Over the Fourth of July weekend, Washington DC found itself beset by the "Patriot Front", about 400 guys in matching outfits, with white balaclavas covering their faces and waving flags about.

The (relatively small) gathering walked about a bit, did some marching, waved some flags...and scared the press to death!

The group marched away from Union Station, carrying various flags, including Confederate flags. pic.twitter.com/Xo0WDH2B9O

The running joke has already become they are barely-disguised federal agents indulging in some rather lame propaganda, even as some members of rightwing defend both their realness and their aims.

Regardless, they are not real. Even if they're not literally all FBI agents - which we can't actually rule out - they are a psy-op to some extent or another.

Just look at them. And you can just look at them, do you know why? Because they're all over the press and social media.

Several similarly themed "lone ethnic minority surrounded by faceless Nazis" pictures all sprang up at once, which is suspicious in and of itself, but this is the one that really stuck.

Both the bots and people who don't realise they've become bots are promoting it all over the place. "It should win a Pulitzer prize" they say. "This photo will define our age."

This kind of coverage, this kind of engineered viral content, is the hallmark of the psy-op, and it shows what Patriot Front (and groups like them) are really for:

Creating the illusory threat of potential fascism on the fringes to distract from very real fascism already in the very centre of power.