The Covington incident: activism, and how to provoke and shape a story
One of the most interesting posts I’ve seen since the whole Covington thing began is this one by William Jacobson of Legal Insurrection, describing a technique commonly used by leftist activists:
The recent interaction in DC between high school students (one in particular) and an older activist who is Native American reminded me of a warning I once received from a colleague as to how I needed to prepare myself if I ever was in a hostile crowd or confronted.
A classic leftist/occupy activist tactic, I was warned, was to confront a target and immediately start screaming that the target was being aggressive even though that was not true.
Unsuspecting people in the vicinity would not start recording the incident until there was this commotion. The videographers accompanying the provocateur also would edit the video to start when the provocateur started screaming. The target, not knowing what was about to happen, would not be prepared for it, and might even take the bait, such as in pushing the person away physically.
Regardless of what the target did or didn’t do, you would have video of the innocent target being portrayed as the aggressor, and the provocateur portrayed as the victim.
It happened to me at Cornell…
Professor Jacobson goes on to describe several such incidents. I believe this is most likely to have been the technique followed by Nathan Phillips in the Covington confrontation—and boy, did it work!
For a while, anyway.
Phillips got his video and the story went out. He got his interviews and he got to frame the story, and although almost every word he said was wrong, he never thought his narrative could be disproved.
The only reason it was disproved (for those with eyes to see and ears to hear) was that someone else was videotaping the whole thing, not just the part he wanted to air. Almost certainly unbeknownst to Phillips, someone else had started recording long before Phillips moved into the crowd of boys.
That “someone” was apparently part of the Black Israelite group that was harassing the teenagers with racial and other threats and insults. And that group, the Black Israelites (who are neither Israelis nor Jewish, by the way, but are anti-Semitic among their other hatreds), posted the lengthy nearly 2-hour video online—until they took it down, probably realizing how it was being used to exonerate the Covington boys. But taking it down didn’t make it disappear.
That was the longer video that showed that it was the Covington students who were being abused and who were actually being rather polite and non-confrontational under some very trying circumstances. That was the video that showed Phillips marching into the group of boys (at variance with his initial description) and getting into their faces. That was the video that gave the lie to his contention that they surrounded him and made it impossible for him to leave. That was the video that showed the Black Israelites as the aggressors, completely the opposite of what Phillips had reported. That was the video that failed to show the boys saying anything about the Wall, contrary to Phillips’ description.
That was the video that proved Phillips was lying. And that was the video he never thought would exist.
And if that longer video hadn’t existed, Phillips would have succeeded in the technique that Professor Jacobson has described, because no one would have believed the students against the word of this righteous Native American elderly guy.
Many a “conservative”( in addition to all the brainless celebrities and mendacious members of the MSM) has been taken in by the fabrications of the “tribal elder”, who, quite possibly, is even lying about his service in Vietnam.
Didn’t this this righteous Native American elderly guy claim to be a Marine and Vietnam veteran? The Marines left Vietnam in 1971. Mr. Phillips is 64 so that would make him 16 years old when the Marines left Vietnam. I’d like to see some pictures of him in uniform. During the Vietnam war I was on this ship and I have pictures to prove it.
https://usstaylor468.org/
Among the most hurtful things are all bad things that have been done in the name of Christ. Anyone who does these acts never learned the lessons Christ taught.
I think that the Crusades could have been justified on the just war doctrine. It did after all follow 400 years of Jihad. I mean, it’s simple math. The Muslims invaded Spain in 711 A,D. Charles “The Hammer: Martel and his Frankish army (yes I
am giving props to the French) kicked the Muslims out of Tours in 732. A combined Christian Army defeated and threw out the last Muslim stronghold from southern Italy in 1091.
The Pope launched the first Crusade in 1095. Bicurious.Maybe, just maybe, these events might be related.
Ray:
Phillips is reported to have been a Vietnam veteran, which is almost certainly untrue. But there is no tape of him claiming to be one. The most he ever says is that he’s a “Vietnam era” veteran, which may be true in some technical sense, depending on when he went into the service. The error identifying him as a Vietnam veteran may have been the MSM’s.
Wouldn’t be the first time.
So I’m not sure about that part of the story, and I won’t emphasize it till there are more facts.
Was it here that used to have a commenter who often talked about the right needing to learn the ‘activist game’ or was that somewhere else?
Griffin:
Here.
“The activist game is the only game there is” was the quote, I believe, or something like that.
Update from one of Ace’s commenters on Phillips service record at this post, FWIW.
RTWT, Ace is in total berserker mode, and has been for a couple of days.
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/379325.php
“January 22, 2019
LOL: No One’s Accepting National Review’s Newest Partial Apology So They Decide to Forgive Themselves Instead”
41 Washington Post trying to fix Phillips’ story
“Correction: Earlier versions of this story incorrectly said that Native American activist Nathan Phillips fought in the Vietnam War. Phillips served in the U.S. Marines from 1972 to 1976 but was never deployed to Vietnam.”
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor
The commenters at LI have some good points, mostly about always having a camera on when you are in public and
wearing a short skirtbeing politically micro-aggressive.[this time the Covington Boys lucked out, because the Black Israelites certainly weren’t filming to support them; next time, bring your own luck]
Insufficiently Sensitive | January 22, 2019 at 11:35 am
There’s a companion tactic to this one, used in Seattle. Provocateur wades up to the mark, makes some loud ‘provocative’ remarks, and then suddenly drops to the ground as if he’d been struck – whereupon his allies begin screeching at the mark as a bully.*
srroelker1946 | January 22, 2019 at 11:38 am
The Leftist have been cleverly schooled to this type of behavior believing that they can achieve a “photo op” of being a “victim”.
I would advise conservative speakers to have an assistant with them to “photo op” the encounter too…..and maybe incite the leftist to attack them! We need TV shots to show the public! The school administrators are pu##ys and the police are restrained by the PC politicians.
TheOldZombie | January 22, 2019 at 12:01 am
When out in public like these kids were at a march one should have a camera, not a phone, but an actual camera that is recording everything. Always.
And be on the lookout for any possible trouble.
Cameras are like garlic and sunlight to the left. It exposes them for the frauds that they are.
labrat | January 22, 2019 at 7:56 am
Am I the only one who watched the original edited clip when it first came out and was confused by the level of outrage? My spidey senses went off the minute this story erupted. It had all the hallmarks of the typical manufactured outrage machine. Ho hum, another hate hoax. The left has to manufacture the hatred of the right because it’s so damned hard to find the real thing. Meanwhile there is never any outrage expressed over left-wing hate. Stop the world, I want to get off.
pwaldoch | January 22, 2019 at 7:56 am
This crap ia the reason why I don’t wear a maga hat, as much as I would love to. It makes me a target and I have a CCW. Means that I have to keep an extra standard of care in all situations. Last thing I want is some professional agitator to start something, cross a line where I have to respond and someone winds up with a bullet in them. It just rather avoid all that. Sad testimony on our world today but it’s the reality we’re in, and as has has been said before reality doesn’t care about my feelings.
tlcomm2 | January 22, 2019 at 12:22 pm
I wore one on a air and bus trip from Montana thru Denver Airport, LAX and a bus connection – figured I would get assaulted and was looking forward to the exercise. Got 6 positive interactions and a couple odd looks. Was surprised. I am 6’4? 240 so that may have had something to do with it ?
notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital | January 22, 2019 at 9:20 am
Guess the lesson here is as soon as you are confronted by any LEFTISTS
just start chanting
“FAKE NEWS. FAKE NEWS. FAKE NEWS.”
Let their evil cameras record that chant!
* * *
On the bully tactics: *One of our sons was being bullied at school, and it is almost paradigmatic that the teachers ONLY see the victim when he fights back, so the bully escapes any censure. So, I told Son that as soon as Bully touched him (or came close to it), to grap his head or stomach, drop to the floor, and start yelling that he had been hit.
I got that tactic out of a Dick Francis book, so you’re welcome to it.
The phrase for that is:
cry bully:
A person who engages in intimidation, harassment, or other abusive behaviour while claiming to be a victim.
What consequence will befall Phillips? Lack of consequence is an incentive to continue the behavior. And there’s a reason why “bearing false witness” is considered a grave sin.
But the problem resides much deeper than activists like Phillips or even a complicit media; “Catholic Leaders Refuse to Retract Slander of School Boys at March for Life”
“Despite the evident slander on the part of Church officials, which gravely damaged the good name of Nick Sandmann and his companions, no efforts have been made at reparation for this evil, something also called for by the Catholic Catechism.”
Meanwhile, Kathy Griffin triples down.
To state the obvious, if you see something like this, pull out your smartphone, position yourself well, and record it, perhaps without drawing attention to yourself. Slipping the phone in your pocket with the lens up will help with that.
And perhaps pass your contact information along to the victims.
Aside: looks like Obnoxious Drum Guy was a Marine *during* Vietnam, but never a Marine *in* Vietnam.
Like my uncle who spent 1968-1970 sunning himself in Pearl Harbor.
Phillips never served in Vietnam as a Marine or anything else – he was stateside only. He describes himself as a “Vietnam-times veteran,” most likely intending to mislead ignorant “journalists” into filling in the blank with “war vet.”
What he is is a BS artist who specializes in this brand of filmed confrontation which he stages as fundraisers – not unlike the Kavanaugh accuser/liar’s Go Fund Me gig. It’s a living… & that’s how SJWs do things… pretty disgusting
By the way, I put a new post up a few hours ago discussing the non-Vietnam-vet status of Phillips.
Prof goes after Covington kid and ‘smiling face of Whiteness’
https://twitter.com/Ebonyteach/status/1087049550962016256
An Ivy League professor bashed “the smiling face of Whiteness” in response to the recent controversy involving an interaction between a Native American man and a Catholic teenage supporter of President Donald Trump.
“Whiteness endlessly forgives its own transgressions,” University of Pennsylvania associate professor Ebony Elizabeth Thomaswrote on Sunday about the confrontation between Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann and Native American Nathan Phillips. “It rarely, if ever, gives those of us it harms and maims and kills time to process our motions [sic].”
-=-=-=-=-
“Time’s up for instant forgiveness, for demanding free labor of the walking wounded, and for demanding that those you’ve offended ‘make it right’ so you can feel better before they have time to mourn, grieve…and breathe,” Thomas claims.
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Nevermind – Emily Litella
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjYoNL4g5Vg
would have succeeded in the technique that Professor Jacobson has described, because no one would have believed the students against the word of this righteous Native American elderly guy.,
Whst a hypocrite Jacobson is. Hiding from me for doing the same thing.
He is giving me the same treatment NRO staff have given Ace when Ace complained about Goldberg’s plaigerism – radio silence. And no one believes my account over the word of a “righteous” law professor. Because nothing in his manner warned that I would need to take screenshots at Legal Insurrection. But Jacobson is not the man he presents. True colors will out eventually, you’ll see.
Sorry, quotation marks didnt take, should read:
“. .technique that Professor Jacobson has described, because no one would have believed the students against the word of this righteous Native American elderly guy.”
dont worry they are going to fix it… all the rage at college…
A University of Georgia (UGA) teaching assistant wrote Wednesday on Facebook that “some white people may have to die for black communities to be made whole in this struggle to advance to freedom.” He added that to suggest otherwise is “ahistorical and dangerously naive.”
and
“Killing some white people isn’t genocide; it’s killing some white people,” the UGA TA explained in a Medium post. “We had to kill some white people to get out of slavery. Maybe if we’d killed more during the 20th century we still wouldn’t talk about racialized voter disenfranchisement and housing, education, and employment discrimination. This should not be controversial.”
and
He then quoted American clinical psychologist Bobby Wright, saying, “Blacks kill Blacks because they have never been trained to kill Whites.”
“Violence is never the answer for any issue,” Gerety said. “If the University permits this person to continue teaching they are bringing back lynching in reverse.” – alum, TJ Gerety
“If this was a conservative teacher stating that the killing of Blacks is what White Students need to be taught, there would be rioting in the streets,” Gerety said.
“If that is the sort of rhetoric they allow on their campus and in their classrooms, it would most certainly affect my decision regarding whether I would let my daughter attend UGA,” Haun said. “[Osei-Frimpong] is not only a TA, but a Ph.D. student at UGA, he had to sign the same Code of Conduct agreement every other student had to sign. It does not seem as though he is being held to the same standards as other students are being held.”
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“We condemn the actions of the Covington Catholic High School students towards Nathan Phillips specifically, and Native Americans in general, Jan 18., after the March for Life, in Washington, D.C.,” the statement read. “We extend our deepest apologies to Mr. Phillips. This behavior is opposed to the Church’s teachings on the dignity and respect of the human person. The matter is being investigated and we will take appropriate action, up to and including expulsion. We know this incident also has tainted the entire witness of the March for Life and express our most sincere apologies to all those who attended the March and all those who support the pro-life movement.” – Covington Catholic High School
oh you say that this was before the truth came out and set them free..
https://www.covdio.org/
Concerning the incident in Washington, D.C., between Covington Catholic students, Elder Nathan Phillips and Black Hebrew Israelites the independent, third-party investigation is planned to begin this week. This is a very serious matter that has already permanently altered the lives of many people. It is important for us to gather the facts that will allow us to determine what corrective actions, if any, are appropriate.
its all ok, even covington knew who to go after given our new world old world compasses
Ive posted something along the similar lines a couple of years ago, about a young monkey that was watching an older monkey dig a delicious tuber out of the ground. When the elder monkey finally freed the tuber from the ground, the younger monkey gave out a shrill scream as if it were being attacked. Out from the forest ran momma monkey at full speed and pummeled the older monkey, causing the elder to drop the tasty tuber, which the younger monkey grabbed right away. Same thing at work here, so it seems this is a pretty time-worn tactic.
Indian country today
Outrage as non-Native youth wearing #MAGA hats taunt and disrespect Native elder
https://newsmaven.io/indiancountrytoday/news/outrage-as-non-native-youth-wearing-maga-hats-taunt-and-disrespect-native-elder-jy7UVwdg8kK2uvT0L-JOig/
The elder is Nathan Phillips, an Omaha elder who is also a Vietnam-era Veteran and former director of the Native Youth Alliance. He is also a keeper of a sacred pipe and holds an annual ceremony honoring Native American veterans in the Arlington National Cemetery.
[snip]
In a previous interview with Phillips, he told Indian Country Today that the Vietnam era was not easy as a marine. “People called me a baby killer and a hippie girl spit on me.”
[what, no jar of urine?]
key comments?
Darns
Do you have any evidence for any of your claims? Otherwise you just sound stupid. You are merely stating your opinion. The video does not lie, and clearly shows how these kids were mocking him. You are drawing at straws right now. So much for your truth matters or respect for veterans.
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Fitz
Phillips story is as fake as his claim to be a Marine Vietnam Vet. He’s a fake vet! His published age is 63-64, and he would have been 18 in 1973. A Detroit Free Press article states that “Phillips said he grew up in an abusive home, started working on construction and lumber jobs, and then joined the Marines, serving in the Vietnam War.” The math does not add up. Here’s what the Marines were doing in Vietnam in 1972, from “U.S. Marines In Vietnam: The War That Would Not End, 1971-1973”. “By July 1971, less than 500 U.S. Marines, mostly advisors, communicators, and supporting arms specialists remained in Vietnam.” https://archive.org/stream/TheWarThatWouldNotEnd/TheWarThatWouldNotEnd_djvu.txt
I have read Phillips is upset that the students have stolen his narrative. No one stole the story (narrative) but instead told a larger, more accurate story based on the longer video available. This did not make both stories ambiguous, but rather showed which is more true.
Phillips will tell his story and may possibly believe it as wholly true. But the world can see whose story should be believed. Whether the accurate story is seen by the world is a totally different issue.
Fen:
I have no idea what you’re talking about re Jacobson, but I will say that I have deep respect for him, and I’ve had a lot of dealings with him.
I will add that a lot of people think they’ve been plagiarized when there is just a germ of an idea that several people have at once, or that someone once wrote about at one time and another person writes about another time but without a connection.
It happens all the time. Plagiarism is something much much more than that.
Regarding Ace’s contention about plagiarism, I read his piece on that a while ago and it doesn’t sound at all like plagiarism to me—and believe me, in general I think Ace is more on the ball than most of the staff at NR. But on this he didn’t make sense to me. It seemed to hinge on the idea of a political McGuffin. Well, I’ve been familiar with that term (McGuffin) and its meaning for many many decades—maybe longer than Ace has been alive. I’ve been making analogies like that, too, and it has nothing to do with Ace or NR or any other person. It’s kind of an obvious analogy, if you know what “McGuffin” means. And if you are any sort of Alfred Hitchcock fan, you know what McGuffin means. Hitchcock explained the concept in 1939. To analogize it to a political situation where there’s no there there, or whether there is misdirection, is kind of obvious.
eeyore:
Phillips’ “narrative” wasn’t stolen. It was discredited and replaced with a narrative that fit the evidence. His did not.
If You Still Think Nick Sandmann’s Smile Is Proof of Racism, You’re Seeing What You Want to See
https://reason.com/blog/2019/01/22/nick-sandmann-covington-catholic-racism
This happened to the Tea Partiers in DC. There was a big anti-health care bill rally on the capitol grounds. Emanuel Cleaver and his entourage came marching through the crowd, one of them with his cell phone raised and filming the yelling and chanting from the crowd. In less than an hour, Rep. Cleaver was all over the news claiming we had called him the N-word. (We didn’t). Everyone released their phone videos where no one could find any use of the word. But the media sided with Cleaver. Our videos also clearly showed the Cleaver aide walking and videoing the incident from Cleaver’s perspective. But the media never demanded to see their video—-which would have shown no use of racial epithets. It was a set up. And why not, when you know I be media will take your side, protect you, and assume the worst about your opponents.
JeanneB:
Yes, I thought of that incident. Meant to refer to it in one of the posts, but then it slipped my mind. Thanks for bringing it up. It’s very apropos.
The discrediting of the Tea Party as racist was very quick and very organized. I remember it well.
JeanneB, that incident came to my mind, too. Cleaver heard the “n” word when it wasn’t there. Phillips heard “build that wall” when no one else did.
I just saw a shot of an interview with Nicholas Sandmann, the Kentucky student, which will air on NBC tomorrow. He is very young, much younger looking than when he had that hat on. Phillips should be ashamed of himself for advancing on a boy like this with the intent of humiliating him. It’s disgusting that he would choose to use a child this way.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6621279/Covington-Catholic-boy-center-Native-American-uproar-speaks-out.html
And if that longer video hadn’t existed, Phillips would have succeeded in the technique that Professor Jacobson has described, because no one would have believed the students against the word of this righteous Native American elderly guy.
neo: Amen to that. It’s a terrifying how close those boys came to having their futures blighted through no fault of their own due to this nasty, dishonest old man and these hate-filled Black Hebrew Israelites.
Yet, I don’t think the kids are out of the woods. I’m sure this hoax will hurt the college applications of any student named. Maybe anyone applying from Covington Catholic for some years.
“And if that longer video hadn’t existed, Phillips would have succeeded in the technique that Professor Jacobson has described, because no one would have believed the students against the word of this UNrighteous Native American elderly guy.”
* * *
Just wanted to make that little correction, because it’s been irritating me all day.
He lied, on purpose, after harassing children.
Nothing “righteous” in any of that.
AesopFan:
“Righteous” was sarcasm. Obviously not righteous. But it’s the way he’s been painted by the left, and it’s the way they would see him because of his minority status vs. the whiteness of the boys.
Think about what this means about the totally debased character of the Left today.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6621279/Covington-Catholic-boy-center-Native-American-uproar-speaks-out.html
“Sandmann’s school in Park Hills, Kentucky, closed its doors on Tuesday amid safety fears, Covington Catholic High School principal Robert Rowe announced to parents on Monday night.
‘After meeting with local authorities, we have made the decision to cancel school and be closed on Tuesday January 22, in order to ensure the safety of our students, faculty and staff.
‘All activities on campus will be cancelled for the entire day and evening. Students, parents, faculty and staff are not to be on campus for any reason.
‘Please continue to keep the Covington Catholic Community in your prayers,’ the letter said.
The school deleted its website, its Facebook page and disconnected its phone number over the weekend. Fees there can run up to $9,000 a year. ”
(I’m not sure why the fees are placed in that paragraph, but that seems rather inexpensive for a private HS to me.)
I just saw a shot of an interview with Nicholas Sandmann, the Kentucky student, which will air on NBC tomorrow. He is very young, much younger looking than when he had that hat on. Phillips should be ashamed of himself for advancing on a boy like this with the intent of humiliating him. It’s disgusting that he would choose to use a child this way.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6621279/Covington-Catholic-boy-center-Native-American-uproar-speaks-out.html …
The pic of the boy looks like he is scared, and the wretched interviewer was trying to get him to admit guilt in the incident. It was terrible. I am SO ANGRY about all this that if I were not an old lady, I would be tempted to punch her out. Of course, old ladies don’t do that sort of thing. More’s the pity.
msm, dems lie, decieve, and misinform; …The only reason it was disproved (for those with eyes to see and ears to hear) was that someone else was videotaping the whole thing, not just the part he “/Phillips/” wanted to air.
Would have liked to see the countermeasures. Prof Jacobson did not list any, and didn’t see Neo list any either. The obvious conclusion is ‘film everything’, but I was looking forward to an actual ‘steps to take’ analysis, especially since the Prof set up his intro that way.
The irony will really be when Covington Catholic starts to sue media outlets for defamation because the media “reporting” has resulted in universities’ rejecting the applications of CC graduates, which in turn is affecting enrollment at CC…
I wonder if anyone in CC’s administration or on their board will experience even a momentary pricking of conscience over that.
JMJ
The self-righteous Catholic authorities in Covington, the Catholic school administrators, the hypocrite priests and self-proclaimed experts related to the morality of standing your ground, of not letting a rag-tag, blustering, drum-banger intimidate you–those who immediately criticized the Nick Sandmann and his friends, where are they now? Where are they now that the stupidity of the Black Israelites in filming, for two hours, exactly how the Covington kids are not only innocent of their moral accusations, but actually very brave.
We love Nick Sandmann and his friends!
We think that Nathan Phillips and his rag-tag team of activist Indians, along with the Black Israelites, should let their shame overcome them and then wilt and blow away.
There’s a companion tactic to this one, used in Seattle. Provocateur wades up to the mark, makes some loud ‘provocative’ remarks, and then suddenly drops to the ground as if he’d been struck – whereupon his allies begin screeching at the mark as a bully.*
That was done after a Trump rally. An elderly couple were walking along and a woman demonstrator with an oxygen tank on her back came up to them, grabbed the man’s should and fell down screaming that he had hit her and she was a cripple (or whatever the current PC terms ).
It turned out the man was blind and his wife was leading him through the crowd. He still had to appear in court, not the town where he lived. The oxygen tank was a prop.
We think that Nathan Phillips and his rag-tag team of activist Indians,
They are being paid. There is A law firm that ran the Standing Rock Dakota protests and is a conduit for Soros et all.
Some of the outfits funding this stuff.
The mainstream media can never acknowledge the existence of left-wing provocateurs, in the sense of professional paid activists, some with drama training, who stage these stunts looking for fame and money.
They must always pretend that these are “just folks”, normal people doing normal stuff.
Yes, right-wing journalists also sometimes use dubious means to get their stories, but they never stage their own victimization. This is because being the biggest victim is only a badge of honor on the left.
Also, only the superior victimhood of left-wing victims can ever be acknowledged. Who would care if a right-winger were the victim of a smirking leftist’s stares? Whoever dared complain about it would be the butt of jokes for years. Micro-aggressions only go one way.
In any case, the existence of a category of left-wing provocateurs, the stagecraft that goes into these incidents, and the incentives for doing it can never be acknowledged by the mainstream press. The mere concept cannot even be allowed to exist.
Brings Upton Sinclair’s saying to mind.