Article by Chris Stigall in Townhall
They’re Provoking Us, You Know
If you grew up with siblings, you know what it’s like to feel provoked. If you watch sports you’ll often see visiting players show-boat to provoke the home team and their fans after they make a great play. Provocation is such a powerful psychological tool the Bible expressly forbids it when bringing up children. Ephesians 6:4 says “Fathers do not provoke your children to anger…”
We’re living in a time of great provocation directed at the American people from those in elected office. Virtually all levels of government are barely hiding the disdain and contempt they have for the people they’re supposed to serve.
The pandemic has given county commissioners, school boards, health directors, mayors, governors and federal officials an emperor complex, lording over our daily lives deciding which privilege they will or won’t allow based on their whims.
They justify it by calling it science. It’s not. It’s provocation and it's working for the left on many fronts in very effective ways.
Take for example the foiled plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Whitmer last year. Originally reported as a group of pro-Trump insurrectionists bent on punishing Whitmer for her aggressive lockdowns of 2020, only a year later do we learn the truth. The men involved may well have agreed with the plot, but were set up and goaded into it by embedded federal informants.
Left-leaning BuzzFeed reported, “Working in secret, they (FBI informants) did more than just passively observe and report on the actions of the suspects. Instead, they had a hand in nearly every aspect of the alleged plot, starting with its inception. The extent of their involvement raises questions as to whether there would have even been a conspiracy without them.”
Similarly, the events at the US Capitol on January 6th have led many eyewitnesses, journalists, and at least one United States senator to ask who was involved in that day and what planning went into it. Given what BuzzFeed reported on the Whitmer plot, is it difficult to imagine the same for January 6th?
As Revolver News summarized, “If it turns out the federal government did in fact have undercover agents or confidential informants embedded within the so-called militia groups indicted for conspiring to obstruct the Senate certification on 1/6, the implications would be nothing short of seismic. Especially if such agents or informants enjoyed extremely senior-level positions within such groups.”
These events are still sold by media and Democrats as organic uprisings of unhinged opposition posing a constant, present danger to our very republic. They have been used throughout the last eight months of Biden’s presidency to paint any opposition to any authority, order, or edict as potential “insurrection” and wing-nuttery.
Any questions raised about the election, the virus, the lockdowns, the vaccine, the border and the insinuation is, “What are you, one of THOSE people?”
They’re provoking you.
Parents who’ve shown up at school board meetings to demand an end to teaching racism in the classroom are smugly dismissed. “It’s not Critical Race Theory,” they lie. “It’s diversity, equity, and inclusion from the new DEI Director, you see? Who could be against that?”
As cities watch crime spiral out of control, Democrat mayors and city councilpersons who’ve supported defunding the police and prevented them from prosecuting crimes tell you it’s the Second Amendment to blame for the record bloodshed.
Each month hundreds of thousands of unvaccinated, illegal aliens are rounded up at our southern border and distributed across the country to become permanent residents. Do you see any urgency to close the border? No, the American public is told Ron DeSantis’ Florida and the vacationers at Lake of the Ozarks are to blame for another COVID outbreak.
Andrew Cuomo is accused of multiple counts of sexual impropriety by New York’s Attorney General and the governor tells us there’s nothing wrong with what he did. That’s just the way he interacts with everyone and he learned it from his mom and dad, no less.
Dr. Fauci admits he sent money to the Wuhan lab but insists we believe him when he says they told him they weren’t creating super-viruses with the money because they told him so.
The CDC and the White House told us two months ago we no longer needed masks if we were vaccinated, but now insist everyone wear them again. Children once told they weren’t considered primary carriers or likely to get very sick even if they contracted the virus are once again made to mask and perhaps robbed of more time in an in-person classroom setting because teachers unions might not be ready to return.
Democrats are partnering with private sector companies to punish states for passing overwhelmingly popular voter ID laws – insisting voter ID is racist while at the same time demanding employees supply proof they’ve taken government issued vaccines or face termination.
Barack Obama had planned a birthday party for himself with 700 attendees during the latest “crisis" virus outbreak in his multi-million dollar oceanfront estate despite warning the man-caused rise of the sea will destroy our coasts.
But perhaps the most audacious of all is Joe Biden’s open acknowledgement this week that he and the CDC simply don’t have the constitutional authority to extend the eviction moratorium, but he’s going to do it anyway. Further, any landlord who evicts a tenant from their property will face fines and jail time. It’s the state seizing private property. It’s shocking. And the guy we’re supposed to call president dared someone to stop him.
Open, naked, craven prevaricating and antagonism done on purpose with the help of a compliant media telling you it's perfectly normal and you’re to blame for the nation’s ills.
Government agents big and small and their fascist corporate partners flexing their muscles, poking you in the chest, smiling as they call you an insurrectionist and just daring you to cross them.
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians was written at a time when fathers were kings of their homes and wielded total, unquestionable authority. It’s Paul’s biblical warning to fathers not to behave as tyrants lest they produce restless or rebellious children who ultimately resent them.
That same warning should be heeded by public officials who forget we’re a republic and “consent of the governed” is still the order of things. Ignoring that fact will produce a “restless and rebellious” electorate, too.
And that’s just what the provocateurs in charge are hoping.
https://townhall.com/columnists/chrisstigall/2021/08/05/theyre-provoking-us-you-know-n2593640
