Thread by @dogemperor

Between this, and probably *the* biggest push for the Great Sedition starting around the same time with the "Jericho March", it's high time I talk about Christian Nationalist (and NAR) apocalypticism re the High Holidays, particularly Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur

A thread:

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https://twitter.com/utopian2050/status/1546660817432608770

So. There is...a whole, whole lot of conspiracy theology in NAR circles (which honestly spreads out to Christian Nationalism in general, but is most prevalent in the NAR) where there is not only a promotion of a certain Xanatos Gambit regarding immanentizing the eschaton,

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but (as part of said conspiracy theology, which in essence claims that Israel has to be re-established *and* the world's Jewish population must be moved to Israel before Jesus can return) there's a lot of...very weird cultural appropriation of Jewish religious culture

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And this ranges from a real fanaticism towards supporting Likud and expansion of Israel's territory across most of the Levant on one end, and actual religious cosplay (in the form of "Hebrew Christians" and "Messianic Jews" that are essentially NAR types that keep kashrut)

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and this gets into some creepy areas (like "Messianic Seders" that are...basically Pesach Seders that get turned into Passion-of-the-Christ-and-isn't-he-a-mensch narratives) and occasionally some frankly anti-Semitic stuff

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tw: antisemitism

(like claims Hitler and the Nazis were really "doing God's work", that they were "hunters" and "herders" and that whole Shoah thing was meant to happen so Israel could exist for their little Xanatos Gambit)

And there's the widow's mite grift I've mentioned

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(where out-of-circulation 1-agora pieces were bought up en masse as Israel redenominated in the 80s, and were gleefully handed out as "genuine widow's mites" to encourage people to cough up the contents of their pocketbooks in "seed faith offerings").

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What I've not really talked about is that there is also...a long history of, well, apocalyptic thought (and there's no better way to put it) regarding specifically Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and it goes back pretty damn far in NAR and Latter Rain circles.

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One of the earliest examples I remember was Ed Whisenant, who published a Hal Lindsay-esque "The End Is Extremely Fucking Nigh" book called "88 Reasons Jesus Christ Will Return in 1988", and basically the long and the short of it is that he claimed...

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that since this would be 40 years after Israel's founding, and that effectively The Stars And The Religious Numerical Symbolism Were Right, that obviously the Second Coming was due to happen around Rosh Hashanah 1988.

I know about it because there were kids I knew...

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whose family read this book (which was very popular in the NAR church I escaped from), and their families had pretty much sold their houses and belongings fully expecting that right around the 11th of September 1988 they were gonna be Raptured Up Into Glory

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(This did not happen, and a lot of people ended up in desperate situations as a result.)

And yes, this was pretty heavily promoted on all the Christian Nationalist media at the time, and even before Whisenant, Jimmy Bakker had a real fascination with Rosh Hashanah,

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and by the early 2000s the whole concept of "The end of the world, or at least the Rapture, or at least the end of the Other, will begin on or around that period in the Jewish religious calendar from Yom Kippur to Rosh Hashanah" was firmly ingrained in conspiracy theology

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and in fact there was actually a religious panic IN NAR circles that had gotten especially heavy into numerical symbolism and religious cosplay in 2014, when multiple Christian Nationalist leaders (including NAR promoter John Hagee, and old Pat Robertson)

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realized that there were going to be lunar eclipses in proximity of several of the Jewish High Holidays including Rosh Hashanah (unsurprising because Judaism uses a lunisolar calendar, but...apparently to them, it was a thing of Great Portent)

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And it's worth noting, as an aside, that THIS also related to a similar Whisenant-esque redux (this time by NAR promoter Mark Blitz) who taught the 7-year Tribulation would start in 2008 and the Second Coming would come around Rosh Hashanah 2015

irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com/5c0e2c10/files…

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so it's definitely ingrained in the religious culture of the NAR at this point that Second Coming Panics and Religious Manias (not unlike those of the Fifth Monarchists in 1666 in England) tend to be centered around the Jewish Religious New Year

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And it's actually well known (and has been well known) that Trump had an *unusual* degree of close relations with NAR groups, and NAR groups fed deeply into his own malignant narcissism (in that they were literally saying he had "Cyrus Anointing", which is a fancy

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way in NAR-ese to effectively all but call someone out as a "Virtuous Pagan" (and also a useful idiot) by decreeing they are effectively a quasi-reincarnation of Cyrus the Great.

There's a lot of this quasi-reincarnation "anointing" talk in NAR circles, of note:

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Sarah Palin (yes, *that* Sarah Palin) was frequently noted by NAR leaders as having a "Deborah Anointing" (after the famous prophetess/warrior/judge in the Old Testament), and the *entire set* of kids who were collectively Jesus Camped and trained as foot soldiers

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for the NAR's Forever War (and whom a lot got C-PTSD as a result) were called "Generation Joshua", both as a Jesus Pun *and* more directly as having a collective "Joshua Anointing" after the Old Testament leader who was 1st ruler of Israel (and explicitly a priest)

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And this...weirdness actually extends further to symbolism (which also dances, if not headlong drives, into frank cultural appropriation).

And Trump--or at least someone in his inner circle, probably *several* someones--knew enough about the specific symbolism

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that Christian Nationalists and *especially* the NAR hold regarding Rosh Hashanah specifically that...a lot of the pump-priming events for what led to the Great Sedition pretty much seem to have been *deliberately* timed to Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur as dogwhistles.

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And honestly to most folks, it'd be dismissed, or at most seen as itself an example of Trump's chuddiness, but to NAR types...it was pretty much a signal He Was One Of Them, Or At Least An Extremely Useful Virtuous Pagan Who Knew The Right Handshakes And Signals.

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The particular missive where Trump quotes Christian Nationalist pastor Robert Jeffress (who has been completely unapologetic re the Great Sedition) was in fact posted on Rosh Hashanah 2019, and one of the events that massively primed the pump for the Great Sedition...

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was planned as early as March 2020 by Christian Nationalists, particularly NAR types, as basically a mass rally timed to coincide supposedly with 40 days before the election, 400th anniversary of the Mayflower...and the day just before Yom Kippur 2020.

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(And it should be noted that NAR types do have...a certain kind of numerology distinct from gematria, but they assign a great amount of significance to 40 (which they see as a number of completion), there are 40-day fasts during Lent, there's fascination with

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multiples of 40, and of 7, and of 9, and with the number 3. 21 actually has some numerology associated in these circles (both because it's 3x7 and a variant of 40-day fasting promoted by the church I escaped, originally as a fundraiser for their televangelism network)

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but suffice it to say that the combo of "right near Yom Kippur taking advantage of maximum Religious Fervor by NAR types, and the whole 40/40-multiples symbolism and NAR numerology" was definitely deliberate.)

rightwingwatch.org/post/end-times…

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Not coincidentally, you also had a lot of people breaking out shofarim (fun with more NAR cultural appropriate of Jewish religious culture), and also not coincidentally...@January6thCmte and media reports have confirmed something curious:

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Namely, right around late September 2020 is when there was a *drastic* uptick of chatter on practically every far-right watering hole to the effect of wanting to actively overthrow the US government and multiple state governments if Trump didn't win the election.

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And there were a *lot* of folks who had monitored the far-right, and the Christian Nationalist right, who were DESPERATELY trying to get warnings out even then about how the whole "we want a revolution" talk had exponentially increased.

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@RightWingWatch actually commented how they eff'd up the math, but I'm pretty convinced they picked the date for the Yom Kippur/Rosh Hashanah dogwhistle, not for the actual election date

rightwingwatch.org/post/end-times…

(Nobody actually accused the NAR of doing the math.)

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By at least the 23rd of October 2020 you already had a diverse number of far-right groups threatening full-on civil war if Trump lost: rightwingwatch.org/post/josh-bern…

And NAR leaders calling for electoral interference: rightwingwatch.org/post/head-of-u…

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*Charisma* Magazine, which is a major outlet for NAR theology, even explicitly pushed "stolen election" narratives and Biden conspiracy theories rightwingwatch.org/post/charisma-…

And Paula White (of Trump's faith leaders council, also a televangelist who was implicated in

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an embezzlement scandal involving Oral Roberts University that led the owners of Hobby Lobby to bail it out and was largely swept under the carpet despite a congressional investigation and attempts at subpoenas targeting multiple televangelists: dailykos.com/stories/2007/1…

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Yes, Paula White actually was also pushing the whole narrative "Trump will definitely win": rightwingwatch.org/post/election-…

And when it became obvious he didn't, even in early vote election totals...

Well, that's when the real plot started coming out

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Literally on the day of the election itself NAR leaders were portraying voting for Biden as a literal sin and blasphemy against the Holy Ghost (the one unforgivable sin): rightwingwatch.org/post/sid-roth-…

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As early as the 4th, "stolen election" claims were being promoted:
rightwingwatch.org/post/trump-pen…
rightwingwatch.org/post/right-win…

By November 5th, Ali Alexander had formed "Stop the Steal": rightwingwatch.org/post/right-win…

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Paula White (again, connected with Presidential faith council) was telling Christian Nationalists including NAR types to actively oppose electoral results showing Biden the winner: rightwingwatch.org/post/white-hou…

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Even literally on the 4th saying that apparently every voting office in the US was full of Satan for not declaring Trump President-for-life:

https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1324180607438626820

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And on November 6th both she and her son pushed Christian Nationalists to threaten those who were actually certifying the vote: rightwingwatch.org/post/paula-whi…

Charisma was pushing "stolen election" narratives as of November 9: rightwingwatch.org/post/firmly-in…

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Charisma even went to the point of pushing frank QAnonsense towards these narratives (not shocking if you know just how much the NAR really has embraced QAnonsense as confirmation of their own conspiracy theology): rightwingwatch.org/post/charisma-…

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By November 10th, there were explicit calls for civil war and for Trump to unilaterally declare martial law (not unlike Jose Serrano Elias's coup attempt, or Alberto Fujimori's or Ferdinand Marcos' more successful ones): rightwingwatch.org/post/josh-bern…

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By November 14th, "Stop the Steal" had--along with the Pr*ud B*ys, Oath K**pers, and other far-right groups--organized a "March for Trump" which erupted in violence: rightwingwatch.org/post/million-m…

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By November 16th, Alexander was explicitly stating the plan of false electors: rightwingwatch.org/post/stop-the-…

(And he would show up later at Christian Nationalist pump-priming events for the Great Sedition, as we'll show.)

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Trump's attorneys pushed the narrative heavily on Christian Nationalist "news with views" programs as well as far-right media--including, notably, a rally on the 15th of November including NAR promoter Eric Metaxas rightwingwatch.org/post/trumps-la…

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(Metaxas is going to come up a LOT in this as will Jim Garlow; I hope @January6thCmte has had him as a party of interest.)

By the 18th, promoters of a movement linked with the Pr*ud B*ys were actively calling for civil war rightwingwatch.org/post/walk-away…

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(As an aside: This is the point a lot of people who monitor the far-right for a living were actively telling people to please be careful, to have a plan if they TRIED a violent coup, and probably more than a few researchers were giving tips to @FBI)

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Christian Nationalist media was explicitly referring to what would become the Great Sedition (and promoting it as the "Second American Revolution") by November 18: rightwingwatch.org/post/mario-mur…

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By the 20th, multiple media sources were (accurately) describing events to date as an attempted autocoup by Trump:
msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-…
mediamatters.org/fox-news/trump…
talkingpointsmemo.com/news/giuliani-…

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By the 30th November, the next "pump-priming" event happened, where March for Trump (which, again, involved Pr*ud B*ys among others) started a tour which would end on 12 December (two days before the Electoral College vote): rightwingwatch.org/post/march-for…

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And...whilst in this case it is a historical accident, it's interesting that they did at least attempt to start before the Electoral College vote...right during Hanukkah (which is seen as a bigger deal by NAR types appropriating Jewish religious culture than in Judaism)

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And Hanukkah tends to be appreciated by NAR types both...for the fact of the miracle of the oil lasting eight days, but also with the Maccabees and their revolt against the Seleucid Empire, which plays into...

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...the rally on December 12th (also big for numerology in NAR circles, 12/12, 4 and 3, very auspicious, also representing 12 Apostles).

(I would be a liar if I didn't note that NAR types REALLY, REALLY like their number symbolism.

(Even if they ARE bad at math.)

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Mind, by November 30th, you had NAR proponents who'd also embraced QAnonsense calling for summary executions (and saying the part they'd been quiet about from Carter on very loudly): rightwingwatch.org/post/johnny-en…

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...a LOT of people calling for Trump to go full Efrain Rios Montt, really, by early December. Including with some people who might have had influence to make it happen rightwingwatch.org/post/pro-trump…

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And the rhetoric that had been pushed since at least mid-September in NAR circles in particular had been ramped up exponentially: rightwingwatch.org/post/pro-trump…

(Note: NAR types are as bad at Norse mythology as math.)

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By December 3rd, "Stop the Steal" had actually gotten lynch mobs to go after electoral officials in Georgia (as recently revealed in the @January6thCmte hearings): rightwingwatch.org/post/stop-the-…

And Christian Nationalists...were increasingly using apocalyptic rhetoric.

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Again, Christian Nationalists and especially NAR types were calling for a full-on military coup and military tribunals/summary executions of political and religious opponents by December 3rd: rightwingwatch.org/post/sam-rohre…

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By December 4th, Attorney-General William Barr had been targeted: rightwingwatch.org/post/dave-daub…

And all that led up to the pump-priming on December 12th: rightwingwatch.org/post/right-win…

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So on the 12th, you had Stop the Steal working with the individuals behind that little meeting on Yom Kippur Eve, who were by this point calling themselves "Jericho March"--because, again, they felt they collectively had an "anointing" of all those people who blew shofarim

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and supposedly caused an earthquake leading to the city's destruction.

And so they held a rally called "Let the church ROAR!" (the NAR does seem to like its Lion of Judah imagery) which included a lot of folks like Ali Alexander and Eric Metaxas and...Rep. Gosar,

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and yes, in the midst of this *incredibly* chuddy conference in which the whole point was to encourage Trump to declare martial law and to rile people up into a violent revolt...

rightwingwatch.org/post/right-win…

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you literally had people *cosplaying the battle of Jericho*, complete with tooting ram horns and circling the US Capitol, Supreme Court, and DOJ buildings 7 times in an actual attempt to curse these buildings (and the legitimate government of the US) in the name of God

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Which would have been...merely cringe, were it not for the fact you had a whole lot of "Jericho Marchers" hanging out with O*th K**pers calling for a war if Trump didn't use the Insurrection Act to do an autocoup: rightwingwatch.org/post/oath-keep…

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And if you'd not had a STEADY stream of people who were pushing on and giving oxygen to that rather nasty spark of apocalyptic fervour lit on Yom Kippur Eve: rightwingwatch.org/post/ecumenica…

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And had not the Pr*ud B*ys literally tried to go Romper Stomper on multiple counterprotesters, beat the hell out of people trying to protect bystanders, and vandalized multiple African-American churches rightwingwatch.org/post/violence-…

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And had not the very individual who'd PLANNED that first priming of the pump on Yom Kippur Eve pretty much explicitly called for violence in the goal of establishing a New Apostolic Reformation run theocratic dictatorship rightwingwatch.org/post/at-stop-t…

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And were it not for the fact you had a GOP Rep from Arizona at the affair (Rep. Gozar), who has been linked to the Great Sedition, who is from a state GOP convention that was calling for voters to "fight and die" for Trump's attempted coup on Dec 8 mediaite.com/politics/arizo…

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....oh yeah, and Eric Metaxas was again involved, as he would also be at the next priming of the pump on January 5th. (I hope @January6thCmte is watching)

rightwingwatch.org/post/eric-meta…

So...just a bit more than *cringe*

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...oh, and another person who was really pushing a lot of these tropes was John Eastman, also newly a person of Great Interest to @January6thCmte for his apparently central role in the Great Sedition.

He also wants to revoke the 14th Amendment: rightwingwatch.org/post/the-sordi…

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(Seriously, @RightWingWatch actually had a dossier on Eastman. In 2016. @January6thCmte, you may just want to get with folks at RWW because oh lord have they got dossiers for you for a lot of the parties involved)

rightwingwatch.org/post/meet-a-la…

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Back to the NAR and how a lot of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur Apocalypse Symbolism REALLY fed into the Great Sedition, though.

And yeah, by this point (two days before that "Let the church ROAR" event) Metaxas was full on calling for civil war mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk/r…

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(By this point, people were no longer just putting reports of threats to the @DOJ and the @FBI. Reporters who were paying attention were full on warning that this is how authoritarianism starts: salon.com/2020/12/11/rep…)

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Christian Nationalists kept priming the pump: rightwingwatch.org/post/god-told-…
rightwingwatch.org/post/as-legal-…
talkingpointsmemo.com/news/va-state-…

The false elector plan was being heavily promoted: vox.com/22173990/elect…
rightwingwatch.org/post/right-win…

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And by that point, the unholy alliance was actively threatening violence if GOP Congresspersons didn't decertify the election and/or choose the false electors

rightwingwatch.org/post/stop-the-…

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And Louie Gohmert was actively encouraging Texas to secede from the Union over the Supreme Court ruling that "no, we won't throw out your electoral results and throw the election to the House, not yours" rightwingwatch.org/post/louie-goh…

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And the O*th K**pers (one of two special groups of especially chuddy guests on @January6thCmte Television tomorrow!) again were threatening a civil war if Trump didn't declare martial law a la Ferdinand Marcos and do an autocoup rightwingwatch.org/post/oath-keep…

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and reportedly the Pr*ud B*ys had a plan to try to incite a riot if not a full-on terrorist attack at Biden's inauguration (which we'll probably hear more on tomorrow) rawstory.com/2020/12/proud-…

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And the NAR group Intercessors for America (which is also linked with Paula White) was also calling for insurrection and advocating that Trump not step down or concede--and to put pressure on the Supreme Court: rightwingwatch.org/post/trump-pra…

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(The targeting of the Supreme Court is notable, as an aside, as we now know thanks to the @January6thCmte hearings that there was active pressure being put on both Thomas and Scalia, and Ginni Thomas in particular actively aided and abbetted the Great Sedition.)

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The same NAR-linked groups that were targeting the Supreme Court were also directly targeting Mike Pence, actively encouraging him to disregard law (and leading, likely, to Pence's fateful conversation with Dan Quayle).

rightwingwatch.org/post/die-hard-…

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The attacks on the Supreme Court eventually led to outright threats against both Pence and Chief Justice John Roberts by January 4th: rightwingwatch.org/post/pro-trump…

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And by January 4th, NAR types (including, again, Eric Metaxas and Jim Garlow) were actively engaging in calls with Sidney Powell discussing plans for Trump to declare a national emergency to "postpone" inauguration a la Marcos' coup rightwingwatch.org/post/sidney-po…

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rightwingwatch.org/post/pressurin… And pressure had exponentially increased on Pence, which...led up to the final priming of pump for the Great Sedition.

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Another party linked with Jericho March may well have been outright pushing for a coup within churches, via NAR "prophetic visions" which involved Christian Nationalists storming the streets rightwingwatch.org/post/jericho-m…

This also involved gatherings at state capitols,

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which as early as June had been turning violent, with an overt plot to kidnap (and lynch) the governor of Michigan and violently overthrow the government by a "Christian Patriot" militia group busted by the FBI in October (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gretchen_…)

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So on January 5th, the final pump-priming happened that led to the events of the Great Sedition, you had Flynn and Ali Alexander and Eric Metaxas and others outright calling for a violent revolt if Congress dared certify the election rightwingwatch.org/post/christian…

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And even after the Great Sedition, Eric Metaxas was unrepentant days later: rightwingwatch.org/post/far-right…

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(and that radio show...was a veritable who's who of chuds. Charlie Kirk of TPUSA; Lance Wallnau, long infamous for his NAR involvement; a radio host from Salem Broadcasting, a major part of "Godcasting" radio that's hijacked much of the airwaves in the US)

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And...really, Christian Nationalists, and especially NAR types, have *continued* to call for violent insurrection and been priming the pump ever since, including...a second rally, "Let Us Worship"...by the same ones who primed the pump in September 2020,

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which also has had Metaxas *AGAIN* along with Sen. Josh Hawley, other NAR leaders like Sean Feucht...again, right in that week between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (only this time claiming they timed it around 11 September): rightwingwatch.org/post/dominioni…

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And basically the whole reason I've noted the whole hecking history of how we *got* to the Great Sedition on January 6th 2021 is not just because @January6thCmte meeting tomorrow is likely to be extra spicy, but to note that one reason to listen to #exvangelical folks

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is because a lot of times we have intimate knowledge of these kinds of dog whistles, and also researchers who do listen to the intel provided pick up on this like @RightWingWatch has rightwingwatch.org/post/jehu-jeri…

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but tl;dr (some would say about 80 posts too long lol) there's...a lot of very weird cultural appropriation that goes on in NAR circles and it's often used to hide plans for some horrible stuff, and it's arguably something that's been done since the beginnings...

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of Christian Nationalist terrorism, when both The Order (Christian Identity) and the Army of God (Christian Nationalist) used the same Phinehas imagery from the same Christian Identity source in an effort to defictionalize a bad race-war novelization

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@threadreaderapp unroll

Oh, and an addendum. Very relevant thread from someone else regarding one of the Christian Nationalist groups involved in the Great Sedition who was also deeply involved in Jericho March/Stop the Steal type stuff threadreaderapp.com/thread/1546598…