The French Embassy in South Africa has used humour and sarcasm to unmask a propaganda video fake being spread by official Moscow accounts purporting to feature a so-called “French soldier/mercenary” being “captured” in Ukraine by Russian forces. The video had been spread by conspiracist accounts claiming Western/Nato forces are already on the ground in Ukraine […]
While the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is one of the most influential and reprinted books in the history of 20th century conspiracy theories, its initial release went almost completely unnoticed. Plagiarized by an unknown author or authors from a variety of sources, the fiercely antisemitic document was first published in Russian in an […]
It only took a few minutes. Following the assassination attempt on Slovakia's pro-Russian Prime Minister Robert Fico on May 15, the Kremlin swiftly grabbed the opportunity to launch a massive online disinformation and destabilization campaign. The target? Ukraine, Slovakia’s neighboring country. Unfounded accusations blaming Kiev for the attack proliferated across a galaxy of pro-Moscow Telegram […]
Little in her past seemed to indicate that Eva Vlaardingerbroek would have so much influence at the age of only 27. Her career to date has been comprised of short-lived extremist engagements, from her membership of the far right Forum for Democracy and a brief love affair with party leader Thierry Baudet; her links to […]
Despite its title serving as an interrogatory rather than a statement, conspiracy theorist Des Griffin’s 1976 book Descent into Slavery? is not actually asking if we’re descending into slavery, but telling us all the way it’s already happened and who is to blame. Born in Northern Ireland in 1934, a biography of Griffin on an […]
Sovereign citizens are antigovernment extremists who regard themselves as existing outside of all laws. They view the government as an illegitimate entity that operates as a fraudulent “corporation.” They are best known for their paper terrorism, a tactic that involves blanketing the court system with irrelevant paperwork. Other, more aggressive acts include harassing public officials […]
Rarely have conspiracy theories and their dangers been so much in the spotlight. From the “stolen election” (coming from Donald Trump and his insurrectionist acolytes who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021), vaccines and COVID-19, QAnon and flat earth theories, to invented claims that prominent women are really men, wild assertions about eclipses, […]
Stephen Robert Sizer, 70, is a prominent Church of England cleric known for his staunch opposition to Christian Zionism, his anti-Israel views and antisemitic conspiracy theories, and his sympathy for Islamist radicals from terrorist groups including Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran’s Mullahs. His tenure as vicar of Christ Church, Virginia Water, Surrey, from 1997 to 2017, […]
It is one of the most sinister and enigmatic true crime stories of the early 21st century, featured in the Netflix series Unsolved Mysteries. The Dupont de Ligonnès affair began on April 21, 2011, when police discovered the decomposing bodies of five people buried under the terrace of a house in Nantes, a city in […]
Conspiracy theorist literature is full of both real and hypothesized groups of powerful people meeting in various think tanks, committees, councils, and cabals for the purposes of enriching their own power while stripping the power away from those deemed lesser than them. Some of these groups are real, though their imaginary power far outweighs what […]
