Source: OffGuardian
Trump Assassination Attempt – The stories so far
Are we witnessing the birth of a new meta for propaganda narratives?
Kit Knightly
It’s three days since the alleged attempt on Donald Trump’s life, and while we’re not really any closer to knowing the truth of the situation, the claims and counterclaims from all sides are coming thick and fast.
The shooter was a Republican…
no he was a Democrat….
Trump was hit by a bullet…
no it was shattered glass from his teleprompter…
no he wasn’t hit by anything the injury was fake.
…it goes on like this.
The usual routine for such a situation would be for the “official story” to resolve itself within 24 hours. Any deviance from that story would then be censored, shouted down and/or mocked.
Any evidence contradicting it would be purged from the official collective memory banks.
The media would unite with one voice.
There are countless historical examples of this, from “the Gunpowder Plot” to 9/11 . We don’t need to develop them here.
But this event appears to be a little different. Essentially, rather than a single “official” narrative, we have three separate stories rolling out in parallel:
1. The Republican story: The shooting was either planned or “allowed to happen” by a Democrat/Deep State alliance that sees Trump as a threat.
2. The Democrat story: The shooting was somehow staged by the Trump campaign to make him look cool.
3. The “rational middle ground”: A lone lunatic did something crazy. There is talk of incompetence and “violent rhetoric” creating a “climate of hate”, but not much else.
1 & 2 also both have their own set of “alternative facts” supporting their position. Neither seems to be getting censored very much if at all (yet).
On the “Right” side there is the ‘fact’ the secret service apparently left an elevated position with a clear view of the podium unguarded (for a frankly insane reason) and then did nothing when they were told by multiple witnesses that a man with a gun was climbing up on that roof.
Along with this there are claims that the Secret Service replaced Trump’s team with a temporary one for the Butler event.
And claims the shooter appeared in a BlackRock video and donated to leftist thinktanks.
On the “Left” side they are laughing about karma and gun laws and ranting about “diversity hire” of female Secret Service agents.
They also point to the apparently ‘stage-managed’ drama and ‘too-good-to-be-true’ photographs emerging from the fracas. – The incredible luck of having Trump superficially wounded just enough to look like a bad-ass without actually hurting him or missing him altogether. The fact his security detail allowed him ‘pose for photos’ instead of rushing him off stage. And the fact the alleged shooter was a registered Republican.
It seems that what we may have here is a very post-covid narrative for the new age of the fake binary.
Each side is seemingly supplied enough evidence to confirm their assumptions and drip-fed enough rage-bait – a lot of it entirely invented – to keep their echo chambers echoing and their attack dogs frothing at the mouth.
Essential to this of course is that neither ‘side’ and no theory is ever finally proven to be right or wrong.
Meanwhile, most of the MSM is currently happy to dismiss both sides as “conspiracy theorists”.
It really is a fascinating phenomenon to watch unfold. Are we witnessing a new meta for propaganda narratives? Instead of uniting with fake “consensus”, distracting with an eternal battle between two approved partial or total falsehoods.
As usual, the truth is likely in neither camp but buried beneath the unwarranted assumptions and unproven “facts” neither side questions.
But look at the benefits already accruing to the narrative-managers.
For instance, now that the “left” are calling the event staged the traditionally pro-free speech “right” are suddenly the ones who want to silence “conspiracy theorists” or who are looking to cancel people for joking about how they wish Trump had been killed.
So , rather effortlessly, many hardcore libertarians are being lured away from some of their most deeply held beliefs (in personal liberty and firm limits on state power), and now both “sides” are pro-cancellation and anti-free speech!
Gee, that was kinda easy wasn’t it!
Meanwhile the “left”, fresh from four years of demonizing “anti-vaxxers” and “election deniers” can suddenly be hoist by their own petard and called “assassination deniers” by the right.
It can be argued that supplying the “Left” with their own “conspiracy theories” is a potential stroke of genius, because now any social media crackdown on “extreme language” or “denial” (or whatever they choose to call it) can hit both “sides” equally and be spared accusations of bias, and will always be supported by one side of this fake divide.
Both “Left” and “Right” are also pretty clear right now on whose stock has risen most as a result of this –
Trump.
Obviously.
It makes him look tough and brave, paralleling the shooting of Ronald Reagan in 1981.
It’s given him an iconic image that speaks wordlessly to the deep heart of America – bloody but unbowed, fist-raised in defiance.
And, if you believe the Deep State pulled the trigger, it also furthers Trump’s (unearned & increasingly ridiculous) reputation as some kind of threat to the establishment.
Combine this with Biden’s disastrous debate performance, the (mysteriously halted) talk of taking him off the ticket, and anonymous Democrat insiders reportedly “resigned” to defeat and it’s not hard to see this might be part of the groundwork being laid for a second Trump term.
Barring future developments of course.
Oh, and it’s also helping to heat up divisive “civil war” rhetoric.
…which might be the entire point.
How better to finally take down the old empire & instate the new “improved” version a little further east?
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