There’s been a number of notable, and noted, events in the last month. Israel and Hamas going to war, Donald Trump’s various trials and lawsuits, celebrity gossip, and more.
Easily the biggest topic on r/conspiracy over the last month has been the Israel and Hamas conflict in the middle east. Misinformation, conspiracy-mongering, antisemitism, and fearmongering have been upvoted quite a lot in the last month.
1. Question Everything You See (AI and Israel/Hamas Conflict)
At the top of the list is a post titled Question Everything You See which is an interesting lesson on critical thinking in the age of AI generated imagery. The post is a screenshot of a tweet by right-wing personality Ben Shapiro. In it, Shapiro claims the image shows the remains of Jewish babies killed by Hamas. However, users were quick to uncover the original image which is of a rescued puppy posted on Tumblr. While I appreciate the irony of r/conspiracy debunking misinformation with a Tumblr post, the comments on r/conspiracy provide more insight into how conspiracy theorist operate and what conspiracy thinking includes.
While AI is definitely a disruptive technology, it is used by some commenters to suggest that no video or photographic evidence is acceptable anymore. While such evidence should be carefully looked at now, AI does not make them entirely inadequate. However, a crucial part of conspiracy thinking is the idea that evidence contradicting the conspiracy theory must be removed, discounted, or ignored. And AI has opened up the floodgates for ignoring inconvenient evidence. Anything that a conspiracy theorist considers bad for their theory can be discounted as AI generated trickery. And even when the AI is not detected or evidenced, that can be explained as evidence that the AI has gotten even better than the detector(s).
2. Is this a propaganda photo op? (Media and USA Border)
The second most popular post on r/conspiracy over the last month is questioning if the New York Post staged photos of people crossing razor wire at the USA border in Eagle Pass Texas for propaganda purposes. While the New York Post is worthy of skepticism, the razor wire in Eagle Pass has been confirmed by more reputable sources, such as Reuters. While the details behind the specific photos in the NYP’s article cannot be confirmed by this site, the presence of razor wire and people attempting to cross it appears to be undeniable right now.
The post’s comments also open up an interesting aspect of conspiracy thinking: Armchair expertise and surface level understandings of topics. The comments include numerous people claiming that interacting with concertina wire is extremely difficult, or that the wire in the images is fake. However, wikipedia’s own article on concertina wire includes an image of a US military member handling the same wire as seen in the NYP article. This goes to show that there are different types and forms of wire available for use. So while the wire used at the border may not be as sharp or dangerous as some other types, it is apparently satisfactory for military use in some way. In short, there is minimal appreciation of nuance here, but there is plenty of hubris.
3. Goodbye middle-class podcasters… (Media and Canada)
Canada has taken steps to regulate broadcasting and media on the internet. For this poster that is a sign of Canada creating a “ministry of truth” from George Orwell’s 1984. In actuality the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunication Commission (CRTC) is developing a registry of online streaming services that earn $10 million or more in annual revenue. Now, I can only speak for myself, but I don’t think a podcast that has 10 million dollars in revenue is a “middle class” endeavour. If so, then Canadian inflation must be worse than the USA’s at the moment.
There is a second new requirement as well that services make content available to users regardless of their mobile or internet service. In other words, content delivery must be provider-agnostic. This means users won’t need to use a certain ISP to watch content.
The comments are notable in that the users continue to propagate the conspiracy theory that Justin Trudeau is the son of Fidel Castro. They also call out this “socialist” agenda, which is not actually a socialist policy since it is not the state owning the means of production for media creators.
4. Biden’s Chin (Optical Illusions and Politics)
Apparently conspiracy theorists struggle to understand that skin shifts and that lighting can make faces look different. Multiple posts were made about President Joe Biden’s chin and face looking a bit weird. While an interesting lesson in photography and lighting, the conspiracy theory that Joe Biden is not himself falls apart when we pose a simple question: Then where is/was Joe Biden? Or perhaps “Who is this then?” Or even simpler: Why hasn’t anyone stepped forward about the fake Joe Biden?
Going to the comments, most commenters seem to think it’s a mask on someone else. Which would make it a damn impressive mask in my opinion. Other commenters discussed how his appearances seem to change over time. Again, the idea that people look different from different angles appears to be lost on some folks. Some go so far as to claim that there are multiple body doubles with black or brown eyes. Why a government capable of covering up multiple body doubles of the President of the USA wouldn’t spring for contact lenses to make their eye colors match is not convincingly argued.
5. The “Independent” Media (Media and Biden Impeachment Inquiry)
An interesting case where some logic can be found in the comments. The post itself claims that major media outlets did not cover the house’s impeachment inquiry of Joe Biden. While the post implies and insinuates that this is due to a conspiracy of the media, it could also be due to the fact that even the best witnesses available had not evidence of Biden committing any crimes.
In short, certain politicians are actually trying to impeach Biden, but have no evidence backing up an actual charge to level at him. While this does not mean he is fully innocent of any possible misbehavior, the lack of clear evidence is a strong indicator that he likely has not engaged in criminality.
This post actually gave me some hope that r/conspiracy may get back to what it was originally and in the pre-Trump days, a gathering of weird and esoteric ideas. The small amount of critical thinking shown here was a welcome relief from the credulous nature of most of the other posts.