Dear all, I've taken cognizance of all the evidence surrounding alleged Hindutva participation in the Wednesday insurrection. My conclusion? There's not much and it's not worth getting distracted from the bigger picture.

1) An Indian Christian raised an Indian flag. Yes, I think it's safe to conclude that's a sign of Indian nationalists backing Trump. There's some circumstantial evidence suggesting he's associated with Sanghis. But it's not significant.
2) A man, apparently a "Hemant Bhatt" from New Jersey, joined the rally. But there's no obvious connection between him and Hindutva. And the presence of a single individual is not significant.
3) @Voice_For_India was present. She is a Hindutva stooge. Her presence is the most significant of that of any. But there's no evidence suggesting she was there as part of a larger crowd or mobilization.
4) There was a small group of Indians present who were all pictured together. But that's it. No identification of them. No evidence they have any Hindutva links. Totally insignificant in context of the Hindutva influence in America issue.
5) Pictures of saffron-clad Indians raising the saffron flag of RSS/Hindutva with Capitol in backdrop. People shared them suggesting the pictures were from the insurrection. But they actually appear to be from an entirely different day and event. Totally misleading.
6) After the insurrection, @RajivMessage posted a tweet calling for India to "infiltrate" both US political parties. This is deeply troubling, represents an overt call for foreign interference, and demands attention. But it was in no way linked to insurrection except by timing.
Influence of RSS/BJP and its supremacist Hindutva ideology in America is a significant and very real problem. But working against it must be evidence based. Exposing it credibly also requires many pieces of interconnected proofs, not just one-off examples.
Attention to detail, accuracy in reporting, and ensuring that claims made are based on patterns of evidence — NOT just one-off examples or single data points — is crucial to maintaining the credibility required to make progress in the struggle against the RSS and its evil agenda.
Lastly, I know strongly anti-RSS/anti-Modi Indian-Americans who support Trump (wrongly, I believe, but that's their choice). There is context to American politics that explains why some do so — and Hindutva is not part of it.
While Indians unfamiliar with American politics might understandably assume that any Indian-American who supports Trump is sympathetic to RSS (especially considering his friendship with Modi), that simply isn't true. Support for Trump is not a de facto sign of RSS sympathies.

More from For later read

The common understanding of propaganda is that it is intended to brainwash the masses. Supposedly, people get exposed to the same message repeatedly and over time come to believe in whatever nonsense authoritarians want them to believe /1

And yet authoritarians often broadcast silly, unpersuasive propaganda.

Political scientist Haifeng Huang writes that the purpose of propaganda is not to brainwash people, but to instill fear in them /2


When people are bombarded with propaganda everywhere they look, they are reminded of the strength of the regime.

The vast amount of resources authoritarians spend to display their message in every corner of the public square is a costly demonstration of their power /3

In fact, the overt silliness of authoritarian propaganda is part of the point. Propaganda is designed to be silly so that people can instantly recognize it when they see it


Propaganda is intended to instill fear in people, not brainwash them.

The message is: You might not believe in pro-regime values or attitudes. But we will make sure you are too frightened to do anything about it.
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Planet Money on HP's myriad ripoffs; Strength in numbers; and more!

Archived at: https://t.co/esjoT3u5Gr

#Pluralistic

1/


On Feb 22, I'm delivering a keynote address for the NISO Plus conference, "The day of the comet: what trustbusting means for digital manipulation."

https://t.co/Z84xicXhGg

2/


Planet Money on HP's myriad ripoffs: Ink-stained wretches of the world, unite!

https://t.co/k5ASdVUrC2

3/


Strength in numbers: The crisis in accounting.

https://t.co/DjfAfHWpNN

4/


#15yrsago Bad Samaritan family won’t return found expensive camera https://t.co/Rn9E5R1gtV

#10yrsago What does Libyan revolution mean for https://t.co/Jz28qHVhrV? https://t.co/dN1e4MxU4r

5/
Part of what is going on here is that large sectors of evangelicalism are poorly equipped to help people deal with basic struggles, let alone the ubiquitous pornography addictions that most of their men have been enslaved to for years.


On the one hand, there's a high standard of holiness. On the other hand, there's a model of growth that is basically "Try Harder to Mean it More." Identify the relevant scriptural truth & believe it with all of your sincerity so that you may access the Holy Spirit's help to obey.

Helping sincere believers believe and obey the Bible facts is pretty much all the Holy Spirit does these days, other than convict us of our sins in light of the Bible facts.

If you know you are sincere and hate your sin and believe the right Bible facts as hard as you can but continue to be enslaved to your pornography addiction, what else left for you to do? Just Really, Just Really, Just Really Trust God and Give it to Him?

To suggest that there are other strategies available sounds to those formed in this model of growth like one is also suggesting that the Bible is insufficient, but it also suggests something just as threatening- that there are aspects of reality that are not immediately apparent.

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