The trouble with conspiracy fantasies is that even a total lack of evidence is not taken as a compelling reason to dismiss it, but rather, it's taken to mean that it's so wide-spread that only few clever souls have "done the research" and can see through the lies and coverups.
You might as well tell me there are elephants hiding the tree tops, and the reason we never see them is that they're really good at it, and we're all elephant blind.
Most of this is reiteration, so there's not much that's new here. Still, it's worth review, and worth the assessment that AI could be quite a useful research tool.
I have been playing around with ChatGPT and asked it about the overlap between cults and conspiracy theorists
Thought you all would appreciate this...
Cults and conspiracy theories can sometimes overlap in several ways, although they are distinct phenomena. Here are some of the common points of intersection: **Belief Systems**: Both cults and conspiracy theories often revolve around belief systems that challenge mainstream or conventional perspectives. Cult members and conspiracy theory adherents may be drawn to alternative explanations and interpretations of reality.
**Us vs. Them Mentality**: Cults and conspiracy theories frequently foster an "us vs. them" mentality. They create a sense of belonging to a select group that possesses special knowledge or insights, while portraying outsiders or skeptics as ignorant or part of the conspiracy.
⬇︎ One of my favorites ⬇︎
**Secrecy and Hidden Knowledge**: Both cults and conspiracy theories often emphasize the possession of secret or hidden knowledge. Cult leaders and conspiracy theory promoters claim access to exclusive truths that are deliberately concealed from the general public.
**Recruitment and Indoctrination**: Cults and promoters of conspiracy theories employ recruitment and indoctrination techniques to attract new members or followers. They may use persuasive tactics to engage individuals and convince them of the validity of their beliefs.
**Isolation**: Cults may isolate their members from the outside world to maintain control and prevent exposure to conflicting information. Similarly, conspiracy theory adherents may avoid mainstream sources of information and socialize primarily with like-minded individuals in online echo chambers.
**Deceptive Manipulation**: Both cults and conspiracy theories can involve deceptive manipulation. Cult leaders may exploit the vulnerability of their followers, while conspiracy theories often rely on misleading or fabricated evidence to support their claims.
**Resistance to Rational Arguments**: Cult members and conspiracy theory adherents may be resistant to rational arguments or evidence that contradicts their beliefs. They tend to dismiss opposing viewpoints as part of the alleged conspiracy.
**Strong Emotional Attachment**: People involved in cults and those immersed in conspiracy theories often develop strong emotional attachments to their respective belief systems. These attachments can make it challenging for them to disengage from these ideologies.
It's important to note that while there are these points of overlap, cults and conspiracy theories are distinct in many ways. Cults typically involve a charismatic leader and a tightly controlled organization, while conspiracy theories are often more decentralized and widespread. Cults may have physical communities, while conspiracy theories often exist in the digital realm. Understanding the differences between the two is important for addressing the unique challenges and risks associated with each phenomenon.
I would add: A conspiracy fantasy (it's not a theory, BTW - it's not even a hypothesis) can easily be considered some asshole's stupid little joke - they just wanna see who's gullible enough to swallow it, and how viral it gets - but it's more than likely a tool to manipulate the devotees, further cementing them in place within the cult.
The term "Conspiracy Theory" has to be one of the great insults to our collective intelligence.
It's not a theory. It doesn't even rise to the level of hypothesis. It's idle speculation. It's purely conjecture. It's a fantasy. It's made up - sometimes on the spot - and it's junk. It's low-level bullshit designed to appeal to gullible rubes with inadequate mental horsepower, in order to bilk them out of their money, and to get them lined up to follow a particular ideology. Because money and power always alwaysalways go together.
What I need is for people (lookin' at you, Press Poodles) to start identifying all this shit as Junk Think. Conspiracy Fantasy. Almost anything you care to name it, but not "theory", goddammit.
The Leader of the JFK-QAnon Cult Is Dead. His Followers Think It’s All Part of the Plan
Members of Michael Protzman’s conspiracy cult abandoned their families and spent their life savings to follow him to Trump rallies around the country.
The leader of a QAnon cult who convinced thousands of people that former president John F. Kennedy and his son JFK, Jr. are still alive has died, VICE News can exclusively report.
Michael Protzman, 60, died last Friday in the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota a week after an accident at the Meadow Valley Motocross track in Millville, Minnesota. Protzman’s death was confirmed to VICE News in a phone call with the Minnesota Department of Health.
Protzman died as a result of “multiple blunt force injuries” after he “lost control of his dirt bike” according to a report from the Southern Minnesota Regional Medical Examiner’s Office, which was obtained by VICE News.
Protzman, who was known to his followers as Negative 48, was from Federal Way in Washington State and owned a demolition company prior to his emergence as a QAnon guru in early 2021.
Protzman rose to notoriety in 2021, when the Telegram channel he ran garnered tens of thousands of followers. In that channel, Protzman mixed QAnon conspiracies with a bastardized version of Gematria, a Jewish numerology system, which he claimed to be able to use to predict the future.
Protzman gained national attention in November 2021 when he convinced hundreds of his followers to travel from all across the U.S. to Dallas, where he claimed that JFK and JFK Jr. would reappear at Dealey Plaza, on the spot where JFK was assassinated in 1963.
When that didn’t happen, Protzman’s conspiracies simply changed, and over the next 18 months he would alter and change his predictions to suit his needs and keep his followers on board. Ultimately he claimed that he was in direct contact with former President Donald Trump and that Trump was in fact JFK Jr. in disguise.
After the Dallas gathering, Protzman spent 18 months crisscrossing the U.S., attending multiple Trump rallies. He was accompanied by a rotating band of followers, whom he ordered to cover his accommodation and food costs.
Numerous followers abandoned their families and spent their life savings following Protzman.
“She left her children for this and doesn't even care,” Katy Garner, whose sister fell under Protzman’s spell, told VICE News in 2021.
“She is missing birthdays and holidays for this. She truly believes this is all real and we are the crazy ones for trying to get her to come home. But she won’t, I don’t believe she will ever come back from this. We are in mourning.”
“Protzman impacted the lives of so many families in such a negative way, families were torn apart, many members lost their assets due to following him,” an open-source researcher going by the name ‘Karma,’ who has tracked this cult closely since its inception, told VICE News. “Some of these families will never be the same. I do hope those that followed him, reach out to their families and make amends.”
After his accident two weeks ago, details about Protzman’s condition were tightly controlled by his inner circle of half a dozen followers. While they initially told followers in an online chat that Protzman had a “potential brain injury” and told them to pray for him, the inner circle has refused to answer any follow up questions about his condition.
The inner circle shut down comments on his channels and in at least one case, kicked a follower out of their Truth Social group after they asked a question about Protzman’s condition this week.
Shelly Mullinax, who was one of Protzman’s earliest followers but had a falling out with him and other members of the group last year, remains convinced of the conspiracies Protzman concocted about JFK. She believes his death is all part of the plan.
“If that was the plan that God had for him, I know that everything is going to be revealed soon,” Mullinax told VICE News on Wednesday.
Mullinax said that in recent days someone in her group had claimed Protzman “was taken out” but she dismissed that.
She did however claim that the person who died was in fact just one version of Michael Protzman, “the evil version” and that the good Michael Protzman—who is in fact JFK Jr. in a mask—is still alive and well.
VICE News spoke to several family members of Protzman’s followers and all said that their loved ones have dismissed the news of Protzman’s death as fake. In another Telegram channel populated with Protzman’s followers, one admin wrote that they would be removing all posts regarding his death “until we have absolute verification.”
In one case however, one of Protzmans’ followers has put her name forward as a potential replacement leader of the group. “They killed Michael Protzman’s character so I take over Negative48 crew, follow me,” the follower wrote on Facebook.
“Protzman’s death won’t change anything right away, I believe new conspiracies surrounding his death will evolve,” Karma said. “But I do think his followers will dwindle and move on to other influencers over time.”
It’s not aliens. It’ll probably never be aliens. So stop. Please just stop.
"There is no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns."
Aliens have been having a moment in recent years.
For decades the notion of unidentified flying objects—UFOs—and little green men running around Roswell, New Mexico, remained comfortably confined along the fringes of societal discourse. But no longer. Serious people in the government are taking a serious look at the phenomenon.
The story of why this posture began to change begins about 15 years ago and is long and complex. (This New Yorker article is a good place to start.) But the basic gist is that then-Nevada politician Harry Reid, a powerful political figure who at times led the US Senate, began to take it seriously. So he started shoveling money at the Pentagon to study the issue.
Along the way, perhaps because of the stigma attached, the government stopped calling sightings of unidentified objects UFOs and began referring to them as unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP). The release of three videos in 2020 by the US Navy heightened public attention. Then, in 2021, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a much-anticipated assessment of the government's files on UAP.
This report, alas, held an unsatisfying conclusion for those who want to believe. "The limited amount of high-quality reporting on unidentified aerial phenomena hampers our ability to draw firm conclusions about the nature or intent of UAP," this report stated. In its nine pages, the report did not mention "aliens" a single time.
But the cat was out of the bag, and the government moved onward. Last December, the nation's buttoned-down space agency, NASA, named the members of a "study team" to determine how the space agency should analyze UAP. Knowing and respecting some of the members of this study team, I have no doubt that they will do good work, and we can rely on their conclusions.
Recent takedowns
All of this brings us to the recent spy balloon mania, during which US F-22 jets downed a Chinese balloon nine days ago and, subsequently, three unidentified objects over Canada and the United States. Given the lack of government transparency about what, exactly, these latter three objects were, conspiracy theories have multiplied. Misinformation, after all, loves nothing more than a vacuum.
The extent of the howls of "It must be aliens" was underlined on Monday when White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre felt compelled to address the issue during a press briefing. "There is no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns," she said. "I wanted to be sure the American people knew that, and it is important for us to say that from here."
So yeah, it's not aliens. Unless you believe the government is covering things up, of course.
Look, the universe is vast. It is so mind-bendingly vast that we cannot comprehend its immensity. There are billions of galaxies, and in each galaxy, there are billions of stars. One of the greatest scientific discoveries during the last two decades, thanks to the Kepler space telescope and other instruments, has confirmed that many, if not most, stars have planetary systems. So there are almost certainly billions and billions and billions of worlds out there upon which life like ours could arise.
But, in all probability, we haven't found it yet. Or rather, it hasn't found us yet, or revealed itself to us meager, carbon-based, Earth-confined wretches. Just why we haven't found it yet, by the way, is a fantastic philosophical question.
Extraordinary claims
I will close this article by referencing an astronomer and a physicist. The astronomer is Carl Sagan, perhaps the most gifted science communicator of the 20th century. He once said, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."
Certainly, the existence of an intelligent species capable of traveling between stars would be an extraordinary thing. And while there is plenty of "evidence" of unidentified flying objects in our skies, there is no "extraordinary" evidence that proves the case. I'm sorry, there just is not. The truth is, almost every hyped alien sighting can eventually be explained by a rather pedestrian phenomenon.
The second quote is simply a tweet from an English physicist, Brian Cox, today: "I've always suspected that an advanced alien civilization with the technology to travel at close to light speed across interstellar distances would arrive in Earth orbit unobserved and proceed to dispatch a fleet of small, easily detectable balloons into our atmosphere."
FALSE: The Blue Beam, a joint project of NASA and the United Nations, uses the most powerful technologies to spread a new religion on Earth and create various simulation images to establish total control over humans, after which the New World Order will finally be established.
Explanation: Blue Beam is a conspiracy theory about the New World Order that has been around since 1994. It is noteworthy that during the pandemic caused by the spread of the coronavirus, the Blue Beam theory once again came to the fore as the scenario described by Serge Monast the Antichrist uses the method of epidemics for establishing control over humans in the third, final phase. Conspiracy theorists believe that this process has already begun.
In marketing, one of the major obstacles you have to overcome is getting your product in front of a potential customer. And that's a big problem because everybody and his fuckin' uncle is completing for that customer's attention.
You have figure out how to cut through the clutter.
Used to be, you needed some decent amounts of spending money to buy billboard space, or air time on radio and TV, or newspaper ads and The Yellow Pages, or whatever.
Now, what you need is time and an iPhone and some outrageous subject matter - which is how you cut thru the clutter on the intertoobz - just put up the most outrageous bullshit your fevered little brain can conjure.
(ed note)
The kind of rank speculation this piece is addressing is not "hypothesis". It's pure fantasy conceived by attention junkies who know they can get some likes and follows by posting imaginary "findings" based on meaningless random details (apophenia).
Apophenia refers to the human tendency to see patterns and meaning in random information. The term was coined in 1958 by German neurologist Klaus Conrad, who was studying the “unmotivated seeing of connections” in patients with schizophrenia. Statisticians refer to apophenia as patternicity or a “type I error.”
4 Types of Apophenia Apophenia is a general term that refers to seeing meaningful patterns in randomness. Here are the subcategories of apophenia:
Pareidolia. Pareidolia is a type of apophenia that occurs specifically with visual stimuli. People with this tendency most often see human faces in inanimate objects. Some examples of pareidolia include seeing a face in a slice of toast or seeing the shape of a bunny in a random mass of clouds.
Gambler’s fallacy. People who regularly gamble often fall prey to the gambler’s fallacy. They may perceive patterns or meaning in random numbers, often interpreting the pattern as an indication of an oncoming win. Learn more about gambler’s fallacy in our guide here.
Clustering illusion. A clustering illusion occurs when looking at large amounts of data—humans tend to see patterns or trends in data even when it is entirely random.
Confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is a psychological phenomenon in which a person will test a hypothesis under the assumption that it’s true. This form of apophenia can lead to overemphasizing data that confirms a hypothesis and explaining away information that disproves it.
Funny how the "fuck your feelings" crowd seems always to go in big for anything contrarian, as long as it makes them feel good about their ignorance.
The Anti-Vaccine Documentary Died Suddenly Wants You to Feel, Not Think
Clearly, the makers of Died Suddenly don’t want you to do your own research.
People want to feel like their concerns are heard. Being dismissed can lead to loss of trust, which can send people looking for empathy in the wrong places.
Members of the anti-vaccination movement and of its media arm excel at portraying themselves as “those who care.” The rest of us—scientists, doctors, politicians, journalists—are represented as either apathetic or simply evil. The latest “documentary” to emerge from this movement, Died Suddenly, is an exercise in reframing compassion. It also represents the apogee of conspiritualist ideas, where grand conspiracy theories surrounding vaccines are painted on a canvas so large, they involve a Biblical war between the forces of absolute good and those of pure evil.
Who are portrayed as ringing the alarm for Armageddon in Died Suddenly? Embalmers. A tale made out of whole clot
The documentary’s smoking gun is the alleged discovery of long, white, fibrous clots in the deceased bodies of people who, we are told, got vaccinated against COVID-19. Sometimes, their blood also looks dirty, like it contains coffee grounds. This claim seems to have originated from Richard Hirschman, an embalmer in Alabama, who spoke about it to The Epoch Times, a frequent vehicle for misinformation and grand conspiracy theories. Hirschman and a few other embalmers testify to their findings in Died Suddenly, with some being blurred out, their voices altered, like they are sharing secrets so damning they’re about to be shipped to their local witness protection program.
Every conspiracy demands its whistleblower, and Hirschman serves as one of many for this documentary. He can boldly speak out while his colleagues self-censor, he tells us, because he doesn’t work for a funeral home. The movie cozies up to the body horror genre by repeatedly showing us images and clips of these lengthy strings of organic matter being pulled out of post-mortem incisions. The power of these alien, rubbery artefacts grows in the telling: in the Epoch Times piece, a cardiologist says these clots have “nearly the strength of steel.” Given the shock that these visuals can give to the untrained eye, it’s no wonder these supposed “vaccine clots” are making the rounds on TikTok.
The problem is that embalmers and funeral directors are not medical professionals. Don’t take it from me, but from the National Funeral Directors Association in the United States, whose representative told me as much, and from Ben Schmidt, a funeral director and embalmer with a bachelor’s degree in natural science. Schmidt wrote a detailed explanation of what is happening here. Clots can easily form after death, as the liquid and solid parts of blood separate and as formaldehyde and calcium-containing water used in the embalming process catalyze clotting. Refrigeration can also be to blame, especially when a rapid influx of bodies due to COVID necessitates longer stays in the cooler as embalmers make their way through their backlog.
Then there are the clots that happen prior to death. Embalmers do not typically know that someone who died was “in normal health,” as is often claimed in the documentary, nor do they reliably know someone’s vaccination status. Blood clots do happen in life, for a variety of reasons. The COVID-19 vaccines made by AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson were indeed associated with rare—and I must repeat, rare—cases of blood clots, but risk factors for blood clots in general include obesity, cancer, a sedentary lifestyle, pregnancy, family history, and smoking. Oh, and COVID-19 itself, which you won’t learn from Died Suddenly. This may surprise you, but an American dies of a blood clot every six minutes. Clots, either before or after death, are common.
As anatomical pathology specialist Irene Sansano told a fact-checking website, the clots shown by Hirschman do not look different from the ones pathologists regularly see in blood clot autopsies at the hospital. To know if there really was an uptick in clots seen during embalming, we can’t rely on a scattering of anecdotes. We would need a database to monitor trends, and as Schmidt points out, this database does not exist.
But if the sight of strings of clotted material isn’t scary enough, Died Suddenly is willing to make its title even more manifest by showing us rapid-fire montages of people fainting and seemingly dropping dead. Out of context, these videos are distressing. However, The Real Truther account on Twitter has demonstrated that many of them are not what they seem. The woman who passes out and falls into a moving train? Her name is Candela. She fainted because of low blood pressure and survived with a fractured skull. That young basketball player who collapses on the court? His name is Keyontae Johnson, and his fainting took place on December 12, 2020, before the COVID-19 vaccines were readily available. He has since been medically cleared to play and recently signed with Kansas State. These people are not dead. To borrow a phrase from the conspiracy playbook, we have been lied to.
Given that syncope, the medical term for a temporary loss of consciousness brought about by a drop in blood pressure, affects one in five over their lifetime, and given the ubiquity of cameras in our world, that’s a lot of fainting episodes captured on video that can be used to bolster a narrative that “something’s not right.”
Outside of the documentary, its Twitter account and many more in the anti-vaccination space have used “died suddenly” as a rallying cry. One of the producers of the movie, Stew Peters, interviewed a woman who claimed that Canadian physicians were dropping like flies in the prime of their lives. Peters didn’t mince words: “We absolutely know 100% what is going on. They want to cover it up. The doctors are dying, and they’re dying from these stupid shots.” Their evidence comes from the Canadian Medical Association’s In Memoriam webpage. I had a look. Peters’ interview was released on August 22nd of this year. I looked at the last ten doctors who had been memorialized at this point. For most, the cause of death is not mentioned. For the others, it’s Alzheimer’s, vascular dementia, COVID-19, and a two-year spell with brain cancer. The average age at which these ten physicians died? 82. The youngest was 64. Hardly in the prime of their lives. That same woman making the claim goes on to hypothesize that Alberta was sent the most toxic batch of the vaccines because its residents don’t typically vote for Justin Trudeau. How else to explain its high mortality during the pandemic?
The Died Suddenly Twitter account, which boasts an authoritative blue check mark it received after paying $8 a month, memorializes a long list of people who, we are led to believe, died of the vaccine, including the voice of Batman, Kevin Conroy, who very recently passed away from intestinal cancer. Except that scrolling through these names, it becomes apparent the list includes anyone who died suddenly, who died after a short illness, who died after a long illness, who died of cancer or of an immune condition or of a viral infection. Their vaccination status is often not even known. Basically, everybody dying after the vaccines were rolled out has now been killed by the jab.
One of the funeral directors interviewed in Died Suddenly, who now identifies as an anti-vaxxer, tells us to go on Google and type in “died suddenly.” I listened to him and did the exercise.
Disturbingly, I found a 13-year-old boy who died suddenly after collapsing while playing in a schoolyard; a 38-year-old publisher who died suddenly at home, with no known health issues; even actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s brother who died suddenly at 36. What I didn’t tell you is that I did the search for the year 2010. Sudden deaths are not new. I even found a particularly distressing example. Her name was Kalina and she had shown no sign of illness before suddenly falling ill and dying that very evening. She was only 25 years old and was the third adult to die from her place of work in a four-month period.
What Died Suddenly does is akin to grave-robbing. It raids online obituaries, with complete disregard for consent or basic journalistic integrity, and stitches a pseudoscientific horror story with the faces of the deceased.
The makers of Died Suddenly don’t want you to think; they want you to feel. For all of the anti-vaccination movement’s admonitions to “do your own research,” the thing that consistently sinks their arguments is doing your own research. It’s fact-checking if what they are telling you is correct.
None of this is new, though the conspiracy they are selling is growing to epic proportions.
Cut from the same clot
Died Suddenly can serve as a teachable moment for those of us who study the post-COVID-19 anti-vaccination movement, to help us recognize its traits and see its progression.
We witness motivated reasoning: starting from the conclusion that the vaccines cannot be safe and looking for evidence that matches the conclusion. We see a thick coating of “after the fact, therefore because of it,” as anybody dying from 2021 onwards is said to be the victim of a vaccine that can kill you instantly, with a delay, or simply worsen a pre-existing condition. The “VAERS scare” tactic is also briefly adopted, as the database of “bad things that happened after getting a vaccine” is easily trawled for hits.
Died Suddenly also features fake experts, a characteristic of science denial. The VAERS scare itself is brought up in the documentary by entrepreneur Steve Kirsch, who is seen stopped by police after repeated, uninvited visits to the private residence of Dr. Grace Lee, the chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. He tells the cops he’s “a journalist for Substack,” a fancy term for “blogger” if there ever was one. In the documentary, he confidently asserts that no one wants to know what’s in the vaccines and that no journalist has ever asked, “What’s in the vials?” Funny how there was so much worry about what was in the COVID-19 vaccines, their manufacturers released a list of their ingredients at the beginning of the roll-out, which was covered by the mainstream press. But this is the kind of accuracy you can expect from a grown man who literally called me a chicken on his blog for refusing to debate him.
Meanwhile, a military whistleblower tells us that deaths are up 40% in the 18-to-64 age group, pointing the finger at the vaccines. Except that it’s not the vaccines; it’s the COVID-19 pandemic itself. From blood clots to excess mortality, everything caused by the virus is blamed on the vaccines.
Died Suddenly premiered on both Twitter and Rumble, the alternative video platform favoured by conservatives who loudly proclaim their right to free speech, to a combined 8 million views as of this writing. The text box below the documentary is filled with sponsor links that echo the concerns of the people living outside the mainstream: survival food, “manly” supplements, and precious metal investments. There’s also a link to Mike Lindell’s MyPillow company. The subtleties of the anti-vaccination movement have been shed: the box asks viewers to “support anti-vax activism.” The masks are off.
Meanwhile, the movie throws everything onto the conspiracy cork board, with Jeffrey Epstein, Anthony Fauci, Justin Trudeau, Greta Thunberg, and Bill Gates flashing before our eyes, next to mentions of MKUltra and a clip from that infamous Sasquatch hoax video.
A clip of Tom Hanks explaining Malthusian theory during a press tour is borrowed, which introduces us to the ultimate thesis of the documentary: the COVID-19 pandemic was apparently an excuse to roll out a deadly vaccine engineered to decimate our military forces, affect pregnant women, and kill as many people as possible. As Thomas Malthus once wrote, our population will someday exceed in numbers our ability to provide for everyone. The Powers That Be thus had to come up with a solution: an injectable bioweapon.
And this is where conspirituality comes in. As Died Suddenly ramps up to its climax, religious beliefs are made clear and the full scope of the conspiracy is laid out. This is spiritual war, we are told. The depopulation agenda was written by the forces of Evil and it is our God-given role to fight back.
The anti-vaccination movement no longer sees itself as merely opposing an industry; its vociferations are a clarion call for divine salvation.
Those who care
I have already read superficial denunciations of the movie by media outlets that do not address the core claims the movie makes. I get it. The escalation of the anti-vaccine rhetoric into a mad fever pitch is so pronounced, it can leave us speechless. We resort to dismissal, anger, and accusations of widespread idiocy.
I worry that this sort of drive-by skepticism—quick, often smug—, excusable though it may be, plays right into the hand of a movie like Died Suddenly. Its brave “truthtellers” are shown as people who care. They want to prevent deaths. They are tearing through the wall of passivity and the thicket of wickedness they see in order to save human lives. Propped up by the shallow depth of field of the camera, the professional lighting, the unnerving music, and the storytelling power of a good edit, it makes for convincing fodder.
Our casual dismissal of these propaganda pieces doesn’t help, in my opinion. If we want to persuade the people caught in their wake—not the die-hard believers, who can hardly be swayed, but those who are scared yet still willing to listen to reason—we must fact-check with empathy. We must show how easy it is to topple the scarecrows of anti-vaccine propaganda.
We need patience, as hard as it can be to find these days.
What makes people predisposed to chase conspiracy fantasies?
We've seen all this shit before.
Salem Witches
Commies At The Pentagon
Poisoned Halloween Candy
Satanic Panic
Freed Slaves Are Coming For The White Women
and and and
The difference now of course, is that mass media isn't a casual gathering down at the town square or a coupla guys printing up pamphlets, or a newspaper or radio or 5 TV channels. The intertoobz gives these manipulative assholes a near-instant global reach, so the damage that a single bullshit story can do is amplified and accelerated so it starts to look like a fusion bomb has gone off in cyberspace.
If the nonsense stays with "I woke up in a bathtub filled with ice and then noticed I was missing a kidney", that's one thing. But when someone with actual real world political power picks up almost any random crap, runs with it, and embellishes it with "stolen election", then it escalates to a whole new level of dangerous shit.
There's practically no daylight between the Republican Party and the foil hat wackos.
This is what the GOP is now - the dark side reality of The King Of Hearts.
The Press Poodles can stop referring to it as "The Far-Right".
Far-right pundits baselessly claim Hurricane Ian was created by the 'deep state' to target Gov. Ron DeSantis and other red states: 'They are angry with us'
Two far-right pundits are spewing baseless a conspiracy theory about "weather manipulation" — claiming that Hurricane Ian was created by the so-called Deep State to target Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other GOP-led states as "punishment."
The comments were made by DeAnna Lorraine and Lauren Witzke, both former GOP congressional candidates, according to The Independent and RightWing Watch, a group that monitors right-wing activity.
"We understand that the 'deep state,' they have weather manipulation technology," Lorraine said on her Telegram show, per a clip posted by the group on Friday, referring to the hurricane that struck the Sunshine State.
"These huge hurricanes always seem to target red states, red districts, and always at a convenient time — typically right before elections," she added. "Or, in this case, possibly because Ron DeSantis has been stepping out of line a lot and challenging, fighting the 'deep state."
The "deep state" is a conspiracy term referring to a shadowy cabal of influential people who manipulate politics and public life, Insider previously reported, and was used by former President Donald Trump and QAnon.
Florida is still reeling after Ian ripped through the state earlier this week, cutting power and downing trees. Floodwaters reached as high as the second floor of some buildings. Officials note that Ian has weakened to a tropical storm and appears to be heading north toward Georgia and South Carolina.
During the interview, Witzke agreed with Lorraine and suggested that the deep state is "trying to change people's DNA through vaccination."
"Of course, they would be willing to do something like this to target red states," Witzke said.
"I'm not putting it past the elites to target something like this towards Florida as punishment for getting rid of vaccine mandates or getting rid of child grooming," she continued. "They are angry with us, and it wouldn't surprise me to find out that the technology does exist. But you're not supposed to talk about that or know about that because that's controversial or a conspiracy theory. No, it's true."
DeAnna Lorraine, who ran for Congress in 2020, and Lauren Witzke, who was the Delaware GOP's candidate for Senate in 2020, agree that Hurricane Ian is the deep state using "weather manipulation technology" to punish Gov. Ron DeSantis for not enacting a vaccine mandate in Florida. pic.twitter.com/uscJuROSqP
I've always kinda liked Shaq. I can't now. I just have to walk away.
Shaquille O'Neal clarified his comments about the Earth being flat after taking a flight from the United States to Australia.
The NBA legend, 50, was asked during an appearance on The Kyle & Jackie O Show if his former comments about the conspiracy theory were a "joke" or if he did, in fact, believe the notion to be true.
"It's a theory," O'Neal told hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie Henderson. "It's just a theory, they teach us a lot of things. It's just a theory," he repeated.
The former LA Lakers star explained his rationale by using his flight from the U.S. to Australia as an example."I flew 20 hours today, not once did I go this way," O'Neal said, noting he "didn't tip over" or "go upside down." He added that he's also unsure about whether the planet is spinning.
"You know they say the world is spinning? I've lived on a lake for 30 years and I've never seen the lake move to the left or right," he told listeners.
When Kyle mentioned that it's possible to travel from the U.S. to Australia from both coasts, Shaq responded, "It's still a straight line."
The NBA Hall of Famer first made his opinion known in 2017 while chatting with co-host John Kincade on The Big Podcast With Shaq.
"It's true. The Earth is flat," he said at the time. "Listen, there are three ways to manipulate the mind—what you read, what you see and what you hear. In school, the first thing they teach us is, 'Oh, Columbus discovered America,' but when he got there, there were some fair-skinned people with long hair smoking on the peace pipes. So, what does that tell you? Columbus didn't discover America."
"I'm just saying. I drive from Florida to California all the time, and it's flat to me," he continued. "I do not go up and down at a 360-degree angle and all that stuff about gravity. Have you looked outside Atlanta lately and seen all these buildings? You mean to tell me that China is under us? China is under us? It's not. The world is flat."
He then went on to dispute satellite imagery, calling it "drawn and made up."
At the time, a slew of basketball stars including Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving, former Denver Nuggets wing Wilson Chandler and Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green also agreed the Earth was flat.
The news gained so much traction that NBA commissioner Adam Silver had to address it during a press conference at the 2017 All-Star Game.
"Kyrie and I, you know, went to the same college. He may have taken some different courses than I did," Silver said to a room full of laughter, before adding, "Personally, I believe the world is round."
O'Neal later backtracked on his comments during the NBA on TNT broadcast, claiming he was joking.
Newsweek reached out to O'Neal for comment.
Several scientists previously spoke out on why O'Neal's comments are potentially problematic, whether he's teasing or not.
Sam Bentley, a geology and geophysics professor at the star's alma mater, Louisiana State University, told Bleacher Report in 2017 that the former center should "act responsibly" considering he has such a large platform.
"If Shaquille O'Neal is claiming that the Earth is flat based on his observations driving from California to the East Coast, then he is not using all of the available data," Bentley told the outlet.
Derek Muller, who earned a Ph.D. in physics at the University of Sydney and runs the YouTube channel "Veritasium," agreed.
"It leads their fanbases to consider ridiculous ideas to be true," Muller noted. "Obviously, these people have god-like reputations among some of their fans. They're clearly prominent, and even if you don't fully believe them, it definitely raises the visibility of the claims."
He added that it "does damage in the long term" because "you have a group of people who don't know what to believe."
"When you don't have those established consensuses, the world makes bad decisions."
The Foil Hat Gang is changing in subtle ways, and while it looks like Qanon may be on the wane in general, there's still a core group that makes up about 16% of the population here in USAmerica Inc who're fully addicted in one way or another.
False QAnon Conspiracies in Politics: What to Look Out for Ahead of the Midterms
What's happening
Even with Donald Trump not in office, QAnon beliefs continue to infect politics.
Why it matters
The debunked conspiracy theory will be in play during the upcoming midterm elections, but that doesn't mean you have to fall for it.
The QAnon conspiracy theory, which started in October 2017, falsely claims that former President Donald Trump fought a hidden war against a cabal of Satanist pedophiles in Hollywood and the Democratic Party while he was in the Oval Office. Believers in the conspiracy theory's outlandish assertions continue to be part of the political landscape, which could have serious ramifications as the midterm elections draw closer.
The nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute, a nonprofit that researches the intersection of religion, culture and public policy, released a study in February showing that nearly 16% of Americans believe the core QAnon conspiracy theory.
"QAnon has evolved from a movement centered around Trump leading a secret military intelligence operation to save the world, into a movement that not only doesn't need Trump but doesn't even need the iconography it developed over the past four years," said Mike Rothschild, conspiracy researcher and author of The Storm Is Upon Us, which provides a history of the QAnon conspiracy theory.
Conspiracy theories can be dangerous and even deadly, as seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, with vaccine misinformation playing a role in some people succumbing to the virus. Despite being repeatedly debunked, belief in the QAnon conspiracy theory continues to infect areas of politics beyond Trump. So far this year, aspects of the QAnon have seeped into protests, a Supreme Court hearing and legislation.
"Its mythology of secret pedophile rings, suppressed cures and technology, massive corruption and fraud propelling a [purportedly] decrepit Joe Biden into office, and COVID being a hoax, have infected every aspect of mainstream conservative politics and culture," Rothschild added.
It doesn't help that the mysterious figure Q broke 18 months of silence and reemerged on June 24. With the midterm elections approaching, the conspiracy theory is likely to continue popping up in campaigns and on social media feeds. Being able to recognize its influence may make it easier to spot, and avoid, in the future.
Here are some of the current events that QAnon has latched onto, some obvious and others less so.
Jan. 6 committee hearing reveals Trump's QAnon inner circle
The three, along with former Trump attorney Rudy Guiliani, advised Trump to call a national emergency and seize voting machines, which they falsely claimed had been compromised. Their suggestions countered those of former White House officials who had little reason to doubt the election was conducted fairly, leading to a screaming match between the two groups.
The return of Q
On Dec. 8, 2020, Q made what many people thought would be a final post. But on June 24 the account began posting again on 8kun, formerly known as 8chan.
The three posts made by the Q account consisted of the same sort of cryptic verbiage used previously. Another post was made on June 28 referencing Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to then White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Hutchinson testified in front of the Jan. 6 committee the same day.
Midterm elections
In 2020, almost 100 candidates who expressed support for QAnon ran for office. The two most prominent candidates who won their races were Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Republican from Colorado, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia.
This year, so far, there are 78 candidates running for office in 28 states who believe in QAnon, according to Grid News. One race in particular has an interesting candidate, with the person allegedly responsible for posting as Q running for office.
Ron Watkins is the former site administrator for the anonymous board 8chan and, as laid out in the Q: Into the Storm documentary series, the person purportedly responsible for many of the Q drops (he denies it). He's also running for Arizona's 2nd Congressional District seat.
Another candidate who has in the past supported QAnon, Doug Mastriano, is running to be governor of Pennsylvania. Mastriano won the Republican nomination on May 17. He tweeted multiple times in 2018 with QAnon hashtags and slogans. He'll go up against Democrat candidate Josh Shapiro in November.
A QAnon influencer who goes by the name Juan O. Savin -- an alias intended to sound similar to James Bond's codename "007" -- is working on a coalition to get Q faithful candidates into the secretary of state offices in South Carolina, Colorado and Nevada, according to a report from Media Matters. The 2020 presidential elections and false claims of voter fraud made Americans more aware of the responsibilities of the position of secretary of state. In many states, this is the official who helps determine whether an election had voter fraud issues. Durham investigation
In May 2019, Attorney General Bill Barr ordered an investigation into the 2016 presidential election and tapped US Attorney John Durham to lead it. Many QAnon followers viewed this investigation as part of the "storm" that would lead to arrests of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others within the Democratic National Committee. One of the last messages from Q in 2020 had only one word: Durham.
Both Trump and Q followers shared their dismay at the US legal system after the acquittal was announced. Some also began to spin the decision to support the false conspiracy.
Posts from conspiracy theorists in 2021 claimed falsely that Biden and his son, Hunter, were part of a plot to develop bioweapons in foreign countries, according to Media Matters. One of the countries mentioned was Ukraine.
Days before Russia began spreading misinformation about biolabs, a conspiracy theory Twitter account shared the false claim about the labs in Ukraine. It began circulating in QAnon circles, and then quickly spread to other right-wing forums and was amplified by conservative media including Fox News' Tucker Carlson. Eventually, both Russia and China began running with the narrative of the Ukraine biolabs.
This news sent some QAnon believers into a fervor on various social media platforms where they congregate, such as Gab and Telegram.
They suggested Trump's possible return to Twitter was predicted by Q in 2017 and would be a sign the former president was about to confirm a crackdown on the fictional cabal. Like the entire QAnon conspiracy, this is completely false.
This prediction – an alleged sign that "the show" will have truly begun – comes from this Q drop, posted in November of 2017.
Such theories have been present on and off for weeks, but it's not the first time they've emerged in the past few years...and it won't be the last. pic.twitter.com/SqWoPnDY05— Sara Aniano (@coolfacejane) May 10, 2022
Jackson's confirmation hearing was expected to be a political circus. But some Republican senators questioned her judicial decisions, while also appearing to make subtle references to QAnon.
QAnon believers took to social media platforms such as Telegram and Truth Social, posting messages supporting the Republican senators pursuing these attacks and denouncing Jackson. The Q faithful viewed these senators to be in support of their conspiracy that Democrats were part of a pedophile cabal and turned a blind eye to child sex crimes. Trucker Convoy/Anti-vax
In March, a similar protest happened in the US with the goal of reaching Washington, DC. This version got much less attention and support, in part due to the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
QAnon believers played a role in both the protests. COVID vaccine misinformation runs rampant in the Q communities, and that misinformation begins infecting other right-wing groups. Trucks and other vehicles in both the US and Canada were adorned with QAnon logos and slogans. Disney Protest
Protests at the entrance of Disney World in Orlando, Florida, started in April. Those protesting chanted and carried signs referring to Disney World as "Pedo World" and the slogan "Ok, Groomer," which is a take on the "Ok, Boomer" meme.
Luckily, we have some pretty talented people up in here who can take a small bit of the raw terror out of it for us. This is not minimizing the problem, btw - it's therapeutic - it's contextualizing - it helps us get our arms around the problem.
Most of the people who are addicted to conspiracy fantasies are driven by an immature self-regard. They think they deserve something better than reality. They think they're entitled to a much more exciting world than the actual one - a world in which they're smart and right.
You want a real world Hydra, so you can be the real world hero who defeats it? Who doesn't? That dream is so much more exciting and addressable than reality, which is mostly long stretches of tedium punctuated by crises in which most of the players are too busy covering their own asses - too busy weaponizing one of their own fuckups in order to deflect your outrage away from themselves and onto any of their preferred targets.
That's the grown up world, not the comic book universe these nonsense-worshippers are trying to make it. There is no SPECTRE, no SMERSH, no Global Jewish Cabal. And actually, the closest we get to a worldwide network of evildoers is the relatively small group of power-mad wannabe-conquerors who the conspiracy-driven meatheads are ultimately serving by chasing every stupid fantasy deeper and deeper into an endless rabbit warren of lies and delusion.
Once you've convince people they're under attack, they can become self-actuating weapons against whatever you've taught them to look out for.
If you've alerted them to real threats - and provided them with accurate up-to-date information - then it's fairly likely that you'll have a good bunch of good people trying to be aware of the dangers and taking appropriate steps to protect themselves and their families etc (although you have to be a little careful to keep some measure of control - people can be dumb dangerous animals when simply left to their own devices, and the lid can get blown clean off).
[insert obscure TV & movie references here: The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street, 1941, The Russians Are Coming The Russians Are Coming, Cold Turkey, etc]
Which brings us to the MAGA rubes. If you've thrown all manner of bullshit conspiracy fantasies at them, and you've got them all amped up over perceived threats that aren't real, then you've just got an angry unruly mob of self-righteous zealots who'll do the most atrocious things, believing they're perfectly justified in the name of defending hearth and home and blah blah blah.
That's the difference and that's the point.
And fake lord help us if we put those idiots in charge of anything of consequence.
Commander of Space Force unit fired after accusing the military of pushing an agenda ‘rooted in Marxism’
The self-published book carries a conspiratorial title and a purportedly urgent message: A Marxist plot is afoot to infiltrate the military and overthrow the U.S. government, it alleges.
Some of its subjects are familiar specters in right-wing politics — critical race theory, diversity initiatives and the New York Times’s 1619 Project — but these claims came from a new source last week: an active-duty member of the U.S. Space Force.
Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier published his book, “Irresistible Revolution: Marxism’s Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military,” this week and appeared on multiple conservative podcasts to promote it, each time criticizing Defense Department leadership and accusing the agency of pushing an agenda that is “rooted in Marxism.”
Lohmeier, who spent more than a decade with the Air Force before joining the military’s newest branch in 2020, was fired Friday for his comments, a move first reported by Military.com a day later and confirmed by The Washington Post on Sunday. Lt. Gen. Stephen Whiting, the head of Space Operations Command, relieved Lohmeier of his command of a Colorado-based squadron that detects ballistic missile launches “due to loss of trust and confidence in his ability to lead,” a Space Force spokesperson said in a statement.
“This decision was based on public comments made by Lt. Col. Lohmeier in a recent podcast,” said the spokesperson, who added that an investigation is underway “on whether these comments constituted prohibited partisan political activity.”
In an email to The Post, Lohmeier said that he consulted with a military public affairs officer and legal counsel before publishing the book and that he had a team of attorneys read the manuscript.
“I complied with what I understood was required as part of the pre-publication process,” he said.
Lohmeier said he did not inform his chain of command that he was writing a book.
“The entirety of the work was done during my free time, after duty hours and on weekends, using my own resources,” he said.
Lohmeier, who is based in Colorado, graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2006 and spent time as a fighter pilot and instructor.
A description of the book promises readers that “after becoming aware of the Marxist conquest of American society, you will never again look at things in the same way.” In podcast interviews over the past two weeks, Lohmeier argued that part of that “conquest” has taken place in the U.S. military.
“What we saw taking place in the country and in the military, frankly, during this past year especially was reminiscent of Mao’s cultural revolution where you had to toe a certain party line,” Lohmeier said on “The Steve Gruber Show,” a conservative radio program, in a reference to Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution in China, which is estimated to have led to 1.5 million deaths.
Some experts have denied Lohmeier’s assertions.
“We seem to have more and more people spouting off about Marxism, communism and socialism who don’t seem to have a clue what they’re talking about,” said John Sipher, a former CIA operative and fellow at the Atlantic Council, in a tweet responding to Lohmeier’s comments.
