The Bamboozling of Americans About Jan. 6

PART I – Introduction

Have you wondered why Americans are vehemently divided about what happened on Jan 6, 2021? This series of posts will explain why that is and why it is essential to know why that is. “The events of Jan 6” (“Jan 6”) were a monumental and pivotal moment in America’s history. The events were monumental because whether Trump would have a chance of becoming president in 2025 depended on the percentage of the voters who accepted the narratives about Jan 6 that the mainstream media (“MSM”)^[1] regurgitated every day of the 46 months between Jan 6, 2021, and November 5, 2024, and the percentage of voters who believed or, at least accepted the possibility, that the events of Jan 6 were a Deep State PSYOP.^[2]

This series of posts is mostly about how the public was bamboozled about Jan 6. Part II begins that discussion, and Part I will lay some necessary groundwork for it.

I don’t know whether or not Jan 6 was a PSYOP. However, I know that US intelligence agencies have unleashed PSYOPs on American citizens many times before^[3] (the PSYOPs in the linked article are only the ones that have been made public), that much of what the MSM said about Jan 6 is incorrect, deceptive, manipulative, and wrong. There is enough evidence that Jan 6 was a PSYOP that dismissing that possibility shows an unhealthy lack of curiosity, not being aware that the MSM is in bed with the Deep State,^[4] or a severe case of bamboozlement/brainwashing.

Wikipedia’s “Psychological Operations (United States)” article concerns operations within the United States military and intelligence agencies. For the general topic, see Psychological Warfare. Psychological operations (PSYOP) are operations to convey selected information and indicators to audiences to influence their motives and objective reasoning and, ultimately, the behavior of governments, organizations, groups, and foreign powers. The purpose of United States psychological operations is to induce or reinforce behavior perceived to be favorable to U.S. objectives.”^[5]

As will be discussed in later posts, the bamboozled should not be blamed for their bamboozlement. I believe they are victims of the most sophisticated propagandists the world has ever known. Most of them are well-meaning. [To learn where I’m coming from, see the “ABOUT THE AUTHOR” section under the About tab at LetsSortSomeThingsOut.com.]

Watching MSM videos and seeing photos taken at the Capitol to figure out what happened is like a Rorschach Inkblot Test^[6] with a twist. That test is a projective psychological test in which subjects’ perceptions of inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using psychological interpretation, complex algorithms, or both. A Rorschach test involves silently showing a series of ten inkblots to a subject and, after the subject has decided what to say about what they see in the inkblot, asking what they see in them.

The twist is that, unlike a Rorschach Inkblot Test, the videos were typically observed as biased commentators with their hair on fire either told the viewer what the commentators wanted the viewer to see or the viewer watched after commentators told the viewer what to be looking for. Before you begin looking at it, let’s test whether mentioning things about the image makes a difference. Did you see the bat, lady, rocket ship being fueled, butterfly, and two birds in the image above before you read this sentence? Those are the things I see in the image. If you see other things in the image, you could cause me to find them if you mentioned those things before or while I looked at the image.

The MSM, ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, MSMBC, New York Times, Wall Street Journal (“MSM”), Social Media,^[7] Democrat and socialist politicians, leftist pundits, and the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the Capitol (“Select Committee”), Never Trumpers, and the Deep State (the people in the federal government that set the agendas and call the shots for federal actions)(collectively, the “Disinformers”) have masterfully propagandized much of the public with substantially or completely false narratives about “The Events of Jan 6, 2021” (“Jan 6”). Most politicians, pundits, bloggers, etc., who contest the MSM’s narratives about Jan 6 or point out inaccuracies and deceptions in the Disinformers’ narratives are vilified, suppressed, demonetized, (or all three) by the MSN and the most effective opponents of Disinformers suffer from retribution by the Deep State. This post will discuss some of the Disinformers’ errors and commissions, but I aim to reveal how the Disinformers bamboozled the public. I hope that, by seeing how they were bamboozled, some of the bamboozled will awaken to the fact that they have been bamboozled about Jan 6.

Contrary to what the Disinformers would have you believe, it’s not just right-wing nutjobs who claim MSM “news” is fake; the prestigious Columbia Journalism Review issued four scathing reports on the fakeness of MSM’s “news.” After skewering the New York Times for its fake reporting on the Russia Collusion hoax, CJR wrote:

“Before the 2016 election, most Americans trusted the traditional media, and the trend was positive, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer.^[8] The phrase “fake news” was limited to a few reporters and a newly organized social media watchdog. The idea that the media were “enemies of the American people” was voiced only once, just before the election on an obscure podcast, and not by Trump, according to a Nexis search.”

In a 2022 Reuters report, the US media has the lowest credibility—26 percent—among forty-six nations, according to a 2022 study by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. In 2021, 83 percent of Americans saw “fake news” as a “problem,” and 56 percent—mostly Republicans and independents—agreed that the media were “truly the enemy of the American people,” according to Rasmussen Reports… news outlets and watchdogs haven’t been as forthright in examining their own Trump-Russia coverage, which includes serious flaws. Bob Woodward, of the Post, told me that news coverage of the Russia inquiry” wasn’t handled well” and that he thought viewers and readers had been “cheated.” He urged newsrooms to “walk down the painful road of introspection.” The public’s tuning out MSM “news” is largely due to MSM’s fakery. CJR’s honest reporting confirms the fakeness of MSM news.

On August 27, 2024, after many years of Facebook and Instagram censoring content about COVID-19 that did not violate platforms’ policies, Mark Zuckerberg wrote a letter to Congress admitting that he wrongfully succumbed to White House/Deep State pressure to suppress content that did not violate the platforms policies, regretted having done so, and “stated a commitment to not compromise content standards due to pressure from any administration, suggesting a readiness to push back against such pressures in the future. This implies a policy of not succumbing to external political pressures on content moderation that aligns with Meta’s policies.”^[9] Both the people who wrote posts opposed the Deep State’s narratives about Jan 6, and the people who were denied the opportunity to learn the truth were the victims of the Deep State operation and their MSM minions.

What the Deep State did to Facebook and Instagram reveals that the Deep State does what it can to control what the public can learn about the Deep State and prevent the public from learning about the Deep State’s abuses of power, election interferences, and corruption.

The primary means by which the Deep State withholds information of which the public should be made aware is through “overclassifying” documents. There can be no government “by the people” or “for the people” if the government does not reveal things the people must know to hold the government accountable through the ballot box. I asked Grok, “Has the CIA or FBI ever suffered negative consequences from overclassifying documents?” Grok answered, “…Direct Consequences: Overclassification creates many problems for the American people^[10], especially how it enables it to cover up its wrongdoings. The fact that the CIA has a long history of breaking the law is indisputable.^[11] There aren’t well-documented instances where the CIA or FBI faced direct legal or formal penalties specifically for overclassifying documents.”^[12]

The CIA, directly or through its allies, publishes highly consequential disinformation. For example, 51 former agents wrote a letter saying that the indisputably valid story about Hunter Biden leaving a laptop (which was full of incriminating evidence) at a pawn shop “had all the hallmarks of Russian disinformation.” The letter aimed to help Biden’s campaign defeat Trump in the 2020 election. The letter was a double whammy. It suppressed news of Hunter’s wrongdoing, including his records about his businesses, about which there Congress has found connections to Joe Biden, and it intimated that foreign bad actors supported Trump. The CIA is prohibited by law from engaging in domestic matters, with few exceptions that do not include election interference. It would be ridiculous to assume that the CIA did not collaborate with the former CIA agents to quash the Hunter laptop story. “A joint report from three House committees has revealed that some signatories of this letter were active CIA contractors at the time and that high-ranking CIA officials were aware of the statement before its release.”

UPDATE: That Joe Biden’s claims that he was not involved in Hunter Biden selling the influence of his father were false is not indisputable. “Putting aside the fact that millions flowed to the Biden family, Phillip ignores how Joe Biden repeatedly lied about not meeting these clients or knowing anything about Hunter’s dealings.“

The CIA is prohibited from engaging in domestic law enforcement or internal security functions… However, the CIA’s domestic surveillance powers are constrained by law and subject to oversight. Recent reports suggest the CIA may be pushing the boundaries of its authorities, underscoring the need for greater transparency and accountability around its domestic activities.”^[13] Approximately all needs and requests for transparency are ignored by the CIA.

“The CIA has been involved in numerous operations aimed at undermining or overthrowing foreign governments throughout its history.”^[14] The eleven countries listed in the link are just the “notable instances where the CIA played a significant role in regime change.” The CIA has attempted but failed to overthrow the governments of six other countries.^[15]

More importantly, the “CIA played key Jan. 6 roles, texts reveal”^[16], and there is no reason to believe that the discovered texts even scratched the surface of what the CIA was doing on Jan 6.

In each of Trump’s three presidential runs, he promised to “drain the swamp,” which includes the CIA and DOJ/FBI. The last thing the CIA and DOJ want is to be drained. Undoubtedly, the CIA considers Trump to be the most significant existential threat to its power. “The CIA has not issued an official statement specifically labeling Donald Trump as a threat to democracy. However, former CIA officials and directors have expressed concerns about Trump’s impact on democratic norms and national security.”^[17]

Recall that Chuck Schumer confirmed what every careful observer knows about America’s intelligence community, “You take on the intelligence community, and they have six ways till Sunday the occasional attempts of whistleblowers to sound alarms get back at you.”^[18] Trump has promised to take on the intelligence community.

The FBI has issued many false statements and is known for stonewalling Congress so that it cannot be held accountable for wrongdoing. Given the existential threat that Trump is to the DOJ/FBI (he continually promises to drain the swamp) and that the DOJ/FBI surely covetous of their jobs and love the power they wield, e.g., the power to conduct a pre-dawn raid on the home of a former president who would have opened the door had they run the doorbell at a reasonable hour of the day, is the primary protector of the swamp, the antipathy the Deep State has for Trump and “Great Patriots” (the name Trump gave his supporters) is not only understandable, it is warranted. Because the FBI is part of the DOJ and the head would approve any significant action the FBI undertakes, the FBI agents need not worry about being prosecuted no matter what they do while conducting an approved operation – unless Trump becomes president.

It’s common knowledge that the FBI uses “confidential human sources,” “undercover employees,” “assets,” “contractors,” and “task force officers” (collectively, “assets”). On many occasions, Congressmen have asked FBI officials how many assets it had at the Capitol on Jan 6 crowd.^[19] Reportedly, “according to according to Steven D’Antuono, formerly in charge of the bureau’s Washington field office… testified behind closed doors to the House Judiciary Committee that his office was aware before the riot that some of their informants would attend a “Stop the Steal” rally thrown by former President Donald Trump, but he only learned after the fact that informants run by other field offices also were present, along with others who had participated of their own accord.”^[20] Before September 25, 2024, the DOJ wouldn’t answer those questions in public about assets in any way – thereby leaving the public in the dark about how many FBI assets were at the Capitol on Jan 6 and what the assets were doing that day. The primary narrative that the Democrats and other Disinformers have deployed against Trump in the 2024 election is that he instigated an insurrection on Jan 6. Voters need to know who instigated or orchestrated the invidious events of Jan 6.

If it were proven that the events of Jan 6 were a Deep State PSYOP, Trump would likely win in the largest landslide in American history. On 9/25/24, 40 days before the 2024 election and 1400 days after the events of Jan. 6, the FBI Inspector General testified before an open House Committee that FBI assets were in the Jan 6 crowd.^[21] Before then, Disinformers had fact-checked, denied, and belittled claims that FBI agents were in the Jan 6 crowd.^[22] However, the Inspector General would not say how many assets or what they were doing in the crowd. Disgustingly, the Inspector General’s report about the events of Jan 6 very likely won’t be released before the election and possibly not before the inauguration next year. This, too, is a case of election interference by the FBI and reveals that the FBI has, once again, put the Deep State’s interests ahead of those it pretends to serve. Was Jan 6 a Deep State PSYOP? As I said above, I don’t know. However, under the circumstances described above, it is reasonable to assume the Deep State, at a minimum, desired to do what it could to ruin Trump’s prospects of ever running again and to vilify and otherize Great Patriots as deplorables, terrorists, or worse. That the Deep State lies and can easily orchestrate situations that can be propagandized as an insurrection is indisputable. It could infiltrate the Jan 6 crowd with inciters and ruffians and let them make the Great Patriots appear as bad as possible on Jan 6. After that, the Deep State would be free to terrorize its favorite enemies, the Great Patriots.

Although the CIA had some involvement in the events of Jan 6, because of its stonewalling of Congress, no governmental body has effectively investigated how many CIA assets were at the Capitol on Jan 6.^[23] No one outside the Deep State can know the extent to which, if any, the CIA was involved in making the Great Patriots look bad on Jan 6. However, notice that the linked AI response about the CIA’s involvement included this: “One significant case involves Jeffrey A. McKellop, a retired Green Beret and former CIA contractor, who was charged with violent actions during the Capitol riot.” CIA-affiliated people were in the Jan 6. crowd engaging in violence! How many more CIA-affiliated people were in the Jan 6. crowd is anyone’s guess. An assumption that the answer is zero would be foolhardy.

However, given that Trump is an existential threat to the Deep State’s power, unbridled discretion, and above-the-lawness, one can reasonably ask, “Why wouldn’t the CIA and FBI do whatever they could to make the Great Patriots appear to look like hoodlums on Jan 6?” A rational working hypothesis would be that the CIA’s fingerprints would be all over the events of Jan 6 had they not been wearing gloves.

That the Disinformers’ false narratives succeeded in bamboozling a vast swath of the public is unsurprising. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s pick for the head of Nazi Germany’s Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, significantly advanced the arts and science of propaganda in the 1930s and got close enough to perfection to flip Germany’s democracy into one of the worst dictatorships in human history. The Deep State Disinformers have improved Goebbels’s techniques for about 80 years. Given what the public was up against, Americans who were bamboozled should not be embarrassed that they fell for the disinformation. However, it would be irresponsible of them not to consider the possibility that they were misled and be proud of themselves if they consider that possibility.

Convincing people that they have been bamboozled is nearly impossible. Given the magnitude of the consequences of the disinformation inflicted on much of the public and the extreme, democracy-threatening divisiveness the Disinformation spawned, not trying to convince them they have been bamboozled is inexcusable. So, let’s try to sort out how the Disinformers bamboozled the public about Jan 6 and hope for the best.

The ways and means used by the Disinformers are many and varied. The web they spun has so many threads that sorting out the differences between reality and the tales told by the Disinformers will take a while. The more people who understand how the bamboozlement was accomplished, the higher the likelihood that America’s republic will survive the attempt by tyrant wannabes to achieve their goals. Consequently, you will be performing a public service to understand it and an even more excellent public service to spread the word.

With the above background and context, we can proceed to PART II: The Disinformers’ Drivel.

1. Broad agreement in U.S. – even among partisans – on which news outlets are part of the ‘mainstream media’ ↑
2. Psychological operations (United States) ↑
3. What Psyops have the US intelligence agencies unleashed on American citizens? ↑
4. Is it fair to say that the mainstream media generally propagates what the federal government wants them to propagate? ↑
5. Id. ↑
6. Rorschach test ↑
7. 23 Top Social Media Sites to Consider for Your Brand in 2024, POSOBIEC: Biden and Big Tech Conspired to Censor Americans on Social Media ↑
8. Edelman Trust Barometer ↑
9. Mark Zuckerberg Told the Truth—and That’s a Good Thing ↑
10. How big a problem is over classification of documents by the federal government? ↑
11. What instances of CIA illegality have been confirmed? ↑
12. Has the CIA or FBI ever suffered negative consequences from overclassifying documents? ↑
13. To what extent can the CIA engage in domestic surveillance? ↑
14. What countries’ governments have been undermined or overthrown by the CIA? ↑
15. What governments did the CIA attempt to overthrow but failed? ↑
16. CIA played key Jan. 6 roles, texts reveal ↑
17. Has the CIA said that Trump is a threat to democracy of something similar? ↑
18. Schumer Warns Trump: Intel Community Has Many Ways to ‘Get Back at You’ (FLASHBACK), ↑
19. FBI Director Questioned Over Agent Involvement on Jan. 6 ↑
20. FBI lost count of how many paid informants were at Capitol on Jan. 6, and later performed audit to figure out exact number: ex-official ↑
21. Id. ↑
22. Between Jan 6, 2021, and September 25, 2024, has the mainstream media fact-checked claims that federal agents or assets were in the Jan 6 crowd? ↑
23. Has anyone investigated whether the CIA had Private Contractors, Nonofficial Cover (NOC) Operatives, Foreign Entities, or their associates being at the Capitol on Jan 6? ↑