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Rightist Propaganda Lie Site American Thinker Loses Crucial Kremlin Fun
From
Frank Liberato@21:1/5 to
All on Wed Feb 2 04:08:32 2022
XPost: alt.survival, rec.arts.tv, alt.politics
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Local conservative think tank promotes wacky and frightening conspiracy
kook By Rob Schofield
The Raleigh-based John Locke Foundation has been around for a long time
and, not unreasonably, is sometimes relied upon by journalists,
politicians and other followers of state policy debates as one of the
state’s more important voices on the ideological right. To its credit, the group employs some skilled professionals who usually make it a point to
engage in respectful debate and keep their distance from the looniest of
the fringe groups that have sprouted up in the era of Trumpism like
mushrooms after a spring rain.
But doggone it, it’s also the case that some of the content the group
produces and promotes veers way off the road into the extreme reaches of
the truly nutty right-wing-overse.
Take, for example, this recent Locke post touting the utterly mad opinions
of a person who writes under the pseudonym “Frank Liberato” for the far
right website known as American Thinker.
According to “Liberato” and, apparently, the Locke staffer who promoted
the post, the United States is currently under siege from a “collective insanity that is rapidly erasing America.”
And no, the “insanity” to which he refers is not the one evidenced by the deluded people who invaded the U.S. Capitol in service of mentally ill
would be autocrat in an attempt to overthrow our government. Rather, the
target of this screed is clearly American progressives, whom “Liberato”
claims are engaged in “devilry” born of “a lust for absolute political
power and complete control over the individual.”
The post then goes on to detail a long list of mostly daft gripes that
sound as if they were compiled at a meeting of the emeritus members of the
John Birch Society.
“Liberato” denies that the climate crisis is caused by humans and claims
it’s a scheme to “scare our children into radicalism.”
He claims that “we’re taking political prisoners like any third-world dictatorship” — though it’s not clear who “we” or the political prisoners
to whom he refers are.
And, of course, there are broadsides against humane immigration policy, transgender people, reproductive freedom and “litmus tests” for the
military.
And then there is this insane assertion right out of the Trump bag of
blatant lies:
We fraudulently change election results while casting those who push
for transparency as “conspiracy advocates” and add their names to a
list of domestic terrorists.
Practically the only thing missing is a complaint about that most
dastardly of hard core commie plots: the scheme to pollute our “precious
bodily fluids” through fluoridation.
Of course, none of this nonsense comes as a particular surprise if one
looks a little more closely at American Thinker. As that radical leftist outpost (Wikipedia) reports:
In 2009, in the wake of the election of Barack Obama, the American
Thinker joined a wave of conservative media publications discussing
the possibility of a second Civil War. They forecast the possibility
of “several regional republics” emerging following the “overbearing,
oppressive leviathan” of Obama’s presidency.
…Right Wing Watch has written about American Thinker, including that
the site had in 2014 published a complimentary piece on white
nationalist Jared Taylor and in 2015 asserted that rainbow-colored
Doritos are a “gateway snack to introduce children to the joys of
homosexuality”. In a 2020 blog post on the site, Thomas Lifson
referenced a paper published in Geophysical Research Letters to claim
that sea level rise has been slow and constant, and that this rise
pre-dated industrialization. This claim went viral over social media
in March 2020. The author of the paper describes this interpretation
as factually incorrect, constituting climate misinformation.
Under threat of litigation, in January 2021 American Thinker published
a retraction of unsupported stories it published asserting that
Dominion Voting Systems engaged in a conspiracy to rig the 2020
presidential election against President Donald Trump, acknowledging,
“These statements are completely false and have no basis in fact.”
And this, sadly, is not just a one-time only deal. A quick search of the
Locke website turns up scores of posts promoting American Thinker content
over a period of many years.
The bottom line: As is so often the case with the ravings of Donald Trump,
the claims spouted in this post by “Frank Liberato” are dangerous
nonsense. Moreover, the notion that the North Carolina’s most visible conservative think tank is affirmatively promoting such gibberish is an embarrassment and something responsible journalism outlets ought to take
into account the next time they consider quoting or publishing people affiliated with the group.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
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From
Frank Liberato@21:1/5 to
All on Wed Feb 2 14:17:58 2022
XPost: alt.survival, rec.arts.tv, alt.politics
XPost: alt.checkmate, alt.atheism, talk.politics.guns
XPost: alt.global-warming, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.journalism.criticism XPost: alt.news-media
Local conservative think tank promotes wacky and frightening conspiracy
kook By Rob Schofield
The Raleigh-based John Locke Foundation has been around for a long time
and, not unreasonably, is sometimes relied upon by journalists,
politicians and other followers of state policy debates as one of the
state’s more important voices on the ideological right. To its credit, the group employs some skilled professionals who usually make it a point to
engage in respectful debate and keep their distance from the looniest of
the fringe groups that have sprouted up in the era of Trumpism like
mushrooms after a spring rain.
But doggone it, it’s also the case that some of the content the group
produces and promotes veers way off the road into the extreme reaches of
the truly nutty right-wing-overse.
Take, for example, this recent Locke post touting the utterly mad opinions
of a person who writes under the pseudonym “Frank Liberato” for the far
right website known as American Thinker.
According to “Liberato” and, apparently, the Locke staffer who promoted
the post, the United States is currently under siege from a “collective insanity that is rapidly erasing America.”
And no, the “insanity” to which he refers is not the one evidenced by the deluded people who invaded the U.S. Capitol in service of mentally ill
would be autocrat in an attempt to overthrow our government. Rather, the
target of this screed is clearly American progressives, whom “Liberato”
claims are engaged in “devilry” born of “a lust for absolute political
power and complete control over the individual.”
The post then goes on to detail a long list of mostly daft gripes that
sound as if they were compiled at a meeting of the emeritus members of the
John Birch Society.
“Liberato” denies that the climate crisis is caused by humans and claims
it’s a scheme to “scare our children into radicalism.”
He claims that “we’re taking political prisoners like any third-world dictatorship” — though it’s not clear who “we” or the political prisoners
to whom he refers are.
And, of course, there are broadsides against humane immigration policy, transgender people, reproductive freedom and “litmus tests” for the
military.
And then there is this insane assertion right out of the Trump bag of
blatant lies:
We fraudulently change election results while casting those who push
for transparency as “conspiracy advocates” and add their names to a
list of domestic terrorists.
Practically the only thing missing is a complaint about that most
dastardly of hard core commie plots: the scheme to pollute our “precious
bodily fluids” through fluoridation.
Of course, none of this nonsense comes as a particular surprise if one
looks a little more closely at American Thinker. As that radical leftist outpost (Wikipedia) reports:
In 2009, in the wake of the election of Barack Obama, the American
Thinker joined a wave of conservative media publications discussing
the possibility of a second Civil War. They forecast the possibility
of “several regional republics” emerging following the “overbearing,
oppressive leviathan” of Obama’s presidency.
…Right Wing Watch has written about American Thinker, including that
the site had in 2014 published a complimentary piece on white
nationalist Jared Taylor and in 2015 asserted that rainbow-colored
Doritos are a “gateway snack to introduce children to the joys of
homosexuality”. In a 2020 blog post on the site, Thomas Lifson
referenced a paper published in Geophysical Research Letters to claim
that sea level rise has been slow and constant, and that this rise
pre-dated industrialization. This claim went viral over social media
in March 2020. The author of the paper describes this interpretation
as factually incorrect, constituting climate misinformation.
Under threat of litigation, in January 2021 American Thinker published
a retraction of unsupported stories it published asserting that
Dominion Voting Systems engaged in a conspiracy to rig the 2020
presidential election against President Donald Trump, acknowledging,
“These statements are completely false and have no basis in fact.”
And this, sadly, is not just a one-time only deal. A quick search of the
Locke website turns up scores of posts promoting American Thinker content
over a period of many years.
The bottom line: As is so often the case with the ravings of Donald Trump,
the claims spouted in this post by “Frank Liberato” are dangerous
nonsense. Moreover, the notion that the North Carolina’s most visible conservative think tank is affirmatively promoting such gibberish is an embarrassment and something responsible journalism outlets ought to take
into account the next time they consider quoting or publishing people affiliated with the group.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
-
From
Frank Liberato@21:1/5 to
All on Mon Feb 7 03:47:42 2022
XPost: alt.survival, rec.arts.tv, alt.politics
XPost: alt.checkmate, alt.atheism, talk.politics.guns
XPost: alt.global-warming, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.journalism.criticism XPost: alt.news-media
Local conservative think tank promotes wacky and frightening conspiracy
kook By Rob Schofield
The Raleigh-based John Locke Foundation has been around for a long time
and, not unreasonably, is sometimes relied upon by journalists,
politicians and other followers of state policy debates as one of the
state’s more important voices on the ideological right. To its credit, the group employs some skilled professionals who usually make it a point to
engage in respectful debate and keep their distance from the looniest of
the fringe groups that have sprouted up in the era of Trumpism like
mushrooms after a spring rain.
But doggone it, it’s also the case that some of the content the group
produces and promotes veers way off the road into the extreme reaches of
the truly nutty right-wing-overse.
Take, for example, this recent Locke post touting the utterly mad opinions
of a person who writes under the pseudonym “Frank Liberato” for the far
right website known as American Thinker.
According to “Liberato” and, apparently, the Locke staffer who promoted
the post, the United States is currently under siege from a “collective insanity that is rapidly erasing America.”
And no, the “insanity” to which he refers is not the one evidenced by the deluded people who invaded the U.S. Capitol in service of mentally ill
would be autocrat in an attempt to overthrow our government. Rather, the
target of this screed is clearly American progressives, whom “Liberato”
claims are engaged in “devilry” born of “a lust for absolute political
power and complete control over the individual.”
The post then goes on to detail a long list of mostly daft gripes that
sound as if they were compiled at a meeting of the emeritus members of the
John Birch Society.
“Liberato” denies that the climate crisis is caused by humans and claims
it’s a scheme to “scare our children into radicalism.”
He claims that “we’re taking political prisoners like any third-world dictatorship” — though it’s not clear who “we” or the political prisoners
to whom he refers are.
And, of course, there are broadsides against humane immigration policy, transgender people, reproductive freedom and “litmus tests” for the
military.
And then there is this insane assertion right out of the Trump bag of
blatant lies:
We fraudulently change election results while casting those who push
for transparency as “conspiracy advocates” and add their names to a
list of domestic terrorists.
Practically the only thing missing is a complaint about that most
dastardly of hard core commie plots: the scheme to pollute our “precious
bodily fluids” through fluoridation.
Of course, none of this nonsense comes as a particular surprise if one
looks a little more closely at American Thinker. As that radical leftist outpost (Wikipedia) reports:
In 2009, in the wake of the election of Barack Obama, the American
Thinker joined a wave of conservative media publications discussing
the possibility of a second Civil War. They forecast the possibility
of “several regional republics” emerging following the “overbearing,
oppressive leviathan” of Obama’s presidency.
…Right Wing Watch has written about American Thinker, including that
the site had in 2014 published a complimentary piece on white
nationalist Jared Taylor and in 2015 asserted that rainbow-colored
Doritos are a “gateway snack to introduce children to the joys of
homosexuality”. In a 2020 blog post on the site, Thomas Lifson
referenced a paper published in Geophysical Research Letters to claim
that sea level rise has been slow and constant, and that this rise
pre-dated industrialization. This claim went viral over social media
in March 2020. The author of the paper describes this interpretation
as factually incorrect, constituting climate misinformation.
Under threat of litigation, in January 2021 American Thinker published
a retraction of unsupported stories it published asserting that
Dominion Voting Systems engaged in a conspiracy to rig the 2020
presidential election against President Donald Trump, acknowledging,
“These statements are completely false and have no basis in fact.”
And this, sadly, is not just a one-time only deal. A quick search of the
Locke website turns up scores of posts promoting American Thinker content
over a period of many years.
The bottom line: As is so often the case with the ravings of Donald Trump,
the claims spouted in this post by “Frank Liberato” are dangerous
nonsense. Moreover, the notion that the North Carolina’s most visible conservative think tank is affirmatively promoting such gibberish is an embarrassment and something responsible journalism outlets ought to take
into account the next time they consider quoting or publishing people affiliated with the group.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)