Tracing the birth of a conspiracy theory.

[berg80]

The Man Who Popularized The 'Deep State' Doesn't Like The Way It's Used​

Lofgren says he first encountered the term in a spy novel A Delicate Truth by John le Carre, who describes the hidden power brokers at work in Great Britain.

Now it pops up everywhere.

"Thank God for the deep state," said John McLaughlin, the former deputy director of the CIA. He spoke ironically, drawing laughs when he made the remark at a recent panel discussion at George Mason University.

But he was making a serious point as he spoke about government officials testifying before congressional committees at the impeachment inquiry.

"Everyone here has seen this progression of diplomats, and intelligence officers and White House people trooping up to Capitol Hill right now, and saying, 'These are people who are doing their duty,'" McLaughlin said.

When we caught up with McLaughlin a few days later, he said he had received some blowback for those comments. Then he went on to say:

"I think it's a silly idea. There is no 'deep state.' What people think of as the 'deep state' is just the American civil service, social security, the people who fix the roads, health and human services, Medicare."

Mike Lofgren, now retired at age 66, used to be one of those people when he was a Republican congressional staffer. Today, he says he's turned his back on the Republican Party.


In the error of Trumpery it's become a catch all term with more than a tinge of paranoia attached. I have asked a number of folks here about who they think is in the fictitious deep state and how it wields its power. That's when the conspiracy theory falls apart. It exists as an abstraction in the minds of Repubs but each time granular details of how it operates are demanded they are lost for words.

How do you become a member? Is there an ideological litmus test for membership? Are there meetings? Who runs them? Is there a concrete agenda? Do both Dems and Repubs belong?

The truth is it's a bogeyman of Repub's creation that came in to vogue along with Don who has used it to gin up distrust of government.

 

[Mac1958]

The Man Who Popularized The 'Deep State' Doesn't Like The Way It's Used​

Lofgren says he first encountered the term in a spy novel A Delicate Truth by John le Carre, who describes the hidden power brokers at work in Great Britain.

Now it pops up everywhere.

"Thank God for the deep state," said John McLaughlin, the former deputy director of the CIA. He spoke ironically, drawing laughs when he made the remark at a recent panel discussion at George Mason University.

But he was making a serious point as he spoke about government officials testifying before congressional committees at the impeachment inquiry.

"Everyone here has seen this progression of diplomats, and intelligence officers and White House people trooping up to Capitol Hill right now, and saying, 'These are people who are doing their duty,'" McLaughlin said.

When we caught up with McLaughlin a few days later, he said he had received some blowback for those comments. Then he went on to say:


Mike Lofgren, now retired at age 66, used to be one of those people when he was a Republican congressional staffer. Today, he says he's turned his back on the Republican Party.


In the error of Trumpery it's become a catch all term with more than a tinge of paranoia attached. I have asked a number of folks here about who they think is in the fictitious deep state and how it wields its power. That's when the conspiracy theory falls apart. It exists as an abstraction in the minds of Repubs but each time granular details of how it operates are demanded they are lost for words.

How do you become a member? Is there an ideological litmus test for membership? Are there meetings? Who runs them? Is there a concrete agenda? Do both Dems and Repubs belong?

They like the term because it sounds so dark and vague and scary.

From what I can tell, the term was taken by hyperbolic MAGA talk radio propagandist Mark Levin, and that's when it entered the movement's bloodstream in full.

 

[berg80]

They like the term because it sounds so dark and vague and scary.

From what I can tell, the term was taken by hyperbolic MAGA talk radio propagandist Mark Levin, and that's when it entered the movement's bloodstream in full.

Lofgren expanded his essay into a 2016 book called: The Deep State: The Fall Of The Constitution And The Rise Of A Shadow Government. The book got some favorable reviews, but didn't set the publishing world on fire.

Then President Trump took office.

"Unelected, deep state operatives who defy the voters, to push their own secret agendas, are truly a threat to democracy itself," Trump said at a rally last year, one of the many times he's invoked the term.

For the president and his supporters, deep state is shorthand for Democratic-leaning bureaucrats who want to undermine Trump.

Breitbart began extensive coverage to "deep state" stories around the time Trump entered office, and others have followed. In a search of TV transcripts, the term "deep state" appeared only 64 times in 2016, the year Lofgren published his book.

In 2017, it shot up to nearly 2,300 mentions, and surged to nearly 5,000 hits last year, many of them on Fox News.

 

[SweetSue92]

The Man Who Popularized The 'Deep State' Doesn't Like The Way It's Used​

Lofgren says he first encountered the term in a spy novel A Delicate Truth by John le Carre, who describes the hidden power brokers at work in Great Britain.

Now it pops up everywhere.

"Thank God for the deep state," said John McLaughlin, the former deputy director of the CIA. He spoke ironically, drawing laughs when he made the remark at a recent panel discussion at George Mason University.

But he was making a serious point as he spoke about government officials testifying before congressional committees at the impeachment inquiry.

"Everyone here has seen this progression of diplomats, and intelligence officers and White House people trooping up to Capitol Hill right now, and saying, 'These are people who are doing their duty,'" McLaughlin said.

When we caught up with McLaughlin a few days later, he said he had received some blowback for those comments. Then he went on to say:


Mike Lofgren, now retired at age 66, used to be one of those people when he was a Republican congressional staffer. Today, he says he's turned his back on the Republican Party.


In the error of Trumpery it's become a catch all term with more than a tinge of paranoia attached. I have asked a number of folks here about who they think is in the fictitious deep state and how it wields its power. That's when the conspiracy theory falls apart. It exists as an abstraction in the minds of Repubs but each time granular details of how it operates are demanded they are lost for words.

How do you become a member? Is there an ideological litmus test for membership? Are there meetings? Who runs them? Is there a concrete agenda? Do both Dems and Repubs belong?

The truth is it's a bogeyman of Repub's creation that came in to vogue along with Don who has used it to gin up distrust of government.

On the contrary it's not difficult to understand at all. Unelected, mostly unaccountable bureaucrats who, unconstitutionally, make too many "laws" and wield entirely too much power.

How many examples do you want?

Should we start with Peter Stzrok and Lois Lerner?

 

[berg80]

They like the term because it sounds so dark and vague and scary.

From what I can tell, the term was taken by hyperbolic MAGA talk radio propagandist Mark Levin, and that's when it entered the movement's bloodstream in full.

Yes, so spooooooooooky and sinister. Lurking around every corner. Boooooo!

 

[rightwinger]

On the contrary it's not difficult to understand at all. Unelected, mostly unaccountable bureaucrats who, unconstitutionally, make too many "laws" and wield entirely too much power.

How many examples do you want?

Should we start with Peter Stzrok and Lois Lerner?

What laws did Stzrok and Lerner make?
Hating Trump is not a crime

 

[berg80]

On the contrary it's not difficult to understand at all. Unelected, mostly unaccountable bureaucrats who, unconstitutionally, make too many "laws" and wield entirely too much power.

How many examples do you want?

Should we start with Peter Stzrok and Lois Lerner?

Putting aside all the lies told about those two, in your head, was there someone directing them? Or is the deep state just a label that gets put on disparate people who you have been told not to like? Because it seems to me it's a convenient term to apply to anyone seen as disloyal to Trump.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

The Man Who Popularized The 'Deep State' Doesn't Like The Way It's Used​

Lofgren says he first encountered the term in a spy novel A Delicate Truth by John le Carre, who describes the hidden power brokers at work in Great Britain.

Now it pops up everywhere.

"Thank God for the deep state," said John McLaughlin, the former deputy director of the CIA. He spoke ironically, drawing laughs when he made the remark at a recent panel discussion at George Mason University.

But he was making a serious point as he spoke about government officials testifying before congressional committees at the impeachment inquiry.

"Everyone here has seen this progression of diplomats, and intelligence officers and White House people trooping up to Capitol Hill right now, and saying, 'These are people who are doing their duty,'" McLaughlin said.

When we caught up with McLaughlin a few days later, he said he had received some blowback for those comments. Then he went on to say:


Mike Lofgren, now retired at age 66, used to be one of those people when he was a Republican congressional staffer. Today, he says he's turned his back on the Republican Party.


In the error of Trumpery it's become a catch all term with more than a tinge of paranoia attached. I have asked a number of folks here about who they think is in the fictitious deep state and how it wields its power. That's when the conspiracy theory falls apart. It exists as an abstraction in the minds of Repubs but each time granular details of how it operates are demanded they are lost for words.

How do you become a member? Is there an ideological litmus test for membership? Are there meetings? Who runs them? Is there a concrete agenda? Do both Dems and Repubs belong?

The truth is it's a bogeyman of Repub's creation that came in to vogue along with Don who has used it to gin up distrust of government.

When unelected bureaucrat can change laws to suit an agenda that is the deep state

 

[SeaMajor7]

SCOTUS slapped DOWN the administrative DEEP STATE bureaucracy with the Chevron ruling!!!!!!!!

Poor psychopath Stalinberg80.

 

[SweetSue92]

What laws did Stzrok and Lerner make?
Hating Trump is not a crime

They don't make laws. That was the point of the Supreme Court. They make RULES we are nonetheless forced to follow or go to jail, in the case of the IRS.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

What laws did Stzrok and Lerner make?
Hating Trump is not a crime

It's a disease

 

[rampart]

The Man Who Popularized The 'Deep State' Doesn't Like The Way It's Used​

Lofgren says he first encountered the term in a spy novel A Delicate Truth by John le Carre, who describes the hidden power brokers at work in Great Britain.

Now it pops up everywhere.

"Thank God for the deep state," said John McLaughlin, the former deputy director of the CIA. He spoke ironically, drawing laughs when he made the remark at a recent panel discussion at George Mason University.

But he was making a serious point as he spoke about government officials testifying before congressional committees at the impeachment inquiry.

"Everyone here has seen this progression of diplomats, and intelligence officers and White House people trooping up to Capitol Hill right now, and saying, 'These are people who are doing their duty,'" McLaughlin said.

When we caught up with McLaughlin a few days later, he said he had received some blowback for those comments. Then he went on to say:


Mike Lofgren, now retired at age 66, used to be one of those people when he was a Republican congressional staffer. Today, he says he's turned his back on the Republican Party.


In the error of Trumpery it's become a catch all term with more than a tinge of paranoia attached. I have asked a number of folks here about who they think is in the fictitious deep state and how it wields its power. That's when the conspiracy theory falls apart. It exists as an abstraction in the minds of Repubs but each time granular details of how it operates are demanded they are lost for words.

How do you become a member? Is there an ideological litmus test for membership? Are there meetings? Who runs them? Is there a concrete agenda? Do both Dems and Repubs belong?

In reality, it's just a bogeyman Repubs use to make the minions believe in ghosts.

as usual, repubs throw shade onto the professionals whose advice they ignore as they casually advance the long game of quacks and charletans.

 

[SweetSue92]

Because it seems to me it's a convenient term to apply to anyone seen as disloyal to Trump.

Yes so my explanation sorta kinda wove its way through the leftist cobwebs in your brain, but in the end you can't decode that and remain a liberal. So you just say we hate the Deep State because they're not "loyal to Trump".

Show me a glimmer of rational thinking or I'll just picture you drooling over Dems' boots and move on

 

[bigrebnc1775]

as usual, repubs throw shade onto the professionals whose advice they ignore as they casually advance the long game of quacks and charletans.

Yes that is what democrats do

 

[SweetSue92]

as usual, repubs throw shade onto the professionals whose advice they ignore as they casually advance the long game of quacks and charletans.

A great example of the Deep State:

Lockdowns, masks, etc. "You can't be on this beach or you'll be arrested". This was no law no where. It was foisted on people by the unelected idiots who are in "public health", who have now had to go private on all social media because they are so bad at their jobs.

Seriously, how many examples do your thick skulls need?

 

[SweetSue92]

Yes that is what democrats do

"Professionals". Sickening

 

[berg80]

Over the years the deep state conspiracy theory has taken a number of forms.

BEWARE THE TRILATERAL COMMISSION!​

Behind closed doors (of course), they are meeting this weekend in Lisbon. Some call them "the shadow government," "the Establishment," the "global elite" that runs the world.
They call themselves simply ... the Trilateral Commission. (Chills run up spine.)

Depending on which conspiracy theory you subscribe to -- and the Trilateral Commission has found its way into many -- this 19-year-old organization is anti-American, anti-democratic, anti-Christian or anti-worker, and is scheming ultimately to abolish the sovereignty of nations and establish one world government!

According to Lyndon LaRouche, fringe political candidate and convicted tax cheat, the Trilateral Commission is behind the international drug trade. A writer affiliated with the far-right Liberty Lobby says the commission is forever plotting to raise taxes on Americans, siphoning the money overseas. Evangelist Pat Robertson believes it is somehow linked to Freemasonry and the occult, that it springs "from the depth of something that is evil."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/04/25/beware-the-trilateral-commission/59c48198-9479-4c80-a70a-a1518b5bcfff/

 

[AMart]

Imagine thinking the deep state is a theory. What a retard you are berg. Your boy biden is being ass raped by it now.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

Putting aside all the lies told about those two, in your head, was there someone directing them? Or is the deep state just a label that gets put on disparate people who you have been told not to like? Because it seems to me it's a convenient term to apply to anyone seen as disloyal to Trump.

Numbnuts the term deep state has been around a long time even before trump used it

 

[rightwinger]

It's a disease

Your turn
What laws did they make?