The most unhinged Trump conspiracy theory comes from – who else? – QAnon followers
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We’ll get through this TO GET HER
The second the news broke, the conspiracy theories started. Donald Trump is pretending to have Covid-19 so he can use his miraculous “recovery” to claim the virus isn’t a big deal; Trump is trying to avoid the next debate; Trump wants to delay the election; Trump is trying to distract us from his tax scandal. Forget the fact the guy rarely wears a mask and was bound to get sick at some point, an enormous number of people seem to reckon the president and first lady testing positive for the coronavirus is some kind of devious political strategy.
The grand prize for the most unhinged conspiracy theory goes to (who else?) QAnon followers. One of the many bizarre things these people believe (without any foundation) is that Covid-19 is a hoax designed to deflect attention from a Satan-worshipping pedophile ring operated by Hillary Clinton and liberal elites. Trump, their reasoning goes, is pretending to have Covid-19 as part of a grand plan to arrest Clinton. According to these geniuses Trump communicated his intentions via a tweet on Friday morning where he announced he and Melania had tested positive and declared: “We will get through this TOGETHER!” When you pull apart TOGETHER it spells out TO GET HER. Boom!
Does it really matter what some disturbed QAnon supporters on the internet believe? I’m afraid it does. QAnon isn’t just a niche movement any more; it’s tiptoeing its way into the American mainstream – and Trump’s Twitter feed. It’s also creeping into the halls of power: there are 24 candidates running for Congress in November who have endorsed or promoted QAnon content according to Media Matters, a disinformation watchdog. Only two of these are fringe independents – the other 22 are running as Republicans. Because of the districts these candidates are in, it’s almost inevitable several of them will end up being elected to Congress. That includes the Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has expressed virulently racist views and repeatedly boosted QAnon theories; she won 57% of the vote in her primary runoff, defeating a neurosurgeon who had promoted himself as “all of the conservative, none of the embarrassment”. Trump, the embarrassment-in-chief congratulated Greene on her win, calling her a “future Republican star”.
As Greene’s primary rival discovered, a lot of conservatives seem incapable of embarrassment. There has been very little condemnation of QAnon from senior Republicans who, it would seem, don’t want to risk losing that coveted conspiracy theorist vote. If the path to electoral victory means tacitly condoning bizarre beliefs about a web of deep-state, Satan-worshipping pedophiles then so be it!
It didn’t have to be this way. The spread of QAnon could have been curtailed before it went global. It could have been nipped in the bud before it got so big that its followers look likely to become elected lawmakers. While Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit have taken major steps to curb QAnon’s presence on their platforms, many critics believe the tech giants acted far too late. A conspiracy theory on an online message board linked to white nationalists has morphed into a movement that looks to be a corrosive part of American life for a very long time. We’ll have a vaccine for coronavirus eventually – alas there is no vaccine for stupidity.
Women are turning to worrying amounts of alcohol
Alcohol-related deaths are on the rise in America, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “While rates were higher for males than females for each year,” the study authors wrote, “the rate of change was greater for females.” Which isn’t surprising when you look at the feminization of alcohol marketing.
Pantone has unveiled a new shade of ‘period red’
It hopes the “active and adventurous red hue” will “embolden people who menstruate to feel proud of who they are”. Wow, thank you so much, colour-matching corporation!
That wasn’t very Christmassy, Melania Trump
The first lady has been caught on tape asking: “Who gives a fuck about Christmas?” She also complained about being criticized for her husband’s child separation policies. I thought she didn’t really care, didn’t u?
There’s a secret female-only language in China
It’s called Nüshu. According to the BBC: “It rose to prominence in the 19th Century in Hunan’s Jiangyong County to give the ethnic Han, Yao and Miao women who live here a freedom of expression not often found in many communities of the time.” Now the language is making a comeback.
Chrissy Teigen shares the tragic loss of her baby
Despite the fact that miscarriage is incredibly common – about one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage – it’s still not talked about much. Teigen has been praised by many for speaking openly about her loss.
One in four women considering downshifting or leaving their careers because of the coronavirus
That’s according to new data from Lean In and McKinsey & Company. “This is the most alarming report we’ve ever seen,” Lean In’s founder, Sheryl Sandberg, said. “[T]he coronavirus is hitting women incredibly hard and really risks undoing the progress we’ve made for women in the workforce.”
The week in parrot-archy
Five trouble-making African grey parrots at a Lincolnshire zoo have been separated after encouraging each other to swear at visitors. “When a parrot tells you to fuck off, it amuses people very highly,” the CEO of the wildlife park said. “It’s brought a big smile to a really hard year.” Smiles aside it was thought best for young visitors if Billy, Elsie, Eric, Jade and Tyson found new, rather more polite, feathered friends.
*** This article has been archived for your research. The original version from The Guardian can be found here ***
