White supremacists and far-right extremists are deploying Covid-19 conspiracy theories on Telegram to “expand their reach and recruit followers,” the AP reports.
“The tactic has been successful: Nine of the 10 most viewed posts in the sample examined by the researchers contained misleading claims about the safety of vaccines or the pharmaceutical companies manufacturing them. One Telegram channel saw its total subscribers jump tenfold after it leaned into Covid-19 conspiracy theories.”
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) tweeted that “365,348 children went missing in 2020” and criticized “the media” for lacking coverage of that statistic, Insider reports.
She added: “There enlies the problem,” appearing to intend to use the phrase, “therein lies.”
“While that number is technically correct — there were 365,348 reports of missing children entered into the FBI’s National Crime Information Center database last year — nearly 95% of those were categorized as runaways, or children who leave home without permission and stay away for at least one night.”
Jitarth Jadeja: “I left QAnon back in 2019, but I don’t seem to be able to walk away. I talk about my experience a lot — to the Washington Post, CNN and Rolling Stone magazine among many others. I even apologized to Anderson Cooper on his show for having once thought that he ate babies.”
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Daily Beast: “Former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn has embraced his position as a hero to QAnon conspiracy theorists. He took the QAnon oath, sold QAnon T-shirts, and even auctioned off a QAnon quilt. He appeared at a QAnon convention and signed books with a QAnon slogan. Some QAnon followers even believe that Flynn is “Q,” the mysterious figure behind QAnon.”
“But a recording released late Saturday night by a one-time Flynn ally suggests that the retired three-star general privately believes QAnon to be ‘total nonsense.’”
Former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn said that Covid was intentionally released on the world by “Global Elites,” but “their little plan with covid didn’t work” because “digital warriors” exposed the truth.
He added: “So I think what we’re going to see is potentially another type of virus that’s imposed on the public.”
“MyPillow chief and 2020 dead-ender Mike Lindell has long promised that he would file an election-fraud complaint with the Supreme Court on Tuesday morning,” the Daily Beast reports.
“But now he claims to have missed that goal because he was silenced by Republican National Committee Chairperson Ronna McDaniel.”
At least 100 QAnon supporters convinced that John F. Kennedy or his son is coming back gathered in Dallas yesterday on the anniversary of the former president’s assassination.
Larry Sabato: “Beyond belief. Notice all the Trump signs. In 58 years Dealey Plaza has gone from the insanely tragic to just the insane.”
QAnon supporters are gathering for an event in Texas at which they falsely believe John F. Kennedy, Jr. will reveal he is not dead and announce a 2024 presidential run with Donald Trump, the Independent reports.
NBC News: “In summer 2019, a new Facebook user named Carol Smith signed up for the platform, describing herself as a politically conservative mother from Wilmington, North Carolina. Smith’s account indicated an interest in politics, parenting and Christianity and followed a few of her favorite brands, including Fox News and then-President Donald Trump.”
“Though Smith had never expressed interest in conspiracy theories, in just two days Facebook was recommending she join groups dedicated to QAnon, a sprawling and baseless conspiracy theory and movement that claimed Trump was secretly saving the world from a cabal of pedophiles and Satanists.”
“Smith didn’t follow the recommended QAnon groups, but whatever algorithm Facebook was using to determine how she should engage with the platform pushed ahead just the same. Within one week, Smith’s feed was full of groups and pages that had violated Facebook’s own rules, including those against hate speech and disinformation.”
Right radio host and conspiracy theorist Rick Wiles claimed that Covid-19 vaccines contain “an egg that hatches into a synthetic parasite and grows inside your body.”
“When crazy comes knocking at the door, you’ve got to slam it shut, that’s all there is to it. I don’t care what party you are from.”
— New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R), interviewed on CNN, responding to GOP lawmakers spreading wild conspiracy theories about Covid vaccines.
“It looks like Ron Watkins, a prominent figure in the QAnon movement who many believe is Q himself, filed paperwork indicating he might run for Congress from Arizona on Thursday,” Vice News reports.
Far-right attorney Lin Wood called Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) “a communist” because she is “running around saying Impeach Biden” which implies “that Biden won. He didn’t,” Mediaite reports.
Greene responded to Wood’s insult by invoking allegations that he leeched off of Kyle Rittenhouse’s legal defense fund: “He lifts up his Bible high and lies and lies. He’s not one of us.”
Sidney Powell, one of the attorneys who worked on Donald Trump’s election legal team, now claims that the U.S. military and intelligence services stole the 2020 election for Joe Biden.
New York Times: “When a conspiracy theory started circulating in China suggesting that the coronavirus escaped from an American military lab, it had largely stayed on the fringe. Now, the ruling Communist Party has propelled the idea firmly into the mainstream.”
“This week, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman repeatedly used an official podium to elevate unproven ideas that the coronavirus may have first leaked from a research facility in Fort Detrick, Md.”
Peter Feaman, a top RNC official in Florida, has spread anti-vaccine rhetoric and misinformation, comparing the Biden administration’s vaccine efforts to Nazi-era “brown shirts,” and twice calling the vaccines “the mark of the beast,” a reference to a symbol from the biblical Book of Revelations showing allegiance to Satan, CNN reports.
A new PRRI poll finds that 42% of vaccine refusers are also QAnon believers.
Among the vaccine hesitant, 22% are QAnon believers.
Elliot Morris: “Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) and others have argued that a decline in religiosity in America has left people vulnerable to the false spiritual satisfaction of conspiracy theories and sectarianism, for example in QAnon.”
“But we find the opposite. The least religious are the least credulous.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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