"The Angel of Death is coming", Great Awakening Tour threatens democracy in US Mid-Terms
After the Big Lie prepare for many mini Big Lies
The wider culture war
It’s important to consider how disinformation turned covid into another culture war issue, the use of single issue campaigns to support the wider agenda is well documented. We see covid disinformation groups expanding into climate change denial and anti-LGBT rhetoric around the world, from the start it has been treated by the far right as a means of expanding its base.
Its a political project that seeks to undermine democracy gaining influence in traditional conservative parties like the Republicans and the Conservative Party, while also seeking to co-opt and create new fringe parties. This proved effective in the UK when UKIP and then the Brexit Party managed to drag the Conservative Party much further to the right as it chased the voters attracted to these smaller parties, when it came to the 2019 election the Brexit Party that had managed to attract Labour Party voters then withdrew most of its candidates to lend their supporters to Boris Johnson.
In Italy the use of smaller fringe parties coming together played a part in them electing their first far-right leader with fascist links. In Germany AfD are embracing the culture wars while members of disinformation groups have set up a new fringe party. The same is occurring in the Netherlands with smaller right wing parties taking up anti-lockdown and anti-vax talking points with a video of a dutch MEP recently going viral.
In the US its interesting looking at the hostile take over of the Libertarian Party.
In the UK those Conservative Parties who failed to support Boris Johnson’s illegal proroguing of parliament to try and force through a no deal Brexit without a parliamentary vote were purged from the party. This included long standing stalwarts of the party like Kenneth Clarke who held senior cabinet positions in Thatcher and Major’s governments.
The Republican Party’s transformation into Christian Nationalism is more extreme, the purge of those willing to stand up for democracy inside their own party continues.
The US mid-terms are an opportunity for the radical right to install elected representatives who are willing to deny election results. We might see losing candidates in the mid terms refusing to accept the results. Disinformation feeds conspiracy which leads to insurrection.
Its estimates the NAR’s audience could be around a million Americans.
“Common law” constables and similar initiatives are springing up on the fringes in many countries, the World Freedom Alliance has its Fractal Circles organising strategy and America’s Frontline Doctors have announced they are to start recruit “corps”.
The websites and messaging of these initiatives sound like a call to arms, and in the US there is a clear focus on questioning the integrity of elections.
Claiming to be acting as independent observers, we see concerns being raised about potential voter intimidation. Arizona provides an example of what will be seen elsewhere in the states.
These actions are being endorsed by Republican candidates.
Propaganda is ancient, but while there has always been conspiracy theories and disinformation, in the digital age conspiracy theories can now reach a far larger audience and with far more sophisticated tools available. While still in operation Cambridge Analytica developed a programme for megachurches that would crunch personal data to identify and target people who were vulnerable to radicalisation.
The disinformation on the internet wouldn’t have had the same traction if it wasn’t for the mainstreaming of narratives that claimed nefarious alternative purposes for pandemic measures. Covid accelerated a trend the culture wars had already begun.
The merger of religion with disinformation is particularly concerning, these groups more resemble cults than mainstream religion. The Truth for Health Foundation is one such example with a board comprising of prominent promoters of covid disinformation like Paul Alexander who was accused by the Covid Oversight Committee of exerting political influence over the CDC.
The other half of Truth for Health is made up of the Black Robe Regiment, a religious militia with links to the Oathkeepers, Michael Flynn and Rodger Stone. The Black Robe Regiment is also linked to the NAR.
All the culture war and religious chaos has come together for the Reawaken Tour, an ongoing series of events where religious fundamentalism is a key component.
Consider the language used, the political opposition are being framed as evil incarnate, the minions of Satan. Politicians embracing this dangerous narrative provides further encouragement to these groups.
Considering the links many of those involved in the Great Awakening Tour have to Stop the Steal and the events of January 6, the rhetoric at the event on 21 October is an incitement to violence.
Full coverage in the thread below, will pick out a some tweets from it.
Alongside conspiracy, we also have prophecy.
On the second day of the event attendees were handed a copy of this book. All three authors are members of the Association of American Physicians of Surgeons which has a record of disinformation long before the pandemics. Elizabeth Vliet is the founder of Truth for Health, Peter McCullough is also a member of Truth for Health, he is also a member of Pandata and was on the Canadian Truckers science council, proving that the movements attack on democracy extend beyond US borders.
Simone Gold, founder of America’s Frontline Doctors was at the event after being unable to attend previous legs of the tour due to being in prison for her involvement in January 6. Gold’s militant covid disinformation must have won the approval of the Council for National Policy as she is now listed as a member of the group in a leaked document from a dinner at which Jay Bhattacharya, an author of the Great Barrington Declaration was the guest speaker.
The UK’s persona non grata Katie Hopkins even makes an appearance, preaching the narrative of the Great Replacement Theory.
All the different culture war, astoturf and disinformation groups are drawing people into, and feeding this melting pot of dangerous rhetoric. Distrust in institutions, the narrative of the enemy within and without, and the prophets who claim to be the only holders of the truth, we can look at similarities to cults, to 1930’s Germany, to the use of propaganda in the lead up to the genocide in Rwanda, for all they claim, this is not the language of freedom and democracy.
Some mainstream media may only dabble in the shallow end of the culture wars, misrepresenting stories for a quick attention grabbing headline without thinking any harm will come to it, but every misleading story feeds the confirmation bias of those who have bought into the overlapping narratives. Of course there are those who know the harm they are causing and hope to maximise the division and hatred they stoke.
The mid terms will be treated as a test run for the presidential election in 2024, the GOP will seek to do as much as possible to undermine trust in the democratic system. The accusations and disinformation that will be out in the days after the mid term will already have been written, the base has already been prepped, and the risk of violence is real.
All the tropes appear to be coming out.
This is not just a US problem.
Earlier this year Nigel Farage appeared at a CPAC hosted by Turning Point where he made accusations of vote rigging in the US and the UK.
The Hungarian CPAC this year demonstrates how the international far-right are coordinating. Orban was praised as a model for others to follow.
The past few months of political chaos in the UK has seen an increase in the accusations of a globalist agenda. Including on GB News, the UK’s equivalent to Fox News without the viewing figures. The same people involved in covid disinformation and the deeper end of the culture wars are claiming the fall of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss is all part of a globalist agenda. Rishi Sunak is accused of being installed by a Remainer coup, this is despite the fact he supported Britain leaving the EU when he was a student, many years before Johnson decided to take up the cause in 2016 for his own personal advancement.
A thread of examples in the past few days.
