Any time someone in Donald Trump’s orbit, and especially Trump himself, was challenged with unflattering information, there was the inevitable cry of “Fake News!” It’s reminiscent of a child who claps their hands over their ears while loudly singing “Mary Had a Little Lamb” when they are being told something they don’t want to hear. It’s something their base, which equates ratings over facts, does when faced with damaging information.
Yet, when it comes to fake news, it is those on the right who are the major purveyors of falsehoods. While they will deny it, their own cognitive dissonance prevents them from accepting the facts. Instead, they will rationalize that it’s OK to spread misinformation because, if we are doing it, the other side must be too, so it’s OK.
There are several examples of those in the right spreading fake news. Here are just a few:
The War on Christmas
In what has become an annual chestnut (pun intended), Conservatives have repeatedly claimed that there is a War on Christmas being waged by Liberals. Donald Trump even tried to take credit for saving Christmas from the godless Liberals.
Make no mistake, there is no War on Christmas. It is a complete fabrication meant to appeal to those who apparently have nothing better to do. It goes something like this: A small town will force the removal of a religious display from government property. The right will latch onto this and conflate it into a left-wing plot to ban Christmas.
Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill!
After this “nefarious activity” has been unearthed, there will come the inevitable falsehood that America is a Christian nation and that the forefathers always intended this to be so. Of course, anyone who actually reads the Constitution need not go any further than the First Amendment to see that is a lie.
The War on Christmas is Fake News
Democrats Are Coming for Your Guns
Any time there is an election, especially a close one, the Republican candidate will invariably make the false assertion that Democrats are coming for your guns. It’s a tried and true scare tactic that has been pushed by the right and the pro gun lobby, namely the National Rifle Association. It’s a rallying cry meant to instill fear in Conservatives and unite them around a single, fake cause.
America has more guns per capita than any other nation. Amnesty International has gone as far as to issue a warning to foreign visitors over gun violence. They have even compiled a list of the most dangerous cities in America.
In his failed presidential bid, Beto O’ Rourke gave a face to these fears by stating he would ban the AR-15 if elected. This likely doomed his election chances as well as giving figurative ammo to the claims from Conservatives. They conveniently ignore the fact that one-time Republican presidential candidate, and the man called the Father of Modern Conservatism, Barry Goldwater, once called for automatic weapons to be outlawed.
Despite numerous school shootings and even a dangerous Tik Tok Challenge, encouraging other acts of violence, there is no widespread movement to ban guns. There is a call for sensible gun reform, even going as far as making gun sellers responsible if their firearm is used in a mass casualty event. But, taking away anyone’s guns has not been widely accepted.
The claim that Democrats are coming for your guns is Fake News.
Teaching Critical Race Theory in Public Schools
Attend any school board meeting these days, and you will certainly find a parent, and perhaps several, who will bring up Critical Race Theory. They will complain that they don’t want it taught to their child. They will expose their ignorance by further stating that they don’t want their child to feel bad about their history and they don’t want them taught to hate their own race. They say their child is being “indoctrinated” with Liberal philosophies.
All of the above is false.
First of all, Critical Race Theory is only being taught on the collegiate level and in law schools. When confronted, teachers shake their heads and explain that they can barely afford money for adequate books, so having funds to teach CRT, as it has been abbreviated, is impossible.
Nowhere was this more evident than in the recent cash grab, sponsored by a South Dakota hockey team, where teachers were placed in the humiliating position of crawling on the hockey ice to stuff as much cash as they could into their clothing. This cash was to be used for classroom supplies.
Florida Governor, and potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate, Ron De Santis, never one to hide from the limelight, jumped on the false narrative to further fuel the fake outrage of the right. He signed into law a bill that would fine any school district that taught Critical Race Theory. He also took the opportunity to take another swipe at Liberals by naming it the W.O.K.E. Act.
All of this is pure political theater, as is the backlash on right wing media that is using the White supremacist’s Replacement Theory as a reason to take a stand against even the potential of CRT being taught in public schools.
The claim that Critical Race Theory is being adopted by public schools is Fake News.
Voter Fraud
If you listen to Republicans, there is evidence of widespread voter fraud that was committed during the 2020 presidential election. But, ask them for this evidence, and you will be met with silence, or worse yet, a baseless rant about election integrity and the need for stricter election laws.
Based on this, many Republican-led state legislatures have enacted more restrictive voting laws, which they claim were to prevent voter fraud in future elections. They aim to restrict the use of mail-in ballots, asserting they are rife for abuse and falsification. They deny this is an effort to create a new set of Jim Crow laws, aimed at preventing minorities from using the ballot box.
Oddly enough, the claim of voter fraud is only being made in regards to the presidential election. Other Republican lawmakers who won their elections aren’t making any such allegations. Instead, they are pointing to this as “evidence” by posing the conundrum, “How could I win my election and Trump lose”, denying that voters split their ticket by voting Republican in one race and Democrat in another.
As a result, Republicans are demanding recounts in the Swing States where Trump lost. They are also going door-to-door, seeking evidence of voter fraud while planting the seed that there will be fraud in future elections as well as being a form of voter intimidation.
Still, there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud. Any such claim is Fake News.
The Big Lie
Ask any Republican if Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 election and you will get the same, pat response: “Joe Biden is the president”. They careful couch their response to avoid stating outright that there was not a stolen election. To say otherwise would be political suicide. This is why most will refuse to acknowledge that the results were fairly obtained.
And one third of eligible voters believe this to be true. They believe the Big Lie of a stolen election and a rigged system, and will undoubtedly go to their graves demanding that Donald Trump be reinstated as the true, legitimate president. Instead, there was some vast conspiracy that altered votes in Swing States.
There were claims, even by some in the Trump administration, that nefarious elements from Italy, China or Venezuela were somehow controlling Dominion voting machines, and flipping votes from Trump to Biden. There were allegations of late night ballot dumps that had results that were favorable to Trump, miraculously overcome as “mystery votes” were added.
The more preposterous the accusations, the more likely those in Donald Trump’s orbit would be likely to believe it. The Big Lie is Fake News.
The January 6th insurrection
The January 6th insurrection was the greatest assault on our democracy since the Civil War, yet if you listen to Republicans, it was actually a false flag operation aimed at discrediting the “rightful victory” of Donald Trump. They compared those who stormed the Capitol to a “normal tourist visit”, asserted that it wasn’t an “armed insurrection” because no one had firearms (they did) and tried to blame the violence of the day on Antifa and claim the FBI was somehow involved in the operation.
When it came time for an investigation into the events of January 6th, Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) tried to insert Trump mega-fan Jim Jordan (R-OH) into the mix as a member of the Select Committee that was charged with chronicling the events of that fateful day. Jordan would have certainly tried to derail the committee’s proceedings with his irrelevant outbursts.
Because it was able to conduct its investigation without such interference, the committee was able to unearth incriminating texts, including a Jordan text giving a game plan for overturning the election results. Jordan is among several Republicans the committee has exposed as having some involvement in the insurrection.
As more information as to those involved in the insurrection is released, it becomes more and more obvious that any attempt to downplay the events of the day is Fake News.
The Coronavirus “Hoax”
From the beginning, Trump has been downplaying the coronavirus. He’s called it a hoax, belittled those wearing masks, created a hostile environment for Asian Americans, and held multiple gatherings that became super-spreader events. As a consequence of his actions, hundreds of thousands of Americans died, some say needlessly, due to his refusal to recognize the severity of the virus.
And the pandemic continues unabated as Trump supporters continue to fight mask and vaccine mandates. In fact, medical professionals are predicting a tsunami of the unvaccinated as both the Delta and Omicron variants ravage the United States. This threatens to once again overwhelm already exhausted healthcare workers and other first responders.
The daily Coronavirus Briefings were nothing more than a misinformation campaign where propaganda about the virus, fake cures and sidelined medical experts gave way to Trump’s desire to be the center of attention, due to the fact his regularly scheduled rallies were cancelled because of lockdown restrictions.
Trump’s desire to focus on his re-election and ignore the rapid rise of coronavirus cases doomed thousands of Americans. Calling it a hoax was Fake News.
Anything QANON
Think of the most preposterous thing you can imagine. Now, multiply it by one thousand and you have Qanon. From Pizzagate to the return of JFK Jr, and every crazy conspiracy theory in between, there is no suggestion too ridiculous for Qanon believers. The more outlandish, the more their followers were likely to believe it.
QAnon is a far right group that believes that Democrats are a cabal of satanic, cannibalistic pedophiles. They maintain that there is a basement below a Washington, DC pizza shop where they conduct bizarre rituals. Pizza is code for pedophile and cheese is code for children, according to their adherents, who have usurped the United Nations organization “Save the Children” as a rallying cry.
Q followers claim to get their information through coded internet posts. By deciphering these posts, they believe they can prevent some horrible events, or become witnesses to a monumentally historic one. That is what led many to Dealy Plaza in Dallas, TX. Many interpreted a post as meaning JFK Jr would miraculously re-appear to become Donald Trump’s running mate in 2024.
As crazy as that sounds, it’s just another day in crazy town for Q believers. Another caused heightened security during President Biden’s inauguration when they believed an event they called The Storm. This event would witness the military rising up to arrest Biden before he could take the Oath of Office. Biden and others would be immediately tried and summarily executed as Donald Trump made his triumphant return and assumed his rightful place as president, once again.
When the event failed to materialize, they simply shifted the date of Trump’s return, all the time promising it would eventually happen.
Crazy, huh?
Yes, Qanon is definitely Fake News.
For all their bombast, denial and spreading of misinformation, Republicans are the true purveyors of Fake News.