The Ashli Babbitt Truther Movement

Denver Riggleman was tweeting this morning about how the trending narratives around Ashli Babbitt, who was killed in the January 6th insurrection. Riggleman compared this influence campaign about her death being an inside job , as comparable to the 9/11 truther movement. Riggleman makes an excellent point in his thread, about the similarities, and this is important as we are still feeling the impacts of the 9/11 truther movement today. Now this is not a situation where we are comparing apples to apples topic wise, are the impact of 9/11 is not the same as the death of Babbitt on January 6th; however, the tactics being used are the same and that is what’s important.

It is important to remembers that after the January 6th insurrection these same ecosystems that are pushing the Babbitt truther movement, were 5 months ago calling her a fake QAnon/Trump supporter; they claimed rather that she was an antifa plant and her death was a false flag. That initial narrative was useful in the context of these actors and movements pushing the electoral fraud narratives, the recounts, the antifa agenda, etc. Months later, when they know these older narratives no longer have any bite and the socio-political environment has changed, they are returning to old and tested tactics and turning this woman into a martyr in an influence operation. This martyr narrative is directly borrowed from extremist ecosystems it doesn't surprise me that some influencers and media personalities are using this, but the entire wider network that's amplifying this raises so many red flags in my opinion, as they were also leveraging it months ago.

The irony is these same actors were all for shooting down the 1/6 commission where details about this would likely have come to light. But the truth is not the objective they just want to spin this unofficial PR narrative using tactics techniques and procedures Ben Nimmo has spoken of before Dismiss, Distort, Distract and Dismay:

• Dismiss: if you don’t like what your critics say, insult them.
• Distort: if you don’t like the facts, twist them.
• Distract: if you’re accused of something, accuse someone else of the same thing.
• Dismay: if you don’t like what someone else is planning, try to scare them off.

The horse and pony show is easier to sell to their audience rather than some official political procedure that, their base will not really understand, read, or care about. Because this show is for the media, especially alternative media, ahead of 2022. This is a means by which, alternative media shows can build their base up, they're going to get the attention of the audience that they need without having to account for anything, unlike in an official commission. In the end it’s win win for them: 1)if they say there is no investigation they win the PR war, 2) if there is one then they get to say look how we were able to force the admin to do XYZ.

The difference between this truther movement and 9/11 truthers, is there was going to be no other option, other than going to war following 9/11. The potential impacts of this investigation, though not based in potential conflict, is dangerous as it put political actors and law enforcement in the crosshairs of extremists who who are paying attention to this martyr narrative. thus from a first level there is a continued erosion of trust into democratic processes, but on a secondary level, as this narrative makes its way to extremist ecosystems they're going to return to what they were doing in January 6th. This means that in the second instance, threat actors in extremist ecosystems, will try to use this in some way to mobilize individuals, which may lead to violence.

Martyrs play an important role in the promotion of any ideology as they act as symbols for ideological movements and become symbols that will motivate threat actors towards action in the name of said martyr. Additionally, martyrs are a source of encouragement for action and unity due to the perceived sacrifice of the individual in the name of a given ideology or movement. Martyrs serve as templates to be emulated, while also “humanizing” them and their ideology/movement, all the while providing a symbol and figurehead to refer to and justify the rightness of their ideology or movement both in the eyes of adherents and parts of a wider public.

This is the end game. Though for some it may be political, others it may be PR, for those that I spend my day researching and analyzing, this is a tool they can weaponize, as the Babbitt martyrdom and truther movement, is being played out on a large pollical stage ripe for the picking of these threat actors.