Lifestyle Influencers Are Now Sharing Some Bogus Far-Right Conspiracy Theories About The Coronavirus On Instagram
If 2020 wasn't weird enough, let's throw radicalized influencers into the mix.
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As if things aren't bad enough right now, some lifestyle and parenting bloggers are now spreading completely baseless conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic to their tens of thousands of followers on Instagram.
The influencers are seamlessly weaving in evidence-free far-right conspiracy theories that are usually found in the significantly less Instagrammable parts of the internet, such as 4 and 8-chan, in between their usual idyllic family snaps.
It's unclear if these influencers believe some of the theories spouted by QAnon supporters, or where exactly they are getting their information. But they are sharing some of the unfounded conspiracies, or some people who are posting about them, on their feeds.
None of the people mentioned in this article responded when asked if they believe QAnon conspiracy theories.
It is jarring, to say the least. Take @roseuncharted, or Rose Henges, a Christian mom blogger and YouTuber who advocates for "holistic living" to her 73,000 followers. She's also an anti-vaxxer, but is mainstream enough to be followed by many prominent Christian influencers like Audrey Roloff and Korie Robertson from Duck Dynasty.
Over the past week, Henges has been posting bogus QAnon conspiracy theories amid her normal filtered grams of her family, her holistic medicine business, and nature.
First, a TL;DR. Supporters of the completely unfounded QAnon conspiracy theory believe that President Donald Trump and the American military are waging a secret war against the Deep State, which they believe is a global cabal of pedophiles. They get their updates from off-shoots of the anonymous message board 8chan and a website called QAlerts, which they comb through for barely-coherent secret messages from a person they believe has Q-level security clearance within the US government.
The QAnon movement has seen increased activity on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter since the outbreak of COVID-19. Some Q followers baselessly claim the virus is a man-made bioweapon, which they believe was created by either the Chinese government or Bill Gates, depending on which Twitter account you read. And some followers believe that the virus is a Deep State plot and doesn’t exist at all, even though it has killed thousands upon thousands around the world.
In the last two weeks, as the American death toll has continued to rise and the ramifications of how bad things are getting is beginning to sink in, many Q followers, realizing their earlier beliefs don't comport with the truth, have suddenly decided that COVID-19 is real, but that much of the emergency response we’re seeing is actually cover for Trump’s military operations against the deep state (which is not what is happening).
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