Misinformation Mind Parasites

Posted on by Thor

Andy Norman, reported that America is facing a pandemic of ignorance.  Insane QAnon theories have captured the minds of many and anti vaccine rhetoric is spreading like wildfire with reason and thought being abandoned for blind devotion to baseless doctrine.

In his provocative book Mental Immunity: Infectious Ideas, Mind-Parasites, and the Search for a Better Way to Think, Newman unearths this growing scourge. In this era,  misinformation is more common, and spreads even faster than the virus.

He explained, “Parasites require a host, bad ideas require a host. Parasites often compromise the health of their hosts. Bad ideas can also compromise the mental well being of their hosts. Parasites can leap from body to body. Bad ideas can leap from mind to mind.”

Facebook algorithms have nurtured this tsunami of misinformation. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the social media giant has removed 18 million posts containing misinformation about COVID-19, but would not say how many times the posts had been viewed or shared.

A White House study 12 misinformation super spreaders they dubbed, the “disinformation dozen”.  Misinformation experts have condemned platforms for taking down some of the most egregious accounts, but not others. For instance, the anti-vaccine figurehead Robert F. Kennedy Jr. still has an account on Facebook, despite being banned from Instagram, which is owned by Facebook.

 The Washington Post reported that a new peer-reviewed study from researchers at New York University and the Université Grenoble Alpes in France will show that misinformation got six times as much engagement on Facebook as real news. Pages that post more misinformation regularly got more likes, shares, and comments. Truth be damned, Facebook wants clicks.

Vaccine misinformation remains very high on Facebook. President Joe Biden said that the tech giants such as Facebook are “killing people” by failing to tackle the problem. Experts who study online misinformation say it has still largely failed to address the issue and that falsehoods about the vaccine are still reaching millions of people. Rather than tackle the issue, Facebook founder Zuckerberg has decided to instead start placing pro-Facebook messaging in its news feed. It is the usual adage of deny, deflect and do a distracting dance while raking in the dough. The mighty dollar trumps death.

Vaccinated

Posted on by Thor

The Atlantic reported that, vaccine hesitancy is actually COVID-19 denialism.  As older adults are getting vaccinated,  they are no longer being hospitalized. Instead younger adults are being hospitalized and dying.

Young conservatives are now denying that the virus is real and they don’t want the shot to save themselves or their loved ones.

According to Kaiser Family Foundation polling, 13 percent of Americans say they definitely won’t get a COVID-19 vaccine. Hesitancy is particularly high among people who live in rural areas and white evangelicals—for whom increased church attendance correlates with increased hesitancy, according to a survey from the Public Religion Research Institute.

Some Americans believe that not getting vaccinated is a defense of their freedom. The same demographic are less likely to wear masks so they can spread the virus more efficiently. One young republican troll explained his stance simply, “I dislike the people who want me to take it, and it makes them mad when they hear about my refusal.”

The QAnon theory offers the simple minded some straight forward though strange theories, that , American elites, are a cabal of sex-trafficking pedophiles, and  they are trying to take over the government. Republican Matt Gaetz seems a perfect target for this sex trafficking QAnon theory but I haven’t heard of them being upset by his possible sex with a minor. They seem more upset that he is being investigated.  Gaetz has had COVID-19.

Beautiful, intelligent and patriotic Americans are getting vaccinated and the trolls will keep spreading the virus among themselves.

QAnon Zoom

Posted on by Thor

On social media during lockdown I was amazed to discover how many “Friends” who I thought were smart, sentient, reasoning individuals were actually QAnon conspiracy theorists. The art work I have been creating would ignite their remaining brain waves, turning them in to vicious trolls.

My Facebook accounts have been hacked and shut down so I haven’t been following the insanity online as much this past month. The promise of a vaccine leaves me feeling like I might soon wake from a year long coma. People seem to have too much time on their hands and with no creative outlet they turn into mindless zombies who prefer conspiracy theories to science.

Q is a fictional mysterious figure whose cryptic, evidence-free posts  are accepted by many as gospel. They promote the idea that there is a satanic cabal of pedophiles that runs rampant in government and Hollywood. The former president, was supposed to expose and defeat that cabal. Instead he lost the election and has been reduced to crashing wedding parties at Mar-a-Lago to spread his lies.

After the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the social media platforms that had long allowed the falsehoods to spread like wildfire — namely Twitter, Facebook and YouTube — got more aggressive in cracking down on accounts promoting QAnon. Hollywood. QAnon has continued to survive in the darker corners of the Internet. In these fringes white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups continue to flourish.

QAnon podcasts are available through Apple and Google. There is big money to be made from the mindless. Fox News host Tucker Carlson recently defended QAnon adherents. QAnon has even gained a foothold in the halls of Congress, where two Republican members have openly supported some of the movement’s baseless ideas. The zombies are roaming the halls of the capitol long after the insurrection.

Losers at the Gate

Posted on by Thor

Why all the animal pelts worn by the nut jobs that attempted to overthrow the D.C. Capitol? Does  insurrection attract cos-players?

One arrived at the Capitol wearing what appeared to be a fox-hide hood and a fuzzy cloak, looking much like a Neanderthal, except he wore round Harry Potter glasses, a bulletproof vest and he was carrying a police riot shield. He has been arrested.

Another, a self proclaimed “QAnon Shaman,” wore a a horned Viking headdress and his body was covered in a brick pattern which presumably celebrates Trumps medieval attempts to build a southern border wall. He has been arrested.

Neanderthals believed that by wearing fur pelts they could inherit some of the animals viscous traits. These egg heads didn’t inherit anything but lame conspiracy theories. Viking imagery feeds into the idea of white nationalist  origins. Nazis took the warring viking sea faring culture to promote a white German nation state. German scholars blamed socialism, Jews and class revolutions for the “decline” of a Germanic race they saw descending from this Viking past. The destruction of Thor’s hammer would mark and end to this outdated vision of violent white supremacy. Oddly some had pitchforks as weapons. Of course the riot on the Capitol will be a super spreader event. The COVID-19 virus will offer its own form of justice for any that skirt the law.

The riot was in part a counter response to the Georgia election in which Reverend Raphael Warnock, a black man and a Democrat, was elected to office unseating the long held Republican state. With black voters turning out in record numbers, white supremacists responded with violent insurrection.

Nearly 100 people have been arrested for their roles in the attack. More serious misdemeanors and felony charges related to weapons, conspiracy and assault could result in prison time. In this age where everyone carries a cell phone with a camera the evidence is overwhelming and still being discovered. Many idiots shared photos of themselves online and therefor were very easy to arrest. Most rioters didn’t wear masks so they are easy to identify.

Donald Trump has been impeached a second time, now for “incitement of insurrection”. Ten Republican lawmakers joined in voting for the impeachment. It is quite possible some Republican lawmakers were complicit in inciting this armed insurrection and that evidence will get plenty of airing when the Senate begins the process of holding a trial to determine whether to convict Trump, and potentially bar him from ever running for any federal office again. The Stop the Steal event organizer, Ali Alexander, said that three GOP lawmakers, Paul Gosar (R-Az.), Andy Biggs (R-Az), and Mo Brooks (R-AL) all helped him organize the events of the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol. Mo said at the Rally at the White House, “Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.” Brooks faces censure from Congress, a disciplinary action for inciting an insurrection.

During the attack freshman congresswoman Lauren Boebert (R-Co), tweeted the location of Nancy Peolci, which would give rioters a better idea of where to find the house speaker. Boeberts Twitter account has been shut down and she is surprised.

50 Legislators Infected

Posted on by Thor

As of December 30, 2020, Ballotpedia identified 50 United States politicians, candidates, and government officials at the federal level who have been diagnosed with COVID-19. One Federal Politician, 7 state politicians and 4 local politicians have died from COVID-19.

Seven members of the U.S. Senate have been diagnosed with COVID-19 as have 33 members of Congress. Four members of Congress have died from the virus.

Luke Letlow, a representative of Louisiana’s 5th Congressional District died December 20, 2020 and Stephen F. Williams of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit died August 7, 2020, Virginia State Senator Ben Chafin died on January 1, 2021 due to COVID-19.

Mike Pence swore in 6 new Senators on January 3, 2021, “Do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic?” he asked each in turn. Senators who would typically be gathered in full on the Senate floor were spaced, and many were not in attendance due to COVID-19.

As Americans continue to die at a rate of several thousand every day, the POTUS is only obsessed with a seditious attempt to overthrow the election results. He has pledged to fight when Congress meets on January 6, 2021 to formally count the votes of the Electoral College. Several GOP lawmakers signed a letter pledging to object to the results unless Congress investigates the election before they counted. The effort is sure to fail in the Democratic-controlled House and likely in the Senate, where several Republicans led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have warned colleagues not to challenge the Electoral College vote. A group of nearly a dozen Senators announced they would join the effort unless an “emergency 10-day audit” of the election returns in the “disputed states” is completed.

This waste of time by seditious Senators and Congressmen is likely just an attempt to build a name for themselves as they think ahead to future elections. The nations capitol is bracing for violence as MAGA marchers gather to disrupt the city. Posts on the new far right social media site Parler, indicate that January 6 is in line with the QAnon conspiracy pseudo-religion that thinks President Trump is building a “storm” that will wash away his enemies. It’s seen as a “final stand” for many of Trump’s supporters. Trump who is encouraging protestors to DC said the day “will be wild.” Rep Gomer Pile (R) Texas, said that a court’s refusal to force Mike Pence to overturn the presidential election results essentially served as a call to Americans to incite violence in the streets. Signs are being erected in DC stating that open carry of guns is illegal in the capital. The time for racist groups and militias to “Stand back and stand by” has expired.

Weaponizing QAnon

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QAnon is a right wing  conspiracy theory that claims that dozens of Satan-worshiping politicians and A-list celebrities work in tandem with governments around the globe to engage in child sex abuse. The group also peddles in conspiracies about COVID-19 and mass shootings. None of the fan fiction is grounded in reality. Followers also believe there is a “deep state” effort to annihilate Trump. Lawmakers drafted a bipartisan resolution in the US House to condemn the organization.

The FBI determined the online cabal to be a potential source of domestic terrorism, the first time the agency had so rated a fringe conspiracy theory. In the age of the pandemic this has become an online form of a cult. A memo issued on May 30, 2019 by the FBI said, “These conspiracy theories very likely will emerge, spread, and evolve in the modern information marketplace, occasionally driving both groups and individual extremists to carry out criminal or violent acts.” West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center reported, “Though less organized than jihadi or far-right extremists, QAnon represents a novel challenge to public security,” it said, “QAnon also represents a militant and anti-establishment ideology rooted in an apocalyptic desire to destroy the existing, corrupt world to usher in a promised golden age,”

Trump had amplified QAnon messaging at least 216 times by retweeting or mentioned 129 Q Anon-affiliated Twitter accounts, sometimes multiple times a day. When asked directly, Trump praised its followers for supporting him and shrugging off its outlandish conspiracies. Trump responded, “I have heard that it’s gaining in popularity,” He followed with, “I don’t know much about the movement, other than I understand they like me very much. Which I appreciate.”

The campaign of Democratic nominee Joe Biden responded to Trump’s comments, accusing the President of “giving voice to violence.” QAnon has been connected to several incidents of violence or threatened violence.

In April 2020, an Illinois woman was arrested in New York City for driving onto a pier with a car full of knives in an apparent attempt to reach a Navy hospital ship housing COVID-19 patients. In a live stream of her travels, the woman threatened to kill Joe Biden over claims of sex trafficking. In June 2020, a Massachusetts man led police on a chase through Massachusetts and New Hampshire with his five children in the car. In a live-stream Facebook video of the event, the man discussed QAnon conspiracies. An Arizona man harassed and publicly broadcasting private or identifying information about locals he suspected of participating in the child sex trafficking ring at the heart of the conspiracy theory; and a Nevada man at the Hoover Dam whose truck was found to contain rifles and other ammunition, who was later discovered to have sent letters to President Trump containing references to the movement.

There have also been violent incidents related to a Pizzagate conspiracy theory, which claimed a pizza shop was running a child sex trafficking ring run by Hillary Clinton and other Democratic officials. One armed man entered a Washington pizzeria in 2016 to investigate the baseless theory; another man motivated by the conspiracy theory started a fire at the same pizza joint in 2019.

Mary Ann Mendoza an activist who was scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night August 25, 2020 was abruptly yanked off the program after it was reported that she had shared an anti-Semitic QAnon conspiracy theory on social media hours ahead of her scheduled appearance.

Facebook on Wednesday August 26, 2020 banned about 900 pages and groups and 1,500 ads tied to the pro-Trump conspiracy theory QAnon, part of a sweeping action that also restricted the reach of over 10,000 Instagram pages and almost 2,000 Facebook groups pushing the baseless conspiracy theory that has spawned real-world violence. The trouble is that policing on social media is difficult because the informaton can be shared in other less obvious pages and groups.

YouTube’s recommended videos algorithm, which offers content similar to what you’re currently watching, has also been identified as a radicalizing force for many who harbor extremist views, easily allowing users to go down a rabbit hole of misinformation by “slowly introducing you to ideas that are outside the norm.”

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told the Daily Dot, “I mean, the allowance of misinformation and disinformation to be widespread and frankly the Republican encouragement of that, has now kind of created this ecosystem that they no longer feel they have control of.” She listed other deep-standing issues as “the fundamental lack of trust in institutions, lack of trust in money and power that creates this very fertile ground for conspiracy theories to grow.” She added: “I think that we see how the president is weaponizing it. It’s very clear that he has identified this as an asset to him.” Simply put, the conspiracy theory helps Donald Trump’s goal of sewing division and his attacks on truth.