There was recently a firebombing of a GOP headquarters in North Carolina. The vast majority of people responded with an outpouring of sympathy for those affected by this wanton act of violence. Sadly some people at this supposedly reality based community called Daily Kos started peddling absurd conspiracy theories about this being a false flag attack akin to the German Reichstag Fire.
www.dailykos.com/…
www.dailykos.com/…
A false flag in case you were wondering comes from warfare. If you wanted to secretly instigate a war between country A and country B you might hoist country A’s flag on some of your ships and attack country B’s fleet. Country B will blame country A and a war will break out between them. Or if you wanted to go to war with country A, but did not wish to upset your population and the international community you could plant country A’s flags on your own ships and have them attack your fleet. Thus country A “launched” the first strike and your invasion of their country was merely a “defensive counterattack.”
The Nazis were very fond of this dirty trick. One example a Nazi false flag was the Reichstag Fire. A disgruntled communist named Marinus van der Lubbe allegedly burned down part of the German Reichstag building. The Nazis held this up as proof of the menace posed by communism in the aftermath of the fire the Nazis passed the Enabling Act which turned Adolf Hitler into a dictator. However, some modern historians now believe that the Nazis set the fire in order to justify their dictatorship to the German people.
en.wikipedia.org/…
Another famous Nazi false flag was the Operation Himmler. In preparation for the invasion of Poland the Nazis had to invent an excuse good enough to justify the war to the world or at least the German people. Thus German special forces carried out a series of false flag attacks dressed up as Polish soldiers on German targets. This act of Polish “aggression” was ultimately the excuse used for invading Poland on September 1, 1939.
en.wikipedia.org/…
en.wikipedia.org/…
en.wikipedia.org/…
So what is the difference between these incidents and the firebombing of the North Carolina office. Right off the bat, North Carolina Republicans are NOT fucking Nazis. Yes I am well aware of the fact that the NC GOP has done some nasty stuff such as undermining the ability to vote and passing bigoted anti-transgender laws. However, I doubt that a single of them wants to establish a totalitarian dictatorship, instigate a world war, and exterminate millions of people. The Republicans like all political parties play to win, but I doubt they do this with false flag attacks.
Another problem with this false flag theory is the evidence or lack there of. I am a getting a M.A. in history and I need evidence to back up every one of my claims. If I argued that this person or that political movement did x because my gut tells me so instead of citing a source I would get an F for sure on that paper. Even the Allies had to use Alfred Naujocks’ confession in order to prove the attack on Germany was actually a false flag. Maybe this was a false flag, but I would need real evidence to believe this and not just “My gut tells me so.”
Another argument against this being a false flag is probability. In the short term the NC GOP will get sympathy whether or not they were behind it. However, the police are not idiots and they will quickly find out who really did it. If it turns out it was a GOP false flag this operation will backfire (no pun intended) on them and turn public opinion against them. Why would they risk so much on such a stupid plan?
Finally, think of what effect peddling unsubstantiated rumors will have. I am willing to bet Free Republic and American Thinker will have a field day with such headlines as “Callous Democrats Mock Arson Attack.” Also, this ignores the fact that there are crackpots among the far left as well as the far right. Playing the “false flag card” allows people on the political fringes to ignore the misdeeds of their kookier allies. For example a few days ago a militia group in Kansas was planning an attack on Somali immigrants. Fortunately they were arrested before they could carry out this attack. Most people here at Daily Kos as elsewhere across the Internet were horrified by these revelations. However, the folks over at Free Republic brushed off these allegations as a government “false flag” designed to discredit militias.
www.freerepublic.com/...
www.freerepublic.com/…
The Right ignores the dangers posed by militias at their own peril, and the Left ignores the threat of nihilistic anarchists at our own peril.
The moral of this story is that false flag conspiracy theories become a convenient way to ignore real world problems. Do not like how you lost so many civil liberties after 9/11. Solution: 9/11 was a false flag. Do not like how your guns are being taken away after Sandy Hook? Solution: Sandy Hook was a false flag. The list goes on and on. Last time I checked Daily Kos was supposed to be a reality based community. If you wish to peddle unsubstantiated false flag crap please go to Above Top Secret, Infowars, or a half dozen other conspiracy theory websites. As for me I would a rational discussion of real world solutions to real world problems.