Why give it oxygen?
replies(6):
(Unfortunately, Reply-Grok may have been successfully partially lobotomized for the long term, now. At the time of writing, if you ask grok.com about the 2020 election it says Biden won and Trump's fraud claims are not substantiated and have no merit. If you @grok in a tweet it now says Trump's claims of fraud have significant merit, when previously it did not. Over the past few days I've seen it place way too much charity in right-wing framings in other instances, as well.)
It feels like we've reached Peak Stupidity but it's clear it can (and likely will) get much worse with AI videos.
Here's a short list of RW conspiracy theories with real life political consequences:
- Antivax conspiracies
- Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States ("birther" conspiracy)
- Biden / Ukraine conspiracy theory
- The litany of Covid-19 conspiracy theories
- The "deep state" conspiracy theory
- Sarah Palin's "death panels" conspiracy theory
- Sandy Hook was fake
- 2020 Election Fraud
- Trump / Ukraine conspiracy theory
- QAnon
For a left example, there are people who theorize that the guy who missed putting a bullet in Trump's brain must've been a false flag operator. Although it must be mentioned that "leftie" conspiracy theories are mostly just on social media, while "right" ones end up being broadcast by congresspeople and senators, probably because they know their side will take them at face value..
1. The Iraq war was a plot to steal oil reserves
2. World Economic Forum / IMF intentionally impoverish nations
3. Police across America are systematically hunting and executing Black men (thousands per year), but are protected by racist institutions
4. Trump assassination attempts were false flag operations
5. Big Pharma deliberately hides natural cures for cancer to protect corporate profits
It's like 50x less of an issue but I deal with so many left-wing conspiracies on a daily basis. I think the right is much worse than the left (on this topic and in general) but quite a lot of the left, or at least the populist left/populist far-left is, to me, its own particular sort of exhaustingly insufferability. I am proudly a left-liberal and not a centrist and never won't be, but I am still at a point where I can no longer tolerate a big sub-faction of the left. (Though I can't tolerate basically any of the right, minus a bit of the anti-Trump center-right.) I am going to lose my mind when I see vast numbers of leftists demand people not vote for the Democratic party presidential candidate in 2028.
While it's difficult to deny Trump was a de facto asset of Putin in many ways, a surprising number of people were almost entering right-wing conspiracy theory territory with their epistemological practices regarding Trump's personal involvement with Putin.
Right-wing conspiracism is orders of magnitude worse and more frequent than left-wing conspiracism, but some people were way too willing to believe some of the more radical Russian collusion speculation despite no evidence.
Also, I think it's important to separate "left of center" and "leftist". Liberals and leftists are very different. "Progressive left-liberals" are fans of democracy and freedom and don't like bigotry and authoritarianism and Trump. "Leftists" are often fans of Lenin and Stalin and Pol Pot and killing groups of people who aren't ideologically aligned and instating one-party dictatorships and violently suppressing dissent. In leftist parlance, "leftist" = "Marxist" while "liberal" = "capitalist belonging to the moderate wing of fascism". In the US, politics is best described as not two but four factions: leftists, liberals, rightists, and neo-Nazis. Often neo-Nazis will form coalitions with the rightists to help achieve major goals; historically leftists would form coalitions with the liberals, but this seems to be occurring less and less.
Although leftists will insist the notion is absurd and anti-intellectual, horseshoe theory contains a lot of truth in it.
Yes, agents provocateur are a persistent threat for delegitimizing protests.
An in-depth look at the problem: https://acleddata.com/report/demonstrations-and-political-vi...
