Brown on Business
January 25-31, 2021
Rabbit hole conspiracies lead Americans astray
By Wesley Brown
wesley@dailydata.com
In many ways, 2021 is already equal to 2020 in giving us one-time-in-a-life events we have never seen.
Less than four weeks after the nation closed the books on a year where COVID-19 dominated nearly every headline and storyline, it took a coup d’état at the seat of government to push our fascination with a fast-spreading virus off the front page.
And, if you are keeping tabs on just the first four weeks of years 2021, the Jan. 6 insurrection is already an equal rival to COVID-19 in becoming a virtual media factory for spawning new daily headlines as wells as wild conspiracies that take on a life of their own.
Just as COVID-19 machinations are a breeding ground for novel New World Order-tied conspiracies that have always been part of the internet’s dark web, social media is now aflame with unique counter theories about the attack on the U.S. Capitol building.
All told, the recent insurrection has already caused the first-second impeachment of a U.S. sitting president and led to 25,000 National Guardsman camping out in Washington, D.C. It has also brought us instant images on TV, the internet, and social media that will live in our minds for weeks.
In recent Zoom calls with family, friends, and business associates, conversations always come back to how difficult it is to push ourselves away from our smartphones, the internet, the TV, and social media that regularly feed us instant information.
But here’s where this story takes a turn. To no one surprise, this overflow of conspiracy theory-fed newsfeeds, data, and information is causing permanent damage to how well Americans can tell the truth from fiction. But even more troubling is the attempt to follow a never-ending conspiracy theory to its circular end, including the recent QAnon tale that many believe was the fuel that sparked the Jan. 6 coup attempt.
Interestingly, before the election, a politician (yes, a politician) warned America about the danger of dozens of “politicians” in 2020 starting to embrace the internet conspiracy theories propagated by QAnon ahead of the Nov. 3 elections. That Republican politician, Rep. Denver Riggleman of Virginia, formerly served as the Congressional representative for Virginia’s fifth district.
Riggleman is now a subject matter expert on data analytics for the Office of Secretary of Defense (OSD). He previously served as a U.S. Air Force Intelligence Officer supporting the global war on terror. He was co-founder and former CEO of a successful federal contracting company supporting military science, technology, and advanced analysis.
In late October, only a week before the Nov. 3 election, Riggleman also aptly predicted how the popularity of these QAnon ideas had already duped President Trump and inspired a range of dangerous actions.
“As America heads toward a critical election, it’s time for our nation to recognize and work to stop the disinformation that threatens to destroy the institutions of our democracy,” said Riggleman in an Oct. 17 statement promoting his new book entitled “Big Foot … It’s Complicated.”
For those who don’t know, QAnon is a disproven and discredited far-right conspiracy theory alleging that a cabal of Satan-worshipping cannibalistic pedophiles runs a global child sex-trafficking ring and plotting against U.S. President Donald Trump, who is fighting the cabal. This same conspiracy is further amplified with new and more twisted theories on everything from the COVID-19 vaccine and Black Lives Matter to the second coming of Christ.
In his new book’s foreword, Riggleman said his goal was to humorously explore the roots and potentially dangerous results of QAnon and other extreme belief systems. To do that, he takes the reader through the lens of Bigfoot believer communities around the U.S., offering a candid look into the shadowy world of conspiracy theories and the mindsets of their devotees.
“I want readers to walk away from this book with an understanding of the insidious way disinformation consumes all common sense in its path,” said Riggleman, “and to perhaps ponder a profound question: Is Bigfoot in fact the elusive leader of all conspiracies?”
The former Air Force spy lost his seat in the Republican primary in 2020 to a former pro-Trump official at the Liberty University. Today, that evangelical college houses a conservative think tank co-founded by the school’s disgraced ex-president Jerry Falwell Jr., who also espouses many of the pro-Trump conspiracy theories.
In his race, Riggleman suffered blowback from the Republican party members to officiate a same-sex wedding and not embrace other pro-Trump policies. Democratic Party opponents have also accused the former congressmen of having ties to white supremacists with their conspiracy theory leanings.
Still, Riggleman’s predictions before the election were amazingly accurate as to the possibility of a potential clash just a week before President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris won the Nov. 3 election.
“We’re at a crucial moment for our country, there’s no doubt. Misinformation is running rampant in the highest halls of power, and the American people will ultimately pay the price if we allow this insanity to continue unchecked,” Riggleman says. “If we want to save our democracy, we’ll need to fight speech with speech and counter those who don’t deal in truth or fact.”
This week, Riggleman tweeted a long thread on social media offering his support for President Trump’s second impeachment by House Democrats and 10 Republicans on Jan. 14, noting it is “necessary to combat conspiracy theories.
“GOP colleagues have stated that impeachment is divisive and could cause further violence. I disagree. Allowing President Trump to walk away, validates messianic conspiracy theories and disinformation. It could me more dangerous,” tweeted Riggleman.
For many people, Twitter and Facebook are the vehicles that have led many Americans down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole. And maybe taking away President Trump’s Twitter account is the first step for many to climb out of that deep abyss.
