Why So Much Pseudo-Science Garbage on the Internet?

It’s full speed ahead for those who brought us the successful campaigns against tobacco industry regulation and climate change action.

Kim Griest: May 2020

Several friends have asked me why so many people continue to believe nonsense pseudo-science, such as that 5G is a terrible danger to society causing covid-19 symptoms, or that covid-19 was made in a government lab so that microchips can be implanted with the vaccine, even though the science is so clear on these questions. And why is there so much pseudo-science on Facebook, youtube, and the internet in general? Here is my very brief attempt at an answer.

First some important background. The billionaire libertarians (Rupert Murdoch, Charles Koch, Robert Mercer, Adelson, Scaife, Coors, etc.) together with large corporations have a plan to undo FDR’s New Deal and return the USA to the oligarchic ways of the 19th century. This plan is documented and detailed in the book, “Democracy in Chains”, by Duke University historian Nancy MacClean, and some current successes of this plan are explained in my paper, “The Real Reason the Middle Class is Disappearing”: https://kimgriest.medium.com/real-reason-the-american-middle-class-is-disappearing-901cb78ababf

As discussed in the references above, this plan has to be implemented somewhat stealthily, since most Americans do not believe in their agenda, which is: removing Social Security, ending Medicare, increasing corporate profits by removing environmental, pollution, and human rights regulations, increasing military spending, speeding resource extraction including selling off and logging the national forests and parks, etc.

As discussed often by Rush Limbaugh (one of their spokesmen) a key part of their plan is to remove the public’s trust in what Limbaugh called the “4 corners of deceit”: namely science, academia (the universities), accurate news media reporting, and thegovernment. There are thousands of “think tanks” and other organizations supported and indirectly run by these billionaires (they have lots of money after all and own much of the media) which hire very smart and educated people to run their propaganda campaigns.

For example, to convince people that cigarettes did not cause cancer and therefore should not be regulated, they hired corrupt scientists and clever lawyers, supported right-wing politicians, etc. During that successful campaign (no action against tobacco was taken for almost 50 years after science had proved the tobacco-cancer connection), these libertarian/conservative individuals and organizations discovered powerful methods to fool the public into distrusting scientists. The same techniques (and organizations and people) are working on climate change denial. See the book “Merchants of Doubt”, by Harvard historian Naomi Oreskes for many details about these and other such campaigns (plus references).

It is important to understand that anydistrust of scientists helps their cause.

So, weird beliefs about climate change, vaccinations, chem trails, 5G, miracle medical cures suppressed by the AMA, cars that run on water, etc. are strongly supported and spread via the organizations they own, control, or influence: iHeart AM talk radio stations, FOX news, the Heartland Institute, dozens of propaganda websites such as Breitbart, Infowars, Newsmax, Prager U, etc.

The logic they use is: “If scientists are trying to poison you with 5G, then you shouldn’t trust them when they say some Monsanto pesticide causes cancer and should be removed from the market? Why believe these corrupt scientists when they say that fossil fuels should be left in the ground because burning them cause global warming?”

Many of the people supporting these pseudo-science causes have been fooled and are being cynically used by the main players. They don’t even know it! They may be liberal or alternative thinkers not realizing that their cause has been co-opted by the wealthy and large corporations who are helping publicize it in order to convince people to distrust science, academia, careful news reporting, and the government. Of course, some people actually agree with the libertarian/conservative causes and understand the strategy; for example, this strategy has been openly discussed at Heartland Institute meetings. (The Heartland Institute is one of the most powerful climate change denial think tanks and is funded by Koch and Exxon, etc. See articles by Naomi Klein for details.)

Knowing the above strategy, it is better to NEVER trust anything coming from these libertarian/conservative propaganda sources. The first step, of course, is making yourself a list of sources you trust and sources you don’t trust. This takes some work but will have the good result that your view of what is happening in the world will be closer to reality and that you won’t be helping the conservative/libertarian billionaires in their goal of eliminating democracy for the common good by disabling the government. Recall that a democratic government is the only thing that can stand up for ordinary people against the enormous power of large corporations and the wealthy. Government is not the problem, it is the solution.

Hope this helps.

Appendix: First attempt at a list of trustworthy and untrustworthy information sources

Trustworthy sources of information in ranked order, with number 1 being the most trustworthy and number 6 being the least.

1. Peer reviewed scientific papers in reputable journals.
2. Official information coming from reputable places: NASA, CDC, WHO, Universities.
3. Government laboratories in nations with elected, democratic governments.
4. Published papers by reputable academics at well-known Universities.
5. Reputable news sources not owned by conservative/libertarian billionaires or large corporations: In English: the BBC, the Guardian, etc.
6. News sources owned by the wealthy or large corporations, but which have shown they care about their reputation for accurate reporting: New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, etc.

Note that the suggested Trustworthy sources above correspond precisely to Limbaugh’s “four corners of deceit”. If the public can be convinced to disregard these sources, the libertarian/conservative agenda is well on its way to being implemented.

Untrustworthy sources; stories from these should not be read, viewed, quoted, or referenced.

1. Sources owned by the wealthy, large corporations, or their followers, that have consistently been shown to distort, misinform, or lie: FOX news, Washington Times, New York Post, Daily Express, many AM talk radio shows, Breitbart, Infowars, Daily Wire, Project Veritas, Judicial Watch, Newsmax, Prager U, etc.

2. High quality, seemingly professionally produced, youtube videos by “disaffected insiders” that are designed to emotionally manipulate you into accepting some strange pseudo-science or conspiracy theory. (Who is paying for these videos anyway?)

3. Add your list here.

A more detailed discussion of reliable sources of information can be found here: https://kimgriest.medium.com/real-reason-the-american-middle-class-is-disappearing-901cb78ababf

A more detailed discussion of the conservative/libertarian plan is given here: https://kimgriest.medium.com/yes-wealthy-libertarians-really-are-your-problem-46555278d883