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Seen, Heard, Read...
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Stay informed with our curated collection of noteworthy updates and insights from the world of conspiracy theories. Uncover the latest trends, explore intriguing perspectives, and broaden your understanding. Delve into our recommended content that keeps you in the know.
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ELON MUSK. The world’s richest man, Donald Trump adviser and X owner Elon Musk has thrown his support behind the far-right extremist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. “Only the AfD can save Germany,” Musk declared to his 208 million followers on X on Friday. The endorsement comes as Germany heads toward pivotal February elections, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government having collapsed amid economic stagnation and surging immigration tensions. Polls place the AfD in second place, raising fears about the normalization of a party long criticized for its extremist conspiracist views about history, immigrants, Islam and vaccinations. The AfD has faced backlash for its ties to neo-Nazi rhetoric and extremist figures. Earlier this year, senior party members met secretly with Austrian far-right provocateur Martin Sellner, known for advocating mass deportations. AfD MEP Maximilian Krah caused outrage when he told the Financial Times in May, “Before I call someone a criminal, I’d really like to know what he did personally,” referring to members of the SS, the organization that ran Hitler’s extermination camps. Meanwhile, German police arrested eight members of a right-wing terrorist cell in Saxony, three of whom were AfD members, accused of plotting to overthrow the government. According to Geopolitical Monitor, and as commented upon by The Atlantic’s David Frum “Musk’s favorite party in Germany is both vocally pro-Russian and also has worrying connections to Chinese spy agencies”.
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PROJECT RUSSIA. Musk, who intervened this week to block a bipartisan bill to keep funding the US government, has frequently talked to Vladimir Putin since his purchase of Twitter in 2022, and he continues to frenetically leverage his X platform and surging influence over Trump and the US Republican majority in Congress to interfere in politics across multiple Western democracies. “There is every reason to believe Musk is executing the agenda expressed in Project Russia, the Kremlin’s playbook for undermining democracies, and that government shutdown and debt default are part of that plan,” reported investigative journalist and tech entrepreneur Dave Troy. In Britain he has repeatedly attacked Keir Starmer’s Labour government, accusing it of “police-state tactics” and spreading misinformation following this summer’s anti-immigrant riots. The riots were fueled by conspiracy theories spread on X, including baseless claims that the perpetrator of a Southampton stabbing was an undocumented migrant. Figures like Reform Party UK leader Nigel Farage amplified these falsehoods, triggering unrest and racial violence. At a Monday meeting with Farage and the party’s treasurer, Nick Candy, at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, Musk discussed the possibility of donating $100 million to support the party. Farage has publicly boasted of Musk’s backing, prompting calls from British lawmakers to tighten campaign-finance laws (Sources: Politico, 20/12/2024; The New York Times, 20/12/2024; The Financial Times, 20/12/2024).
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OWEN JONES. Guardian columnist and obsessive anti-Israel activist Owen Jones has again promoted antisemitic content online in an investigative piece accusing the BBC of biased coverage of the war between Israel and Hamas. The star Guardian columnist “wrote a 9,000 word rant on the BBC’s sloppiness over the Israel/Hamas war, then failed to read a 37-word antisemitic comment – which he then liked,” reported The New European. “No-one is discussing the piece, because instead social media is, for once, genuinely shocked and stunned by the comments below the post which have been publicly liked by Owen Jones. “Great reporting,” one begins, before continuing in full. “Sadly, the legacy media in the US, the UK, and elsewhere in Europe have become the propaganda arms of white supremacist settler colonial domination. The Zionist project has sought to make Jews the new master race.” Another comment endorsed by Jones complained about “Zionist voices in the governing party [that] continue to pull Starmer’s strings”. As Wilde might have said, to like one antisemitic conspiracy theory in response to your article looks like misfortune. To like two looks like carelessness” (Source: The New European, 20/12/2024).
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TIKTOK. Finland Member of the European Parliament Aura Salla made a speech to the assembly of MEPs declaring the social media video platform TikTok “a threat to European security and democracy”. “Every login hands your behavioral data to an authoritarian regime China and helps terrorist countries like Russia to have a more impactful and more harmful tool to spread their disinformation. The EU’s digital regulation is powerless in addressing the comprehensive security threat Tik Tok is posing. We should ban TikTok in Europe until we can ensure it cannot be weaponized to distort democracy and spread Russian propaganda” (Source: Aura Salla on X, 17/12/2024).
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