Yesterday at least 100 people died, 4.000 were injured, and 250,000 were left homeless in Beirut (Lebanon) from an explosion of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, primarily used as an agricultural fertilizer. Prime Minister Hassan Diab said the unsecured chemical storage had been unsupervised after it had been taken in 2014 from a leaky Russian ship making an unscheduled stop at Beirut where it was abandoned. At the beginning of his press briefing (aka campaign speech), Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) started a conspiracy theory by calling the tragedy a “terrible attack” with no evidence. DDT’s own officials won’t confirm DDT’s theory, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the explosion was likely an accident, and the U.S. is not increasing protections for U.S. troops in the region. A welder working nearby may have caused a fire behind the disaster that killed less than ten percent of the people who daily die in the U.S. from COVID-19. [visual – Beirut]
That’s how conspiracy theories start: an irresponsible person makes a comment, and conservatives glom onto it for their personal advantage. Current conspiracy theories, especially those about COVID-19, are killing people. While other countries are closer to controlling COVID-19, the U.S. gets worse and worse as conservative media infect the nation with lies and lunacy. Former presidential candidate Herman Cain, who didn’t believe masks were of any use against COVID-19, was tested positive nine days after he attended DDT’s Tulsa (OK) campaign rally where he wore no mask and sat close to the people next to him. Before Cain announced his diagnosis on July 2, he praised DDT for not mandating masks at the July 3 Mt. Rushmore event. He tweeted, “PEOPLE ARE FED UP!” Cain spent most of July in a hospital and died on July 30 from COVID-19.
Just last week:
Saturday: Ultra far-right Sinclair Broadcasting, requiring its outlets to run pro-DDT commentary and reaching 40 percent of the U.S. through 200 stations including the ABC outlet in Portland (OR), interviewed conspiracy theorist Judy Mikovits about her belief that infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci had created COVID-19 in a lab from a monkey and “shipped the cell lines to Wuhan, China.” Social media banned a video featuring her because of its dangerously falsehoods such as keeping beaches open for the “healing microbes” in the water. Mikovits also accused Fauci of ordering a murder as “part of a cover-up burying Mikovits’ research.” Interviewer Eric Bolling made no attempt to refute her false assertions other than calling them “hefty.” Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI) has promoted her in a House hearing as an expert on the virus. Sinclair decided to “delay” the episode’s airing but received a great deal of attention on the interview with no correction, including on Bolling’s Facebook page where it was viewed thousands of times before being pulled.
Monday: DDT retweeted a video from so-called doctors asserting masks are unnecessary and pronouncing hydroxychloroquine a “cure for COVID.” It features Dr. Stella Immanuel who purports that “reptilians” and other aliens run the government as well as claiming that having sex with demons can cause illnesses like cysts and endometriosis. According to Immanuel, space alien DNA is used in medical treatments, and scientists are developing a vaccine to keep people from being religious. DDT retweeted Immanuel’s recommendation of using hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19. [visual Misinformation]
Tuesday: Twitter temporarily suspended accounts of Donald Trump, Jr. and Kelli Ward, former doctor and the chair of the Arizona GOP, for sharing the Immanuel video, and DDT defended her at his press conference (aka campaign rally). Asked about his approval and recommendations of her, DDT said, “I thought she was very impressive … but I don’t know anything about her.”
Wednesday: Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), a Fox favorite who tested positive for the virus, is so doubtful about transmitting the disease that he insisted on telling his staffers in person inside the House’s office building had “berated” his staff for wearing masks, according to one of his aides. He blamed wearing a mask for his infection.
For the first time ever, Facebook has deleted DDT’s misinformation about COVID-19, a clip from an interview with Fox network in which DDT said that children have almost complete immunity to the virus. FB stated the post contained “harmful Covid misinformation,” and U.S. public health advice stated that children have no immunity. Twitter froze the @TeamTrump account until the same posting, “in violation of the Twitter Rules on COVID-19 misinformation,” was removed.
Facebook is likely to include DDT’s campaign misinformation: its fact-checker is Tucker Carlson’s The Daily Caller, which also works for GOP campaigns and publishes false stories and content written by white supremacists.
QAnon is one of the most dangerous conspiracy theory groups, and DDT has retweeted at least 90 times from 49 QAnon accounts in the few months since the beginning of the pandemic. He has moved his fringe base into the mainstream with their beliefs that he is trying to take down the Satanist, child-trafficking “deep state.” Desperate for voters, DDT panders to this group of extremists.
In Tuesday’s Arizona primary, Daniel Wood became the 16th QAnon candidate for Congress, facing incumbent Rep. Raúl Grijalva in the 3rd Congressional District. The FBI has listed QAnon under “conspiracy theory-driven extremists.” Michael Flynn has started using QAnon slogans. Lauren Beobert, QAnon GOP candidate for Colorado’s the 3rd Congressional District, refused to shut down her bar to dine-in patrons until the courts forced her to do it. [Left: Boebert speaking at a watch-party on the night of her winning primary.] Other states have QAnon congressional candidates: Illinois (2); California (5), New Jersey (1); Florida (1); Oregon (1); Georgia (2); Ohio (1); and Texas (1). Media Matters found almost 60 congressional candidates who follow some QAnon beliefs.
Jo Rae Perkins, running for the U.S. senate, wanted martial law in Oregon two months ago to fight the nonexistent antifa activists bused to rural towns such as Klamath Falls and Bend after the fake anti-Semitic news about George Soros paying them to destroy the towns. Only crowds of heavily armed white supremacists showed up. She also prayed to God for his “warring angels to protect the cities.”
People who get their news from social-media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are more likely to believe false theories about the virus and avoid remedial practices such as social distancing and mask wearing. They also tend to be more ignorant and misinformed than people who use sources of print, news websites, or network television.
DDT uses social media in his war on traditional media to sow confusion and chaos. In The Atlantic, McKay Coppins cites work from political theorist Hannah Arendt who warned “totalitarian leaders are able to instill in their followers “a mixture of gullibility and cynicism.” DDT is killing people with misinformation; with COVID-19, most Republicans have lost their grip on reality.
A mid-July study shows Fox network spreading misinformation about COVID-19 253 times in five days. In 115 times, hosts and speakers challenged scientific consensus and undermined official government recommendations. Part of the misinformation was to push reopening businesses and schools—over 12 times per Laura Ingraham show on Primetime for a total of 63 times. Fox & Friends came in second place with 45 instances; Hannity and Tucker Carlson Tonight almost tied for third with 21 and 20 instances. One-third came from “news” programs led by Martha MacCallum’s The Story with 20 claims. Remember this all happened in five days. The network politicized the pandemic with 51 claims that regulations requiring masks and closing businesses were rooted in politics.
According to studies, the wider the audience for Sean Hannity, the higher the rates of infections and deaths from COVID-19. Hannity watchers had 32 percent more cases on March 14 and 23 percent more on March 28 than Tucker Carlson watchers who warned about dangers of the virus in early February.
Margaret Sullivan writes about DDT’s promoting Stella Immanuel and hydroxychloroquine in “This was the week America lost the war on misinformation”:
“America has waved the white flag and surrendered… We’ve not only lost the public-health war, we’ve lost the war for truth. Misinformation and lies have captured the castle. And the bad guys’ most powerful weapon? Social media—in particular, Facebook…
“A low point, certainly, in a long series of them over the past few year—all happening even as congressional Republicans tried to turn Wednesday’s appearance by four titans of tech at a landmark antitrust hearing into a politicized rant about how social media doesn’t give conservatives a fair shot.
“This is patently untrue, also.”
Sullivan repeated Arendt’s quote in Coppins’ Atlantic article in her conclusion:
“People are conditioned to ‘believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true.’ And then such leaders can do pretty much whatever they wish.
“We should be afraid.”
August 5: U.S. COVID-19 cases – 4,973,568; deaths – 161,601.