Regime Propaganda, Ray Epps, and the New York Times

American Greatness ^ | 16 Jul, 2022 | Roger Kimball

[Observator]

What you're talking about with a vast government conspiracy to entrap and frame Trump protesters doesn't make sense if you follow it through logically.

Think of it this way - either (1) the riot was the actions of a few unhinged protesters, as well as some fellow travellers like the Proud Boys or (2) restrained Maga patriots were entrapped by the government to frame and tar the whole MAGA movement.

Let's follow thread #2. Either (A) Trump is aware of this dastardly plot, or (B) he is unaware.

As ex-President, it's inconceiveable that Trump has less intelligence than your average social media user, where the Ray Epps theory is common. So it has to be (A).

Since Trump is aware of the theory, he either (i) Believes it, and has spent $0 of his $100M raised since the riot on the defense of these patriots since he only cares about himself and sees the rest of MAGA as pawns. This is the leftist thinking about Trump. Or (ii) Doesn't believe it, and hasn't spent money defending the rioters because he thinks they are guilty, or (iii) Believes it, but is too scared to assist them.

(i) and (iii) don't sound like Trump to me.

[AndyTheBear]

What you're talking about with a vast government conspiracy to entrap and frame Trump protesters...

Who said there was a vast conspiracy? My words were: "There is more than Ray Epps that suggests that it was in part a setup."

Do you consider the FBI Whitmore informant fiasco a "vast government conspiracy"? Hardly. It does not take a vast conspiracy to do a political setup.

Your dichotomy of:

(1) the riot was the actions of a few unhinged protesters, as well as some fellow travellers like the Proud Boys.

(2) restrained Maga patriots were entrapped by the government to frame and tar the whole MAGA movement.

Is a false one. There were protesters that were not self constrained. There was also evidence of some amount of setup. Why on Earth do you not see that both things could be true at the same time? They are not even close to a contradiction.

[Metrobank]

Okay. Who opened the heavy magnet controlled doors to the Capital? Who gave those orders? Why were Capital Police waving people inside? My guess is that the center to all this is Nancy Pelousy who used this event to go after Trump again.

[Fury]

Everyone else just walked in like tourists.

No, that is simply not true. EVERYONE that goes into the Capital for tours, etc is security screened at checkpoints.

Did it occur to ANY of these people that they should not be there? Did ANYONE ask the Capital Police AND record doing so if it was okay to enter the Capital? Anyone? If so, where’s that video? People exercised incredibly bad judgement entering the Capital under those circumstances.

[Fury]

Why were Capital Police waving people inside

Who would be utterly stupid enough to enter given the circumstances? To be utterly clueless to not ask a Capital Police officer AND record doing so “Hey, is it okay if we go in?”

People exhibited very little common sense that day when they entered the Capital. They were there because they thought in part that the “Deep State” had stolen the election from President Trump. And then blindly trust the police officers that managed access for Pelosi (it’s pretty much her building)?

Utter stupidity.

[Fledermaus]

Just because they wore MAGA hats, etc. doesn’t mean they were Trump supporters.

[arthurus]

We don’t know who his boss actually is but we know his function at the demo. He was an Agent Provacateur converting a demonstration into a riot and Government operation to create a situation whereby a major strike and everyday conservatives to b a warning that wrongthink is now punishable by long jail terms and concomitant isolation and abuse without benefit of judge and jury.

[arthurus]

He is special because it seems obvious that he is a government agent. He promoted things that other people were sentenced by the DoJ without judge or jury to long terms in jail. He is untouchable.

[thinden]

LOL - just goes to show how different reality is from person to person. I have to say that the vast majority of people who are even semi-informed would think that trying to pin the Capitol riot on some low-level guy named Ray Epps is the one who should be receiving pay for propaganda.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

so if you know Ray Epps is “some low-level guy....

so what organization is he low level in?

are you above or below his pay grade?

[Observator]

He is special because it seems obvious that he is a government agent. He promoted things that other people were sentenced by the DoJ without judge or jury to long terms in jail. He is untouchable.

That's one explanation, but it's the more outlandish. A simpler explanation is that 800 people have already been charged and convicted, and they are prioritizing people. He's on video encouraging people to go in, but so are dozens of others. And he didn't go in himself. He probably should be in jail if others aren't, from what's publicly known. But to make the leap to him being some government mastermind of chaos is a big stretch based on the little that is known. Compared to some of the groups whose coordination is public, he's not high profile.

[arthurus]

Not a “mastermind,” an agent provacateur with the emphasis on “agent.”