China and QAnon embrace Russian disinformation justifying war in Ukraine

Sébastian SEIBT

AFP/RFI/FRANCE24   

Russia convened a special UN Security Council meeting on Friday to discuss what the Kremlin said were "secret" research laboratories the US allegedly has in Ukraine to develop biological weapons. The Russian allegations are rooted in an unlikely conspiracy theory that has been promoted by both China and the pro-Trump conspiracy movement QAnon.

© Vincent Yu, AP

As Russia's attack on Ukraine enters a third week, Russia's deputy ambassador to the UN, Dmitri Polianski, convened the Security Council on Friday to raise the issue of the "biological activities” of the US military in Ukraine.

Polianski accused Washington of developing biological weapons in research laboratories throughout the country. Earlier this week, Russia's defense ministry said there was a network of US-funded biolaboratories in Ukraine working on establishing a mechanism "for the covert transmission of deadly pathogens" and conducting experiments with bat coronavirus samples. Russia claimed this was being done under the auspices of the US Department of Defense and was part of a US biological weapons programme.

On unregulated social media platforms – including Telegram and 8chan – this conspiracy theory has become incredibly popular, racking up hundreds of thousands of hits each day.

This is not the first time since the beginning of the war in Ukraine that Moscow has put this far-fetched theory on the table. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in early March that he had proof that "the Pentagon has developed pathogens in two military laboratories in Ukraine".

Russia’s permanent UN representative, Vasily Nebenzya, described the alleged biological weapons plot in detail on Friday, warning that bats, birds and even insects could soon be spreading “dangerous pathogens” across Europe.

Washington, Kyiv as well as the United Nations have denied the existence of biological weapons laboratories in the country.

Britain’s ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward, said Russia had used the Security Council to utter "a series of wild, completely baseless and irresponsible conspiracy theories".

As early as January, the US Department of Defense felt it necessary to post a video on YouTube in response to a flood of rumours about alleged US military experiments in "secret" laboratories on the border between Russia and Ukraine.

The US has openly admitted to having helped establish dozens of research laboratories in former Soviet bloc countries. The facilities, which were intended to help destroy the remnants of the USSR's nuclear and chemical arsenal, are currently being used to monitor the emergence of new epidemics.

But there is nothing “secret” about the facilities, which appear on public lists giving their locations. They are also 100 percent run by the governments of the countries in which they are located. The United States only partly finances the equipment.

Nevertheless, the conspiracy theory continues to gain traction and is finding new adherents outside of Russian borders.

A useful conspiracy for China

China called on the US last month to be open, transparent and responsible in reporting its overseas military biological activities. Beijing also stressed the importance of being able to visit with "complete transparency" the scientific facilities in Ukraine "where the United States is conducting its research for military purposes". Since then, major Chinese media such as the Global Times have not missed an opportunity to offer a platform to Russian officials who promote the conspiracy theory.

Yevgeniy Golovchenko, a specialist in Russian disinformation campaigns at the University of Copenhagen, is not surprised by China encouraging these rumours about secret US biolabs in Ukraine. "We should not forget that there have already been heated exchanges between Beijing and Washington about secret laboratories during the Covid-19 pandemic," he told FRANCE 24, referring to the controversy surrounding the origin of the Sars-Cov-2 virus. While some Western conspiracy theorists believe it was manufactured in a laboratory in Wuhan, China has accused the US army of being behind its emergence.

For Beijing, this new conspiracy theory has arrived at the right time. It allows China to show support for its ally Vladimir Putin without committing too openly to the invasion of Ukraine, explained Golovchenko.

At the same time, the Russian rhetoric is in line with Chinese propaganda about the coronavirus. Beijing hopes to demonstrate that if Washington is able to develop biological weapons secretly under the Russians' nose, why wouldn't the United States have developed a dangerous virus in another of their "secret labs"?

But the Russian disinformation theory has also found supporters in the heart of the United States. Followers of QAnon, a conspiracy theory that alleges Trump is saving the United States from a satanic group of paedophiles, were among the first to justify the invasion of Ukraine as a Russian attempt to destroy dangerous military laboratories.

People close to Trump, such as former strategist Steve Bannon and Republican Senator Marco Rubio, have officially asked the White House for explanations about the activity in these Ukrainian laboratories.

From the Colorado potato beetle to AIDS

For decades, Moscow has consistently accused Washington of secretly developing biological weapons. This has been a common thread of Russian propaganda since the beginning of the Cold War in 1949, explained Milton Leitenberg, an American expert on weapons of mass destruction, in a 2021 study on the history of the subject. Moscow suggested in 1950 that the United States was sending Colorado potato beetles that had been infected with a new virus to poison potato crops in East Germany.

Russia has been particularly effective in promoting the idea that the US weaponises viruses for use against its enemies. Golovchenko noted that a particularly effective disinformation campaign along these lines ran from 1985 to the end of the 2000s, when the Kremlin claimed that Washington “was the source of the AIDS virus and was using it to target African and African-American populations".

The AIDS conspiracy theory appeared in "2,000 newspapers across 25 countries” since 1985, noted Leitenberg. In his study he pointed out that well-known personalities from the African-American community publicly expressed varying levels of support for this conspiracy theory, including "Will Smith, Bill Cosby and Spike Lee".

Muddying the waters ahead of an attack?

This latest biological-weapons conspiracy theory allows Moscow to characterise the United States as the real enemy in the war. For the Russian government, it is a way of justifying the invasion to a domestic population that considers Ukraine to be friendly to Russia.

"This theory presents Ukraine as simply the territory on which Russia is fighting to put an end to dangerous American activities," said Golovchenko.

The Biden administration fears that the frequent repetition of the bioweapons claims might be an indication that Moscow is planning to use such weapons itself and wants to muddy the waters beforehand. The next step could be for Moscow to mount a “false flag” operation in Ukraine.

Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, called the Russian accusations “preposterous” in a tweet last Wednesday and said the United States “does not develop or possess such weapons anywhere”.

“Now that Russia has made these false claims, and China has seemingly endorsed this propaganda, we should all be on the lookout for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, or to create a false flag operation using them,” she wrote on Twitter on March 9, adding: “It’s a clear pattern.”

While it is impossible to know what the Kremlin has in mind, such a move would makes sense from a propaganda perspective, said Golovchenko.

"For the time being, the Russian government continues to claim that this is only a limited military operation in Ukraine and it is forbidden to talk about the ‘war’ in Russia. But the longer the fighting goes on, the harder it will be for the authorities to maintain this line,” Golovchenko observed.

“They will have to find a justification to switch to full-scale war.”

This article was translated from the original in French.

Coronavirus, ‘Plandemic’ and the seven traits of conspiratorial thinking

May 16, 2020 The Conversation


The conspiracy theory video “Plandemic” recently went viral. Despite being taken down by YouTube and Facebook, it continues to get uploaded and viewed millions of times. The video is an interview with conspiracy theorist Judy Mikovits, a disgraced former virology researcher who believes the COVID-19 pandemic is based on vast deception, with the purpose of profiting from selling vaccinations.

The video is rife with misinformation and conspiracy theories. Many high-quality fact-checks and debunkings have been published by reputable outlets such as Science, Politifact and FactCheck.

As scholars who research how to counter science misinformation and conspiracy theories, we believe there is also value in exposing the rhetorical techniques used in “Plandemic.” As we outline in our Conspiracy Theory Handbook and How to Spot COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories, there are seven distinctive traits of conspiratorial thinking. “Plandemic” offers textbook examples of them all

Learning these traits can help you spot the red flags of a baseless conspiracy theory and hopefully build up some resistance to being taken in by this kind of thinking. This is an important skill given the current surge of pandemic-fueled conspiracy theories.

The seven traits of conspiratorial thinking.
John Cook, CC BY-ND

1. Contradictory beliefs

Conspiracy theorists are so committed to disbelieving an official account, it doesn’t matter if their belief system is internally contradictory. The “Plandemic” video advances two false origin stories for the coronavirus. It argues that SARS-CoV-2 came from a lab in Wuhan – but also argues that everybody already has the coronavirus from previous vaccinations, and wearing masks activates it. Believing both causes is mutually inconsistent.

2. Overriding suspicion

Conspiracy theorists are overwhelmingly suspicious toward the official account. That means any scientific evidence that doesn’t fit into the conspiracy theory must be faked.

But if you think the scientific data is faked, that leads down the rabbit hole of believing that any scientific organization publishing or endorsing research consistent with the “official account” must be in on the conspiracy. For COVID-19, this includes the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, Anthony Fauci… basically, any group or person who actually knows anything about science must be part of the conspiracy.

3. Nefarious intent

In a conspiracy theory, the conspirators are assumed to have evil motives. In the case of “Plandemic,” there’s no limit to the nefarious intent. The video suggests scientists including Anthony Fauci engineered the COVID-19 pandemic, a plot which involves killing hundreds of thousands of people so far for potentially billions of dollars of profit.

Conspiratorial thinking finds evil intentions at all levels of the presumed conspiracy.

MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

4. Conviction something’s wrong

Conspiracy theorists may occasionally abandon specific ideas when they become untenable. But those revisions tend not to change their overall conclusion that “something must be wrong” and that the official account is based on deception.

When “Plandemic” filmmaker Mikki Willis was asked if he really believed COVID-19 was intentionally started for profit, his response was “I don’t know, to be clear, if it’s an intentional or naturally occurring situation. I have no idea.”

He has no idea. All he knows for sure is something must be wrong: “It’s too fishy.”

5. Persecuted victim

Conspiracy theorists think of themselves as the victims of organized persecution. “Plandemic” further ratchets up the persecuted victimhood by characterizing the entire world population as victims of a vast deception, which is disseminated by the media and even ourselves as unwitting accomplices.

At the same time, conspiracy theorists see themselves as brave heroes taking on the villainous conspirators.

6. Immunity to evidence

It’s so hard to change a conspiracy theorist’s mind because their theories are self-sealing. Even absence of evidence for a theory becomes evidence for the theory: The reason there’s no proof of the conspiracy is because the conspirators did such a good job covering it up.

7. Reinterpreting randomness

Conspiracy theorists see patterns everywhere – they’re all about connecting the dots. Random events are reinterpreted as being caused by the conspiracy and woven into a broader, interconnected pattern. Any connections are imbued with sinister meaning.

For example, the “Plandemic” video suggestively points to the U.S. National Institutes of Health funding that has gone to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. This is despite the fact that the lab is just one of many international collaborators on a project that sought to examine the risk of future viruses emerging from wildlife.Learning about common traits of conspiratorial thinking can help you recognize and resist conspiracy theories.
Critical thinking is the antidote

As we explore in our Conspiracy Theory Handbook, there are a variety of strategies you can use in response to conspiracy theories.

One approach is to inoculate yourself and your social networks by identifying and calling out the traits of conspiratorial thinking. Another approach is to “cognitively empower” people, by encouraging them to think analytically. The antidote to conspiratorial thinking is critical thinking, which involves healthy skepticism of official accounts while carefully considering available evidence.

Understanding and revealing the techniques of conspiracy theorists is key to inoculating yourself and others from being misled, especially when we are most vulnerable: in times of crises and uncertainty.


John Cook, Research Assistant Professor, Center for Climate Change Communication, George Mason University; Sander van der Linden, Director, Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab, University of Cambridge; Stephan Lewandowsky, Chair of Cognitive Psychology, University of Bristol, and Ullrich Ecker, Associate Professor of Cognitive Science, University of Western Australia

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's history of spreading bizarre conspiracy theories, from space lasers to Frazzledrip


Rachel E. Greenspan INSIDER
Fri., February 5, 2021

In this Jan. 6, 2021, file photo, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., sits in the House Chamber after they reconvened for arguments over the objection of certifying Arizona's Electoral College votes in November's election, at the Capitol in Washington 

Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool, File


The House voted to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, from committees.


Greene has espoused beliefs tied to the QAnon conspiracy theory.


Here's her history of supporting conspiracy theories online.


Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's election to Congress came after she spread conspiracy theories on social media for years.

The Georgia Republican, elected in November, has supported the QAnon conspiracy theory and associated falsehoods, claimed that mass shootings were "false flag" events, and made other outlandish allegations. In addition to espousing beliefs in these conspiracy theories, Greene showed support in 2018 and 2019 for the execution of Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, CNN reported. She has also said that Black people "are held slaves to the Democratic Party."

But former president Donald Trump sang Greene's praises ahead of her election while he was still in office, writing in an August tweet that she was a "future Republican Star" and "strong on everything."

The House voted to strip Greene of her committee assignments on Thursday evening.

When asked for comment regarding all of Greene's claims that are referenced in this article, a spokesperson told Insider, "Aren't you in the 'news' business? None of this is new."

Here's a list of false claims Greene has spread online.

The QAnon conspiracy theory

The QAnon conspiracy theorists hold signs during the protest at the State Capitol in Salem, Oregon, United States on May 2, 2020. John Rudoff/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Greene's apparent belief in QAnon, a baseless far-right conspiracy theory alleging Trump was fighting a "deep state" cabal of pedophiles, was widely reported ahead of her election to Congress. QAnon has been linked to several crimes and the movement played a huge role in the January 6 riot at the US Capitol.

In a 2017 YouTube video, Greene called "Q," the anonymous figure whose cryptic messages on 8kun (formerly 8chan) lead the QAnon movement, a "patriot."

Greene said "Q" is "someone that very much loves his country, and he's on the same page as us, and he is very pro-Trump." The last message from "Q" came on December 8, and many people have suspected that Jim Watkins, the owner of 8kun, is "Q" himself, or at least associated with the figure.

Read More: The QAnon conspiracy theory and a stew of misinformation fueled the insurrection at the Capitol

"There's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles out, and I think we have the president to do it," Greene said in the video.

Many of the other conspiracy theories Greene has espoused are linked to the QAnon community.

The Pizzagate conspiracy theory 

THIS IS A REDO OF THE RIGHT WING EVANGELICAL

SATANIC PANIC OF THE 1980'S

Kori and Danielle Hayes at a Pizzagate demonstration, outside the White House in Washington, DC on March 25, 2017. 

Michael E. Miller/The Washington Post via Getty Images

CNN reported that in a 2017 blog post, Greene shared a link to a far-right website that suggested "Pizzagate," the 2016 conspiracy theory alleging that Clinton and aides ran a child-trafficking ring out of a DC pizza restaurant, was real.

"Shockingly, the website tells about information that was only whispered about and called conspiracy theories," Greene wrote, according to CNN.

"Pizzagate" was the precursor to QAnon, which originated in 2017.

Frazzledrip

Greene has expressed belief in the existence of "Frazzledrip," a fictitious video that conspiracy theorists claim shows Hillary Clinton and aide Huma Abedin sexually assault a child before slicing off her face and wearing it as a mask.

The vulgar conspiracy theory spread on YouTube in 2018, as the Washington Post reported. YouTube videos claiming that "Frazzledrip" existed were viewed millions of times that year, the Post found. "Frazzledrip" folklore remains popular in the QAnon community.

Greene made Facebook comments about "Frazzledrip," which were recently reported by left-leaning nonprofit Media Matters for America (MMFA), in May 2018.

Greene posted a picture of the mother of a slain New York Police Department detective, Miosotis Familia, and a commenter said that Familia had "watched a horrific video" allegedly seized from the laptop of disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner, Abedin's ex-husband. The commenter said that the video showed Abedin and Clinton "filleting" a child's face, according to screenshots obtained by MMFA.

Greene liked the comment, and replied, "Yes Familia." In a subsequent comment, she said, "Most people honestly don't know so much. The msm disinformation warfare has won for too long!"

Denials that 9/11 and mass shootings took place

A recently resurfaced video shows Marjorie Taylor Greene harassing Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg on Capitol Hill before she became a representative for Georgia. Twitter/@fred_guttenberg

Greene has baselessly questioned whether the deadly shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, and Parkland, Florida, actually took place.

In several 2018 Facebook comments, Greene agreed with other users that the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, was a "false flag" event. MMFA reported the comments, which have since been deleted from Greene's Facebook page.

When another commenter in 2018 claimed that "none of the School shootings were real," the September 11, 2001, attacks were staged by the US government, and that the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, was staged, Greene agreed.

"That is all true," she said in a comment, according to screenshots reported by MMFA.

All of those claims are false and have been debunked.

A recently resurfaced video from earlier that year shows Greene accosting David Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland shooting, who was 17 at the time, in Washington, DC. Hogg was in town to advocate for gun control at the Capitol. Greene followed the teen down the street, calling him a "coward," just weeks after the shooting at his high school killed 17 people.

In a Facebook post later that year, Greene claimed that Pelosi "tells Hillary Clinton several times a month that 'we need another school shooting' in order to persuade the public to want strict gun control."

Linda Beigel Schulman, the mother of one of the Parkland shooting victims, told MSNBC in an interview aired Sunday that she spoke to Greene on the phone, and the congresswoman admitted to believing that the shootings had actually taken place.

Schulman said Greene refused to join her on MSNBC to publicly make the admission. "For Congresswoman Greene, politics trumps truth, because lies and conspiracy theories are more important to her than honesty," Schulman said.

The conspiracy theory that space lasers controlled by a Jewish family caused wildfires

Perhaps the most shocking of all of Greene's conspiracy theories is the idea that lasers in space had caused the deadly Camp Fire in California in the fall of 2018. The Camp Fire was the deadliest wildfire in California's history.

QAnon believers and other conspiracy theorists popularized the space laser theory, and Greene posted about it on Facebook, MMFA found.

Greene said she believed the Rothschild investment bank was involved in the creation of the lasers. "Could that cause a fire? Hmmm, I don't know," she said of laser beams in space. "I hope not! That wouldn't look so good for PG&E, Rothschild Inc, Solaren or Jerry Brown who sure does seem fond of PG&E."

Rothschild is controlled by the Rothschild family, a wealthy Jewish family from Germany that has for centuries been the subject of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Such claims play a huge role in QAnon, which is partly based on anti-Semitic tropes.

Read More: QAnon builds on centuries of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that put Jewish people at risk

The conspiracy theory that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had been replaced by a body double

In February 2019, while Greene was a conservative commentator, she was a guest on a streaming show on a pro-Trump website, and a viewer called in to suggest that a recent public appearance of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was actually a body double. "I do not believe that was Ruth. I don't think so," Greene responded, MMFA first reported.

The claim that Justice Ginsburg had previously died and was replaced by a body double was hugely popular in the QAnon community in the summer of 2019, as Travis View, the co-host host of the "QAnon Anonymous" podcast, has reported.

The false claim that Trump won the 2020 presidential election

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., wears a "Trump Won" face mask as she arrives on the floor of the House to take her oath of office on opening day of the 117th Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2021 Erin Scott/Pool via APMore

Greene was one of numerous Republican lawmakers to deny the validity of President Joe Biden's election win, even wearing a "TRUMP WON" mask on the House floor on January 3.

She has repeatedly tweeted about her belief that Trump won the election and encouraged her constituents to hold onto that idea. In a December 23 tweet, she said, "The people re-elected Donald Trump. Now, it's time to #FightForTrump." She shared a petition supporting the Stop the Steal movement, which inspired the January 6 rally that led to the deadly Capitol riot.

Claims that Trump won the election sparked the frenzy that led to the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6. More than 200 people have already been arrested on charges related to the insurrection.

Read the original article on Insider

FILM
Tracing conspiracy theories in film

Oliver Stone's 1991 movie about the Kennedy assassination was a masterpiece of the genre. While many of these films come from Hollywood, there’s also a history of conspiracy films in Germany.

ALL MADE UP? CONSPIRACY THEORIES IN MOVIES
'JFK' (1991)
US director Oliver Stone has often dealt with conspiracies in his films. His 1991 movie "JFK" looks into the alleged cover-up of President John F. Kennedy's assassination. Prosecutor Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) does not believe that a lone gunman killed JFK; his theory is that a widespread network, the "deep state," is behind the assassination.

Presumably, no one has ever postulated the following theory: that the coronavirus was brought into the world by the powerful lobby surrounding streaming giants Netflix, Amazon and others as a way to bring their competitors — the movie theaters — to their knees.

This is, of course, absolute nonsense. And yet, nobody can rule out that there's someone in the world would actually make such an absurd claim. No conspiracy theory seems to be crazy enough that it would not be written down on paper or spread indiscriminately on the internet.

Read more: Opinion: Conspiracy theories on the rise

Conspiracy theories are not theories at all - but irrational mind games

In these times, when conspiracy theories are running rampant in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, it is worth taking a look back at film history. But before we do that, we have to take note that the term "conspiracy theory" in itself is nonsensical. After all, we are not talking about actual theories, but instead about "myths," "narratives," and even "fairy tales." Those terms seem more appropriate because conspiracy theories usually have less to do with "theory" than with what they're actually directed at.

The Vietnam trauma encouraged conspiracy theories in the US: Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway in the paranoia thriller "The Three Days of Condor"

The assassination of US President John F. Kennedy in Dallas in 1963 led to a whole flood of conspiracy theories. At times, people claimed it was the CIA who had conducted the assassination; sometimes it was the Soviet Union, sometimes the Cubans or Cuban exiles. Then there is the theory that members of the mafia perpetrated the assassination; another theory is the later Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson or George Bush Senior were behind it.

And these are just some of the more "serious" theories — if you can use that adjective in this context at all. Some of the more bizarre "theories" claim that homosexuals or UFOs played a major role in the murder.

Popular films revolving around political-economic conspiracies: JFK

At some point, of course, the film industry began tapping into such notions. Since the murder of Kennedy still doesn't seem to be completely solved, authors, producers and directors have had plenty of freedom in concocting their own stories.

Where facts remain hidden, it's easy to speculate. Oliver Stone's 1991 film JFK (see article image) is still the most popular film about the Kennedy murder today. Kevin Costner, who starred in the film, was at the height of his career at the time, as was US director Oliver Stone.

For all its cinematic brilliance, Stone's film fueled further speculations about the masterminds behind the assassination. Director Stone's focus was mainly on the arms industry. The idea was that arms producers were allegedly behind the assassination, as Kennedy aimed to end the Cold War.

The logic was that, with no threat of war and no arms race, fewer weapons would be purchased, resulting in declining revenue for the industry. According to the thesis expressed in the film, the person responsible for this development — President Kennedy — had to be eliminated.

Cinema and conspiracy theories — populist, entertaining, critical

Cinema has always enjoyed taking up conspiracy theories; as popular subjects they either reveal true conspiracies or only deal in speculation.

Some films have fueled conspiracy theories, with the anti-Semitic propaganda movies of Nazi Germany being a particularly grave example. Films that critically question conspiracy theories also exist.

Read more: Conspiracies are always 'theories of power'

Many films on the subject have been created in Hollywood, perhaps due to the powerful film industry there with all its creative possibilities and imaginative minds. But there are probably other reasons as well: In the current heated atmosphere in the US, where the president in particular deals in fringe theories, the climate for conspiracy theories appears to be flourishing.

Perhaps it also has to do with the size of the US, the relative independence of the states, the citizens' love of freedom and the physical distance to the capital, Washington DC, from most parts of the country. A lack of education always fosters conspiracy theories — an issue which may also apply to parts of the US.
A German silent movie with a conspiracy theme: Fritz Lang's "The Testament Of Dr. Mabuse"

But German cinema has also contributed a great deal to the subject. Even during the heyday of Weimar cinema, when people acted in silent movies, the topic of conspiracies was repeatedly addressed, such as in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Fritz Lang's Mabuse films, as well as his masterpiece Metropolis, — all of which look atconspiracies in one way or another.

It's also easy to imagine that in just a few years, there will be a whole new wave of conspiracy film thrillers dealing with the subject of the coronavirus.

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With the COVID-19 crisis sparking uncertainty, conspiracy theories are booming in Germany. Right-wing activists in particular are trying to stir up hatred against politicians and the democratic system, a new study warns. (26.04.2020)

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Date 19.05.2020
Author Jochen Kürten (als)
Related Subjects Fritz Lang, Oliver Stone
Keywords conspiracy theories, film, movies, Oliver Stone, Fritz Lang, John F. Kennedy

Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3cTeY

Walmart, Amazon among donors to QAnon-promoting lawmaker

 March 15, 2016 file photo, Rep. Susan Lynn, R-Mt. Juliet, listens to the testimony during a House subcommittee hearing in Nashville, Tenn. Walmart, Amazon and other corporate giants donated money to Lynn's re-election campaign after she used social media to amplify and promote the QAnon conspiracy theory. That's according to an Associated Press review of campaign finance records and online posts by Republican state Rep. Susan Lynn.(AP Photo/Erik Schelzig, File)

FILE - In this May 14, 2020 file photo, a person carries a sign supporting QAnon at a protest rally in Olympia, Wash. Walmart, Amazon and other corporate giants donated money to a Tennessee state lawmaker’s re-election campaign after she used social media to amplify and promote the QAnon conspiracy theory. That's according to an Associated Press review of campaign finance records and online posts by Republican state Rep. Susan Lynn. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File

Walmart, Amazon and other corporate giants donated money to the reelection campaign of a Tennessee state lawmaker who had used social media to amplify and promote the QAnon conspiracy theory, according to an Associated Press review of campaign finance records and the candidate’s posts.

The corporate support for a QAnon-promoting politician is another example of how the conspiracy theory has penetrated mainstream politics, spreading beyond its origins on internet message boards popular with right-wing extremists.

Dozens of QAnon-promoting candidates have run for federal or state offices during this election cycle. Collectively, they have raised millions of dollars from thousands of donors. Individually, however, most of them have run poorly financed campaigns with little or no corporate or party backing. Unlike state Rep. Susan Lynn, who chairs the Tennessee House finance committee, few are incumbents who can attract corporate PAC money.

Though she repeatedly posted a well-known QAnon slogan on her Twitter and Facebook accounts, Lynn told the AP in an interview Friday that she does not support the conspiracy theory.

Walmart did not respond to repeated requests for comment made by email and through its website. An Amazon spokeswoman declined to comment. A spokeswoman for another donor to Lynn’s campaign, Kentucky-based distillery company Brown-Forman, which has a facility in Tennessee, said the company didn’t know about Lynn’s QAnon posts and wouldn’t have donated to her campaign through its Jack Daniel’s PAC if it had.

“Now that our awareness is raised, we will reevaluate our criteria for giving to help identify affiliations like this in the future,” Elizabeth Conway said in a statement.

Corporate PAC managers typically decide which candidates to support on the basis of narrow, pragmatic policy issues rather than broader political concerns, said Anthony Corrado, a Colby College government professor and campaign finance expert.

“In many instances, you don’t have any kind of corporate board oversight or any kind of accountability in terms of review of contributions before they’re made,” Corrado said. “Some corporations now have adopted policies about the supervision of PAC contributions because of the reputational risks involved in this.”

At least 81 current or former congressional candidates have supported the conspiracy theory or promoted QAnon content, with at least 24 qualifying for November’s general election ballot, according to the liberal watchdog Media Matters for America.
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As of Friday, the candidates collectively had raised nearly $5 million in contributions for this election cycle, but only eight had raised over $100,000 individually, according to the AP’s review of Federal Election Commission data. The FEC’s online database doesn’t have any fundraising reports for 30 of the candidates, the vast majority of whom are running as Republicans.

Congress is virtually certain to have at least one QAnon-supporting member next year. Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose campaign has raised over $1 million, appeared to be coasting to victory in a deep-red congressional district in Georgia even before her Democratic opponent dropped out of the race.

At the state level, the AP and Media Matters have identified more than two dozen legislative candidates who have expressed some support or interest in QAnon.

QAnon centers on the baseless belief that President Donald Trump is waging a secret campaign against enemies in the “deep state” and a child sex trafficking ring run by satanic pedophiles and cannibals. Trump has praised QAnon supporters and often retweets accounts that promote the conspiracy theory.

QAnon has been linked to killings, attempted kidnappings and other crimes. In May 2019, an FBI bulletin mentioning QAnon warned that conspiracy theory-driven extremists have become a domestic terrorism threat.

Lynn said her social media posts do not indicate any support for the conspiracy theory.

“This is the United States of America, and I am absolutely free to tweet or retweet anything I want,” she said. “I don’t understand why this is even an issue. Believe me, I am not in the inside of some QAnon movement.”

But in October 2019, Lynn retweeted posts by QAnon-promoting accounts with tens of thousands of followers. One of the posts she retweeted praised Trump and included the hashtag #TheGreatAwakening, a phrase commonly invoked by QAnon followers.

Between Oct. 31, 2019, and Jan. 9, 2020, her campaign received $4,750 in donations from Amazon.com Services LLC, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee’s PAC, health insurer Humana, the Southwest Airlines Co. Freedom Fund and Walmart Inc.

“Like many other companies, our PAC periodically contributes to elected officials in Tennessee, including those serving in leadership like Rep. Lynn,” BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee spokeswoman Dalya Qualls said in a statement.

In April, Lynn updated her Facebook page with a cover photo that included a flag with stars forming a “Q” above the abbreviation “WWG1WGA,” which stands for the QAnon slogan “Where we go one, we go all.” In May and June, Lynn punctuated several tweets with the same abbreviation.

And when a leading QAnon supporter nicknamed “Praying Medic” tweeted the message, “Is it time to Q the Trump rallies?” Lynn responded, “It is time!” in a May 31 tweet of her own.

Lynn said she viewed “Where we go one, we go all” as a “very unifying slogan” and didn’t know it was a QAnon motto. However, a handful of Facebook users who replied to her updated cover photo in April commented on the QAnon connection. The flag is no longer her cover photo but could still be seen in the feed on her page on Friday.

In July, AT&T Tennessee PAC, Cigna Corporation PAC and Jack Daniel’s PAC contributed a total of $4,000 to Lynn’s campaign.

The PACs linked to BlueCross BlueShield, AT&T Tennessee, Cigna, Southwest Airlines and Jack Daniel’s had also previously donated to Lynn’s campaign before she amplified QAnon-promoting Twitter accounts last year.

AP contacted all of the companies mentioned in this story. Some did not respond to requests for comment and others declined to comment.

___

Associated Press data journalist Andrew Milligan in New Haven, Connecticut; and Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee, contributed to this report.

EXPLAINER: White 'replacement theory' fuels racist attacks

NEW YORK (AP) — A racist ideology seeping from the internet's fringes into the mainstream is being investigated as a motivating factor in the supermarket shooting that killed 10 people in Buffalo, New York. Most of the victims were Black.

Ideas from the “great replacement theory" filled a racist screed supposedly posted online by the white 18-year-old accused of targeting Black people in Saturday's rampage. Authorities were still working to confirm its authenticity.

Certainly, there was no mistaking the racist intent of the shooter.

WHAT IS THE ‘GREAT REPLACEMENT THEORY'?

Simply put, the conspiracy theory says there's a plot to diminish the influence of white people.

Believers say this goal is being achieved both through the immigration of nonwhite people into societies that have largely been dominated by white people, as well as through simple demographics, with white people having lower birth rates than other populations.

The conspiracy theory's more racist adherents believe Jews are behind the so-called replacement plan: White nationalists marching at a Charlottesville, Virginia, rally that turned deadly in 2017 chanted “You will not replace us!” and “Jews will not replace us!”

A more mainstream view in the U.S. baselessly suggests Democrats are encouraging immigration from Latin America so more like-minded potential voters replace “traditional” Americans, says Mark Pitcavage, senior research fellow at the Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism.

WHAT ARE THIS CONSPIRACY THEORY'S ORIGINS?

How long has racism existed? Broadly speaking, the roots of this “theory” are that deep. In the U.S., you can point to efforts to intimidate and discourage Black people from voting — or, in antagonists' view, “replacing” white voters at the polls — that date to the Reconstruction era, after the 15th Amendment made clear suffrage couldn't be restricted on account of race.

In the modern era, most experts point to two influential books. “The Turner Diaries,” a 1978 novel written by William Luther Pierce under the pseudonym Andrew Macdonald, is about a violent revolution in the United States with a race war that leads to the extermination of nonwhites.

The FBI called it a “bible of the racist right,” says Kurt Braddock, an American University professor and researcher at the Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab.

Renaud Camus, a French writer, published a 2011 book claiming that Europe was being invaded by Black and brown immigrants from Africa. He called the book “Le Grand Replacement,” and a conspiracy's name was born.

Related video: The mainstreaming of the "Great Replacement" theory (MSNBC)



WHO ARE ITS ADHERENTS?

To some of the more extreme believers, certain white supremacist mass killers — at a Norway summer camp in 2011, two Christchurch, New Zealand, mosques in 2019, a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, a Black church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015 — are considered saints, Pitcavage says.

Those “accelerationist white supremacists” believe small societal changes won't achieve much, so the only option is tearing down society, he says.

The Buffalo shooter’s purported written diatribe and some of the methods indicate he closely studied the Christchurch shooter — particularly the effort to livestream his rampage. According to apparent screenshots from the Buffalo broadcast, the shooter inscribed the number 14 on his gun, which Pitcavage says is shorthand for a 14-word white supremacist slogan.

A written declaration by the Christchurch shooter was widely spread online. If the message attributed to the Buffalo shooter proves authentic, it's designed to also spread his philosophy and methods to a large audience.

IS THE THEORY MAKING WIDER INROADS?

While more virulent forms of racism are widely abhorred, experts are concerned about extreme views nonetheless becoming mainstream.

In a poll released last week, The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 1 in 3 Americans believe an effort is underway to replace U.S.-born Americans with immigrants for electoral gain.

On a regular basis, many adherents to the more extreme versions of the “great replacement” theory converse through encrypted apps online. They tend to be careful. They know they’re being watched.

“They are very clever,” Braddock says. “They don’t make overt calls to arms.”

WHO'S TALKING UP THIS THEORY?

In particular, Tucker Carlson, Fox News’ most popular personality, has pushed false views that are more easily embraced by some white people who are concerned about a loss of their political and social power.

“I know that the left and all the gatekeepers on Twitter become literally hysterical if you use the term ‘replacement,’ if you suggest the Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate, the voters now casting ballots, with new people, more obedient voters from the Third World,” he said on his show last year. “But they become hysterical because that's what's happening, actually, let's just say it. That's true.”

A study of five years' worth of Carlson's show by The New York Times found 400 instances where he talked about Democratic politicians and others seeking to force demographic change through immigration.

Fox News defended the host, pointing to repeated statements that Carlson has made denouncing political violence of all kinds.

The attention paid by many Republican politicians to what they see as a leaky southern border along the United States has been interpreted, at least by some, as a nod to the concern of white people who worry about being “replaced.”

House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik's campaign committee was criticized last year for an advertisement that said “radical Democrats” were planning a “permanent election insurrection” by granting amnesty to undocumented immigrants who would create a permanent liberal majority in Washington. Stefanik represents a New York district.

Pitcavage says he's concerned about the message Carlson and supporters are sending: “It actually introduces the ‘great replacement theory’ to a conservative audience in an easier-to-swallow pill."

___

David Bauder, The Associated Press

SEE 

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/05/buffalo-shooters-manifesto-shows-folly.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/05/blatantly-racist-element-of-society-is.html

'We are ascendant!' Steve Bannon addresses 'replacement theory' after Buffalo shooting
David Edwards
May 16, 2022

Real America's Voice/screen grab

Conservative podcaster Steve Bannon on Monday vowed not to back down in promoting a racist conspiracy theory that was allegedly cited by suspected Buffalo gunman Payton Gendron.

On his daily War Room: Pandemic podcast, Bannon insisted reports about the "replacement theory" were meant to distract the public. Bannon has previously promoted a French book that inspired the theory, which claims that white citizens are being replaced by immigrants.

"Of course, all of the morning shows are all over Tucker Carlson and a few others about the replacement theory," Bannon complained. "They seem to miss the point. And here's what we're not going to back off on. For people who have followed this show from day one, we are inclusive nationalists. Right?"

"OK? So, this is not about race," he continued. "This is about American citizenship! This is about the value of your citizens."

Bannon said that he was "not backing off one inch" despite the shooting.

"This is why we're going to take over every elections board in the nation," he remarked. "This is why we're going to take over every medical board in this nation. This is why we're going to take over state legislatures and D.A.s and attorney generals [sic] and secretaries of state and governors. And we're not going to stop. We are ascendant!"

Watch the video below from Real America's Voice.

Tory leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre denounces 'white replacement theory'

BUT LIKE ALL CONSERVATIVES HE STILL REMAINS RACIST 

OTTAWA — Pierre Poilievre, a high-profile contender in the Conservative party's leadership race, onMonday denounced the "white replacement theory," which was believed to be a motive for a mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., as "ugly and disgusting hate-mongering."


 leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre denounces 'white replacement theory'

In a statement provided to The Canadian Press,the longtime Ottawa MP, who has been attracting massive crowds as he campaigns across the country, condemned the attack, in which police say a white gunman shot up a supermarket in a majority Black neighbourhood, killing 10 people and wounding three others.

U.S. law enforcement is investigating the shooter's online posts, which include the conspiracy theory that there’s a plot to diminish the influence of white people.

Believers say so-called "white replacement" is being achieved both through immigration and demographics, with white people having lower birth rates than other populations, and some claim this has been orchestrated by Jews.

Poilievre was responding to a tweet by fellow leadership contestant Patrick Brown pointing out that Pat King, a leader of the February "Freedom Convoy"that clogged up the streets surrounding Parliament Hill for weeks, which Poilievre and many other Conservative MPs supported, has spread the conspiracy theory online.

Brown called on his rival to "condemn this hate."

"For Patrick Brown to use this atrocity is sleazy — even for him,"Poilievre said in his statement Monday. "I supported the peaceful and law-abiding truckers who protested for their livelihoods and freedoms while simultaneously condemning any individuals who broke laws, behaved badly or blocked critical infrastructure.

"I also condemn Pat King and his ugly remarks."

In response to Poilievre's remarks, a spokesman for Brown accused him of "reluctantly giving a statement when asked, rather than shouting denunciation from every platform you have."

"Flirting with these dangerous elements does a disservice to the vast majority of Conservative Party members and will cost us the next election if it is allowed to stand,'" Chisholm Pothier wrote.

Interim Conservative leader Candice Bergen also issued a statement Monday calling racism repugnant.

"The ‘white-replacement’ conspiracy theory is peddled by racists and bigots, Conservatives unequivocally condemn this kind of thinking," she said.

Bergen went on to say that "while Canadians are free to protest and demonstrate, that does not include illegally blocking or occupying infrastructure, nor does it include illegal hate-speech.”

How much support each of the six Conservative leadership candidates running for Erin O'Toole's former job showed to the protesters who descended on the nation's capital as part of the convoy has been a reoccurring feature of the race.

Poilievre discussed his position on the demonstration – which was characterized by local police and political leaders as an occupation – during an hour-and-a-half interview with controversial Canadian psychology professor and bestselling author Jordan Peterson, which aired Monday.

In the interview, which was conducted virtually, Poilievre defended the protest near Parliament Hill as a mostly peaceful endeavour, saying he believed truckers who travelled there would have left had Trudeau acquiesced and removed the federal mandates.

"The media depiction was total nonsense. If you watched it on television you would think that it was Armageddon," Poilievre told Peterson, pointing out MPs who condemned the protest were not blocked from accessing the Hose of Commons.

"It was peaceful. It was most of the time sort of a jubilant-type celebration."

Poilievre did, however, acknowledge the pain it caused to some businesses. Some in the area decided to close during the convoy for reasons that included protesters flouting public health rules and reports of staff being harassed.

"Some businesses were inconvenienced and lost money. They should be compensated."

Poilievre suggested he's also looking at proposing changes to the federal Emergencies Act, telling Peterson he was consulting with legal scholars around curtailing its use, which Conservatives contend was unnecessary to dismantle the Ottawa protest.

Peterson rose to fame after refusing to call trans students by their preferred pronouns and opposing transgender human rights legislation.

These topics were not discussed in his wide-ranging interview with Poilievre, which covered everything from the MP's burgeoning interest in conservativism as a teenager in Calgary and having a sense of humour in politics, to his pledge to defund the CBC and insights into why his rallies were drawing such large crowds.

After the interview aired, fellow Conservative leadership candidates Leslyn Lewis and Roman Baber said on Twitter that they too wanted to be interviewed by Peterson.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 16, 2022.

-- With files from The Associated Press

Stephanie Taylor, The Canadian Press

Fact check: Debunking a 'totally nuts' conspiracy theory about UN troops in Canada

By Daniel Dale, CNN -

Tanya Vrebosch, deputy mayor of the Canadian city of North Bay, saw something strange when she checked her phone on Sunday: North Bay was a trending topic on her Twitter feed.

North Bay doesn't do much trending -- it's a city of about 52,000 people in northern Ontario -- so Vrebosch had a moment of intrigued anticipation, she told CNN on Monday. Were people tweeting, just maybe, about the city's recent announcement that North Bay had set a new record for the value of its building construction?

Nope. Very much nope.

North Bay, Vrebosch learned, was "trending for something so stupid." Specifically: a false -- and, frankly, ridiculous -- conspiracy theory about a United Nations plane, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and the "Freedom Convoy" protests that police officers had just cleared out in Ottawa, the Canadian capital about a four-hour drive from North Bay.

"I was like, 'Are you kidding me?'" Vrebosch said.

Here's what happened.

Some social media users, and at least one conspiracy website, speculated late last week that officers seen in green uniforms during the police operation to clear the Ottawa protest could be UN troops Trudeau had authorized to enter the country -- though journalists on the scene had repeatedly noted that they were actually officers from the provincial police service of the neighboring province of Quebec.

Then a woman with an account on the social media app TikTok spotted a plane marked "UN" parked at North Bay's Jack Garland Airport. The woman -- who had previously posted videos supporting the protests and talking about her refusal to get vaccinated against Covid-19 -- made a video suggesting that what she was seeing at the airport could be evidence for the theory that UN forces had been secretly involved in the Ottawa dispersal operation.

The woman later took down the video, but the flames had been fueled.

A man went to the North Bay airport to film the plane himself, posting a video that gained tens of thousands of YouTube views. Actor Adam Baldwin promoted the conspiracy theory about Trudeau and the plane to his 345,000 Twitter followers. Brandon Buechler, an editor at the CP24 television news channel in Toronto, tweeted Sunday night that he had been forced to field "furious calls" related to the conspiracy theory.

As Buechler explained, it was nonsense.

"This is a totally nuts conspiracy theory that has no basis in reality," Alexander Cohen, spokesperson for Canadian Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, said on Monday.

Facts First: No UN forces were involved in the Ottawa police operation -- and no UN forces landed in North Bay. The passenger plane seen at the North Bay airport is owned by a North Bay company, Voyageur Aviation, that flies and performs maintenance on aircraft used by the UN; planes with UN markings have been spotted for years at Voyageur's North Bay facility. Flight records pulled up by Canadian aviation photojournalist Tom Podolec show that the regional jet that has been subject of this week's conspiracy theories arrived in North Bay on January 29 after departing the day prior from Amman, Jordan.

"I can confirm that the aircraft has been in North Bay for several weeks for a routine aircraft maintenance heavy check event at our Voyageur North Bay facility," Manon Stuart, spokesperson for Voyageur parent company Chorus Aviation, said in a Monday email. "Voyageur employs approximately 220 people in North Bay, providing aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul services for a global customer base."

Voyageur's UN relationship is no secret

Vrebosch said Voyageur is one of North Bay's major employers and that most local residents know that "we always have these types of planes coming in." Voyageur, which Vrebosch said has been in North Bay for roughly 40 years, makes no secret of its relationship with the UN; its website's Frequently Asked Questions page for pilots mentions three times that the UN is one of its customers.

But this isn't even the first time the North Bay presence of a plane with UN markings has prompted a conspiracy theory. An immigration-related conspiracy theory, also complete fiction, was debunked by Agence France-Presse in 2018.

Vrebosch said this latest fast-spreading misinformation is yet more evidence of the dangers of social media. But she also said she would adopt an all-publicity-is-good-publicity attitude to the saga.

"We welcome anybody to come to North Bay for a visit, come buy a house," she said -- adding that you might even get to see a cool plane.

Here is why Fox News is terrified of covering the Buffalo shooter's racist manifesto

Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!
May 16, 2022



The mass shooter who killed 10 people in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday posted a racist manifesto online before targeting a majority-Black neighborhood. His writings took heavily from conservative conspiracy theories that white people were in danger of being replaced by people of color. This so-called Great Replacement conspiracy theory has been promoted by major far-right media figures including Tucker Carlson of Fox News. “What it does is create a dynamic where believers view immigrants and nonwhite people as an existential threat not only to themselves physically but to their position in society,” says Nikki McCann Ramírez, associate research director at Media Matters for America, who has researched how Carlson uses his show to launder white nationalist ideology. We also speak with prominent antiracist scholar Ibram X. Kendi, who says mainstream conservatives are increasingly parroting extremist talking points.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

We’re looking at the mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, Saturday, when an 18-year-old white supremacist wearing full body armor, carrying an assault rifle, opened fire on a supermarket in a Black neighborhood of Buffalo. We just went to Buffalo. Now we’re joined by Ibram X. Kendi, the Andrew W. Mellon professor in the humanities at Boston University, founding director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, contributing writer at The Atlantic, where his new piece, published — well, it looks like it was published yesterday, but it was actually published last month, before the attack in Buffalo, headlined “The Danger More Republicans Should Be Talking About: White-supremacist ideology is harmful to all, especially the naive and defenseless minds of youth.” He is also the author of many books, including Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, also author of How to Be an Antiracist and the children’s book Antiracist Baby. He’s got two forthcoming books out in June, How to Raise an Antiracist and the picture book Goodnight Racism.
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I hope those books won’t be banned the way a number of your books have been around the country, Professor Kendi. But as you watched this horror unfold this weekend, I think it’s very critical to talk about taking the word “fringe” out of fringe theory, the “Great Replacement” theory, because how mainstream what is motivating, quite explicitly, this young self-identified white supremacist fascist, who only wished he had killed more people.

IBRAM X. KENDI: Exactly. I mean, the leading — some of the leading politicians and media figures and intellectuals, particularly over the last two years, if not the last 10 years, have been asserting this idea that antiracism, that critical race theory, that Latinx immigrants, that so-called Black criminals, that Muslim terrorists, that people of color are harming or seeking to replace or even engage in a genocide against white people. That’s the “Great Replacement” theory, that is a dominant talking point particularly among members of the Republican Party. And so, this is certainly not a fringe theory. It was a fringe theory, on many levels, a decade ago, but it’s certainly not now.


AMY GOODMAN: So, respond to what took place this weekend, how it’s covered, the issue of it being a domestic terror attack, not a lone gunman, you know, who is suffering from mental illness. Last year his school was so concerned about what he was saying, they called in the New York state police, who had him taken for a mental evaluation, yet he could still lawfully buy, in his hometown, the weapon used in this attack.

IBRAM X. KENDI: For years now, law enforcement officials and FBI have been talking about and have been acknowledging, whether you’re talking about the head of the Justice Department or the head of the FBI or even local officials — have been referring to white supremacist domestic terror as the leading terrorist threat of our time. And it’s indisputable. And we also know that the people who are most likely to carry out these acts of domestic terror are younger white males.

And so, the fact that people — that this nation still does not recognize that we have a serious problem on our hands and these younger white males are engaging in all sorts of acts of terror against Jewish Americans, against Black Americans, against Asian Americans, against women, against people from the LGBTQ+ community, and that — you know, I mean, that, to me, is part of the sort of horror. That, to me, is part of the toll that I think is weighing on people, because even after all of these mass murders and shootings over the last few days, people still don’t feel as if this nation is seeking to protect them, is seeking to keep them safe.


AMY GOODMAN: As we continue our coverage of the massacre in Buffalo and what led to it, I want to look at the role of Fox News in pushing the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory and opposition to gun control, particularly through Fox’s most popular host, Tucker Carlson. A New York Times investigation last month found he invoked the conspiracy that Democrats are trying to force demographic change through immigration in more than 400 episodes of his show on Fox News.

I want to also bring in another guest to join Professor Kendi. Nikki McCann has spent years compiling evidence for the watchdog group Media Matters of how Tucker Carlson has used his show to launder white nationalist ideology. Nikki McCann Ramírez is going to join us in a second, but first just a few examples she found of Tucker Carlson repeatedly defending the white supremacist “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory. This is Carlson lashing out last April at President Biden’s immigration policy.
TUCKER CARLSON: An unrelenting stream of immigration. But why? Well, Joe Biden just said it: to change the racial mix of the country. That’s the reason, to reduce the political power of people whose ancestors lived here, and dramatically increase the proportion of Americans newly arrived from the Third World. And then Biden went further. He said that nonwhite DNA is the, quote, “source of our strength.” Imagine saying that. This is the language of eugenics. It’s horrifying. But there’s a reason Biden said it. In political terms, this policy is called the “Great Replacement,” the replacement of legacy Americans with more obedient people from faraway countries.


AMY GOODMAN: That’s Tucker Carlson on Fox News last April. This is another clip noted by Media Matters from last year as Carlson’s fearmongering about white replacement, genocide and a race war.
TUCKER CARLSON: The left and all the little gatekeepers on Twitter become literally hysterical if you use the term “replacement,” if you suggest that the Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate, the voters now casting ballots, with new people, more obedient voters from the Third World. But they become hysterical because that’s — that’s what’s happening actually. Let’s just say it it. That’s true.

AMY GOODMAN: For more, in addition to Professor Kendi, we’re joined in Washington, D.C., by Nikki McCann Ramírez, associate research director at Media Matters for America.


Nikki, thanks so much for being with us. As we talk about what motivated this 18-year-old white supremacist, talk about the “Great Replacement” theory, where it came from and what Tucker Carlson is doing with it and how it’s being weaponized by everyone from the New York Congressmember Elise Stefanik to the senator from Wisconsin, Ron Johnson, Congressman Perry and more.

NIKKI McCANN RAMÍREZ: Yes. Good morning. Thank you so much for having me on.


The “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory has existed for decades. It is a subset of a larger conspiracy known as the white replacement or white genocide conspiracy theory. And it really came into a renewed era prominence in the last decade, with a period of acceleration in the last three to four years. In 2012, a French writer published a book called Le Grand Remplacement, and what it essentially argues is that there is a cabal, comprised typically of elites, Jewish people — because this is fundamentally an antisemitic conspiracy theory — and media figures, who are using immigration, birth rates and multiculturalism to eliminate or replace the white race. The theory baselessly makes these accusations of what are essentially natural or cyclical changes in demographics. And what it does is create a dynamic where believers view immigrants and nonwhite people as an existential threat, not only to themselves physically but to their position in society. And importantly, this theory wants believers to act against their supposed replacement.

So, when people like Tucker Carlson present a ready-for-cable version of the theory, it makes more extreme versions of it more accessible to audiences who would have never encountered it or would have never really thought about it. And if people believe in portions of the theory, like the idea that immigrants are being, quote-unquote, “imported” to replace them demographically, it becomes easier to tack on more extreme versions of the theory and fold them into their beliefs.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about how Fox News has been covering this massacre?


NIKKI McCANN RAMÍREZ: Absolutely. So, a notable thing that we’ve seen, pretty much since the coverage broke, is that Fox has been very hesitant to make any reference to the “Great Replacement” theory or talk about specifics about what was in that shooter’s manifesto. And to be clear, the shooter’s manifesto did not directly reference Tucker, but Fox News is aware that they have been pushing this theory, selling it toward their audience, and they do not want to make that connection themselves, to explicitly connect that theory to their audience once again.

I believe what we’re seeing Fox News do right now is kind of fold back and fall back onto the traditional reactions that they have, that this will be used in an attempt to promote greater — or, sorry, to promote more gun restrictions, or, as we saw yesterday, one of their hosts on a Sunday show said that this shooting will be exploited to unfairly censor conservatives. I think Fox News is very aware of the hand that they’ve had in bringing this conspiracy to mainstream audiences. An Associated Press poll recently found that one in three Americans now believe that immigration is being used as a form of electoral manipulation, electoral replacement. And they are very aware that they have a hand in this narrative, so they are being very cautious about how they cover this, and are really trying to deflect the narrative onto other issues that don’t necessarily implicate them.

AMY GOODMAN: Do we know where the 18-year-old shooter, alleged shooter, Payton Gendron, learned about these theories — I mean, it’s a vast screed that he’s got, what, something like 180 pages — where he lived online, etc.?


NIKKI McCANN RAMÍREZ: Yes. So, the shooter did publish a more than 100-page manifesto. And I want to make a caveat here: As we already know, the manifesto was largely plagiarized from writings of other shooters, writings that he found online, so we should always take these, like, self-published screeds with a bit of a grain of salt.

What the shooter claims is that he was radicalized on 4chan and other online forums, that he didn’t really have a lot of direct contact with cable news. But what extremism researchers know is that Tucker Carlson’s rhetoric is very present on these forums. A lot of people on these forums view Tucker Carlson as an ally in presenting their messaging to a layman’s audience. So it’s not unlikely that this shooter encountered Tucker Carlson, his rhetoric, his statements about immigration, people of color. It wouldn’t be unlikely that he encountered them online.

And it’s important to point out here once again that presenting a sort of stripped-down version of this theory, which is what Tucker Carlson does — he doesn’t explicitly make references to racial superiority or explicitly make references to antisemitism when he talks about “Great Replacement,” but what he does do is give viewers context clues that allow them to make those connections themselves. He regularly attacks Jewish billionaire George Soros as an enemy of Western civilization who’s attempting to destroy America. He uses very racialized language when discussing the theory. And what that does is make it easier for his audience to find these more extremist spaces, to make those connections, and directs them toward a place where when a shooting like this happens and you have a third of the population that already believes that a large portion or a central tenet of this theory is true, it’s a lot harder for people to disavow it or to say, “That theory is incorrect. I shouldn’t subscribe to it.” They can say, “Oh, well, this was a,” quote-unquote, “‘lone wolf’ attack,” or “This man was crazy and acting on his own.” But the underlying beliefs can still be considered true. And that is a very dangerous thing for the most watched cable news host to be doing.


AMY GOODMAN: I mean, you can’t help think about what happened here, what happened at the church in South Carolina, what happened in El Paso in 2019. The shooter deliberately went to a place with a large Latino population clientele, customers, the local Walmart. He also issued a screed railing against a Hispanic invasion and posted that online. This was in 2019.

OTHER DEMOCRACY NOW VIDEOS

Antiracist Scholar Ibram X. Kendi: Republicans Must Address How White Supremacists Target Youth - YouTube

 Buffalo Massacre: Gunman Cited Racist “Great Replacement” Conspiracy Theory Popularized by Fox News - YouTube