RE: Proud Boys at Capitol on Jan 6th, 2021
On August 20th 2021, Reuters reported that the “FBI finds scant evidence U.S. Capitol attack was coordinated”. On September 25, The New York Times reported that the FBI told them that statements they allegedly received from a supposed spy they had or have in the Proud Boys…
…appear to counter the government’s assertion that the Proud Boys organized for an offensive assault on the Capitol intended to stop the peaceful transition from Mr. Trump to Mr. Biden.
…and…
….On the eve of the attack, the records show, the informant said that the group had no plans to engage in violence the next day except to defend itself from potential assaults from leftist activists…
Also…
…during an interview in April, the informant again told his handlers that Proud Boys leaders gave explicit orders to maintain a defensive posture on Jan. 6. At another point in the interview, he said that he never heard any discussion that day about stopping the Electoral College process.
Here’s more of what the NY Times reported…
In the informant’s version of events, the Proud Boys, famous for their street fights, were largely following a pro-Trump mob consumed by a herd mentality rather than carrying out any type of preplanned attack.
But the records, and information from two people familiar with the matter, suggest that federal law enforcement had a far greater visibility into the assault on the Capitol, even as it was taking place, than was previously known.
On Jan. 6, and for months after, the records show, the informant, who was affiliated with a Midwest chapter of the Proud Boys, denied that the group intended to use violence that day. In lengthy interviews, the records say, he also denied that the extremist organization planned in advance to storm the Capitol. The informant’s identity was not disclosed in the records.
The records describing the informant’s account of Jan. 6 — excerpts from his interviews and communications with the F.B.I. before, during and after the riot — dovetail with assertions made by defense lawyers who have argued that even though several Proud Boys broke into the Capitol, the group did not arrive in Washington with a preset plot to storm the building.
Swallow whatever you might be eating or drinking before reading this next part. This NY Times piece also states…
…the F.B.I. said that intelligence gathering was central to its mission of protecting the American people and upholding the Constitution.
Predictably, this NY Times piece claims the Proud Boys are “far-right”. I remember when they still had an official website and they could make it perfectly clear that they subscribe to post-civil rights era liberty and equality; basic American stuff encoded in the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights of the US Constitution but applied to every adult regardless of sex or color.
Please see my piece The Goldsteining of the Proud Boys - Examining the Assumption that the Proud Boys are Far-Right at the Edge of the Memory Hole wherein I go into depth about the way they have been, well, Goldsteined, that is, lied about and used as a screen onto which people project hatred as in 1984 by George Orwell.
It seems that terms like “far-right”, “Nazi” and “white supremacist” are synonymous with “evil” or “enemy” for entertainment production companies like the NY Times. Everything they hate and want you to hate is condensed to this single stereotype.
The media takes part in this process but ultimately we are responsible for our own delusions.
I am reminded that in The Righteous Mind - Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt Ph.D (Vintage Books, 2013), the first of the 3 principles of the book is that people have automatic moral intuitions “almost instantaneously” and then use their moral reasoning to justify whatever automatic moral intuitions they made. I’ve caught myself doing it; someone rubs me the wrong way and my automatic dislike of the person makes it a little bit challenging to disregard my insignificant feelings about the person so as to focus on principle. Trump has always rubbed me the wrong way. But that’s just some irrational and animalistic part of my mind doing it’s irrational mammalian thing. I realize that I’m not being fair or objective. I try to challenge myself.
Let’s face it; humans tend to be irrational herd animals. We are easily led to believe through our feelings and our moral arguments (such as our position on a given partisan issue) are “mostly post hoc constructions made up on the fly, crafted to advance one or more strategic objectives.”1
Like theater screens onto which movies are projected, the Proud Boys serve as a perfect screen onto whom those who are driven by an animalistic hatred of them can project automatic moral intuitions. And, if needed, they can then invent mock-ups of rational justifications for these automatic moral intuitions.
I think that we should strive to overcome this in our selves and as a society. We should not tolerate it. Do we not value fairness? Do we not demand justice? Then we must get over this hairy, smelly, animalistic, knee-jerk, hormone and instinct-driven nonsense and use our reason instead, in accordance with justice.
∴ Liberty ∴ Strength ∴ Honor ∴ Justice ∴ Truth ∴ Love ∴ Laughter ∴
Page xxi of The Righteous Mind - Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt Ph.D (Vintage Books, 2013).