We are now where the rubber meets the road in terms of the cultural rift in this country — or Qountry, you’re a resident of one or the other. You well recall how Alex Jones began the conspiracy theory that mass shootings were not real and were only a manipulation to encourage gun legislation. When he hit the bottom of the barrel and declared that children didn’t die at Sandy Hook Elementary, he went too far, and he ended up getting sued. But Jones planted the seed of denial and planted it deeply and well, because from that time on the basic reality of people dying in the streets, killed for no reason by crazed people, armed to the teeth, has been challenged. Yesterday’s tragedy in Boulder is now the latest entry in the Denial Fest of the QAnon crazies. Newsweek:
Rather than express empathy for the victims of the attack, supporters of QAnon, who have no issue believing there exists a cabal of cannibalistic pedophiles, instead declared that the media reports and statements from the police were all false and that there is no way yet another mass shooting could have occurred in the U.S.
“No question Boulder, Co incident today was a false flag. The only question is by which side?,” one QAnon profile, who has more than 260,000 subscribers on Telegram, wrote. “False flag means it’s fake. Nobody actually died.
“Was this false flag to try and take your guns or scare the s**t out of you?”
A popular QAnon Telegram channel with more than 200,000 subscribers wrote: “This false flag was executed about as cleanly as Biden on a staircase.”
An account with more than 58,000 Telegram followers added: “This Boulder situation reeks of false flag. Anons will pick this apart in a matter of hours if it is.”
Another Telegram user wrote: “Nobody died. I was there for an actual shooting. This was 100% fake fake.
On the “free speech” social network Gab, one influential QAnon advocate supporters with more than 79,000 followers also claimed the mass shooting was a “false flag” to help push gun control legislation, as well as suggesting it is a distraction technique to take people’s attention away reports of immigrant children in U.S. custody at the border under Joe Biden‘s administration.
Other QAnon followers attempted to claim bystanders at the scene of the Boulder were “actors” because they apparently weren’t reacting in the right way to a mass shooting.
The reason we have two separate narratives of reality in this country is because we have right-wing talk channels masquerading as news networks, Fox News being premiere among them. CNN:
I said the national news media was covering the mass shooting. That didn’t include Fox, which largely turned a blind eye to the horrific violence Monday night. The channel demonstrated clearly — for everyone to see once and for all — that it is primarily a right-wing talk channel, not a cable news network.
While CNN and MSNBC aired the press conferences from Boulder police, which any TV news professional with half-decent editorial judgement would do, Fox opted to stick with regular programming from its propagandists. During the first press conference, the network aired Sean Hannity showing footage of Biden stumbling on the stairs of Air Force One last week. And as Boulder police announced that 10 people had lost their lives, Laura Ingraham chatted with Dr. Scott Atlas about “THE SOCIAL DISTANCING FARCE.”
This is not the behavior of a news organization. It’s the behavior of a right-wing talk channel. And it’s really time for other media outlets to recognize this and stop pretending the channel’s primary aim is to deliver the news. Failure to call the network for what it is not only does a disservice to readers, it is simply inaccurate. [emphasis theirs]
Fox News bears no more resemblance to a legitimate news organization than Sharknado does to a documentary on meteorological events. Nevertheless, it has a huge undermining impact on our culture. There is only one physical reality in the world. We need actual journalism to report that reality and not a talk channel to masquerade as doing same. Fox News feeds into QAnon and it’s a continuous loop of insanity.
Fox’s White House credentials should be revoked. This is absurd.
OMG, Ursula, you know a LOT about the law, is there some way to charge these heathens with dis-information as a danger to our citizens?
I ask, because sometimes a group’s dirty laundry can be revealed in court actions, especially if ACTUAL victims and witnesses, [under oath], bring the truth to light … and because one police officer lost his life saving others, saying all this killing was false news, HAS to disturb a majority of law enforcers in every city in every state …
This police officer, gave the most noble of all sacrifices to save others, to degrade and make the whole scene into a circus of stupidity, via vile mouthpieces, is unconscionable, and un-American …
The message should be delivered like the anti-KKK, crack down, there was NO WAY the KKK had a righteous basis for their killing, threats and bullish attitude to others, just pure Racism … there is no place in our country for racist freaks or deniers of gun violence and promoting gun violence as well …
This is truly another very sad day in our history of gun nuts … responsible gun owners DON”T kill unarmed victims in mass shootings … never have, never will …. the Q’s out there should be very afraid of what they are buying into …
Go to hell, QAnon…assuming you’re not already there.
They should have to talk to the kids of the cop who died in Boulder – seven of them, with the oldest 18. Or the parents of the 9-year-old who died there.
Thanks Ursula…. I am sharing your piece and immediately under it the email from Vote Vets who nail BOEBERT to Boulder Killers gun! ..
HERE iit is in text Right-wing Congresswoman Lauren Boebert constantly posts pictures of herself posing with guns on social media, glamorizi
ng assault weapons and making them look like toys. She even uses guns as her Zoom background. Check it out:
Well yesterday, there was a mass shooting in Colorado — the state Boebert represents! — which left ten people dead and a community traumatized.
How did Boebert respond? She offered thoughts and prayers and then within TWO HOURS of the shooting sent out a fundraising email railing against common-sense gun safety measures.
Her thoughts and prayers are complete b***s*** as long as she keeps glamorizing the very assault weapons which are being used to murder people in grocery stores. We’ve had enough. Have you? Rush a donation now to help VoteVets hold Lauren Boebert accountable for her actions →
If you’ve saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
BUT THEIR PICTURE is worth a million NRA BUCKS…. I rec using it somewhere.
Hmmm. Didn’t we just bomb Syria again? Wasn’t the shooter from Syria? Hmm.
The Sandy Hook ‘school shooting’ didn’t happen. It was a g.d. filthy lie. You know it and I know it. Quit with the BS, PolitiZoom. And Alex Jones has hardly been the leading ‘voice in the wilderness’ as to Sandy Hook’s ‘lack of cred’. How do organizations like yours sleep at night, anyhow ?
Very soundly. It’s a shame that there are people like you who deny reality. It truly is a shame. It might cost us democracy, this belief in fake news.