ADVERTISEMENT

How to vet conspiracy theories

GhostOfMatchesMalone

Ring of Honor
Oct 1, 2012
36,902
47,715
113
I was on Truth Social and one of the accounts I follow posted a video of Angela Merkel being rushed into a van by 'security' people who then wheeled around, made sure no one saw them, and whisked her off. The video was from I believe 2018. It was a short video, maybe 10 seconds, and really had no memorable context or explanation.

The account that posted it, claimed this video showed Merkel being abducted by the 'White Hats'. And it said this abduction was similar to how hildabeast was 'abducted' at the 2016 9-11 memorial where she was indeed thrown in a van (that looked similar to Merkel's van) like she was a side of beef.

But I honestly rolled my eyes at the suggestion that this video showed an abduction. It just looked like security rushing a world leader into a van for her protection.

But, the account has continued to post information that DOES check out, so I wanted to do some digging into the video. I went to YouTube and.......I can't find the video. From what I recall, the video was completely basic and had no description other than Angela Merkel in 2018.

So either YouTube has pulled the video, or they are intentionally suppressing it in search.

Suddenly, I believe there might be something to the story. And what made me think that wasn't that the account posted the video, it was that YouTube is apparently censoring it. Now I am motivated to do some more checking into it.

If the video had been easily found on YouTube, and I saw it was just a 10 second video of Merkel being rushed into a van, then I would have dismissed the 'abduction' angle entirely. YouTube's action makes me question.

This is one of the best ways I can vet conspiracy theories: Does the media ignore the details of the theory, or do they hide information about it?

For instance, go check out The Gateway Pundit and read the articles on what's happening in Brazil. Then go to Twitter and search for 'Brazil Bolsonaro'. You will get COMPLETELY different results. There is almost no information about Brazil and Bolsonaro on Twitter and what little they let you see, is articles and tweets about how people in Brazil hate Bolsonaro.

If you're curious about what's happening in this world, follow the flow of information. When it is cut off from a source, that's your sign to start digging deeper.
 
For instance, go check out The Gateway Pundit and read the articles on what's happening in Brazil. Then go to Twitter and search for 'Brazil Bolsonaro'. You will get COMPLETELY different results. There is almost no information about Brazil and Bolsonaro on Twitter and what little they let you see, is articles and tweets about how people in Brazil hate Bolsonaro.

If you're curious about what's happening in this world, follow the flow of information. When it is cut off from a source, that's your sign to start digging deeper.

So basically if the twitter doesn't reflect your personal political views its fake news huh?

If you type in "Brazil Bolsonaro" you get plenty of results for every day

 
https://www.yahoo.com/gma/trump-hosts-event-featuring-qanon-182728188.html
Trump hosts event featuring QAnon, 'Pizzagate' conspiracy theorist at Mar-a-Lago
OLIVIA RUBIN, WILL STEAKIN and KATHERINE FAULDERS
Wed, December 7, 2022 at 4:12 PM·3 min read

screen_shot_2018-04-05_at_2.23.14_pm.png
 
I was on Truth Social and one of the accounts I follow posted a video of Angela Merkel being rushed into a van by 'security' people who then wheeled around, made sure no one saw them, and whisked her off. The video was from I believe 2018. It was a short video, maybe 10 seconds, and really had no memorable context or explanation.

The account that posted it, claimed this video showed Merkel being abducted by the 'White Hats'. And it said this abduction was similar to how hildabeast was 'abducted' at the 2016 9-11 memorial where she was indeed thrown in a van (that looked similar to Merkel's van) like she was a side of beef.

But I honestly rolled my eyes at the suggestion that this video showed an abduction. It just looked like security rushing a world leader into a van for her protection.

But, the account has continued to post information that DOES check out, so I wanted to do some digging into the video. I went to YouTube and.......I can't find the video. From what I recall, the video was completely basic and had no description other than Angela Merkel in 2018.

So either YouTube has pulled the video, or they are intentionally suppressing it in search.

Suddenly, I believe there might be something to the story. And what made me think that wasn't that the account posted the video, it was that YouTube is apparently censoring it. Now I am motivated to do some more checking into it.

If the video had been easily found on YouTube, and I saw it was just a 10 second video of Merkel being rushed into a van, then I would have dismissed the 'abduction' angle entirely. YouTube's action makes me question.

This is one of the best ways I can vet conspiracy theories: Does the media ignore the details of the theory, or do they hide information about it?

For instance, go check out The Gateway Pundit and read the articles on what's happening in Brazil. Then go to Twitter and search for 'Brazil Bolsonaro'. You will get COMPLETELY different results. There is almost no information about Brazil and Bolsonaro on Twitter and what little they let you see, is articles and tweets about how people in Brazil hate Bolsonaro.

If you're curious about what's happening in this world, follow the flow of information. When it is cut off from a source, that's your sign to start digging deeper.
You've done more research on this one incident than some of our trolls have in a lifetime...
 
You've done more research on this one incident than some of our trolls have in a lifetime...
I mean, I was about to LOL and dunk on the sheep here, but then I thought about what would happen if a similar video existed about Trump?

Think about how differently it would have been handled. The MSM would have IMMEDIATELY posted the video and THEN speculated on what it meant! Was Trump arrested? Worse?

CNN, MSNBC, New York Times would have ALL run with this story immediately. Of COURSE the sheep would parrot it immediately.

Now you start to see why ray ray keeps getting suckered by anti-Trump stories from The Atlantic and Yahoo that end up going nowhere.

We vet stories. Even when the initial kernel is something we WANT to believe could be true, or is true. There's a ton of rumors out there about Merkel that are far worse than this. I don't post any of them here, cause I can't verify any of them.

What would this board look like if dems treated Trump the same way?
 
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT