Thread by @JYSexton

So. We got into it in the new Muckrake Podcast, but we need to talk about the American history of pseudo-events, fake protests, fabricated movements, and the type of psychological propaganda Trump and the Right Wing are using to "reopen" America.

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podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the…

First things first, the "protest" in Michigan was a fake, pseudo-event carried out by the DeVos family and other billionaires looking to craft fake movements to serve their financial interests.

There's a long, long history of this.

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Of course you know Betsy DeVos, Trump's Secretary of Education who is obsessed with destroying public education.

The protest her and her family funded in Michigan was undertaken with the purpose of creating the illusion that Americans want to reopen the country. 3/

Billionaires and the powerful love crafting these pseudo-events. It allows them to create faux-populism they can control and manipulate to serve their interests without any possibility that they might be held responsible.

The sad truth is that it's incredibly effective.

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In 2010, billionaires like the Koch Brothers used racist prejudice against Barack Obama to inflate the Tea Party and use it to takeover the Republican Party and shift the political conversation of the country.

It was a total, total scam.

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The Kochs and other billionaires funded, directed, trained, and focused the Tea Party to carry out their libertarian/billionaire agenda.

They were helped by Fox News and Right Wing media, and the GOP surrendered to them lest they be replaced in totality.

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Republicans knew the Tea Party was a faux-movement powered and funded by billionaires. Fox News knew it. But it was useful tool in prosecuting Obama and getting Americans to give money and vote GOP.

It was a complete and total simulation of a movement and it worked

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Though we're most familiar with these modern fake movements, the US government has carried out these faux-moments and pseudo-events. It's been part of domestic and foreign policy and control for decades now and it's always worked.

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Here in America, figures like J. Edgar Hoover used FBI plants and counter-protestors to create dangerous conditions in counterculture protests and to undermine the reputation and organization.

They were faux-events and they worked.

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Around the world, the CIA carried out American interests by propping up fake movements in countries where they needed to control actual populist movements, especially if they believed it might threaten the capitalistic, American-designed order.

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In Iran, America used misinformation and fabricated movements to install the Shah as a US-friendly dictator. Their methods were startlingly precursors to the type of Russian manipulation we've seen and we're going to talk about later in this thread.

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In Chile, the US created multiple political movements and faux-protests, pushed fake candidates as well, to defeat Allende, but eventually had to replace him with the murderous dictator Pinochet, who committed mass crimes but was US-friendly.

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The point is that America more or less invented the idea of faux-fabricated events with the express purpose of creating news items resulting in movements that recreate the original fake moment. America more or less conquered the world using this method.

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We are most familiar with Putin's usage of fake events, and his strategy of "managed democracy" is completely based in the idea of creating faux-movements, faux-protests, faux-crises that give him the political story he needs to maintain power.

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One of the chief architects of Putin's reality manipulation is a propagandist named Vladislav Surkov who pioneered postmodern manipulation and stages these faux-events like a play under his control.

They conquered Russia and are using it against the world now.

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What we saw in 2016 was an extension of Putinist faux-reality manipulation and a continuation of America's own manipulations used against itself.

Protests were created, fake crises, all of it meant to create the appearance of populism all while being orchestrated.

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What Trump is doing today by calling for Democratic states to "liberate themselves" is using the fake protest in Michigan that was created by billionaires looking to manufacture outrage to call on more Americans to join a fake movement he himself has designed.

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More than likely, in the coming days, you're going to see the formulation of a new "movement" that's all about "reopening America."

It's going to be comprised of Americans who have been manipulated by a completely fabricated protest and fake movement. Trump will push hard.

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This is what authoritarians do. They are incapable of actually creating organic coalitions or movements and rely on dark manipulation by monied and powered interests.

Trump will have a movement, but it will be as fake as his "billionaire" empire. A bought and sold illusion.

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We're in a really dark cycle of manipulation and pseudo-events turning into recreations of those pseudo-events but seeming like they are organic and populistic in nature.

They're not. It's all an illusion and it's all manipulation. And it will cost so many lives.

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Remember this in the coming weeks. This "movement" is going to grow and it will be fueled by Trump and Fox News and the Right Wing. It is an orchestrated manipulation and it is a propagandist maneuver.

The story will be that Americans are DEMANDING they return to "normal."

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The next few weeks are going to be one push after another, probably more of these manufactured protests funded and pushed by big-monied interests. We're going to be swimming in the propaganda and illusions by the end of this thing, and it won't matter how many will die.

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