An article published at the progressive website Vox argues Democrats and liberals are falling victim to fake news and conspiracy theories about Russia.
The piece, written by Zack Beauchamp, claims that “liberal conspiracy theories are flourishing in the age of Trump.”
The article claims that liberals and Democrats are increasingly falling for stories related to Russia that are not true.
The author also writes that Russia conspiracism “risks degrading the Democratic Party — helping elevate shameless hucksters who know nothing about policy but are willing to spread misinformation in the service of gaining power.”
One idea mentioned by Beauchamp is the existence of a “Russiasphere,” or the Twitter-fueled concentration of theories about Russia and President Donald Trump. Some big figures in the “Russiasphere” are Louise Mensch, John Schindler and Claude Taylor.
Louise Mensch is a “conservative” journalist who has made a name for herself on the internet for promoting theories about nefarious Russian influence.
Mensch once claimed that the late Andrew Breitbart, founder of influential Breitbart News, was killed by Vladimir Putin.
I absolutely believe that Andrew Breitbart was murdered by Putin, just as the founder of RT was murdered by Putin.
— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) February 24, 2017
Additionally, Mensch has claimed that she may get pregnant to have a child in order to name him, “Jim Comey,” in honor of the former FBI director.
Might get pregnant again just to have another kid and name them "Jim Comey" (either sex)#Hero@FBI
— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) May 10, 2017
She has also claimed that the 2014 Ferguson riots were funded by Russia:
That's because you, Russia, funded riots in Ferguson. See 0 hour I have your connections to Trump archived via Schiller and Scavino https://t.co/aTUDlCGkYi
— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) April 9, 2017
John Schindler used to work for the NSA. He made headlines in 2014 for sending an explicit photo of his genitals to a woman who was not his wife. The woman he sent them to claimed she was a “willing participant” in the affair.
Claude Taylor is a photographer who says he worked for presidential administrations in the past.
The article is still full of half-truths and condescension towards the right.
The author claims that the “GOP fell for conspiracy thinking during the Obama years,” without offering any evidence of this.
And another section reads:
“So because Obama was a black man with a non-Anglo name, and the Republican Party is made up mostly of white people, the popular conspiracy theories in the last administration became things like birtherism and Obama being a secret Muslim,” effectively smearing Republican voters as racists.
Beauchamp then claims, “[t]his was helped on by a conservative mediasphere, your Rush Limbaughs and Fox Newses and Breitbarts, that had little interest in factual accuracy — alongside one Donald J. Trump.”
Breitbart News, for their part, denies that it was ever a “birther” site.
And though Fox News covered some “birther” claims, there was never any explicit advocacy of the idea that Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States by any prominent figures at FNC.
Still, the article seemingly shows that more liberal writers and thinkers are starting to pull back from Russia hysteria, and actually look for hard facts instead.
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