Covidiocy continues: Canadian crackpot, COVID camps, Carlson claptrap

A year ago, I would never have dreamed that in August of 2021 I would still be blogging about the COVID-19 pandemic, and I'm pretty sure that thousands of working journos and pundits in the "legitimate" media didn't think they would still be reporting and commenting on it... yet here we are. I am far from the first or the only or the best to observe that the plagues of misinformation, conspiracy narratives, anti-vax hysteria, and dangerous (right-wing) politicizing surrounding COVID-19 are posing as much of a threat to our individual and collective well-being as the virus itself -- and in fact are directly contributing to making the virus more... well... virulent. That point can't be emphasized enough.

Some of the hucksters I've written about over the years have participated enthusiastically in the misinfo campaign, such as serial scammer Kevin Trudeau, whose contributions to the con-versation (emphasis on the first syllable) I wrote about at some length here and here last year. Another peddler of pandemic piffle, much lesser-known and far stupider than Trudeau, is one of his former grift-buddies, cancer quack/fraudster/anti-vaxxer/neo-Nazi Leonard Coldwell. Trudeau, still serving out a ten-year prison sentence and faced with restrictions to his online activity, has spread his COVID lies through proxies, but Coldwell apparently posts his own content.

A Facebook friend of mine recently expressed concern about the lies that Coldwell has been posting on his main Facebook page, regarding COVID concentration camps, microchips in vaccines, and whatnot. While COVID-19 may be relatively recent, the Facebook falsehoods problem is not new: for years Coldwell has been using social media to spread anti-vax lies, "alternative" health misinformation (especially about cancer), conspiracy tall tales, and the like. When COVID-19 emerged in early 2020, he jumped right into the deep end of the covidiocy pool.

That's really no surprise; the surprise would have been if he had passed on such a golden opportunity to spread his toxins. But my friend seemed to be really fed up with the continual flow of sludge from Coldwell's Facebook page, and wondered if it would be possible to get him permanently removed from that platform.

No doubt many have tried to do just that -- not me, believe it or not; I only reported Coldwell to Facebook a couple of times when he was posting things that directly endangered me, and once when he was publicly and falsely accusing an ally of mine of being a child rapist. All of that took place years ago. As I've been saying for years, for the most part I'm content to let people make assholes of themselves in public. It gives me something to snark about here, and I don't have to search very hard for material. Lazy bloggers like me like having easy pickin's.

But others have reported Coldwell at various times over the years, mostly for hate speech, and no doubt at least some of those folks have urged Facebook to permanently ban him. Yet the most that has happened so far has been that Facebook suspends him for 30 days...and he whines about it on his other forums (claiming Facebook has “banned” him only because he isn’t afraid to tell “the truth”)... and then he uses that as the hook to get more people to sign up for his "exclusive information" that he promises is absolutely life-changing and possibly lifesaving and that you cannot find anywhere else, but which is almost always recycled rubbish that you actually see everywhere these days.

The suspension/whinefest/reinstatement cycle has occurred again and again and again with Coldwell. I wrote about it back in May of 2016, but it's happened numerous times since then.

My normally laissez-faire attitude to public discourse notwithstanding, however, I find the new COVID-19 surges due to the Delta variant alarming. And I share my friend's concerns about the effects, whether direct or indirect, of COVID lies and misinformation posted by Coldwell and a host of other cranks. What I worry about are not just the effects these lies and rumors have on the course of the pandemic and public health, but also on the future of critical thinking and rational discourse.

Oh, Canada!
A couple of Coldwell's recent COVID offerings stood out for me. The first one occurred earlier this month when he posted a link on his Facebook page to a video on BitChute, which is sort of an online refugee camp for conspiranoid nutcakes and far-right hate-speechers who were booted off of YouTube. Or maybe "toxic waste dump" would be a better description than "refugee camp." My apologies to refugees.

The video to which Loony Lenny linked is about an Alberta, Canada man named Patrick King, who'd apparently ended up in court after being fined for not wearing a mask. Coldwell didn't make any comment on his own post; he merely posted the link to the vid, which bears the teaser headline, "YUGE!!! Canadian Court Victory Proves Covid-19 Is A Hoax & All Restrictions Have Now Been Dropped." Here's the blurb on the BitChute page, complete with typos and spelling and grammatical errors:

Patriot Patrick King represented himself in court after being fined $1200 dollars for protesting against the Covid-Hoax, he slew the beast and emerged VICTORIOUS. He issued a subpoena to the Provincial Health Minister for proof that the so-called Covid-19 Virus exists, and they were forced to admit that they had no evidence whatsoever. The virus has never been isolated, and thus the government had no legal grounds to impose any of the punishing restrictions they have inflicted on society. Since this shocking confession came to light, the Province has since rescinded all Covid-Restrictions and now officially treats Covid-19 as nothing more than a mild flu! WE WON

King has shown the template to be followed WORLDWIDE. This is what can happen when you are not re-presented by a BAR (British Accredited Registry) Lawyer who's first obligation is to the Corrupted Courts and not their client.

THIS IS HUGE

That's pretty much the gist of the narrative that has appeared all over the right-wing/COVID-is-a-hoax looniverse, and it's no surprise that, as is the case with most covidiocies, Coldwell is far from the only person to spread this one. I've seen it in numerous other places myself -- even, I'm sad to say, on a forum that once upon a time, before the Age of Trump, was in sync with this Whirled, particularly on matters regarding Coldwell's general idiocy. Those were the days, my friend.

To my pal who was concerned about Facebook letting people like Coldwell continue to rant, I pointed out that one encouraging sign is that Facebook has become more vigilant about flagging misleading or false posts, and explaining why they are flagged, while providing links to correct info. I noted that maybe this is the best course; they leave the posts up so the potential martyrs can’t whine about being “censored” (as right-wing ranters are wont to do), but readers have easy access to correct information. And even if the true believers refuse to follow the links, it does take some of the wind out of the sails of the original post.

Indeed, Coldwell's post about the Canadian anti-masker was flagged by Facebook as false information, and immediately under the post were these three links:

• Fact Check: Alberta Man Did NOT prove COVID-19 Is Hoax, Restrictions NOT Dropped Because Of Him (Aug. 6, 2021)
• Fact Check -- Alberta court case not linked to lifting of COVID-19 restrictions (Aug. 7, 2021)
• Canadian court case unrelated to lifting of Covid-19 restrictions in Alberta (Aug. 10, 2021)

The headlines reveal the basics, but there's much more detail in the respective articles.

Not surprisingly, Coldwell objected to being corrected, and wrote that the video content he'd shared is 100 percent true.

One small story, one large (and stupid and dangerous) narrative
This whole little Canadian drama would be just another silly story if not for the fact that it provided yet another reinforcement of the (almost exclusively right-wing) narrative that COVID restrictions (masks, vaccines, etc.) are a dire threat to freedom, and that those who flout those restrictions are exemplary heroes who have taken a bold stance against looming tyranny. And you can be assured that this narrative is alive and well, and that there are many Americans who actually believe that the republican governors (e.g., Florida guv Ron DeSantis and Texas guv Greg Abbott) who are working so hard to quash basic COVID safety measures are in fact fighting for the "freedom" of all of us. Here's one example of this delusion; it's on one Floridian's public Facebook page.

I am amazed at just how many people do not appreciate freedom. [cute little flag icon to demonstrate patriotism]
Our Governor is standing up against big government and so many Floridians can't even grasp that. Just because you don't happen to agree with his current stance just shows that you aren't smart enough to realize it's a lot more than just the current news uproar that he is fighting for.
It's being done in an attempt to preserve YOUR rights and freedoms... That YOU don't even appreciate and are ready to throw away so easily. It would be far easier for him to just "go along"...
Stop being so ungrateful.

I should note that this post is from a former enthusiastic follower of Kevin Trudeau -- one who was eventually convinced by others to see him for the scammer he was and is, but who was not smart enough to see that Leonard Coldwell is actually even worse than Trudeau, and apparently is not savvy enough to understand that politicians such as DeSantis are not motivated by altruism or principle.

I mention Kevin Trudeau again because there are striking parallels between Trudeau's propaganda about being a freedom fighter, and the propaganda of the republican "leaders." For years Trudeau -- and his loyal fans -- have insisted that Kevin has been battling for the rights and freedoms of all of us, when in reality he has only been interested in furthering his own scam agendas. Similarly, republican pols such as Governors DeSantis and Abbott, and even lesser ones such as Texas' dumbest box of rocks, Rep(rehensible) Louie Gohmert, claim to be taking their "bold" stands on COVID in order to stand up for "freedom," with their supporters endlessly and annoyingly echoing those claims. The reality is that the repubs are doing nothing more than pandering to a fairly significant base of misinformed or stupid voters, the public good be damned. They just want to get re-elected. With them, it's all politics.

(Besides, isn't it the height of "big government" for a governor to issue an executive order banning mask and/or vaccine mandates, even if the individual businesses or institutions deem that such mandates are necessary to protect the health and safety of their staff/students/customers? Just wondering.)

The Canada tale is also one more instance of the refusal of COVID deniers to perform even the most rudimentary research before they regurgitate content on their social media or blogs.

This one time, at COVID camp...
Another tale that has the conspiranoid tongues wagging is the "news" that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is plotting to set up COVID "concentration camps" for the unvaccinated or those exposed to COVID. Right-wing rabble-rouser Candace Owens was apparently the one who got this particular balderdash ball rolling, on Twitter.

Another Facebook friend of mine shared a video about the alleged COVID camps a few days ago on her feed. The teaser/headline was ominous: "They are coming for us." The source of that video was Rumble, which has also become popular with conspiranoids and haters who were exiled from YouTube. In response to my friend's post I shared a link to a debunking article, and she responded that she just hopes people will do their own research and then make up their own minds, without resorting to calling each other names. (Okay, I'm a name-caller and not ashamed of it, because some names deserve to be called.) To my friend's comment, I responded that while I have a similar wish to hers, people who rely on conspiracy sites to "research" and reinforce their anti-vax convictions are endangering all of us.

It will come as no big shock that Loony Lenny had to sound the COVID camp alarm too on the blog on his main website. His August 10, 2021 entry, under the category "The War on America," contains an embedded link to yet another Rumble vid, this one from conspiranoid nutcake radio host Stew Peters. The teaser on Coldwell's blog reads:

YOU HAVE TO STAND UP NOW! There is no more time. They are trying to separate vaxxed/unvaxxed and put the unvaxxed in internment camps…………………….DO not be bullied into taking this v a x. It is NOT an immunologic! IT IS intended to kill you.

I hate to piss on the parade of the paranoid... oh, you know I really don't, but anyway, let me let Reuters set the story straight (and this is only for those of you who don't fervently believe that Reuters is part of the big "Them" that are trying to shield us from The Truth and kill us). This is from August 13, 2021:

One Aug. 9 tweet saying that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had written a document “to discuss putting high risk people into camps to ‘shield’ low risk people” during the pandemic can be seen here .

Other tweets making similar claims can be seen here and here .

Posts replicating the claim can also be seen on Instagram (here) and Facebook (here).

However, this claim is misleading as presented. The document, last updated in July 2020 (during the Trump administration), is a discussion of pandemic approaches for people who already live in “humanitarian settings” such as refugee camps and displaced populations. It is not a strategy relevant to the U.S. general public (here).

Then there's this, from USA Today on August 17, 2021 (I know, I know, USA Today is yet another corporate media monster, but if you're interested in what the monster has to say, follow the link).

If you need more sources, help yourself.

Camp, schmamp
I suppose it was inevitable that the conspiranoids would start foaming at the mouth about government camps in America again, now that a Democrat is back in the White House. During the Obama administration, the nutcakes absolutely could not stop talking about "FEMA camps." Loony Lenny was an enthusiastic promoter of that narrative. Supposedly Obama and FEMA and George Soros and the rest of the usual gang of suspects were plotting to herd Americans into big internment camps, where they would be forcibly vaccinated and microchipped and who knows what else'd. It didn't happen.

They weren't nearly so paranoid during the Trump reign of ruin. They didn't utter a peep when real internment camps became, for all practical purposes, more of a thing than they'd been since World War II, thanks to the cruelty-is-the-point immigration "policies" of Trump and his reincarnated Nazi helper, Stephen Miller. Those camps didn't and don't matter, because they were built for "illegals" who are scarcely human and clearly have no right to be on hallowed American ground.

But now that there's a Democratic president again -- and one who actually seems to care about taking real steps to end a deadly pandemic -- it's time to dust off the "camp" narratives and update them for the times. Deja vu all over again...

Is fact-checking a losing battle?
Despite the time and effort have I put into writing this post, and every other post I've written on these subjects over the years, I am fully aware that fact-checking sites don't faze the conspiranoids and covidiots one bit. In their eyes, the fact-checkers are part of the MSM (mainstream media) or "Them" or the Deep State or the Killuminati and/or whichever other force(s) they imagine are trying to shield us from The Truth. Fact checkers are just there to placate the sheeple, while the awake and aware crowd knows what's really going on.

So much of the misinfo/disinfo industry, which formerly was relegated to the fringe, has become all too mainstream, and particularly in recent years, its products have leeched into American politics, which is the core reason that this formerly apolitical blog has become so political at times. And so much of the misinfo/disinfo is just plain silly or stupid. But silliness and stupidity have consequences, and some of them are dire.

An August 23, 2021 opinion piece on Slate, written by Amanda Marcotte, suggests that much of today's politically-oriented stupidity has become strategically weaponized. Marcotte frames her piece around Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who is one of the main sources of right-wing toxicity these days (and has made no small contribution to COVID-19 misinfo himself). The arguments Carlson makes are maddeningly stupid on purpose, Marcotte asserts, with the goal being to destroy rational discourse itself.

For instance, there's Carlson's assertion that refugees are mainly to blame for the housing crisis in America. Intrepid Media Matters analyst Matt Gertz quickly debunked that claim, but on Twitter, Gertz acknowledged that "it's fruitless to fact-check a wildly dishonest demagogue like Tucker Carlson." Gertz' pessimism is understandable, Marcotte acknowledged.

The whole incident illustrates one of the most pernicious problems with modern right-wing discourse: stupidity is strategically weaponized. And the strategy is as simple as it is sinister: make arguments so transparently false and silly that it makes people feel stupid for even engaging with you.

Carlson, in particular, is the master at playing dumb. It is a tactic that requires none of the hard work of learning, only shamelessness and a lack of basic morality. Carlson regularly makes claims so preposterous that it's unlikely even the most QAnon-addled conspiracy theorist can take him seriously...

...While deliberate stupidity is, well, stupid, it's also maddeningly effective. Carlson's playing dumb act works primarily as permission to his audience to let go of any lingering attachment to good faith or rationality. He allows them to instead glory in bullshit. After all, asinine arguments that don't make any sense at all drive the liberals up the wall, and nothing matters more than "owning" the liberals. Why bother being correct when you can be glib instead? ...

And actually there's nothing particularly new about this tactic; fascists and Nazis have been using it for decades. Today's right-wingers have found that this time-dishonored strategy works. Concluded Marcotte:

It's why Tucker Carlson's arguments are often transparently stupid, to the point where they self-debunk. He is training an audience in the bad faith that Sartre so eloquently described when he wrote that fascists [specifically anti-Semites, but pretty much the same thing ~ CLS] "delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert." It is what modern people call "gaslighting." It's different than lying because liars are often trying to legitimately deceive people about the truth. This isn't about trying to deceive anyone, so much as it's about taking a hammer to the very idea that words mean things, facts matter, and rationality is important.

The right knows they can't win in a debate based on facts and reason. Instead, they're turning political discourse into a whirlwind of meaningless noise. 

While I am inclined to believe that Leonard Coldwell, various other right-wing ranters, and many of their most loyal followers are, in fact, stupid enough to actually believe many if not most of the lies and bad-faith arguments, the points in the Slate piece are well taken. And whether the spewers of spurious content about COVID-19 (or a "stolen" 2020 election or US withdrawal from Afghanistan or any other burning issue of the day) are genuinely dumb or disingenuously faux-dumb, the effects may be the same, and they're harming all of us.

Nevertheless I believe that it's more important than ever to try to keep hammering away at the nonsense, even if the effort does seem at times to be a losing battle. And one of the ways to do this, if you're so inclined, is to report lies and misinformation to Facebook or other forum hosts when you see them. After all, their bots and human fact checkers can't do it all.