How conspiratorial thinking is undermining democracy, and what we can do about it

December 12, 2022 2020 election, deep state, marjorie taylor greene, moon landing, qanon

Archived 4 years ago from Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
How conspiratorial thinking is undermining democracy, and what we can do about it

The scene outside the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. (Tyler Merbler, CC-BY) Following the midterm elections on November 8, headlines focused on the defeat of Republican candidates in the battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Nevada who made denial of the 2020 presidential …

QAnon claims Kirstie Alley was murdered due to anti-vax views

COVID-19

December 7, 2022 antivax, chloroquine, ivermectin, qanon

Archived 4 years ago from Salon
QAnon claims Kirstie Alley was murdered due to anti-vax views

On Monday, news of the death of Kirstie Alley was confirmed by her children, True and Lillie Parker. According to her children, the actor, 71, died due to “cancer, only recently discovered,” as they wrote in a statement. Yet as Vice reports, “within minutes of Alley’s death being announced,” …

No, ‘Baal Enci Aga’ Doesn’t Mean ‘Baal Is King’ in Latin

Conspiracy

December 7, 2022 2020 election, qanon

Archived 4 years ago from Snopes Fact Checks
No, ‘Baal Enci Aga’ Doesn’t Mean ‘Baal Is King’ in Latin

Advertisment: Claim: “Balenciaga” is Latin for “Baal is king.” Luxury fashion brand Balenciaga has been the focus of outrage and conspiracy theories due to a backlash over ads published in November 2022 showing child models holding bags shaped like teddy bears outfitted in bondage gear. The bags …

Chemtrails

December 5, 2022 2020 election, george soros, qanon

Archived 4 years ago from Raw Story
GOP’s Doug Mastriano rants about ‘chemtrails’ after election loss

Doug Mastriano, the Republican who ran for governor of Pennsylvania this year, was widely considered one of the most extreme candidates the GOP put forward. He believed the 2020 presidential election was stolen, met with QAnon groups, had ties to an anti-Semitic social network where the Tree of …

Conspiracy

December 4, 2022 2020 election, jfk assassination, moon landing, qanon, roswell

Archived 4 years ago from The Michigan Daily
Q Anon, JFK Assassination, conspiracy theories are destroying US

The moon landing was faked, 9/11 was an inside job, Lee Harvey Oswald didn’t act alone, Adolf Hitler is alive in Argentina or maybe even on the dark side of the moon, the earth is flat, Area 51 houses aliens and Mark Zuckerberg is a lizard. Classic conspiracy theories like these ones are harmless …

A Sense of Community Helped Spread COVID Conspiracies on Twitter

COVID-19

December 1, 2022 5g, big tech, bill gates, china, qanon

Archived 4 years ago from Stanford Graduate School of Business
A Sense of Community Helped Spread COVID Conspiracies on Twitter

As COVID-19 spread around the world in 2020, it was followed by a mutating mass of conspiracy theories: The virus was a bioweapon created by a globalist cabal. Or China. Or Bill Gates. It was spread through 5G cell phone towers. Perhaps it didn’t exist at all, and all those reports of overwhelmed …

Conspiracy

November 30, 2022 2020 election, ivermectin, jim watkins, maga, mike lindell, qanon

Archived 4 years ago from Arizona Mirror
The out-of-state conspiracy theorists pushing for a ‘revote’ in Arizona

On Monday, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors unanimously certified the 2022 election after a more than four-hour long meeting full of conspiratorial rantings, stirred on by out-of-state actors who have been driving forces behind other Arizona — and national — election conspiracies for the …

In a Wisconsin town, voters fear for America under attack

Conspiracy

November 30, 2022 2020 election, marjorie taylor greene, mike lindell, qanon

Archived 4 years ago from WEAU
In a Wisconsin town, voters fear for America under attack

HUDSON, Wis. (AP) — A word — “Hope” — is stitched onto a throw pillow in the little hilltop farmhouse. Photographs of children and grandchildren speckle the walls. In the kitchen, an envelope is decorated with a hand-drawn heart. “Happy Birthday, My Love,” it reads. Out front, past a pair of …

Twitter Ends Rule Against Covid Lies, Conspiracy Theorists Celebrate

COVID-19

November 29, 2022 5g, big tech, fauci, ivermectin, marjorie taylor greene, qanon

Archived 4 years ago from Rolling Stone
Twitter Ends Rule Against Covid Lies, Conspiracy Theorists Celebrate

Twitter has stopped enforcing its Covid misinformation policy, designed to prevent the spread of harmful false narratives about the pandemic. This has increased simmering concerns that the platform, already an echo chamber for many users, could become a misinformation super-spreader. Users are …

What does “antivaccine” really mean since the pandemic hit?

Vaccines

November 28, 2022 cdc, qanon, rfk jr, vaers

Archived 4 years ago from Science Based Medicine
What does “antivaccine” really mean since the pandemic hit?

I’ve been writing about the antivaccine movement and antivaxxers for close to a quarter of a century. Here’s a brief history. I first encountered them on Usenet—does anyone remember Usenet?—in the late 1990s and then began writing about them on my personal blog beginning in late 2004. Then in 2008 …

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