Over the Fourth of July weekend, Washington DC found itself beset by the “Patriot Front”, about 400 guys in matching outfits, with white balaclavas covering their faces and waving flags about.
The (relatively small) gathering walked about a bit, did some marching, waved some flags…and scared the press to death!
They’re not real, of course.
The running joke has already become they are barely-disguised federal agents indulging in some rather lame propaganda, even as some members of rightwing defend both their realness and their aims.
Apparently they do community projects and stuff.
Regardless, they are not real. Even if they’re not literally all FBI agents – which we can’t actually rule out – they are a psy-op to some extent or another.
Just look at them. And you can just look at them, do you know why? Because they’re all over the press and social media.
This picture in particular has “gone viral”:
Several similarly themed “lone ethnic minority surrounded by faceless Nazis” pictures all sprang up at once, which is suspicious in and of itself, but this is the one that really stuck.
Both the bots and people who don’t realise they’ve become bots are promoting it all over the place. “It should win a Pulitzer prize” they say. “This photo will define our age.”
This kind of coverage, this kind of engineered viral content, is the hallmark of the psy-op, and it shows what Patriot Front (and groups like them) are really for:
Creating the illusory threat of potential fascism on the fringes to distract from very real fascism already in the very centre of power.
“You see those guys? In the khakis waving flags about? They’re Nazis. That’s what fascism is, waving flags and doing wrong think.
“Us, the people who spy on you, lock you in your house, track your movements, restrict your speech and indoctrinate your kids, we’re not fascists. In fact, we’re protecting you from the meanie fascists and their heinous flag-waving ways.”
That’s the point of displays like the Patriot Front.
They transform fascism from policy into paraphernalia. Fascism becomes a combination of outfit and accoutrements, rather than authoritarian politics.
With the implied corollary that, as long as you’re not wearing the outfit or waving the flag, you’re not actually fascist.
Even as the Flock cameras spread, digital ID looms, and authors are imprisoned for criticizing the regime.
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