'Invisible Protocoll' for protests?

Something my stepdad asked me to look into. So the story goes a trio of campaign wonks came up with this … thing. He said to look up videos and so forth, but to be blunt? Google is giving me nothing to work with. He says there’s videos of people in town halls ‘screeching.’

I can find nothing here.

2 Likes

You’re going to have to give us a little more to go on…

No, actually, you’re not. I don’t care what it is, it’s probably another conspiracy theory by your stepdad. You should suggest he seek psychiatric help.

11 Likes

Look. I know it’s probably bunk, because it sounds like we’re this unified lockstep machine moving to oppose Trump and the GOP. However I want to figure out what the hell he’s on about without going into wingnut territory to see these ‘videos of people screaming’ he’s on about. IE Youtube, Vimeo, and reputable news sources only (NYTimes, BBC, etc.)

Both sides spin. Only one side has to spin the other is a monolithic machine-like entity.

SO look. I get that you don’t like trumpsters. THey don’t like us. I"m just trying to figure out the root this thing.

Again, I don’t really understand what you’re talking about with the “invisible protocoll [sic].” There does seem to be a wave of people showing up to town hall meetings, especially with Republican representatives back home for their town-hall meetings with constituents. At these events, there seem to be some common themes; people don’t want Obamacare repealed, they don’t want other social programs cut (i.e. women’s health care) and they want investigations in to Trump’s conflicts-of-interest and dealings with Russia. These constituents are just voicing their opinion in the same way others at town hall meetings have done in the past. There has been some attempt to cast them as “opposition” and Trump himself has even suggested that they’re democrats showing up to meetings where they’re not supposed to be, as if democrats aren’t allowed to show up to a Republican representative’s meeting because he doesn’t represent them. But these are citizens expressing their first amendment rights in the purest way possible; directly to the elected officials who represent them. Is it coordinated? Sure, there are plenty of people who are saying “go to this meeting” or “here’s how you find a meeting near you” but that’s not nefarious, that’s political organizing.

So that may be a very long winded answer to a question you didn’t ask, but I don’t otherwise know what your kooky stepdad is talking about, and with a name like “invisible protocol” I have to think it’s something along the lines of pizzagate.

9 Likes

There has to be some sort of conspiracy. George Soros is behind it. He’s paying them to protest. Why would anyone genuinely protest against cutting government spending, lowering taxes, and making america great again?

9 Likes

I question whether your stepdad knows what’s sinister. People protesting, or even collaborations to protest, are not conspiracies or sinister. They are things people do. To my mind, this is like looking for a conspiracy about people jamming traffic between 7 and 10 and 4 and 6 every weekday… people are jamming up traffic. On purpose. Together. If you want to see something sinister in it, there is very little that can be said to disprove it.

As to the origins, I have no clue. Your stepfather might also be pranking you, sending you on a snipe hunt.

8 Likes

The problem I see here is at least threefold:

  1. People who oppose Trump are being asked to prove a negative
  2. The “invisible protocol” we’re supposed to refute hasn’t even been clearly defined (I still don’t really understand what your stepdad believes is happening)
  3. It seems highly unlikely that your stepdad’s belief in said phenomenon is based on facts or reason, so countering that belief with facts and reason probably won’t change his mind anyway

This is a bit like saying “disprove the global illuminati/zionist conspiracy.” Where to even begin? And how likely are you to even convince a true believer anyway?

7 Likes

Well he had succeeded in making me angry.

I just figured ‘what the hell is he on about?’

That said in more full language. ‘Three twenty something national campaign managers released an ‘invisible protocoll’ for how to protest with the goal of impeachment.’

That is what i was told, then given some town hall thing where due to limited seating it was RSVP only with an outdoor protest going on and told that’s part of it.

SHRUG.

None of this is helped by the fct I am a very emotional person and my stepdad is good at playing ‘calm rational sounding while being an insufferable asshole.’ Y’know… Vulcan.

1 Like

Does he think all the original anti-Obamacare protests with the talk of the “death panels” were completely organic, with each person just waking up one morning and deciding that they were going to read through the complete 20,000 pages of the ACA and come up with a common misinterpretation for an obscure provision, and then deciding they were going to seek out the next town hall meeting and attend? No, that’s not just not how politics works, that’s not how it even should work. People organize, they spread the word, they share templates of arguments. They get together with their neighbors. They carpool. That’s not an “invisible protocol” that’s just democracy.

4 Likes

No i mean ‘literally that is what they are calling it.’

Yes I thought it was stupid when he said it, because th’ts blatant ‘we are the new world order’ type tinfoil. I just couldn’t parse, because for whatever reason I can’t quickly parse.

Again, they’re using language laden with innuendo. Its not a “real thing” its only a call to emotional response. So you cannot refute it because if you do then you’re telling them their feelings are “wrong” and feelings can’t be wrong.

You need to parse this very carefully. Because he’s reacting to something and you’re reacting to him. If you want to engage him ask to read the original article.

When I talk about language… remember, they have very very smart people on their team leading the masses by their noses to emotional outrage. Case in point, the questions in the survey. If you wrote questions like this in any stats class in university you would fail. These are terrible questions, brilliant and evil and they’ll lead people, but horrible horrible questions.

https://twitter.com/NatParkUndrgrnd/status/833882297673850880

3 Likes
  • only applies if you are white, “Christian”, straight and rich.
2 Likes

Found it.

Rubio mentioned it when saying he wasn’t going to do town halls.

It’s not “invisible.”

It’s “Indivisible.”

(Hat tip to @daneel for [this comment] (Generic 2018 U.S. Election Cycle Recycling Bin))

4 Likes

Dude, thanks. Now… Er?

I’m trying to make sense of the rest of this because the babble was like tinfoil type feeling coming from fifth hand ‘liberal hostile’ person.

1 Like

Can’t help you there, sorry.

There is no “rest of it”.

The Indivisible Guide and the movement it inspired is no secret; anyone can read the book, and there have been numerous stories on NPR etc about the “movement” (which largely consists of middle-aged middle-class people politely annoying their congressional representatives).

https://www.indivisibleguide.com/

Right wing media attempting to portray it as a diabolical conspiracy is unsurprising, but there’s nothing there.

3 Likes

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.