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August 13, 2020 –
From Antifascist Network

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Conspiracy theory is a gateway to the far-right

13
08
2020

A good explanation of the workings of conspiracy theories, robbed off Facebook.

Fictional conspiracy theories such as Qanon, and conspiracy theories about the imaginary “deep state” are cooked up by the far-right and weaponized to distract attention from really-existing geopolitical strategic game playing and really-existing empire building on the part of fascists: that is part of the purpose these conspiracy theories are designed for.

Spiritual people are particularly susceptible to this because they are perceived as high on empathy and low on boundaries and therefore seen as easy to turn or manipulate.
An effective way to defeat one’s opponent is to get them to chase after imaginary enemies in order to weaken them, confuse them, control them and cover up one’s really existing nefarious behaviour.
It’s an old strategy: Machiavelli and Sun Tzu describe it, it’s used by abusers everywhere to get their victims to trauma bond with them, and some intelligence agencies around the world are trained in such techniques.
The Overton window has shifted to the right over the last thirty years or so, so folks mistake centrists for leftists and the far-right for the moderate right. Of course the far-right’s strategy has been to encourage and capitalise on that shift in the Overton window.
People who are disenchanted with the political centre, disenchanted with “identity politics” and disenchanted with capitalism or neoliberalism would in the past have gravitated to the moderate left, far-left or centre right, but these days the far-right have extensive recruitment and disinformation campaigns to funnel those disenchanted with capitalism, centrism, identity politics or neoliberalism towards fascism.
Part of the fascist strategy is to misguide people into thinking the centrist neoliberal policies that trouble them are leftist policies.The far-right then pretend to be rebels against capitalism, whilst in fact standing for an even more extreme and brutal form of capitalism.
Spreading disinformation and fictional conspiracy theories through mechanized AI algorithms to lure alternative culture luminaries and leftists to the far-right has been part of the international far-right and fascist playbook for a long time.
The fascist strategy is to pose as a “rebel” against the system, and get leftists and hippies to attack each other and attack civil society in the West thinking they are fighting a noble fight against George Soros, “globalism” or the imaginary “deep state.”
The purpose in these disinformation campaigns and conspiracy theories are to divide people against each other, divide the working class, undermine democratic systems in the US and Europe and forward the agenda of white supremacist Christian fundamentalism.
Also, one of the far-right’s current strategies is to actively rebrand themselves as spiritual teachers or “new paradigm influencers.” Some of those right wing “new paradigm influencers” around today share some of the same beliefs as the fascists and Nazis from the 1920’s and 30’s but use a cover identity as new thought teachers, spiritual teachers, coaches and new paradigm influencers to forward their agenda and get ingress in leftist and alternative culture circles.