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Susan Simpson @TheViewFromLL2
, 13 tweets, 4 min read Read on Twitter
It has been fascinating to watch how the Flynn/standing order conspiracy theory has bootstrapped its way up through the ranks of the media ecosystem over the past few days. 1/
It began with some of the non-fringe conservative outlets publising pieces on Flynn's plea that were "just asking questions" about aspects of it that have not yet been publicly explained in full. 2/
nationalreview.com/2018/02/michae…
These articles weren't throwing out baseless factual allegations. Instead, they took unexplained facts, claimed that these facts raised all kinds of wild and completely unsupported suspicions, and then quickly walked things back a bit by saying "well we just have no idea yet." 3/
The QAnon crowd starts then incorporates these questions into their urban legends, though the supposed conspiracies remains amorphous in nature.

Is Flynn the master spook who entered the plea deal in order to infiltrate the deep state and bring them down from within? Maybe! 4/
Then last week, the docket in Flynn's case was updated with Judge Sullivan's revised standing order. That created an official record that was undeniably "real." This isn't some random screen shot of a 4chan post -- it's a court order. 5/
That was the spark the conspiracy needed to really get going. The still-inchoate conspiracy theory bounced around through Cernovich/Posobiec crowd for a few days, before eventually coalescing into a more coherent story via a piece from the Federalist. thefederalist.com/2018/02/19/mic… 6/
The Daily Caller and the Gateway Pundit then pick up the story, giving the newest Flynn conspiracy its first semi-official blessing of legitimacy. This isn't just something the twitter crazies are spreading around -- it's in the media now! thegatewaypundit.com/2018/02/judges… 7/
From there, it's just a hop and a skip onto cable news, as Fox News is the logical next step in the conspiracy theory's progression. Legal analyst Judge Napolitano picks up the story and begins running with it. 8/
And sure, Fox News is, well, Fox News, but it's still considered major and legitimate news outlet.

So if Fox is covering, the story is now real-ish. Or at least real enough. Which means it's time for a clickbait headline from The Hill! thehill.com/policy/nationa… 9/
The underlying claims are just as baseless as ever, but the sheer volume of the noise about it from right-wing media sites has been enough, on its own, to push the story into the open. If it's getting this much attention, there must be *something* to it, right? 10/
Before too long, maybe within a week or so, the Flynn/standing order conspiracy theory will have faded away. There are no legs to it. While the yelping from the alt-right side of the web may be enough to propel a nonsense story into the news, it's not enough to keep it there. 11/
Besides, by then it'll have been replaced by the newest fad conspiracy about the Deep State's corruption. That theory is probably already percolating on Twitter with some kind of inexplicable hashtag (#TheMugglebearKnowsAll), just waiting for its time to shine. 12/
It's become disheartening to watch this play out over and over again. These stories may not live long, but they are parasites on time, energy, and attention. The damage is real.

I have no suggestions on how we can break this cycle, but I sure hope someone out there does. 13/13
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Interesting dynamic, when the defendant gets to choose between two government entities that are competing to be the one to adjudicate his case. With one party offering a typical plea and sentence, and the other offering a possibility of a full pardon.
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