Golden State of paranoia: Internet conspiracies link wildfires to takeover schemes

“Hidden powers behind these calculated strikes,” they warn

As investigators conduct a painstaking probe for the causes of California’s devastating wildfires, conspiracists have spawned their own theory: ignition by a secret cabal of nefarious “internationalists,” including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Sergey Brin, who seek to run the world.

“There are hidden powers behind these calculated strikes in California,” warns one YouTube video, titled “An Open Letter To the People of California.”

In Facebook forums, YouTube videos and Reddit threads amassing tens of thousands of views, believers swap manipulated images of “light pillars” from the sky — proof, they say, that rural homes were targeted to burn, forcing residents into cities, where they can be more easily controlled by shadowy forces scheming at oppression.

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https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/12/03/golden-state-of-paranoia-internet-conspiracies-link-wildfires-to-takeover-schemes/