Conspiracy Theories: COVID-19 Edition

[Eldon]

-Russians: Coronavirus is being overblown by Russian agents feeding hyped up info into the US. Goal is to destabilize the West.

-Illuminati: Warren Buffet et al are very pro population control. Virus created in a lab to kill off the masses. See Bill Gates TedTalk.

Others that youve heard?

[ZiggysFryBoy]

US military transmitted the virus to Wuhan during the Military Games, an Olympics for military personnel that was held in Wuhan.

[HouWarrior]

-Russians: Coronavirus is being overblown by Russian agents feeding hyped up info into the US. Goal is to destabilize the West.

-Illuminati: Warren Buffet et al are very pro population control. Virus created in a lab to kill off the masses. See Bill Gates TedTalk.

Others that youve heard?

Putin just had his term limit dissolved allowing him to lock in his leadership through 2036.

Soon I fear we will join Rocky and Bullwinkle under the worldwide dominion of Putin a/k/a Fearless Leader. lol

[Jockey]

Putin just had his term limit dissolved allowing him to lock in his leadership through 2036.

Soon I fear we will join Rocky and Bullwinkle under the worldwide dominion of Putin a/k/a Fearless Leader. lol

Maybe all of our gun nuts will come in handy, after all.

[MU82]

Many Republicans had believed (and maybe still do) that it was (is) a conspiracy by the liberal media and/or Deep State to undermine their hero's chances in November.

[Hards Alumni]

I can't imagine this thread will last long 

[4everwarriors]

Many Republicans had believed (and maybe still do) that it was (is) a conspiracy by the liberal media and/or Deep State to undermine their hero's chances in November.

Solid Nads, solid, aina?

[rocky_warrior]

I'm actually surprised there's not many (any?) conspiracies that the Russians started this. 

1) They have very few cases. 
2) They have everything to gain by taking down China, Europe, and the US

Maybe they unleashed it in the manufacturing center of the world on purpose.  This way they can rise again as a global power, and their "strong leader" will receive all the praise.

[JWags85]

Not conspiracy cause its China, but Ive heard a number of plausible scenarios about China's role in it.

A) This came from a bio-weapons lab.

B) China withheld a lot of information, not the deaths or infections like people have said, but the disease's affects, the severity, other impacts...and further BLASTED their aggressive actions to world media knowing this will create hysteria and help cripple the world, firmly strengthening their position on the world stage.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

I'm actually surprised there's not many (any?) conspiracies that the Russians started this. 

1) They have very few cases. 
2) They have everything to gain by taking down China, Europe, and the US

Maybe they unleashed it in the manufacturing center of the world on purpose.  This way they can rise again as a global power, and their "strong leader" will receive all the praise.

Rocky,
I saw a story yesterday that it was starting to hit Russia and Putin is trying to underplay.
I'd have to find the article?

[rocky_warrior]

Rocky,
I saw a story yesterday that it was starting to hit Russia and Putin is trying to underplay.
I'd have to find the article?

This is about conspiracies!  Not debunking them!

But if you find the article - I'd like to see it.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

Rocky,
I think it was this one from the NY Times.  Cases spiked yesterday. 
I found another one from the Moscow Times with a cases graph in my search.


Not Just a Crisis: Coronavirus Is a Test for Putin’s Security State
The outbreak offers an opportunity to examine the capabilities of Russia’s expanding surveillance apparatus, and gives Vladimir Putin a chance to prove his indispensability.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/world/europe/coronavirus-russia-putin.html


Coronavirus in Russia: The Latest News | March 20
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/03/20/coronavirus-in-russia-the-latest-news-march-20-a69117

[Spotcheck Billy]

I read a few days ago that Russia was building a COVID-19 hospital in Moscow.

[MU82]

Solid Nads, solid, aina?

Thanks!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/27/trump-just-pushed-one-his-worst-conspiracy-theories-yet/

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/coronavirus-trump-fox-business-trish-regan-removed-impeachment-conspiracy-a9403011.html

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/03/trump-coronavirus-threat/607825/

[ZiggysFryBoy]

Many Republicans had believed (and maybe still do) that it was (is) a conspiracy by the liberal media and/or Deep State to undermine their hero's chances in November.

JFC.   

[TSmith34, Inc.]

As everyone who watches OAN (because Fox is way too liberal) knows, the virus was created by Fauci himself, with the help of John Brennan

https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3859256

[pbiflyer]

As everyone who watches OAN (because Fox is way too liberal) knows, the virus was created by Fauci himself, with the help of John Brennan

https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3859256

But OAN says nice things about the POTUS. That is what matters. Or so he says.

BTW, today, he announced the delays were because of the Deep State departments.

[Jockey]

But OAN says nice things about the POTUS. That is what matters. Or so he says.

BTW, today, he announced the delays were because of the Deep State departments.

This country is absolutely crying for a leader. Begging. Instead we've got a carnival barker.

When asked today - very politely - what he would say to the people in the country who are scared by this, he launched into a tirade about corrupt media and how he is picked on. Truly sickening.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

JFC.   

Responses were and continue to be very different:

"A flurry of new national polls released this week reveals that while anxiety about the disease is rising on both sides of the partisan divide, Democrats consistently express much more concern about it than Republicans do, and they are much more likely to say they have changed their personal behavior as a result.

Government responses have followed these same tracks. With a few prominent exceptions, especially Ohio, states with Republican governors have been slower, or less likely, than those run by Democrats to impose restrictions on their residents. Until earlier this week, Donald Trump downplayed the disease’s danger and overstated the extent to which the United States had “control” over it, as the conservative publication The Bulwark recently documented. Conservative media figures including Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity likewise insisted for weeks that the media and Democrats were exaggerating the danger as a means of weakening Trump. Several Republican elected officials encouraged their constituents to visit bars and restaurants precisely when federal public-health officials were urging the opposite."

"If the virus never becomes pervasive beyond big cities, that could reinforce the sense among many Republican voters and office-holders that the threat has been overstated. It could also fuel the kind of xenophobia that Trump and other GOP leaders, such as Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, have encouraged by labeling the disease the “Chinese virus” or the “Wuhan virus.”

"Republican-leaning states to this point are displaying notably less urgency about the outbreak. Of the states that have taken the fewest actions to restrict public gatherings or limit restaurant service on a statewide basis—such as Texas, Missouri, and Alabama—almost all have Republican governors"

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/03/how-republicans-and-democrats-think-about-coronavirus/608395/

And then you have this:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/us/politics/coronavirus-heaven-frilot-mark-frilot.html?te=1&nl=morning-briefing&emc=edit_NN_p_20200320&section=topNews&campaign_id=9&instance_id=16929&segment_id=22414&user_id=65badcb7c07b4cd4815fe5e758510381&regi_id=98421546tion=topNews

"Crises are political only until they are personal. As news of Mr. Frilot’s diagnosis spread, among his friends and on Nola.com, his story was no longer just that of a young, healthy person who caught a virus that young, healthy people had been told they were not supposed to catch. It was a revelation for the conservative suburbs of New Orleans, where many had written off the pandemic as liberal fear-mongering.

"The language they used was the language politicians and media figures were also using. On March 8, when Mr. Frilot first went to urgent care, President Trump retweeted a joke from his White House social media director about Nero fiddling as Rome burned. The next night, Sean Hannity said on his prime time Fox News show that the virus was the media’s attempt to “bludgeon” Mr. Trump with “this new hoax.”

"Ms. Pitfield lives in Metairie, about 10 minutes from Kenner. Like many in the area, which is represented in Congress by House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, she is a supporter of President Trump. She, and many of her friends, she said, believed that the coronavirus was a political stunt and media-induced hysteria.

"On Facebook, Kathy Perilloux shared a similar conversion. Before March 16, Ms. Perilloux’s page was almost solely posts questioning the severity of the virus. March 10: “Hurricane Corona …. HYPE …. sigh,” she wrote. (“I stole that from Rush, but I was thinking the same before he said it!!!!!” she added in a comment.)"

[Hards Alumni]

Rocky,
I think it was this one from the NY Times.  Cases spiked yesterday. 
I found another one from the Moscow Times with a cases graph in my search.


Not Just a Crisis: Coronavirus Is a Test for Putin’s Security State
The outbreak offers an opportunity to examine the capabilities of Russia’s expanding surveillance apparatus, and gives Vladimir Putin a chance to prove his indispensability.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/world/europe/coronavirus-russia-putin.html


Coronavirus in Russia: The Latest News | March 20
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/03/20/coronavirus-in-russia-the-latest-news-march-20-a69117

Only 3.6 sick people, not great, but not terrible.

[MU82]

JFC.   

You don't read much, do you?

[MU82]

Responses were and continue to be very different:

"A flurry of new national polls released this week reveals that while anxiety about the disease is rising on both sides of the partisan divide, Democrats consistently express much more concern about it than Republicans do, and they are much more likely to say they have changed their personal behavior as a result.

Government responses have followed these same tracks. With a few prominent exceptions, especially Ohio, states with Republican governors have been slower, or less likely, than those run by Democrats to impose restrictions on their residents. Until earlier this week, Donald Trump downplayed the disease’s danger and overstated the extent to which the United States had “control” over it, as the conservative publication The Bulwark recently documented. Conservative media figures including Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity likewise insisted for weeks that the media and Democrats were exaggerating the danger as a means of weakening Trump. Several Republican elected officials encouraged their constituents to visit bars and restaurants precisely when federal public-health officials were urging the opposite."

"If the virus never becomes pervasive beyond big cities, that could reinforce the sense among many Republican voters and office-holders that the threat has been overstated. It could also fuel the kind of xenophobia that Trump and other GOP leaders, such as Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, have encouraged by labeling the disease the “Chinese virus” or the “Wuhan virus.”

"Republican-leaning states to this point are displaying notably less urgency about the outbreak. Of the states that have taken the fewest actions to restrict public gatherings or limit restaurant service on a statewide basis—such as Texas, Missouri, and Alabama—almost all have Republican governors"

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/03/how-republicans-and-democrats-think-about-coronavirus/608395/

And then you have this:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/us/politics/coronavirus-heaven-frilot-mark-frilot.html?te=1&nl=morning-briefing&emc=edit_NN_p_20200320&section=topNews&campaign_id=9&instance_id=16929&segment_id=22414&user_id=65badcb7c07b4cd4815fe5e758510381&regi_id=98421546tion=topNews

"Crises are political only until they are personal. As news of Mr. Frilot’s diagnosis spread, among his friends and on Nola.com, his story was no longer just that of a young, healthy person who caught a virus that young, healthy people had been told they were not supposed to catch. It was a revelation for the conservative suburbs of New Orleans, where many had written off the pandemic as liberal fear-mongering.

"The language they used was the language politicians and media figures were also using. On March 8, when Mr. Frilot first went to urgent care, President Trump retweeted a joke from his White House social media director about Nero fiddling as Rome burned. The next night, Sean Hannity said on his prime time Fox News show that the virus was the media’s attempt to “bludgeon” Mr. Trump with “this new hoax.”

"Ms. Pitfield lives in Metairie, about 10 minutes from Kenner. Like many in the area, which is represented in Congress by House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, she is a supporter of President Trump. She, and many of her friends, she said, believed that the coronavirus was a political stunt and media-induced hysteria.

"On Facebook, Kathy Perilloux shared a similar conversion. Before March 16, Ms. Perilloux’s page was almost solely posts questioning the severity of the virus. March 10: “Hurricane Corona …. HYPE …. sigh,” she wrote. (“I stole that from Rush, but I was thinking the same before he said it!!!!!” she added in a comment.)"

JFC!

All of the above is true, but JFC!

[forgetful]

Some of the craziest ones I've seen on either social media or overhearing conversations.

1. Deep state conspiracy, this is a ploy by the Obama people to take down Trump.

2. Released by Trump, long term plan to use martial law to take control of the government. Deaths amongst elderly Supreme Court allows him to stack the court to allow it.

3. Massive media hoax.

4. Released by the CIA in China to prove that domestic production needs to be kept at home, at to weaken Chinese power, but it got out of control.

5. Intentionally released by the Chinese, who had a vaccine (hence low infections), to take global economic control.

6. Aliens, well I haven't actually heard this one, but it is more rational than any of the ones above.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

This country is absolutely crying for a leader. Begging. Instead we've got a carnival barker.

When asked today - very politely - what he would say to the people in the country who are scared by this, he launched into a tirade about corrupt media and how he is picked on. Truly sickening.

Andrew Cuomo: "Blame me"

Donald Trump: "I take no responsibility at all"

[NorthernDancerColt]

Can’t believe this hasn’t been brought up yet: Bill Gates quitting Microsoft to focus on ID 2020, which would get the 1.2 billion or so unidentified people in the world some form of working identity. Many feel that RFID microchipping via nanotechnology is the most efficient way to make this a reality. One way of implementing this and delivering an ID chip is a mandatory vaccination against SARS family viruses. The religious right sees this as Mark-of-the-beast stuff, and I’m not sure they’re wrong. They claim that people will be effectively barred from participating in the world economy without taking the chip. You thought getting the sweater-vests to go cashless at FF was hard?! Would pay to see the Natl Guard pull into a rural Texas neighborhood with mandatory vaccination kits in hand as they knock on the door. It would make the 1990s Clinton-Reno ATF/ Branch Dravidian Waco stand-off look like a game of tiddlywinks.