Civil rights advocates have warned for months that the coronavirus could aid recruiting for the most extreme white-supremacist and neo-Nazi groups.
The coronavirus is providing a global rallying cry for conspiracy theorists and far-right extremists on both sides of the Atlantic.
People seizing on the pandemic range from white supremacists and anti-vaxxers in the U.S. to fascist and anti-refugee groups across Europe, according to a POLITICO review of thousands social media posts and interviews with misinformation experts tracking their online activities. They also include far-right populists on both continents who had previously tried to coordinate their efforts after the 2016 American presidential election.
The coronavirus is providing a global rallying cry for conspiracy theorists and far-right extremists on both sides of the Atlantic.
People seizing on the pandemic range from white supremacists and anti-vaxxers in the U.S. to fascist and anti-refugee groups across Europe, according to a POLITICO review of thousands social media posts and interviews with misinformation experts tracking their online activities. They also include far-right populists on both continents who had previously tried to coordinate their efforts after the 2016 American presidential election. Continue reading.
The Age of Conspiracy Theories in which we are now immured has produced a kind of bastard offspring: the Shared Violent Fantasy. Exhibit A is 
Conspiracy theories aren’t fueled by facts; they are fueled by attention. On Saturday, a baseless conspiracy theory about the death of Jeffrey Epstein gorged itself on a feast of the stuff, as a viral hashtag spammed by believers trended on Twitter. In less than a day, a viral tweet from a conservative Internet personality promoting that hashtag — #ClintonBodyCount — was retweeted by the president.
This interview with historian and author Rick Perlstein originally appeared in the Berlin daily Neues Deutschland and is posted on the National Memo website.
