Conspiracy theories in the United States

Screenshot: The Prince and Princess of Wales / XThe Kate Middleton saga has been a boon for tabloids and cat nip for internet conspiracy theorists. Since Middleton had abdominal surgery in January and then failed to show up at a number of annual and/or scheduled events, the internet has been flooded with theories about what might have happened to her. Then came the doctored photos, making things even worse. Despite myriad claims from the royal palace that Kate is alive and well, public speculation persists. I will admit…

Wireless customers with AT&T, Cricket Wireless, T-Mobile, and Verizon all reported outages across the country this morning. And just like clockwork, some folks online pounced on the disruption as evidence of a global conspiracy. What Drew Noomi Rapace to Constellation?Alex Jones, arguably America’s most popular conspiracy theorist, believes the telecom outage is a direct result of Chinese hackers.“Is it a cyber attack? AT&T is being very tight-lipped,” Jones insisted in a web broadcast on Thursday in his typical…

Image: Carl Court (Getty Images)German authorities dismantled what’s being called a far-right terrorist group that was behind alleged plans to overthrow the government. Police arrested 25 suspected conspirators who had set up and communicated on several channels on the platform Telegram to plan the coup that authorities believe would have likely resulted in violence.Telegram has been a source of concern for authorities who found the app played an integral part in allowing hate speech to run rampant and promote QAnon…

The New York Times alleges that Ron Watkins began posting as Q in 2018—Watkins has denied these claims.Image: Rick Loomis (Getty Images)Ron Watkins, the alleged mastermind behind the QAnon conspiracy, has shut down his campaign for an Arizona congressionalseat. Watkins was running as a Republican and announced the termination of his campaign to the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday.QAnon is as much a part of Republican politics as logical fallacies are, but the conspiracy theory’s stranglehold on democracy appears…

Alex Jones, conspiracy theorist extraordinaire, seems to have an enemy. The Daily Dot reports that two of Jones’ video-hosting sites appear to be getting spammed with a supercut of clips of the the right-wing host day drinking while at work. Where the video came from, why anyone would put together such a thing, and whether Jones is actually drinking alcohol in these videos, is unknown.The Dot reports that a link to the video has been popping up on Jones-related accounts on both Bitchute and banned.video—the platforms that…

Photo: No-Mad (Shutterstock)Truth Social, the Twitter-like social platform for the ultra-right and Trump sycophants, has a QAnon problem (yes, I heard your collective gasp). More than that, conspiracist accounts have become a celebrated and regular part of the greater Truth Social community, thanks to major Republican officials and the titular former president himself “retruthing” the conspiracist nonsense (alright, you can stop gasping—the collective shock has truly run dry).Researchers with media watchdog group…

Alex Jones testifies in and Austin, Texas—conceding that the Sandy Hook shooting was “100% real” Image: Briana Sanchez (AP)Alex Jones, controversial radio host and conspiracy theory peddler, has finally walked back on his previous claims that the Sandy Hook shooting was fake, testifying in court that the shooting was, in fact, real after meeting the parents of the children that were killed.Alex Jones and obtuse views of national tragedies unfortunately go hand in hand. After years of spouting conspiracy theories that the…