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“Social media platforms lit up with right-wing speculation, militant rhetoric and political fundraising after former President Donald Trump announced that his Mar-a-Lago home had been searched by the FBI.”  This is how NPR frames the issue and is conditioning you to think about the raid on Mar-a-Lago.  And their evidence for such a grand conclusion?

Subjective conclusory declarations, like this one: “It’s been a lot of very hot talk and sometimes quite violent sounding.”

Then an immediate change of subject, a detour to social media posts after the 2020 elections.

Then an assertion “elected officials and high-profile media personalities” are using civil war language without giving a single piece of documentation.

Then resort to mischaracterizing reaction to the raid as conspiracy theory and false narrative.  But what are people looking for a reason for the raid supposed to do when the FBI and Justice Department refuse to explain themselves and won’t release the warrant?

Then it’s back to “increasingly violent rhetoric from prominent figures” without a shred of documentation.  Not a single example of violence cited in NPR’s story, not one.

Not much evidence, and this is what passes for news on NPR.  I can’t tell if this was deliberate propaganda or these people live in a bubble and don’t know any Republicans.  Either way, an unfortunate pattern is developing.  Here, NPR is trying to make you afraid of everyone on the Right, calling them violent without any evidence.  This fits a recent pattern in the liberal media and broader Left’s coverage of election integrity issues.  There, Republicans and election integrity activists are being painted as conspiracy theorists and violent provocateurs.  The Washington Post had a story about proposed legislation to “increase protection of election workers and officials against harassment and violence.”  The left-wing group the Scrutineers is training its people that GOP poll workers are saboteurs and violent.  “The same people who pushed The Big Lie about the 2020 election are threatening to disrupt the midterms,” their July 26th mailing said.   The left-wing Brennan Center proclaims Republican conspiracy theorists make elections officials feel unsafe.  Merrick Garland’s left-wing Justice Department has started a task force to “address threats of violence against election workers.”   That’s not all.  I’ve seen countless stories, now, discrediting people working for fair and honest elections as racist conspiracy nuts, or far-right kooks who are chasing unicorns – never mind that voter ID laws get upheld by just about every court that looks at them.

Telling members that outsiders are violent and not to be trusted is a cult technique.  To make this believable, cult leaders control the information environment and disparage outside sources of information as fascistic, reactionary, and not credible.  I’ve even had a Leftist tell me the Wall Street Journal is not a credible source of information.  Poppycock!  Cult leaders shut off contrary information and give their members slogans to chant instead, like ‘Republicans are violent’ and that chant is growing louder even though it’s pure malarkey.

It’s all psychological manipulation.  This is what cults do.  The NPR story is a good example of cult techniques in action.

Left-wing media outlets like NPR smear because they don’t want you to know the real issues at stake.  Real reporting on Mar-a-Lago would have covered Donald Trump’s extensive previous cooperation with the FBI and Justice Department about White House records over many months. [more here]  Real reporters would have asked whether the judge who granted the warrant was informed of that history.  Real journalism would have reported the fact that a watchdog group has now sued to make public the warrant.   Doesn’t sound violent to me unless, of course, you think the Democrats calling the raid an abuse of power are violent, too.

NPR got one part of the story right.  Trump is raising record amounts of money off the raid.  That doesn’t sound violent to me, either.  ‘Republicans are violent’ – what a bunch of horse hockey.  Once again, I remind you of Wright’s Law: everything that comes out of the mouth of the Left can be deconstructed because everything that comes out of the mouth of the Left is garbage.

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