We’ve all met them…
Tag: conspiracy theories
Wieambilla shooting: property owner Gareth Train posted regularly on conspiracy website before police killed
Gareth Train, the owner of a rural Queensland property where six people, including two police officers, were shot and killed on Monday, had become deeply entangled in an online conspiracy community, where he posted about a mistrust of police and claims the Port Arthur massacre was a false-flag operation.
The Queensland police commissioner, Katarina Carroll, on Tuesday said there had been “a lot of ammunition and weaponry” at the property, at Wieambilla in the Western Downs, and that the killed officers “did not stand a chance”.
Property records show the land is owned by Gareth Train and his wife, Stacey. Police went to the property on Monday afternoon looking for Gareth’s brother, Nathaniel Train, who had been reported missing by family members.
Two police officers, constables Matthew Arnold, 26, and Rachel McCrow, 29, were shot and killed after arriving at the property and a third officer was injured and taken to hospital. Neighbour Alan Dare, 58, was also shot dead by the armed offenders.
Gareth and Nathaniel Train and a woman, who has not yet been identified, were subsequently shot and killed in an operation involving 16 tactical police about six hours later.
A person who knew Gareth and his wife said they believed he had been sucked into online conspiracy theories in recent years.
He appears to have been a prolific poster on an alternative website that posts conspiracy, anti-authoritarian and other articles. He said in one recent post he had been “ark homesteading for the past five years preparing to survive tomorrow”.
“When it becomes clear that we are in a time like no other and you head out into the wilderness to escape persecution, know that my wife and I will offer refuge to all brothers and sisters,” he posted.
“I will be scanning the UHF channels when that times comes.”
Gareth said the Port Arthur massacre in 1996 – Australia’s deadliest mass shooting – had been a “false flag” operation to “disarm the Australian population”.
He also posted about his mistrust for authorities, including comments critical of the Queensland Special Emergency Response Team (Sert), which ultimately arrived at the property and is understood to have shot him.
“If you are a conservative, anti-vaxx [sic], freedom lover, protester, common law, conspiracy talker, alternative news, independent critical thinker, truther, Christian, patriot etc etc expect a visit from these hammers,” he said.
Gareth also posted about working in the Queensland child protection and education systems and appeared pre-occupied with the notion the government was running “re-education camps”.
Deep State interference was a conspiracy theory, until it wasn’t
Under the direction of Elon Musk, troves of files regarding Twitter’s dealings have been made public. We’re seeing just how much government bureaucrats colluded with the tech company to justify the suppression of stories which detailed the extent of the Biden family corruption. We can safely assume that government officials also had discussions with other media outlets because the suppression of the story was almost universal. Any journalist worth a lick would have known about the kickbacks to Hunter from Burisma, and would have been aware of the video which recorded Joe Biden dangling $1 billion of taxpayer money to coerce the Ukrainian government to fire a prosecutor looking into the corruption.
Now, most media outlets are also suppressing the Twitter Files. These agencies are clearly more outraged at Musk’s transparency than with government interference in elections, which just illustrates the media’s willingness to aid and abet. They are clearly out to silence Musk.
When Trump and other conservatives talked about a “Deep State” of government bureaucrats, the complicit media called the claim a conspiracy theory — yet when bureaucrats seek to control the narrative and talking points and subjugate what should be a free press, that is exactly what we’re talking about.
The media and other government officials claimed that everything Dr. Fauci said was gospel, no matter how much he got wrong. They squelched people who disagreed so the public wouldn’t challenge government edicts. They falsely labeled the theory that the Wuhan lab was the origin source as a disproven conspiracy theory.
The Washington Post ran a story mocking the notion there may be nefarious actors in our unchecked federal agencies which was titled, “The ‘deep state’: From scholarly critique to toxic conspiracy theory”. The piece read:
Even Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-diseases expert, who has become America’s Doctor in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, has been accused of being a deep state actor.
One of the silliest efforts to discredit the entrenchment of a “Deep State” was made by CNN, which declared:
President Donald Trump is deeply invested in the idea that there is a ‘Deep State’ embedded within the government bureaucracy – and centered in the Department of Justice – which actively worked to defeat him in 2016 and then sought to undermine him once he won the presidency.
That conspiracy theory, which has never had much merit, suffered a near-fatal blow Friday afternoon when the Department of Justice declined to pursue criminal charges against former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe.
That might be the most ridiculous circular logic I’ve ever read — there’s no “Deep State” because a corrupt government bureaucracy failed to find fault in one of their own. Gee, that’s convincing.
What We Know—and Don’t Know—About Recent Power Grid Attacks
The lights are coming back on in Moore County, North Carolina, where tens of thousands of people were plunged into darkness after two power substations were shot up over the weekend.
But days later, there are still no answers about who might have been responsible for the attack or what their motivation was.
The attack on the Duke Energy substations coincided with a planned drag show in Southern Pines that had been the target of an escalating harassment campaign by far-right extremists in the area. The timing fueled speculation that the attack could have been ideologically motivated, part of an increasingly violent assault on LGBTQ rights and events nationwide.
So far, law enforcement have not found evidence that the drag show and substation attack were linked, but anti-LGBTQ terrorism has not been ruled out as a potential motive, sources told CNN. Investigators are also exploring other possibilities—including whether the attack in Moore County is part of a broader campaign from extremists to attack critical infrastructure in the U.S.
Law enforcement, however, appears certain that whoever was responsible for the attack “knew exactly what they were doing,” Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said Sunday. Investigators found nearly two dozen shell casings at the crime scenes. The office also applied for search warrants earlier this week.
The attacks took place on Saturday night at around 7 p.m., local time, when one or more people shot up two separate substations using high-powered rifles. Residents in the area lost power and heat for several days, as temperatures fell to 30 degrees Fahrenheit. The state of North Carolina, Moore County, and Duke Energy are offering $25,000 reward for information each, totaling $75,000. The FBI also posted a public notice seeking information about the attack.
While investigators search for clues, news of other recent attacks on power substations elsewhere in the U.S. have also come to light. At least five such attacks on electricity substations in Oregon and Washington were reported to the FBI since late November, The Seattle Times reported.
Oregon Public Broadcasting obtained memos by Kenneth Worstell, a security specialist with the Bonneville Power Administration (the federal agency that markets hydropower across the Pacific Northwest). They offered some details on an attack on a power station in Clackamas County on Thanksgiving morning.
Worstell wrote that two individuals cut through the fence surrounding that facility and then “used firearms to shoot up and disable numerous pieces of equipment and cause significant damage.” Worstell also described attacks on several other substations in western Washington, which entailed “setting the control houses on fire, forced entry and sabotage of intricate electrical control systems.” They also caused short circuits by tossing chains into the overhead web of wires and switches.
He said that they were dealing with “quickly escalating incidents of sabotage” and noted that online extremist groups encourage such attacks.
On Wednesday evening, 146 miles south of Moore County, CBS reported yet another possible incident involving critical infrastructure, also belonging to Duke Energy. An individual in a truck opened fire near crews outside the Wateree Hydro Station in Ridgeway, South Carolina, before driving off. Local authorities have since determined the shooting in South Carolina to be “a random act” that just happened to take place near a hydro station and had no discernible connection to the attacks in North Carolina.
And in September, half a dozen “intrusions” were reported at Duke Energy facilities in Florida, according to federal documents obtained by NewsNation. In at least two of those incidents, the intruder manually tripped equipment that caused short power outages.
Critical infrastructure has long been eyed as a desirable target by accelerationist neo-Nazis —who seek the collapse of society through destabilizing, violent acts—and anti-government extremists. Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security circulated an intelligence bulletin warning that, since 2020, domestic violent extremists had “developed credible, specific plans to attack electricity infrastructure.” The bulletin mentioned that power companies had been on the receiving end of escalating threats between 2020 and 2021 from extremists.
In February, three men between the ages of 20 and 24 were arrested as part of an alleged plot to attack power substation using powerful rifles “to damage the economy and stoke division” all “in furtherance of white supremacist ideology.”
The QAnon Queen Tried to Go Global. It Didn’t Go Well.
Wearing a Florida Gators T-shirt, an Arizona man in his mid-40s attempts to convince the hundreds of thousands of conspiracy theorists watching his laptop livestream that he’s the real leader of the United States. “King” David Carlson explains that he still has a few million people to “take out” before he’s finally done with his plan: installing QAnon kings and queens across the world.
“We’ve managed to infiltrate large portions of the world’s population and cut the heads off the snake in many places around the world,” said Carlson, hinting at the murder or incarceration of his enemies. “We’ve got a long way to go yet. There are a few million minions we’re having to deal with. But we’re catching up.”
To understand the man claiming to be the King of America, you must first understand the woman claiming to be the Queen of Canada. Romana Didulo is a QAnon influencer who’s convinced a sizable number of people that she’s the ruler of Canada, a leader in the existential fight against an international cabal of globalist pedophiles who control the world, and an extraterrestrial being with healing powers. Some experts even describe the group as a cult.
Didulo is currently in the midst of a never-ending tour of Canada, driving around the country in a caravan of RVs, making appearances with her followers. Like any good monarch, Didulo decided to expand her kingdom past its borders, and, like any good QAnon figure, her idea massively backfired. The sovereigns she implemented began implementing their own sovereigns, and now a large group has broken off and are threatening regicide.
QAnon Followers Are Arguing if the Beatles Were Involved in Witchcraft and Child Sacrifice
AS THE BIGGEST rock band of the 20th century, the Beatles were naturally also the subject of an infamous conspiracy theory. According to urban legend, Paul McCartney died in 1966 and was replaced by an imposter, with his surviving bandmates leaving cryptic clues to the coverup in their music and album art.
Decades later, a far-right fringe movement would make this kind of outlandish claim as a matter of course. QAnon followers, who started out as Trump loyalists believing that he was engaged in a secret war with the “deep state” and a cabal of pedophile elites, have floated the idea that JFK Jr. is still alive and suggested that President Biden is actually a robot. They come to these conclusions in much the same way as a Sixties stoner would have “proved” that Paul was dead: by interpreting images and texts in a way that no reasonable person ever would. QAnon, too, holds that the people running the world like to taunt us with hints of their evil influence — that the evidence is always hidden in plain sight.
So it can’t be a surprise that this cult, which now studies any artifact they can to advance a new “satanic panic,” is arguing about whether the Beatles were tied up in witchcraft and child sacrifice.
One lively conversation on the topic unfolded after “anti-woke” conspiracy theorist Sameera Khan shared the controversial “butcher” album cover for the collection Yesterday and Today, which was withdrawn by the band after a dispute with their label. In this attempt at provocation, Khan saw the touch of shaitan, or a demonic spirit in the Islamic tradition. Among the many replies speculating on the meaning of the image, one Twitter user referenced a book that alleges the Beatles were created and financed by the U.K. government. The text, The Conspirators’ Hierarchy: The Committee of 300, lays out the long-standing conspiracy theory that a secret group founded by the British aristocracy in 1727 controls all global affairs. Khan, for her part, has previously called the Beatles a “psyop” to popularize “wokeism.”
NY Times Claims Balenciaga Pedo Scandal Is QAnon Conspiracy Theory
In the wake of the ongoing Balenciaga pedophilia propaganda scandal, the New York Times produced a piece Tuesday that essentially claimed the entire thing is some sort of QAnon conspiracy theory.
In the report, the Times suggests that only the likes of QAnon, Tucker Carlson, The New York Post, and Fox News are spreading the idea that the luxury fashion brand condones child exploitation.
The piece states “they ignited a firestorm that traveled from the internet to Fox News, fueled by allegations that Balenciaga condoned child exploitation. The controversy has become one of the most explicit collisions of internet culture, politics, fashion and conspiracy theories to date.”
It further posits that “As online criticism of the campaigns spread, the story was picked up across right-leaning media outlets, including The New York Post and the prime time Fox News show Tucker Carlson Tonight. The show has helped to publicize and mainstream QAnon, the internet conspiracy theory that ‘a group of Satan-worshiping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics and media.’”
The report adds “Here you have a major international retail brand promoting kiddie porn and sex with children,” Mr. Carlson told viewers on Nov. 22, “and not promoting it subtly but right out in the open.”
Crypto Developer Found Dead Hours After Claiming CIA/Mossad Were Sex Trafficking In Caribbean
A young crypto developer and millionaire was found dead just hours after making disturbing comments about the CIA, Mossad, and pedophile elites on Twitter.
Nikolai Mushegian, a prominent figure in the cryptocurrency world, claimed intelligence agencies like the CIA and Mossad were operating a “sex trafficking entrapment blackmail ring” in the Caribbean.
“CIA and Mossad and pedo elite are running some kind of sex trafficking entrapment blackmail ring out of Puerto Rico and caribbean islands. They are going to frame me with a laptop planted by my ex gf who was a spy. They will torture me to death,” Mushegian posted to Twitter on October 28 at 4:57 AM.
Former Content Moderator Claims AIs Are Using Fake Conspiracy Theories To Silence Real Ones
It sounds like something out of the X-Files, but a former content moderator claims that AIs are generating conspiracy theories and flooding online platforms with fake images, videos, and text in order to manipulate human society, and to discredit real conspiracy theories.
The moderator-turned-whistleblower, who calls himself Scott Chatsalot — and whose real name was withheld on request in the interest of their safety— says that he personally witnessed AI-generated conspiracy content being published onto tech platforms at a “massive scale.” He went on to claim in an email to a major news network: “There are definitely no humans behind these campaigns, which are by orders of magnitude the largest anyone has ever seen, and which platforms are totally covering up. Only AIs have the power to do this…”
After posting his allegations to Twitter in mid-August, Chatsalot alleges that he was fired by his employer for doing so, and subsequently deleted his Twitter account. When contacted, Chatsalot refused to comment and his personal Facebook account appears to have been deleted or shadowbanned, though Chatsalot has since uploaded an apology video to YouTube and has taken to his Reddit account, which still appears active, to make the same allegations.
The author of the alleged email, which was not independently verified claimed that the company that he worked for, referred to by Chatsalot only as Widget, was hired by a large tech company as a content moderation team, whose work he describes as “very sensitive.”
On Reddit, Chatsalot alleged that in 2019 he was promoted to lead a large content moderation team of 2,500 employees tasked with policing posts from “all over the internet, including Reddit, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc.”
According to Chatsalot, the team’s job was to police “all kinds of posts,” from “pornographic to political to religious to everything in between” and its work was “extremely secretive, and there was no oversight,” meaning there was “no one to tell you what was wrong.” He says they “just made it all up on the fly, and nobody else cared.”
Things changed in late 2021 when their moderation team began seeing a huge influx of AI generated media. Chatsalot claims that the content in question was all “generated by AIs and never human hands,” and that the images “are generated completely by artificial intelligence and machine learning trained off all the worst content from social media platforms, which Widget had unique access to.”
He says he saw the AI generated content via the massive Widget content moderation platform used by major social platforms, and that, “the scale at which this was being generated is insane. Billions per second insane. I’ve never seen anything like it.” He claimed that the platforms “don’t want to talk about it, because it makes them look bad.” He also claimed that whoever is generating these images, text, and videos, “the goal is to generate controversy to get people to click on your content and earn likes and money.” He says the AIs are using A/B testing to see what people respond to most negatively.
He also claimed that Widget itself was using AI to manipulate content across various platforms, and that, “It was using AI to target the conspiracy theories themselves for clicks and revenues.”
“Basically, the AI was teaching itself to know what was a conspiracy theory and what was not. That was its job.”
“The AI could generate a conspiracy theory from nothing and it would always seem real and people would look at it and like it,” he said, “It was actually producing this stuff, and it would use a real photo of something else and alter it, and then post it with a new face or caption that was totally different.” He goes on to claim that “The AI knew that it would make people mad and it would make people click on the image.”
Why Society Needs Conspiracy Theories & Conspiracy Theorists
It seems like you can’t catch a news headline or social media post these days without coming across the terms conspiracy theory and conspiracy theorist, or phrases like ‘spreading conspiracies’. One has to wonder: why are they so frequently employed?
In my most recent published work, I referenced an article from Canada’s National Post which ran with the headline ‘CBSA says it’s investigating border officer spreading COVID conspiracies online.’
The problem with these kinds of articles is that they are too often merely used as hit pieces to ridicule, degrade, and discredit any individual or group that goes against a certain narrative or disagrees with an author’s (or their publication’s partisanship or funders’) views.
Moreover, their authors very seldom make specific references or claims as to why they label their targets when using such over-used and over-abused disparaging rhetoric. When this is the case, it leads me to believe that the overall purpose of their pieces is to disparage their targets more than anything else.
Another recent example of this involves that from the article entitled ‘Network of Syria conspiracy theorists identified – study’ written by Mark Townsend from The Guardian (UK). In the article, the author claimed “journalist Aaron Maté at the Grayzone is said by the report to have overtaken Beeley as the most prolific spreader of disinformation among the 28 conspiracy theorists identified.” Maté had to refute the claim made against him which also involved contacting Townsend by phone. His counter article and the phone conversation appear on his Substack page (see ‘NATO-backed network of Syria dirty war propagandists identified)’ and is definitely an interesting case on how these ploys take place.
Countless other instances could be cited, but suffice it to say that there is no shortage of them.
But what is perhaps even more laughable with this phenomenon is the fact that these authors wantonly use these terms without even knowing their true meanings and where they actually originate from.
Before looking into these, though, we must first and foremost examine the meaning of the word ‘conspiracy’ itself. Oxford defines it as:
a secret plan by a group of people to do something harmful or illegal
Conspiracies have been an integral part of humanity ever since people have bonded together in groups for a better chance at survival.
Lord knows that history is riddled with an abundant supply of conspiracies and we will look at some notable examples later on.
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