2020 US Election: Democracy on Trial
November 21, 2020
In the Dock: Democracy
Let’s be clear. Joe Biden won the election. There are no “alternative facts”.
What we’re seeing from Trump and team is totally consistent with his previous behaviour. He is following a playbook that was entirely predictable.
What’s more worrying is how easily the GOP — the party of law and order — could fall. This week, the party promoted Sidney Powell’s baseless claim that “Trump won by a landslide.” What happens to the party when another leader with authoritarian leanings comes along, one who is politically smarter than Trump? What happens to democracy in America then?
Trump losing the election is not the end of this story.
The Global Impact
But this is not just about America. The impact of Trump’s actions on democracy are felt everywhere. He is exporting authoritarian tactics. Anti-democratic forces will be emboldened in places where there is much less of a spotlight.
This places a huge onus on platforms to work hard on their moderation processes outside of the English language. We’ve previously written about this problem at Kinzen: “there’s something deeply unsettling about the politics of one country dictating content moderation policies for the world.” See for example this important thread from Ali Abbas Ahmadi of First Draft comparing the US election with the state election in Bihar, India.
Within the confines of the US election, The Hill reports, there was a big variation in misinformation enforcement in English versus Spanish, with lots of gaps found in the latter.
Outside the US, Slate reported this week on how the countries where democracy is most fragile are “test subjects” for developing moderation policies. But perhaps there is some hope as outlined by Rest Of World, who found that Facebook recently set specific policies in Myanmar which had positive effects. (Of course the company has been accused of enabling hate speech that led to genocide there.)
Voter Fraud Conspiracies and That Press Conference
The big misinformation story of the week continues to be about a divided America. A new Monmouth poll found 77% of Trump supporters “say Biden’s win was due to fraud.”
Politifact has produced a roundup of voter fraud misinformation here.
The BBC has a good video report here.
The farcical nature of this moment is shown by the president retweeting an account that he thought was his sister’s but was fake. What times we live in.
Dominion, Smartmatic, Scytl, Venezuela, Frankfurt: all have become part of the swirling conspiracy narratives that have no basis in fact. Too many to list here. The zone is being flooded with shit.
Then there was that press conference. AP has a fact check on some of the key claims here. On TheDonald.Win the following morning, the top post claimed that the media was trying to distract from the true facts by focusing on Giuliani’s hair dye and slandering Sidney Powell.
Then in a Fox interview Powell said: “The entire election, frankly, in all the swing states should be overturned and the legislatures should make sure that the electors are selected for Trump.”
Even Tucker Carlson is having a hard time believing these voter fraud claims. On his show he said he asked Powell for evidence but that she couldn’t provide any. QAnon supporters were not happy with him.
Chris Krebs, the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, who Trump fired this week, has consistently stated there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud. (Can we take a second to reflect on how unusual it is for the sitting president to fire this person in charge of election security because he didn’t like the facts he was promoting? We must not become normalised to Trump’s actions.) For Krebs, “That press conference was the most dangerous 1hr 45 minutes of television in American history. And possibly the craziest.”
Possibility of Election-Related Violence
The fallout from all this misinformation is an enraged Trump base who believe the election was stolen from them. So far we haven’t seen America devolve into violent chaos, but we must remain watchful.
Why?
Unicorn Riot reported on private chats amongst the militia group the Oath Keepers with evidence that explicit calls to violence are increasing. Some chilling quotes include: “Either we kill them or they kill us” and it is time “to start killing the news media live on air.”
Extremist reporter Nick Martin posted that Proud Boys are discussing The Day of the Rope, a white supremacist fantasy regarding mass lynching.
Media Matters reported on Infowars’s Owen Shroyer saying that Democrats and mainstream media “deserve” mass violence if Trump is not allowed to continue as president.
Fox 5 Atlanta reported on threats directed to officials and their families in Georgia. For eg, “You better not botch this recount. Your life depends on it” and “Your husband deserves to face a firing squad” and “The Raffenspergers should be put on trial for treason and face execution.”
Nick Fuentes has been leading the Groypers in election-related protests in Atlanta, Georgia since Wednesday. It culminates on Saturday. Other far-right groups are involved, including Stop The Steal organizer Ali Alexander and Alex Jones, and left groups are organising counter-protests for Saturday.
A caller to the Rush Limbaugh show said he is willing to die for Trump.
Oregon Public Broadcasting reported on a “Back The Blue” demonstration which was attended by some people armed with guns (see footage here). Scuffles broke out with counter-protesters.
Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager accused of killing two people in Kenosha, Wisconsin at Black Lives Matter protests, has been released on bail. A legal defence fund raised millions of dollars, allowing him to pay the bail of $2 million.
Congresswoman-elect and QAnon supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene is running a competition to win her AR-15 gun. She says the gun “TRIGGERED the Fake News Media”. The ad implores fans to “defend your family when BLM / Antifa terrorists show up at your door”.
Further details have come to light about the conspiracy to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. “Plan B” was outlined at trial, according to Local 4 WDIV Detroit: “The group wanted to storm the capitol with 200 men, “take hostages, execute tyrants and have it televised…” The plan they said would take roughly one week adding “no one is coming out alive.””
COVID Misinformation
Positive news on the COVID vaccine has led to plenty of misinformation. For example, AP fact checks false claims that lung tissue from an aborted fetus was used in the development of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
A Danish study questioning the efficacy of masks is being used by COVID conspiracy theorists. Note the lead researcher still promotes masks, and critics found problems with how the study was conducted.
The BBC reports on a French documentary which has been likened to Plandemic. Titled, “Hold Up”, the film promotes COVID misinformation.
The Daily Beast reports on how conspiracy theorists entered a Utah hospital with cameras to prove COVID is a hoax. The hospital had just lost a nurse to COVID.
The Great Reset
A video of Justin Trudeau talking about the potential for a reshaping of economic systems to address poverty and climate change has over four million views on Twitter because it got picked up by conspiracists afraid of “The Great Reset.”
The theory, which has similarities to classic QAnon commentary, alleges that an elite group will use COVID as an opportunity to enforce restrictions on the entire population for eternity and bring in a New World Order. Some variations say that COVID was entirely manufactured for this purpose.
If you wanted to do this, why would you advertise it, as the World Economic Forum has, so openly? The idea the WEF is promoting is of a more sustainable global economy after the pandemic has lifted.
Gareth Icke, son of conspiracy theorist David Icke, posted an article outlining more details, according to CapX. Apparently, the Great Reset “is a global agenda to monitor and control the world through global surveillance. You’ll be tied to it through an electronic ID linked to your bank account and health records and a social credit ID that will end up dictating every facet of your life.”
It’s not just the conspiracy wing of the internet picking it up. Mainstream media is too. Tucker Carlson tapped into the narrative around The Great Reset on his show, pointing out the Justin Trudeau video. He painted the following picture about what the world will look like with this reset: “The people in charge doing whatever they want because they’re in charge. There will be no live music in the Great Reset. Choirs will be illegal unless they are singing the praises of Kamala Harris. Christmas will be banned.” Russian outlet RT also used Trudeau comments to wade into the discussion. A Sky News Australia video saying this is part of a “great deception” also gained traction.
Canadian Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre started a petition to Stop The Great Reset and it already has over 80,000 signatures.
The Reasonability of Misinformation
That’s the title of an insightful piece by Nikki Usher about “well-made arguments with bad facts.” For the people who believe misinformation, it is shrouded in an aura of believability that functions within their prevailing worldview. Usher writes, “Remember that the people paying attention to politics are deeply engaged. They consider themselves informed even if they are paying attention to false information.”
Lots of great thoughts in here.
Until next time,
Shane