QAnon update 07/12/20

Bizarre new conspiracy theory about Wayfair

Pizzagate/QAnon people have Wayfair trending today. They falsely claim price glitches on storage boxes prove that the company is trafficking children.

This took off because of a post on Reddit's r/conspiracy subreddit yesterday, which is a clearinghouse for anonymous paranoia.
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) July 10, 2020

Wayfair debunks Pizzagate-esque conspiracy theory that it trafficked children in furniture https://t.co/iTd25Jb3Xa
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) July 11, 2020

I can’t believe I have to do this, but here’s a thorough debunk of the QAnon Wayfair conspiracy theory, since it’s pervasive on civilian parts of the internet.
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) July 11, 2020

QAnon is the conspiracy theory that a government official who goes by “Q” is leaving clues about Trump’s plan to dismantle Washington elites engaged in everything from pedophilia to child sex trafficking. And it's believers unequivocally support Trump. https://t.co/2Rir6MXiU7
— POLITICO (@politico) July 12, 2020

Most of these nutjobs are gonna get beat, but hey, ya never know, some might win — and then we'll be dealing with the batshit reality of a QAnon Caucus. https://t.co/fosaawiLpN
— John Heilemann (@jheil) July 12, 2020

QAnon galaxy brain logic right here: QAnon is a false flag to Make QAnon look bad. But there is something there so QAnon needs to look into it.

If we find nothing = false flag
If we find something = were right

QAnon is not about truth, it's about faith in the movements beliefs pic.twitter.com/DKEzEb6rX3
— Marc-André Argentino (@4ngl3rf1sh) July 11, 2020

“At least 11 Republican congressional nominees have publicly supported or defended the QAnon conspiracy theory movement or some of its tenets — and more aligned with the movement may still find a way onto ballots this year.“ https://t.co/UXSNRDYlWV
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) July 12, 2020

I have admittedly struggled in my writing to succinctly describe QAnon. It'd be hard to do better than "a convoluted pro-Trump conspiracy theory about a 'deep state' of child-molesting Satanist traitors plotting against the president." https://t.co/ATZDPz6F26
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) July 14, 2020

The Pizzagate conspiracy theory is back

I can’t imagine how anyone could believe this nonsense. The right wing will never stop attacking Hillary Clinton.

TikTok teens have become obsessed with Pizzagate, with the conspiracy theory racking up nearly 70 million views on the app. https://t.co/GlPwPrLoFb
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) June 22, 2020

NEW: How PizzaGate Returned. New audiences and a dangerous daisy-chain of social media giving it new life. The harms are real: death threats into Comet on the rise: w/ @sheeraf https://t.co/uVoCYF5sTm
— CeciliaKang (@ceciliakang) June 27, 2020

Looks like the @nytimes ripped off my TikTok Pizzagate story a week later, then buried a tiny credit to @thedailybeast on the 23rd (!) paragraph https://t.co/GlPwPrLoFb https://t.co/QhaaL91EgZ
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) June 27, 2020

Well-reported deep dive on the ugly legacy of Pizzagate and the real, law-abiding citizens that it dogged.https://t.co/GEL8TaSeyP
— Dan Lamothe (@DanLamothe) February 16, 2021

Right wing media spreads conspiracy theories and misinformation

Let’s just say they lie a lot.

Three new studies about conservative media and Covid-19 "paint a picture of a media ecosystem that amplifies misinformation, entertains conspiracy theories and discourages audiences from taking concrete steps to protect themselves and others." https://t.co/EkMFU3O2ND
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) June 25, 2020

Three research studies now give devastating weight to what many intuitively knew: That Fox and other pro-Trump media lulled their audiences into not taking coronavirus seriously in the crucial early days. My column, building on @_cingraham's analysis: https://t.co/TIkrLhr67Y
— Margaret Sullivan (@Sulliview) June 28, 2020

George Soros conspiracy theories are back

Right-wing extremists are doing Putin’s work for him. They can never accept the idea that people can protest without being paid to do it. They are trying to delegitimize the very valid reasons for the protests.

I’ve said this before, and it is worth repeating: I don’t think Ginni Thomas should be doing any political activism, let alone sharing bigoted tropes. We don’t hear about this stuff from any of the other justices’ spouses. https://t.co/T5Yv5NztPn
— Brian Rosenwald (@brianros1) October 14, 2020

Newt Gingrich: "The number one problem in almost all the cities is George Soros-elected, left-wing, antipolice pro-criminal district attorneys…"

Fox hos: "I’m not sure we need to bring George Soros into this."

Newt: "Okay… So, it’s verboten?"

Long awkward silence. pic.twitter.com/tl4CgGcrzI
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) September 16, 2020

Soros is to this era what the Templars were to hermetic and Grail conspiracy: a necessary ingredient. Why? Because QAnon and its predecessors and crazy offshoots are anti-Semitic celebrity-based ravings for people too lazy to learn any history. It’s the Reality TV of conspiracy. https://t.co/xykh2q4aWH
— Michael Marshall Smith (@ememess) July 12, 2020

The George Soros conspiracy theories were first heavily weaponized and leveraged by the Kremlin after Soros publicly criticized Putin in 2014 https://t.co/SdZnbQNMx0
— Brooke Binkowski (@brooklynmarie) June 22, 2020

Experts who study conspiracy theories say the false claims about George Soros, the billionaire investor and philanthropist, are a way to delegitimize the protests and the actual reasons behind them https://t.co/nVuV8twjAt
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) June 22, 2020

The Soros stuff is just a repackaging of anti-Semitic lies going all the way back to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion ruse that spurred on the Holocaust.

It's all part of the same hateful cycle. Protocols. The New World Order. The Deep State. Qanon.

Fascism. It's fascism. https://t.co/ELblxZJgpu
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) June 22, 2020

The Shake Shack conspiracy theory

—@nypost with a tick-tock on "how conspiracy theories about the NYPD Shake Shack 'poisoning' blew up" https://t.co/mGKZaekmIV
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) June 22, 2020

Two police unions were behind the false rumor that Shake Shack workers intentionally poisoned three NYPD cops.

One union president initially blamed the disproven milkshake attack on "vicious criminals who dislike us simply because of the uniform we wear."https://t.co/FHFslqXP3L
— julia reinstein 🚡 (@juliareinstein) June 16, 2020

NYPD clears Shake Shack employees against whom two of the city’s police unions had made incendiary accusations late Monday night. https://t.co/bsJsijzdPH
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) June 16, 2020

Fun part of the hyped claim that NY police were poisoned is the police union’s immediate/unequivocal declarations that officers were targeted and of the risks they faced. No hesitation. No call to probe further. Basically, the union statement in every fucking police shooting. https://t.co/bTwesdtJAB
— David Simon (@AoDespair) June 16, 2020

After a thorough investigation by the NYPD’s Manhattan South investigators, it has been determined that there was no criminality by shake shack’s employees.
— Chief Rodney Harrison (@NYPDDetectives) June 16, 2020

just updated my piece in the wake of the stunning report today that the three officers at the center of the "poisoning" were never sick and never even felt any symptoms.

the whole tale was invented by NYPD brass—and the press hyped it nonstop; https://t.co/W8FyFv5iBe
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) June 22, 2020

NYPD lied. Police lie. All the time. https://t.co/gzFFrQWxV5
— Touré (@Toure) June 22, 2020

Texas Republican Party racists

All Republicans aren’t racists but there sure are lots of them. Disgusting!

A dozen Texas GOP county chairs shared George Floyd conspiracy theories and racists memes https://t.co/3tpcmgoybu
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 6, 2020

The Republican chairs of four Texas counties are sharing unfounded conspiracy theories about George Floyd's death https://t.co/UFQtvNqoys pic.twitter.com/tws3FhDAm5
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) June 6, 2020

Sid Miller falsely says George Soros orchestrated George Floyd protests | The Texas Tribune https://t.co/QTS3QJPQ6f
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) June 6, 2020

A Texas Republican county chair-elect won't assume office amid backlash for posting a controversial image of an MLK quote with a banana https://t.co/G0Jg4CV8Bl pic.twitter.com/HrLr9ARWZx
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) June 7, 2020

Does suburban white collar Texas look at this and say: yes these are the people I belong with! https://t.co/2goGNJILDv
— Ronald Brownstein (@RonBrownstein) June 6, 2020

White supremacists pose as Antifa

Twitter says it suspended several hundred accounts and is investigating the viral spread of the hashtag, which it says was boosted by "hundreds of spammy accounts." https://t.co/9CvRni4wmt
— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 2, 2020

White supremacists are now engaging in what Russians call active measures, posing as Antifa and inciting violence. https://t.co/dJBHBkh5JV
— Barb McQuade (@BarbMcQuade) June 2, 2020

After falling for multiple hoaxes about antifa, Fox Nation host @laralogan now promotes a joke tweet claiming antifa calls their members “juggalos”. pic.twitter.com/OBKgivL4w2
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) June 5, 2020

Trump in May

To some of the senators, Trump seemed obsessed not with saving lives but with appearing politically strong… But resigned to their belief that his conduct could not be changed, they did not share their unease with Trump or with the public. https://t.co/Q5T9BUYMKN
— Robert Costa (@costareports) May 31, 2020

The dangers of conspiracy theories

Excellent column

It doesn’t much matter if someone thinks that UFOs landed at Roswell— but it matters greatly if someone thinks that the coronavirus isn’t real or that a vaccine may be more dangerous than the disease. Such beliefs pose a danger to public health. https://t.co/reOUvSuOog
— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) May 23, 2020

If the United Stares had a responsible president who cared about public health and safety—and who set an example by wearing a mask—shit like this just might not happen. https://t.co/I9SCPWDaOE
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) May 23, 2020

Americans who “often” use social media to get COVID-19 news reported higher levels of exposure to the conspiracy theory that the pandemic was intentionally planned & were more likely to have watched some of the conspiracy “Plandemic” video. https://t.co/3yWNs1prTp pic.twitter.com/ImiC5MNklh
— Pew Research Journalism (@pewjournalism) July 10, 2020