anti-blm activists, street preachers, anti-tax activists, 2A diehards, militant evangelical christians & anti-vaxxers...
and throughout the day there were numerous people that caught the eye of myself & a fellow veteran i know who was reporting from a different area
these teams had purpose: they were communicating by radio, moving to hotspots & otherwise directing the crowd in low-key ways
no, im not taking about extremist groups in incognito mode with bright orange tape and hats or other bullshit like that on their tacticool outfits, who are always looking for media attention
im taking about dudes who were there trying to avoid overt detection; not to get into street brawls, but to get others to do it for them
at the time these individuals seemed another curiosity of a day that was, in turns, carnival-like, generally bonkers, intensely violent & yet weirdly calm in strange places & at strange times
remember, for those of us in the crowd, most of the time we had no wifi or cell signal
ive covered my share of violent street protests over the years - from paris to hong kong, new york to istanbul and everywhere in between - as well as actual conflict
its been my experience that there are always self-appointed organizers trying to control the crowd at protests
but the fact is that there were people conducting reconnaissance & probing tactics while making an effort to generally blend-in with the crowd
these individuals encouraged others in the crowd to attack the police directly, urging the protesters to rush weak spots
at the time, i didnt think much about all that, about seeing people behave that way
as further details emerge, as the fbi and other investigators confirm and allude to various aspects of planning
the less this looks like it was just a bunch of maga gone wild rioting
...and the more it looks like at least one extremist group using the rally/protest/riot as cover to attempt something more nefarious
i dont have clear answers about this, and i have been cautious about interpreting it without further data
but when i see allegations being made, for example, by @RepSherrill about groups potentially conducting reconnaissance on Jan 5th...
its worth offering that others witnessed there was more going on than just partisan diehards getting caught up in the moment
in any case, the fbi, prosecutors and other law enforcement clearly have their work cut out for them sorting this out & im not going to be one of the idiots trying to armchair quarterback their investigation on twitter
but bear in mind that as we move toward the inauguration that this event does not appear to have been a fluke
there is a reason the fbi and others are issuing the warnings they are issuing
finally, id note that while i am aware of videos & photos showing apparent cooperation & cordiality between some police & some protesters, and obviously these incidents are being investigated
i personally witnessed nothing like that from my vantage point
from what i saw, the bulk of protesters were immediately & virulently opposed to police efforts to contain them
in every instance i observed directly, police & federal agents acted professionally & courageously while outnumbered & overwhelmed by a violent crowd intent on harm
finally, here is a small sample of the type of crowd-control behavior i saw, conducted by a man in a III% hat, who likely had body armor beneath his jacket
watch as he intervenes with a man trying to tear down a barrier (then, bizarrely, moves it himself)
so while commentators dunk on morons posting videos to parler from inside the capitol, or obsess over crazy lines wolf dudes who drove to dc with a truck full of guns while texting their extended family about plans to murder government officials (& Im not minimizing that danger)
bear in mind that people who conduct recce & prep comms protocols
probably actually do know something about opsec
and perhaps never even went in the Capitol themselves, or directly interacted with the cops...
argh i really shouldve added that i am highly skeptical of vast conspiracy theories at this point
extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence
you dont need to be an ex-special forces ninja assassin to figure out good tactical behavior, just study a bit and prepare
and it didnt take a rogue group of professional mercenaries to blow up the Oklahoma City federal building
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🧵The crazed conspiracy nuts & vast bulk of obvious rioters were not the most insidious threat (Original Post)
Nevilledog
Jan 2021
OP
Generic Other
(28,979 posts)1. Highlighting and amplifying!
among the crowds of trump flag-waving maga supporters there were states-right militiamen, III%ers, oathkeepers, neo-templars, neo-nazis, neo-confederates, revolutionary war cosplayers, conservative media thinkfluencers, south-vietnamese-refugee anti-communists...
...falun gong-affiliated anti-communists, anti-iranian regime activists, qanon enthusiasts, anti-blm activists, street preachers, anti-tax activists, 2A diehards, militant evangelical christians & anti-vaxxers...
and throughout the day there were numerous people that caught the eye of myself & a fellow veteran i know who was reporting from a different area
these teams had purpose: they were communicating by radio, moving to hotspots & otherwise directing the crowd in low-key ways
...falun gong-affiliated anti-communists, anti-iranian regime activists, qanon enthusiasts, anti-blm activists, street preachers, anti-tax activists, 2A diehards, militant evangelical christians & anti-vaxxers...
and throughout the day there were numerous people that caught the eye of myself & a fellow veteran i know who was reporting from a different area
these teams had purpose: they were communicating by radio, moving to hotspots & otherwise directing the crowd in low-key ways