Thread by @jengolbeck

Let's do a Friday afternoon check-in on what's going on in pro-Trump social media

One of the most dominant themes is paranoia. Anyone who talks about a rally, protest, march, or other action gets accused quickly of being part of the FBI/antifa/deep state 1/

That said, this is not quite right because… 2/

…the Virginia Citizens Defense League is organizing a caravan for Lobby Day on the 18th. Their event was armed last year (photos from 2020) and they explain how to show up armed this year, even though they don't have permits to hold an official event vcdl.org/LD2021Routes/ 3/

That's not to say they are showing up to try to overturn the election, but still, it IS a conservative group holding an optionally-armed "bunch of people showing up in the same place but not calling it a rally event". FWIW, some think the Deep State is setting them up too 4/

Still, I'm not seeing any big organizing of events on open pro-Trump social media. Smaller groups may get together, but I don't see anything happening at scale among average MAGA supporters 5/

Beyond events, what's happening? The Qanon conspiracy theory says that the Satan-worshiping cannibalistic pedophile international child sex-trafficking ring that's infiltrated government and the media is going to be disrupted in The Storm. Q-adherents are waiting for The Storm 6/

There are photos of caravans and National Guard deployments being offered as evidence that The Storm may be coming ahead of Inauguration. Some believe this may lead to the rest of *hundreds* of members of congress. There's no individual action related to this. Just waiting 7/

While we saw nearly universal acceptance of Q among pro-Trump social media before 1/6, doubts are emerging. Someone posted on a pro-Trump FB page "Has anyone heard anything on when things are going to start happening?" (referring to The Storm). Here are representative replies 8/

Any calls for action I'm seeing are pretty vague and people still respond with worries about arrest. Like, most replies to this guy were basically "shut up! what are you doing? the FBI is listening!" 9/

OK so please indulge me sharing my favorites which aren't trends but like, I sort of need to talk about them? I'm sorry my screen shot cut off their comment on this because it says "they don't hide anything😡" They believe this post is like, a legit online confession! 10/

Also this 1 where they are like "GAB CEO does the IMPOSSIBLE OMG he got all of Trump's tweets before Twitter shut him down IT IS AMAZING!!!"
And I'm like "my dude, you mean the tweets that have literally been archived at (checks notes) Trump Twitter Archive dot com for years" 11/

Seriously thetrumparchive.com formerly trump twitter archive dot come is an amazing resource 12/

Here's a final look into their discussions; this is one thread. The thing that DOES worry me is at the top of #4 with "Donald J. Trump is our President. I await his instructions." One rogue statement from Trump could destabilize everything. So let's hope he stays quiet. 13/