Facts Matter: Copycat ‘QAnon Shaman’ not part of Brazil riots

Rioters supporting Brazil’s former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro stormed government buildings last week in the capital city of Brasília, protesting new President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The insurrection has drawn comparisons to the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Some social media users took the comparison even further, claiming one protester matched a particular protester from the Jan. 6 attack.

“#Brazil is having their own Jan6 moment. Bolsanaro’s supporters have stormed government buildings. They even have their own QAnon Shaman!” a Twitter user wrote.

The post includes a photo of a man wearing a horned headdress, along with face and body paint. The protester in the image is compared to Jacob Chansely, a Jan. 6 rioter who was photographed inside the Capitol wearing a fur, horned headpiece and face paint. Chansely, who has been referred to as QAnon shaman or Q shaman, was sentenced to 41 months in prison for his role in the Capitol attack.

The photo of the Brazilian protester is real, but it didn’t happen during the recent riots, according to PolitiFact. The image was posted online first more than a year ago.

The photo was taken on Brazil’s independence day, Sept. 7, 2021. A Brazilian news site at that time published a photo of the protester under the headline, “Bolsonarista wears costume inspired by Capitólio’s ‘Viking’ in coup act.”

BBC journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh on Jan. 8 tweeted, “Seeing pictures of ‘the Brazilian QAnon Shaman’ being shared as people compare the scenes currently unfolding in Brazil with the Jan 6 Capitol riot. These pictures are from a rally by Bolsonaro’s supporters in September 2021, not today.”

Hammer rumor not true

Shortly after Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died at the Vatican, an old rumor about determining a pope’s death came back to life.

“My favourite new factoid is that they hit dead popes on the head three times with a special dead-pope hammer. Just to ensure they are, in fact, dead,” read a Jan. 1 tweet, which included a photo of an ornate, gold and white hammer.

But tapping a pope on the head with a hammer is not mentioned in any official documents related to a pontiff’s death, according to USA Today.

The Vatican uses modern methods to verify a pope has died, such as in 2005 when an electrocardiogram confirmed the death of Pope John Paul II.

University of Notre Dame theology professor Ulrich Lehner told USA Today this claim dates back to the 1850s. A church history at that time said the camerlengo, acting head of the Catholic Church upon a pope’s death, should, with a golden hammer, knock three times on the door of the room where the pope’s body lay.

But this practice isn’t mentioned in any other church histories or documents.

“It is one of the most persistently repeated fake claims,” Lehner said. “Even renowned historians have repeated it.”

The hammer in the photo is not for hitting popes, but actually was used to open a holy door to mark the start of a jubilee.

Frozen deer not recent

A video showing people helping a deer by clearing snow and ice from its face circulated on social media following the winter storms that hit the U.S. in late December.

“This extreme cold weather across many parts of the USA & Canada has been extremely harsh for people & wildlife. This crazy footage shows two walkers who spotted a deer with its mouth, eyes & ears completely frozen over,” a Twitter user wrote.

But this footage has nothing to do with the December storms, according to The Associated Press. The video was taken in Kazakhstan and was posted online as early as March 2021.

The video was featured in a news report in Kazakhstan, which said the clip was filmed by one of two brothers who had been driving in the area.

The species of deer in the video is not native to North America, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Timothy Van Deelen told the AP.

“I’m pretty convinced it’s a roe deer,” Van Deelen said. “The roe deer is widely distributed across Europe and Eurasia. It’s frankly the ecological analogue of the white-tailed deer here in North America.”

• Bob Oswald is a veteran Chicago-area journalist and former news editor of the Elgin Courier-News. Contact him at boboswald33@gmail.com.