Ron Johnson, one of the two United States senators representing Wisconsin, has earned a new epithet: BROOKFIELD, Wis. — Senator Ron Johnson incited widespread outrage when he said recently that he would have been more afraid of the rioters who rampaged the Capitol on Jan. 6 had they been members of Black Lives Matter and…
Conspiracy Theories
Congress, Conspiracy Theories, Disinformation, Insurrection, Sen. Ron Johnson
Ron Johnson Reads Lies about the Capitol Riot
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
In for a penny, in for a pound: Sen. Ron Johnson hopes someone will believe that the rioters who marched from a Trump rally to the Capitol on 1.6 weren’t Trump supporters at all. (Most likely, he does not expect rational people to believe this; he hopes to soothe the feelings of the irrational faction…
Conspiracy Theories, Crackpots, Crime, Disinformation, Fellow Traveler, Insurrection, Politics, Sen. Ron Johnson
Ron Johnson: ‘No Enemies to the Right’?
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
During an interview yesterday, Sen. Ron Johnson declared of the Capitol riot that ‘this didn’t seem like an armed insurrection to me.’ Tim Elfrink reports that As a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol last month, rioters battered police with a multitude of weapons: metal flagpoles, baseball bats, wrenches and clubs. Many soaked police in caustic…
Congress, Conspiracy Theories, Crackpots, Disinformation, Mendacity, Sen. Ron Johnson
Ron Johnson Searches for the Real Killer
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
United States Senator Ron Johnson wonders if, possibly, maybe, perhaps it is Nancy Pelosi who is responsible for the Capitol riot. He doesn’t have any proof for this contention, and after all, he’s only askin’ questions, so don’t ask Johnson for substantiation: “Is this another diversionary operation? Is this meant to deflect away from potentially…
Conspiracy Theories, Covidiocy, Elections, Fellow Traveler, Law, Never Trump, Presidential race 2020, Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin
Ron Johnson Attracts Attention
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The Never Trump conservatives at the Lincoln Project aren’t going away: they have lingering Trumpism in their sights. U.S. Senator Ron Johnson – who accepts every conspiracy theory but rejects Wisconsin’s certified electoral votes for president – has caught their attention. .@RonJohnsonWI I wanted to let you know what we are talking about at @ProjectLincoln…
Conspiracy Theories, Elections, Fellow Traveler, Presidential race 2020, Sen. Ron Johnson, Trump, Trumpism, Wisconsin
Whether Ambitious, Compromised, or Crackpot, Sen. Ron Johnson Doesn’t Disappoint
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Embedded below, Sen. Ron Johnson’s nine minutes, thirty-three seconds of lunacy on Sunday’s Meet the Press. A full transcript is available at NBC News. Previously: U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson: Ambitious, Compromised, or Crackpot?, National Reporting on Sen. Ron Johnson, and Ron Johnson’s 12.16.20 Senate Hearing on Election Security.
Conspiracy Theories, Elections, Politics, Sen. Ron Johnson, US Senate
Ron Johnson’s 12.16.20 Senate Hearing on Election Security
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Yesterday, Sen. Ron Johnson held a hearing as the (outgoing) chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. A video of the full hearing appears above. Johnson may run for a third term, and even if he doesn’t, his role in support of Trump and his affinity for a Trumpist outlook make him a subject of…
America, Authoritarianism, Conspiracy Theories, Elections, Law, Trump, Unfit
Attempts
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
When a burglar walks through a neighborhood, and tries doorknob after doorknob to see which one might be unlocked, no reasonable person would say that his attempts to enter are innocent acts. On the contrary, he’d rightly been seen as dangerous. In the same way, when Trump challenges election results through lies, his attempts to…
2020 Presidential Election, Conspiracy Theories, Disinformation, Facebook, Justice, Law, Presidential race 2020, Social Media
Meanwhile, on Facebook…
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Jeremy B. Merrill and Jamiles Lartey report Trump’s Crime and Carnage Ad Blitz Is Going Unanswered on Facebook (‘The president has spent millions on misleading Facebook ads targeting undecided voters, while Joe Biden has been virtually silent’): With unprecedented protests around race and policing dominating the news all summer, it was all but certain criminal justice would emerge as a key…
Conspiracy Theories, Culture, Disinformation, Education, Social Media
Facebook Discussions as Displays of Ignorance, Fallacies, and Marginal Literacy
by JOHN ADAMS • • 3 Comments
In communities in the Whitewater area, assorted Facebook pages (particularly) are a significant means of messaging about politics, culture, etc. Too often, these messages are evidence of ignorance, fallacies, and are poorly written (to the point of only marginal literacy). Over time, as these rural communities have suffered relative economic decline, they have also experienced a…
Conspiracy Theories, Coronavirus, Documentary
Conspiracy Theories: A Frontline Documentary and Coronavirus Disinformation
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Of Alex Jones & Roger Stone, Frontline’s United States of Conspiracy describes how “trafficking in conspiracy theories went from the fringes of U.S. politics into the White House. [It’s an] investigation of the alliance among conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, longtime Trump associate Roger Stone and the president — and their role in the battle over…
Conspiracy Theories, Coronavirus, Culture, Disinformation, Education, Free Markets, Public Health
The Price of Ignorance is Widely Paid
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
As nationwide chains take sensible measures to require masks, ordinary workers at those chains find themselves the underserving recipients of abuse. Kelli Weill reports Walmart Workers Are Terrified of Enforcing Mask Rules: Even in a time of record unemployment, some of Dan’s colleagues at an Indiana Walmart have walked off the job. They aren’t quitting over…
City, Conspiracy Theories, Culture, Public Health, Reasoning
The Balancing That Shouldn’t Have Happened
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
In communities across America, when a common & rational direction is most needed, cities & towns are about to confront the absence of a rational consensus. Residents who are in the grip of conspiracy theories (Qanon, anti-vaxxers, rumors of antifa, etc.) and those who have retained a sound understanding may live in the same place,…
Conspiracy Theories, Coronavirus
Frontline’s Covering Coronavirus: United States of Conspiracy
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
As COVID-19 has spread, so, too, have misinformation and conspiracy theories about the virus — amplified by figures like Alex Jones, and proliferating on social media and even at the highest levels of government. Veteran FRONTLINE filmmaker Michael Kirk, who was already making a documentary about the rise of conspiracy theories in American politics when…