Why is IK and his troll core sticking to the conspiracy narrative?

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧵" title="collectie" aria-label="Emoji: collectie">

First, a clarification.

Pay attention to those that are leading the conspiracy narrative and notice which PTI leaders are NOT front & centre.

You see? The non trolls aren’t.

That’s why, “troll core”.

1/n

Now:

there is no “conspiracy”
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🆚" title="VS in vierkant" aria-label="Emoji: VS in vierkant">
the Americans don’t like IK & don’t like to have to negotiate hard.

There is a difference.

But it isn’t a difference that helps IK and the troll core. The only thing that helps is that there is a grand, international, US led “conspiracy”.

2/n

So, why stick to “conspiracy”?

The “conspiracy” allows IK an easy access exit ramp off the “attack-the-Army-leadership-highway” he has taken.

If it was https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇺🇸" title="Vlag van de Verenigde Staten" aria-label="Emoji: Vlag van de Verenigde Staten">, then everyone else just a pawn. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇺🇸" title="Vlag van de Verenigde Staten" aria-label="Emoji: Vlag van de Verenigde Staten"> https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="♾" title="Infinity" aria-label="Emoji: Infinity"> bad guy.

It’s a signal that IK wants to continue to work w the Army.

3/n

But it’s more than a signal! It’s a trigger. Why?

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇺🇸" title="Vlag van de Verenigde Staten" aria-label="Emoji: Vlag van de Verenigde Staten"> is the ally that:

*humiliates https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇵🇰" title="Vlag van Pakistan" aria-label="Emoji: Vlag van Pakistan"> every chance it gets
*abandons https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇵🇰" title="Vlag van Pakistan" aria-label="Emoji: Vlag van Pakistan"> for https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇮🇳" title="Vlag van India" aria-label="Emoji: Vlag van India">
*ignores https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇵🇰" title="Vlag van Pakistan" aria-label="Emoji: Vlag van Pakistan"> advice on https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇦🇫" title="Vlag van Afghanistan" aria-label="Emoji: Vlag van Afghanistan">
*punishes https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇵🇰" title="Vlag van Pakistan" aria-label="Emoji: Vlag van Pakistan"> for https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤝" title="Handdruk" aria-label="Emoji: Handdruk"> w https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇨🇳" title="Vlag van China" aria-label="Emoji: Vlag van China">

So for

media +
middle class +
serving & retired military…

“conspiracy” is CREDIBLE.

4/n

“Conspiracy” is also the ultimate non-provable / non-disprovable.

So the weight of likely behaviors (sometimes necessary behaviors) by the military leadership & the new coalition govt will all offer loads of raw material for IK & trolls to point and say: “told ya so”!

5/n

Conveniently, the kind of audiences IK can draw internationally based on an anti West and anti US narrative of victimhood is vast & loud.

George Galloway & other spent forces in the US, UK & Europe.

Ignorant socialists and lefties in the West.

And most potently…

6/n

The existentially torn Pakistani expat in the West.

One economically assimilated foot in the adopted homeland.

One dislocated romantic foot stuck in the native land.

Dissonance writ large across their https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="📺" title="Televisie" aria-label="Emoji: Televisie"> sets, as https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🗑" title="Prullenmand" aria-label="Emoji: Prullenmand"> “news” is intravenously fed into their https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧠" title="Hersenen" aria-label="Emoji: Hersenen">.

Constantly.

7/n

The only thing that explains the “failure” of the perfect non political creature of virtue that is IK is a vast conspiracy.

It has to be international because to the IK cultist, Pakistanis are simply not capable of doing anything.

Finally, the “conspiracy” also caters to…

8/n

The two front Pakistani right wing that IK has sought to cultivate & tame for years.

1. he was against the 2001 https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇺🇸" title="Vlag van de Verenigde Staten" aria-label="Emoji: Vlag van de Verenigde Staten"> invasion of https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇦🇫" title="Vlag van Afghanistan" aria-label="Emoji: Vlag van Afghanistan">, enabling a kind of Taliban+ angle.

2. he is visibly fighting Islamophobia, enabling TLP+ angle.

“Conspiracy” is a credible pitch to both.

9/n

Put it all together and the sustainability & endurance of “conspiracy” is too valuable for IK to abandon as a strategy merely because it is fictional to begin with.

This fiction will shape the reality of Pakistani economic, foreign & strategic affairs for the near future.

10/10