Conspiracy Theorists’ Delight
“Whichever group is the most firm in its devotion and has the best mimetic potential will win.
Civic nationalists and libertarians will find themselves in the white nationalist boat before long.”
Right-wing Boogaloo Intel Drop channel wrote to its more than 9,000 followers before the inauguration.
The passion behind those who build their lives and their power base predicated on conspiracy theories find being banned on Facebook (Instagram too), YouTube and Twitter – even as they watched the unraveling of Parler when denied access to their underlying Amazon-based Web portal – merely a challenge. They know their followers are looking for links, and their Web experts know that a clever meme attracts like no other. There is an entire level of meme driven communication, almost a secret language if you will, for those looking for those dark secrets that will unravel the mysteries needed to explain “what’s really going on” and “what I really can do about it.” Only they have the ultimate solution.
Even as we know (or should know) that there isn’t a single conspiracy theory that truly augurs for a better society – most seek to blame others, usually predicated on hatred and often built around a personality cult. After all, if a conspiracy theory is true, it isn’t a theory. Oddly, that confirmation of truth never comes, and in the meantime, a whole lot of people can get hurt… and society itself can destabilize and unravel. The January 6th events at the Capitol, repeated at state capitol buildings in several states, provide a strong example. Likewise, Hitler’s ultimate “final solution to the Jewish question” literally blamed all of post WWI Germany’s ills on Jews with horrible results. And while that right-wing conspiracy theory offed 13 million hapless victims (including 6 million Jews), Stalin’s left-wing pogroms and enforced starvation probably led directly to the death of as many as 45 million people.
When things go wrong for any significant segment of the population, where change alters the playing field often leaving people feeling abandoned and left behind, there seems to be a natural human proclivity toward finding people to blame and to believe in those new “warriors” and “leaders” who are the only ones to save society for those seeming being excluded. This proclivity explains a lot of historical events, especially in the 20th and 21st centuries.
QAnon is one of the most bizarre but exceptionally widespread conspiracy theories, and even though virtually all of their most basic tenets were totally blown out of the water – the “Storm” did not cleanse the election and extend Donald Trump’s presidency, Biden’s electoral vote was actually accepted by Congress even with GOP support, Trump skulked away and purported “pedophile leader” Hillary Clinton and that Democratic cabal that was about to be arrested or otherwise disposed of are still around – they did not die; they are reconfiguring. One vapid QAnon theory that was actually making the rounds explained that the inauguration was faked and that the “President” was merely a lookalike.
This all may sound absurd to empirically driven people – where “alternative facts” are truly just lies with a cleansing name – but to those believers, these weird theories are uber-truths. Gospel. And whether the groups are on the left or the right, they are developing an increasingly sophisticated understanding of how to recruit new members and hold them together on new platforms that overcome the exclusions noted above. After the election, there’s a little conspiracy theory adjusting going on. And more than a few guns. The FBI and Homeland Security tell us that the associated domestic terrorism is our nation’s biggest existential problem; conspiracy theorists tell us that they are this nation’s only hope for salvation.
“Far-right leaders across the nation — disillusioned by former President Trump’s defeat and banished from mainstream social media — have launched recruitment drives in new radicalization efforts that have turned into a ‘meme war’ among groups such as the Boogaloo Bois, the Proud Boys and the Three Percenters.
“In the days following the Capitol riot, right-wing extremists who lost Parler accounts or were suspended from Facebook and Twitter migrated to Telegram and gained a following of tens of thousands of Trump supporters looking to vent anger and promote extremist views. The groups are competing for a surge of new users on alternative platforms while refocusing their messages on militant nationalism, white supremacy and conspiracy theories.
“At a gun rights protest in Richmond, Va., days before the inauguration of President Biden, local Boogaloo Bois leader Mike Dunn marched with an AR-15-style rifle in defiance of a local ordinance. He would later use a photo of himself at the protest to create a meme on TikTok, where he has more than 74,000 followers. Mingling with fellow members in the group’s signature Hawaiian shirts, Dunn said he hoped the online meme war spreading across channels and forums would energize prospective followers on the right and left… ‘We want people who walk away from Trump and authoritarianism to join us,’ Dunn said in an interview later. ‘Memes play a role on the younger generation and we are winning.’…
“Extremists are attracting followers through memes that highlight threats they see to far-right causes from Biden’s presidency. Their concerns span a range of invectives — including opposition to immigration and hate toward progressives — that reveal their common ground and differences. Some focus on Biden potentially restricting gun rights, others on his efforts to expand LGBTQ protections. They target their opposition to Zionism, government lockdowns and vaccines.
“Several right-wing Telegram channels have nearly tripled their followings since the Capitol riot, said Alexander Reid Ross, a professor at Portland State University who tracks right-wing groups. One of the most popular channels, Proud Boys: Uncensored, went from 16,415 followers to more than 43,000, he said. Another channel, Blackpilled, more than doubled to more than 22,000 followers. Both are replete with memes aimed at recruiting older Trump supporters, or ‘boomerwaffen.’
“When Telegram takes channels down for violating terms of service, or when channels are spammed by critics, they often morph into new ones. Blackpilled started as Breadpilled before Telegram shut it down. Followers who click on these channels’ memes are led to even more extreme ‘terrorgram’ channels featuring racist and anti-Semitic memes, including a recently posted cartoon of Trump wearing a Star of David while stabbing a MAGA-hat-wearing supporter in the back.
“Radicalized followers can easily turn violent, Ross said, noting the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville by Anthony Quinn Warner, 63, a computer technician who espoused conspiracy theories. After the bombing, QAnon supporters took to Telegram to debate whether Warner was a Q-influenced terrorist or ‘boomer bomber.’ Days later, Trump supporter James Turgeon, 33 — who had shared ‘Stop the Steal’ memes on Facebook — was charged with staging a nearby copycat attack, driving a truck broadcasting a warning similar to the one Warner had played. Turgeon didn’t have a bomb… ‘They’re disillusioned, they’re frustrated and abandoning a political approach to an ideological problem,’ Ross said of Trump supporters.” Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Richard Read writing for the January 28th Los Angeles Times. Odd that a Hawaiian shirt has in itself become a meme for those well-armed, right-wing Boogaloo Bois.
Even for those who have abandoned Trump as their leader and savior, they most certainly have not abandoned the toxicity of their need to force their solution on everybody else. For those who hide under a mantel of “free speech” or “listening to both sides of the issues,” they should be aware that they are providing the driving hope of finding new recruits for these proselytizers of blame and hatred. Is it acceptable, then, for you to yell “fire” in crowded theater just because you can? Because you can make people jump and do what you want?
I’m Peter Dekom, and our democracy, enhanced by social media, is woefully unprepared for this onslaught of false narratives in support of extremists looking for recruits, but if we don’t figure out how to contain this contagion, we just might wind up living inside a brutal autocracy.
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