There are indications that Saturday’s “Justice for J6” rally is going to be a giant dud. For one, some of the leading members of the House Sedition Caucus are shying away from it—even people like Reps. Madison Cawthorn and Marjorie Taylor Greene. Never mind that the guy organizing this effort to wail that those arrested for their roles in the Jan. 6 insurrection get “justice”  is a former Donald Trump campaign staffer. 

But a deep dive into the deplorable tubes by NBC News reveals that some posters on rabidly pro-Trump message boards and Facebook groups are actually discouraging their followers from coming.

As NBC News reports, several posters on forums like TheDonald and 4chan claim that Saturday’s rally is a “false flag” or “honeypot” intended to coerce and entrap attendees into committing violent acts. One TheDonald poster who took part in the insurrection said bluntly, “Any protest after J6 is primed to be a false flag.” A Telegram channel for the Proud Boys sounded a similar warning, saying not only that the Proud Boys weren’t coming but warning that the rally was a trap. Also on Telegram, rabidly pro-Trump lawyer Lin Wood warned that “a large rally this weekend in D.C. is a bad idea.”

The most popular Facebook post on the rally has only been liked, shared, or commented on 300 times. Most of the comments criticize the event. The hashtag #JusticeforJ6 has mostly been taken over by people criticizing the rally.

This is a marked turnabout from the run-up to the “Save America Rally,” in which many posters on TheDonald were openly talking about turning the capital into a bloodbath—breaking into federal buildings, storming offices, etc. According to NBC News’ recent deep dive, these same forums were full of Capitol’s tunnel system maps.

What changed? One must wonder if these “patriots” lost their bravado when they realized storming the Capitol could carry serious prison time. Maybe that explains the sense of paranoia floating around the deplorable web. It could explain why some people who were ready to fight and kill for the Messiah, Lord Donald Trump, The Most Merciful, aren’t so big and bad anymore.