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“Mainstream news”, Twitter and conspiracy theorists

There’s a continuum from Alex Jones to (Assad supporter) Vanessa Beeley to US Congresswoman (and another Assad supporter) Tulsi Gabbard, and all points in between. For example, they all denied that Assad was behind the sarin gas attack on Khan Sheikhoun. The basis of their support is that they all play into the simplistic thinking that rests on conspiracy thinking.
The very set-up of Twitter and Facebook plays into the tendency towards simplistic thinking in the US. This also includes many socialists. Don’t take time to research. Don’t bother looking beneath the surface. Don’t think about the indirect consequences of developments. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. That’s their approach.
There’s more: Since the major establishment news channels are saying that Trump is aligned with Russia, it must all be a conspiracy. And since US imperialism is in a rivalry with Russian imperialism, then we should support the latter.

Alex Jones, Vanessa Beeley and US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard.
They rely on the same methods and are all on the same political continuum.

One major object of this systematically sowed confusion is the events in Syria. A recent article outlined how the Russian regime utilized Twitter to help sow confusion. They write for example:
  • One of the originators of the disinformation of a “false flag” rebel attack on Khan Sheikhoun in April 2016, covering up the regime’s sarin assault, was pro-Assad site Al-Masdar. Its false narrative was picked up [Alex Jones’] by InfoWars to include the White Helmets as conspirators in the staged attack. Beeley supported the campaign with a barrage of tweets about “war porn”. By the next day, #SyriaHoax was the top Twitter trend in the US. Backers of the conspiracy theory included US Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii and Virginia State Senator Richard Black. Russia’s Deputy Ambassador to the UN submitted a “briefing paper” by Beeley to the UN Security Council.
  • Russia and activists such as Beeley have also relied upon anti-White Helmets allegations by the mysterious “Swedish Doctors For Human Rights”, unknown to both the Swedish Medical Association and Human Rights Watch.
  • The disinformation is supported by both State platforms such as Russia’s RT and Sputnik and by US-based actvists such as Max Blumenthal of AlterNet.

Part of this simplistic gullibility comes from the legitimate distrust of the mainstream capitalist media. This media edits their reporting to make it difficult or impossible to decipher the real interests behind any event. They make it nearly impossible to see developments – from local to global – in a clear pattern. This results in a distrust of the mainstream capitalist media which all too often combines with the simplistic mentality described above. It leads to searching for simplistic conspiracy explanations of everything from the outbreak of mass shootings in the US to Assad’s sarin attack on Khan Sheikhoun.

Results of Assad’s sarin attack on Khan Sheikhoun. Those who deny Assad’s responsibility are really defending such atrocities. Some, like Assad, Putin & Co. are the perpetrators. Others aid and abet them, whether they intend to or not.

The end result is not only total confusion; it’s also siding with the enemies of the working class. The Syrian working class in this case.

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