Conspiracy Theories: Difference between revisions
→Disinformation
Line 89:
** The scandal would lead to WikiLeaks releasing John Podesta’s emails, leading to speculation in early November 2016 that some words in said emails were code words for pedophilia and human trafficking. Proponents also claimed that the ring was a meeting ground for Satanic ritual abuse. This later spread to far-right conservative websites which posted unverified - and blatantly false - reports of Hillary’s Clinton’s property being raided and searched.
** Eventually, users of [[Twitter]] and [[4chan]] searched the leaked emails of John Podesta for food-related "code words" that supposedly revealed the existence of a sex trafficking operation. For example, The New York Times reported that the phrase "cheese pizza" was thought by a poster to 4chan to be a code word for child pornography since they had the same initials. As this spread to “mainstream internet”, an unnamed Reddit user produced the notorious Pizzagate "evidence" document, specifically pointing the finger at Comet Pizza in Washington DC. (This post was later removed.)
** To make a long story short, the “scandal” quickly became ludicrous, with sites like Infowars associating pizza with pedophilia, rape, and gory murder. Comet Pizza was harrassed and bullied by the theory’s believers. In the owner’s words, "From this insane, fabricated conspiracy theory, we've come under constant assault. I've done nothing for days but try to clean this up and protect my staff and friends from being terrorized.” Finally, this came to a head after a North Carolina man named Edgar Maddison Welch, decided to respond to Alex Jones' impassioned pleas for
** The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon Q-Anon] "scandal" seems to have branched from Pizzagate, although many of its detractors believe it started as a hoax to show conspiracy theorists how gullible they were. It worked too well. The theory started with a poster on [[4chan]] (trouble there already) claiming he was a high-ranking official in the Trump administration, with inside information about the “deep state”. Q-Anon made the unproven (and rather ridiculous) claim that special prosecutor Robert Mueller was secretly allied with President Donald Trump, and that the true purpose of his investigation was to prevent a coup d'état by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and George Soros. When it seemed people believed him, he kept at it. Claims made by the poster became increasingly absurd. To give one example:
{{quote|'''Q-Anon:''' HRC extradition already in motion effective yesterday with several countries in case of cross border run. Passport approved to be flagged effective 10/30 @ 12:01am. Expect massive riots organized in defiance and others fleeing the US to occur. US M's will conduct the operation while NG activated. Proof check: Locate a NG member and ask if activated for duty 10/30 across most major cities.}}
| |||