Professional con-men are taking over and weaponizing conspiracy-theory communities.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212730812Russian online-trolls are gaining more unwitting followers with meaningless feel-good-messages.
And just the other day I saw that the Flat Earth movement is selling out: Several leaders of the Flat Earth-movement (Bob Knodel, Nathan Oakley, Anthony Riley...) have been revealed to not actually believing that Earth is flat. They only PRETEND to believe that Earth is flat in order to solicit donations from people who DO believe that Earth is flat. (IIRC a while back I've read something how the most famous contemporary Flat-Earther Mark Sargent only went into this topic after a marketing-compnay pushed him.)
* The Flat-Earth-movement has nothing new to offer. All of their evidence that Earth is flat has been debunked. They are just rehashing old talking-points.
* Followers are leaving. Donations are running dry.
* They recently held the "Flat Earth International Conference", where you paid $400 to listen to debunked "proofs" how Earth is not a globe and how NASA's army prevents people from going to the Southpole.
But now, something weird has happened...
* Infowars has begun making Flat-Earth content. And in return, one Flat-Earther, Owen Benjamin, is urging his followers to go to Infowars.
* The Flat-Earther Bob Knodel (who famoulsy lied about his engineering-credentials AND who tried to cover up that he accidently proved that Earth rotates) has begun pushing content from the "International Tribunal for Natural Justice".
Who is the "International Tribunal for Natural Justice"? It's a fake court invented by professional con-men to fleece Sovereign Citizens, Pizzagate-truthers and other conspiracy-theorists for donations. (Did you know there are 7 CIAs?)
It was Robert David Stelle of the "International Tribunal for Natural Justice" who provided to Alex Jones the conspiracy-theory that NASA is cannibalizing children on Mars.
Now, here is the interesting question: How can Bob Knodel tell his fellow Flat-Earthers that space-travel is fake while telling his listeners from the ITNJ that space-travel is real? Because he doesn't believe in any of this. He will say whatever is necessary to get donations from conspiracy-theorists.
The small communities of professional conspiracy-theorist fleecers are failing. People are leaving, donations are running dry. So, these con-men use the remaining clout they have to sell their followers to other, bigger professional conspiracy-theorist fleecers. You think that's not bad? Well...
1. They are conning mentally deranged people in serious need of psychological help.
2. These bigger con-men buying out the smaller con-men are pushing political conspiracy-theories.
Expect "fake news" to become bigger and better coordinated.
George Soros, the Clintons, Ukraine and Biden? You ain't seen nothing yet.
It won't be long until we hear RWNJ spreading conspiracy-theories how it was the 7 CIAs who tried to force Trump out of office because Trump was going to reveal that the Soros-controlled NASA is secretly controlling all the space-travel agencies everywhere.
Archae
(46,787 posts)She got it from Charlie Daniels, yup, the "Devil Went Down To Georgia" singer.
He's gone completely off the deep end.
The premise of your post though is 100% accurate.
The loudest and most militant of these kooks are in the CT racket for money.
Iggo
(48,257 posts)CatLady78
(1,041 posts)That one about NASA cannibalizing children is kinda funny..I spit my coffee out..They are really getting out there.
You have to admit they have a sort of twisted sense of humor...the stodgy and solemn scientists of NASA -respectable to the point of dullness- cannibalizing children..
I cannot think of a more stolidly respectable institution except maybe the NIH.
heh heh heh....
These are career trolls I guess.
AlCarroll
(17 posts)There are some QAnon leaders who are clearly out to fleece people.
CatLady78
(1,041 posts)Actually paranoid conspiracy theorists (even when sincere) are some of the biggest nuisances to legit whistleblowers re systemic corruption...
Legit whistleblowers or far sighted people tend to sound like this:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/308915314/What-Do-Corrupt-Firms-Have-in-Common
http://www.roughtype.com/?p=8608
(Carr is not big on polemic. His whole blog is worth reading.)
Professional cons pretend to criticize the system and sound like this:
Qanon, "targeted individuals", extremists of all kinds, star seed alliance...this is our future