Thread by @TrumpFile

My research on the Council for National Policy & other propaganda / criminal networks has attracted some excitement from people with good intentions. But that excitement can lead to assumptions and trying to find connections where there aren't any. Trust me, I've done it, too. /1

I would just urge everyone to please be cautious about jumping to conclusions about what strings #CNP (or any group) is pulling. This is not like an army taking orders from a commander. The "soldiers" of this "army" are their own commanders. /2

People in groups like the Council for National Policy work together because they all want a similar outcome for their own benefit, but they are not operating under the command of any one person in the group. /3

I've seen assumptions about Koch being the #CNP master and even that CNP pays off the media.

Are some members paid by Koch? Yes. Some, absolutely. We know this. But not all.

Might some have deals with MSM outlets? Sure. Some, maybe. Definitely not all. /4

I think one reason MSM doesn't report on something like the CNP is attention span. You cannot explain CNP, Koch, or anything like this to the average American in a 10-minute segment or a single article. Trying to do so makes it sound like a conspiracy. /5

Even multiple reports on something HUGE can have the conspiracy effect. Look at what happened to Russia Gate. MSNBC tried to lay it all out over months, everyone else gave up, and now the average Democrat thinks it was blown way out of proportion even though it wasn't. /6

A second reason MSM doesn't report on something like #CNP is, IMO, that they don't have time. Journalists have bosses. News is always happening. In my experience as a journalist prior to TF, no editor is going to say "take a month to fully research and simplify this." /7

On a broader note: I have noticed that a lot of us think whichever bad guy we intensely focus on must be the "Big Bad." I've seen some think Koch or Roger Stone is the mastermind of everything bad. The villains in our country's story are not as simple as that. /8

The same goes for CNP. It's a network that has developed over 40 years, but CNP itself is not the top of a fascist, anti-democracy pyramid. Neither is Trump. Influential fascists are everywhere. Some of them know the GOP propaganda is propaganda. Some of them, honestly, don't. /9

Those of us diving in to this stuff must slow down some days & remember that there's no master puppeteer; the bad guy we know the most about is probably not the source of all evil in this country. Then we can figure out which strings each of these networks and bad guys pull. /10

P.S. I want to clarify one thing. I mean it when I say Trump is not the top of the fascist pyramid. He isn't, and I don't think a pyramid can describe what is happening here.

Whatever power structure exists behind the curtain, Trump isn't the master. He's just the branding.

P.S.2. When I wrote this thread last night, I anticipated maybe 7 people would read it. I knew it was important and applied to many more people than that, but I never thought it would reach this many. I owe a huge, huge thank you to @davetroy and others for boosting it.