Conspiracy theories are everywhere. The corporate media isnt helping.
- Details
- Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00
- Written by editor
70 percent of Republicans doubt the legitimacy of President Joe Biden’s election.
In recent days, right-wingers have been spreading doctored photos alleging the late Queen Elizabeth II once secretly knighted Donald Trump. Or claiming the queen had information that could lead to Hillary Clinton’s arrest.
Last week, Trump openly embraced QAnon for the first time. He wore a lapel pin reading “The Storm is Coming,” a reference to QAnon lore about Trump’s final victory, when he will be reinstated to power and his opponents will be tried and possibly executed on live TV.
Conspiracy theories like these are everywhere, fueled by a fake populist right-wing echo chamber seeking to... pollute our democracy-supporting information ecosystem and enable the decimation of the Earth’s life-supporting ecology. Conspiracy theories gain traction not so much because people are suckers but because they are mad — and they have every right to be.
We will not defeat misinformation, toxic nostalgia, and surging fascism with more of the same warmed-over neoliberalism served up by the corporate media. That’s why I’m so proud to be part of The Intercept.
Our team of crusading, independent journalists expose the abuses of the powerful — but we stick to the facts, without trafficking in demagoguery or bigotry. And just as importantly, we give voice to the rising chorus of grassroots activism demanding action against spiraling inequality, imperial aggression, and climate breakdown.
If you’ve saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
Just when you think the obvious absurdity of a right-wing conspiracy theory will be its own undoing, another one pops up, each trying to outrun the truth like a Covid variant evading the latest vaccine.
Rather than trying to counter conspiracy theories one by one, The Intercept is forging a different path: speaking to the legitimate anger that makes far-right conspiracies compelling, by pulling the mask off the rapacious corporations and politicians who are hoovering up the planet’s wealth and accelerating the climate crisis.
These are the real ways that the powerful plot against the public, and The Intercept tells the stories of the movements fighting for meaningful and popular solutions — making polluters pay, pushing for a jobs guarantee, and demanding universal health care. By directing rage where it belongs, The Intercept’s reporting can shift energy from distracting and destructive conspiracies to powerful change.
Please help The Intercept raise $500,000 from readers by September 30.
Thank you,
Naomi Klein
Senior Correspondent
First Look Institute is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization (tax ID number 80-0951255).
The Intercept’s mailing address is:
First Look Institute
P.O. Box 27442
Washington, DC 20038
The Intercept is an award-winning nonprofit news organization dedicated to holding the powerful accountable through fearless, adversarial journalism. Our in-depth investigations and unflinching analysis focus on surveillance, war, corruption, the environment, technology, criminal justice, the media and more. Email is an important way for us to communicate with The Intercept’s readers, but if you’d like to stop hearing from us, click here to r0 from all communications. Protecting freedom of the press has never been more important. Contribute now to support our independent journalism.
