Thread by @narrativefeeder

1. As a reformed liberal, much of my personal social media feed is still a showcase of this particular brand of mental illness. One of the latest bits of propaganda I've seen circulating is an animated video from a far-left blog that details "How to defeat authoritarianism."

2. It's #Resist pravda. There's not much of a subtext at all, because it depicts with cute accompanying illustrations how Trump uses each of these 5 time-tested techniques that "all authoritarians use."

3. Unfortunately for Act.tv, the only thing that it does with any degree of competency is show how blind most leftists are to the actual, real-life implementation of authoritarianism.

4. The first technique is "attacking the free press." They declare that you can see this "dynamic at play when Trump calls any negative coverage 'Fake News,' and threatens to take away the media's credentials..." So calling the MSM #FakeNews and...

5. Threatening (but not actually doing) to revoke press credentials, what does it make @BarackObama's particular brand of press treatment? Journalists were targeted as investigators sought phone records for journalists, threatened to jail investigative reporters, and...

6. even named a Fox News reporter as a co-conspirator in a leak case. In Texas, a journo became the focus of a fed prosecution for investigating private defense contractors and was charged for simply sharing a link...

7.that contained hacked information that was already available to the public at the time of publication. Things got bad enough that douchenozzle, @EricHolder, even had to publicly affirm that, "no reporter who is doing his job is going to go to jail." wired.com/2014/04/barret…

8. New York Times reporter James Risen even went as far as to declare Obama "the greatest enemy to press freedom in a generation." In 2009, after Obama took office, the US slid down 29 spots on the annual Reporters without Borders ranking. theatlantic.com/politics/archi…

9. So Trump using the term #FakeNews is authoritarianism, but nary a word about Obama's abuse and mistreatment of the media? Let's see what's next in this little gem of a video. Ah, yes...Blaming the countries problems on minorities.

10. It doesn't actually give an example of Trump doing this because there isn't one, but this is the type of thing that reaffirms a priori confirmation bias. If you watch #FakeNews, and believe that Trump wants to "ban Muslims" and build a wall to keep minorities out...

11. this probably seems legitimate. In Trump's estimation though, the problem isn't with immigrants, it's with bad policy created and enforced by corrupt kleptocracy who have sold America's jobs to the lowest bidder. Neither he, nor any conservatives I know, blamed minorities.

12. Next, it asserts that "authoritarians" blame dissent on foreigners of "paid protesters." This is one of the more egregious examples for a number of reasons. For one, hypocrisy. Trump has endured 2 years of the left blaming his ascendancy on foreigners. Russians, namely.

13. Trump was the leader of a populist revolt against a global establishment. He was an outsider; a threat to an entrenched political over class. And, because She was never expected to lose, and they had to limit his power immediately... "Russians." realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/02/…

14. But, more importantly, we know that special interest groups organize protests to create the image of spontaneity and organic organization in the hopes that it pushes others to action. At minimum, the spectacle serves to generate a subversive counter narrative.

15. @TheLastRefuge2 has reported on this type of thing before. Ol' ballsack eyes was behind this, but the left has reported on this phenomenon before when the Koch brothers were funding some tea-party protesters... theconservativetreehouse.com/2016/05/25/gue…

16. In the context of this video, it's simply being used to convince the user that when the opposition (Trump supporters) raise alarms about outside organization, it's safe for you to dismiss the claims because it's a technique used by authoritarians to quell discontent.

17. What's even more hilarious about this one in particular is that it suggests this technique is used so that the state can deploy the police to violently crackdown on protests. Like this.👇Imagine the response though if Trump had done this at any protests since inauguration.

18. Couldn't see this one coming. "...Removing people from powerful positions that are not loyal to the regime or its ruler." Gee... Where have I seen this one before? We can all see the writing on the wall here.

19. There's a massive scandal unfolding, and here's the attempt to frame prosecution as an authoritarian purge. Which makes the final technique of authoritarians comical. "Loyalty." Yes. Authoritarians fear a legal system which holds them to the same standards as everyone else.

20. I feel like I don't even have to comment on this one because it's its blindness to the most obvious comparison is ludicrous. Both Obama and Clinton are prime examples of people who benefit from a dichotomous legal system. The list of their misdeeds is long.

21. For example: IRS targeting, Benghazi (actually 3 in one there), spying on the AP, Fast and Furious, Rosengate, hacking @SharylAttkisson's computer, getting rid of IGs, Clinton having SAPs on her private home server. These people are authoritarians.

22. They were attempting to use the full brunt of the State's power to spy on private citizens and a candidate of the opposition party to undermine an election. Then, they continued to try to have the duly elected president removed from office to cover their illegality.

23. This video is pure propaganda being shared on social media to reinforce and entrench the #Resist ideology as the entire house of cards starts to crumble. It is tragic that a true outsider has taken the reigns in an effort to return to us our sovereignty,

24. but is being rebuffed by a public completely brainwashed by a media class beholden to their corporate and political overlords. The tide is turning though. It's hard not to feel that a shift has occurred. Justice is coming. #SpyGate #MAGA #HereComesThePain #TheGreatAwakening

25. Addendum: The real tragedy here is that @BarackObama was an authoritarian. He was backed by global financial interests, and he ruled the US like a banana republic. For one, his cabinet was essentially hand selected by a bank
wikileaks.org/podesta-emails…

26. The e-mails are from Michael Froman, a former Citibank executive who went on to become a US trade representative. While Obama campaigned as the "main street" president against the backdrop of the financial meltdown of 2008, the emails showed quite the opposite...

27. Almost the entirety of his cabinet was selected in advance by Citigroup, which unsurprisingly became the largest recipient of federal funds during the bailout. Read the below piece from New Republic. newrepublic.com/article/137798…

28. Particularly this portion: "The cabinet list ended up being almost entirely on the money. It correctly identified Eric Holder for the Justice Department, Janet Napolitano for Homeland Security, Robert Gates for Defense, Rahm Emanuel for chief of staff..." It continues.

29. The email chain showed an apparent concern with crafting a "progressive" facade for Obama's cabinet. It included "a list of African American, Latino and Asian American candidates... American, Arab/Muslim American and disabled American candidates."

30. Obama also presided over the single largest transfer of wealth in human history. Taxpayers were forced to foot the bill as over $4.5 trillion was given to Wall Street through the administration's Quantitative Easing program.

31. Because these funds went directly to the banks whose errant policy had essentially created the crisis, it did nothing to affect jobs or wages. As The New York Post noted, the bailout simply "funded company mergers, company debt offerings and stock buybacks...

32. This activity kept the money sequestered and allowed a greater return for the banks." On paper, the economy appeared to be recovering, but it essentially did so at the expense of the middle class which was decimated. The only real benefactors were the 1%."

33. There is a sense of deep, cosmic irony that some of Obama's most vociferous supporters would probably be appalled by his policy if they even remotely paid attention. In terms of authoritarianism, he did far worse as well.

nypost.com/2016/01/17/occ…

34. He presided over the growth of the largest domestic spying apparatus the world had ever seen. When I was a liberal, I received a lot of flak for suggesting that this was a dangerous road. No one cared. You and I were never the real target--that wasn't the danger.

35. The danger was that that system would be used to target political opponents which would undermine the entire democratic process. And here we are. It has become more clear by the day, that that is precisely what happened.

36. Admiral Rogers identified abuses of the FISA 702 query database in early 2016 by the FBI which was sharing that intelligence with 3rd parties. He shut it down, and conducted an audit. Obama and his despotic lackeys were then forced to fund and lean on a bogus dossier...

37. to get a FISA warrant to spy on Trump. At the same time, they were approaching members of Trump's team to try to get them in compromising situations to validate the warrants should it ever become public. See the Trump Tower/Veselnitskaya meeting.

38. They turned up nothing, and Trump was elected anyway. What did they do? They used the media to conduct an all-out propaganda blitz against the new administration to gin up enough controversy to warrant a special counsel. There was no predicate crime.

39. It was, at minimum, an effort to undermine the Trump administration's ability to govern effectively. More than likely, the goal was likely to create a movement to remove him from office. Think of the precedent this has set. These people must be dealt with HARSHLY.

40. Obama monitored comms of a political opponent, tried to frame him, planted spies on his team. When none of that proved fruitful, they used the media to help create hysteria about Russian collusion to try to remove him from office. This is authoritarianism.

41. Most of the public is so drunk on the 24-pap that the media feeds them, that they see Trump as the villain in this story. They can't even begin to see the nefariousness of the past administration. This is a dark time.

42. If these people are not dealt with accordingly, the US republic is fucked. I'm hopeful because I know a lot of patriots are working hard right now to ensure that that happens, but it's disheartening to see the how pervasive the brainwashing actually is.