Charita Goshay: It’s a paranoia-palooza!

Last week, an egg was laid in Maricopa County, Arizona.

A recount of the 2020 vote reconfirmed that President Joe Biden won the county, and by a larger margin than previously thought — despite former President Donald Trump’s continued protestations otherwise.

It’s now clear that the company which had no experience in election auditing got the job because someone thought the name “Cyber Ninjas” sounded cool.

It all would be easy to dismiss it were it not for the fact that the kind of paranoia, conspiracy theories, misinformation and denial that sparked the Arizona audit, or “fraudit,” is flowing like a river into every community in the country.

It’s being fed and fueled by social media outlets, unlimited in number and scope, some operated by people whose only motives appear to be money, disruption and chaos.

The lifeblood of any democracy is free speech and discourse. Certainly, name-calling and trading potshots are nothing new, but we’re seeing something different now: Abject rage and unrepentant cruelty.

Could you ever imagine a “(expletive) JFK” flag flying from someone’s front porch?

Misinformation has always existed, but thanks to a 24-hour social-media drip, it’s grown exponentially worse, gaining a foothold in every aspect of American life.

Everything has become a conspiracy. People who failed frog-dissecting in middle school biology, now suddenly possess the tools to do their own research in immunology and virology?

We had people here in Stark County complaining about the integrity of local voting machines, even though their candidates ran the table.

Perhaps what’s most shocking about it all is learning just how much misinformation and conspiracy theories are out there from flat-earthers to the latest Great Replacement Theory to the belief that the COVID-19 vaccine is the Bible’s Mark of the Beast to the very dangerous insistence that the previous president’s reelection was stolen by Democrats who are hell-bent on turning all of America into one big “Drag Queen Story Hour.”

A scheme of such scale would require cunning, organization, teamwork, discretion and a talent for the kind of ingenious subterfuge that would make James Bond weep.

Does that even remotely sound like the Democrats?

Paranoia and tinfoil conspiracy theories are driving some Americans to madness, which culminated on Jan. 6. 

In an attempt to rehab the mob that desecrated the Capitol Building, the perpetrators are now known as “J6,” which sounds like a one-hit boy band whose fans became wine mommies and outgrew them.

Underneath it all is fear. Fear of change, fear of the unknown and the fear of having to share opportunity, resources and power.

Stoked by various and sundry boogeymen — from critical race theory to the anti-vaccine movement to Cassandra-like warnings that the country’s entire future hangs on the next election — fear generates clicks, which translates into good business.

But facts still mean something. They must.

If truth is defined by and dependent on who is in power at any given moment, we’re already doomed.

Besides, here’s how I heard it: Hillary, George Clooney and Bill Gates secretly met in Davos to create software that magically flipped votes cast for president — but not the Senate.

Mask-wearing and murder hornets were engineered to further divert our attention away from this diabolical caper — at least until the bugs got worked out of TikTok, which is being employed to addict and brainwash millions, which is the real reason why no one wants to go back to work.

The software, which was smuggled in Hunter Biden’s laptop, was inserted into hundreds of thousands of voting machines without anyone noticing. The machines themselves were manufactured in China by a company co-owned by Michelle Obama, Taylor Swift and George Soros.

At least, that’s how I heard it.

Charita M. Goshay is a Canton Repository staff writer and member of the editorial board. Reach her at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com. On Twitter: @cgoshayREP

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