conspiracy theories
How InfoWars Doctored Footage of Jim Acosta At The White House
Yesterday, CNN's Jim Acosta had his White House press credentials suspended after he repeatedly questioned president Trump over his use of the migrant caravan to stoke the fears of American xenophobes. While he and Trump were having at it, a young, female, White House intern ...read more
MEMBERS ONLY: My Depressing Conversation With Matt Taibbi
I've long been an admirer of Matt Taibbi's journalism and writing style -- so much so that it helped inspired me to become a writer myself. Early on as a writer, I would read as much of his work as I could, quote him at length in pieces I struggled to find the right words for, ...read more
MEMBERS ONLY: Confessions Of Trump Health Truther
Rarely do I ever complain about my work. Frankly, I feel quite lucky that I get to do what I love every day. However, sometimes it's a lonely job, observing American politics and reporting back to you about what I'm seeing. The specific downside is that I'll occasionally sift ...read more
A New Theory On The Russian Spy Poisoning: The Neoliberals Did It
Ok, hear me out on this: Great Britain was in fact behind the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury last month because the UK government is actively trying to foment war with Russia. Why? Because in her weakened state over the Brexit disaster, Theresa May is ...read more
The Daily Banter: "Despicable, Lying Scumbags, Suburban Gangstas, And Martin Shrkreli Wannabes"
I guess I'll have to respond to some of the major points in internet conspiracy theorist Caitlin Johnstone's latest assault on The Daily Banter, but not before doing a rundown of her hilarious insults in her response to Jeremy Fassler's piece calling out leftist media outlets ...read more
Sean Hannity Shows How Low the Bar is For Conservative Christian Morality
The entire basis for Fox News host Sean Hannity's existence is the moral superiority he has assigned himself by virtue of his religion and political affiliation. Hannity has spent decades hammering liberals for their godless depravity, extolling the moral virtues of the ...read more
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Alex Jones is a Problem, But America's Ignorance is an Even Bigger One
After a tumultuous week that included calls for boycotts, advertisers dropping out, and a leaked recording of a pre-interview phone call, Megan Kelly’s 17-minute special on Alex Jones finally aired. Kelly was more than critical during her questioning of the radio host and ...read more
Caitlin Johnstone: Anatomy of a Far Left Conspiracy Nut
Over the past few days, myself and Banter writer Jeremy Fassler has been engaged in a war of words with far left, self described "rogue" journalist Caitlin Johnstone. Fassler mentioned Johnstone, a writer and one-time astrologer from Melbourne, Australia, as an example of the ...read more
Dear Joe Rogan, Please Stop Spreading Hillary Clinton Conspiracy Theories
As a big fan of Joe Rogan and his truly unique podcast, this is somewhat difficult for me to write. But given the massive influence his voice carries, particularly with young and somewhat impressionable men, I feel compelled to urge him to stop his egregious mischaracterization ...read more
Don't Fool Yourself, Wikileaks Never Had the Moral High Ground
Update, 8.23.16: From AP: "WikiLeaks' global crusade to expose government secrets is causing collateral damage to the privacy of hundreds of innocent people, including survivors of sexual abuse, sick children and the mentally ill, The Associated Press has found. In the past year ...read more
Sarah Palin Declares War on Tyrannical Government, Says "You Are With Us or Against Us"
In her latest installment of increasingly unsettling conspiratorial social media posts, Sarah Palin has quite literally declared war on her own government. In a rambling post published today about the FBI's recommendation that Hillary Clinton not be prosecuted for her use of ...read more
Sarah Palin's Rants are Becoming Darker, More Cynical and Very Worrying
Part of me feels slightly bad consistently laying into Sarah Palin for her transgressions against civility, general decency and the English language -- she is after all another human being with thoughts, feelings and emotions. Then again, her presence in the national dialogue ...read more
If Trump is Ousted at the Convention, Alex Jones Will Have To Do *What* To George Will?
If you're wondering what might happen if the Republican Party attempts to strip the nomination from Donald Trump, conspiracy weeble Alex Jones and former Trump adviser Roger Stone have an idea. And it's not what you think. Stone appeared again on Jones' radio show the other day, ...read more
Quote of the Day: Yes, Republicans, You Have To Answer for Donald Trump
"There you go again, asking me about Trump." -- Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) Yeah, asshole, there somebody goes again, demanding that you answer for the monster made out of pure, concentrated conservative id and canned aerosol cheese. The one you unleashed on the ...read more
MEMBERS ONLY: Donald Trump's Accusation That Ted Cruz's Father Helped Assassinate JFK Means We Are Officially in No-Man's Land
With Donald Trump's accusation that Ted Cruz's father, Rafael Cruz assisted in the assassination of JFK, we are officially in no-mans land. The media is now struggling to come up with words to describe the sheer insanity of this Republican primary -- a process that is so bizarre ...read more
Alex Jones Has Lost His Mind, Thinks CIA is Funding Beyonce to Create "Urban Terrorism"
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the craziest conspiracy theory of 2016. In an amazing 10 minutes of utter lunacy from 'InfoWars' nutjob Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist lays out why he genuinely thinks Beyonce's latest video 'Lemonade' was paid for by the CIA in order to ...read more
Ted Cruz Hops Aboard the Texas Military Takeover Crazy Train. Because of Course.
I need to make something perfectly clear, so please listen carefully. It is essential that you put your support fully behind Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. Let me repeat that: It is absolutely essential. This isn't to say that Bernie Sanders, who's also ...read more
Rand Paul's Wacky Conspiracy Theorist Tendencies are Finally Exposed to the Press and General Public
For several years now, those of us who've been following the political career of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) have noticed that he's not the brave, principled destroyer of the left/right paradigm. Rather, he's a melange of several related ingredients: 1) A dash of Ron Paul's ...read more
Obama/Ebola Hysteria Is Reaching Dangerous Levels
The conservative media have never exactly been in a state of child's pose when it comes to Barack Obama, but what we're seeing right now from them is something new altogether. The sudden presence of Ebola inside Fortress America is causing a spontaneous freak-out on the right ...read more
Gretchen Carlson Just Dropped the Mic on Pushing the Obama/Ebola Conspiracy
Gretchen Carlson must be keenly aware of our ongoing "FOXTOBERFEST of Stupid," because she seems to be making a bold play for the top slot. Yesterday afternoon, she wrapped her show on Fox News as she typically does, with a segment called "My Take." As a rule, Gretchen's "take" ...read more
PODCAST: Bob Cesca and Chez Pazienza Talk ISIS, Michael Moore and a New Dan Bidondi Tape
Download the mp3 (55 minutes, 23mb) Kobayashi Maru: Brand New Dan Bidondi Tape: Gun-Grabbin’ Senator Part 2; Obama’s Plan for ISIS and Syria is a No Win Situation; The Middle East Conundrum; Domestic Chez Goes to PTA; Remembering 9/11 and Replaying it on Television; Michael ...read more
The Huffington Post Just Hired an NFL Player and 9/11 Truther To Report on National Security
Under normal circumstances it would be easy to brush off a bad hire at The Huffington Post because, with a few very notable exceptions, the site doesn't offer the kind of journalism that befits its original promise and pedigree. But HuffPost is still one of the most powerful ...read more
The 11 Most Ridiculous Moon Landing Conspiracy Theories
Rasmussen released the results of a poll on Monday showing that 23 percent of Americans believe President Obama wasn't born in the United States. By itself, that number isn't too shocking. But when you add the percentage of people who "aren't sure" whether the president was born ...read more
Weird Al Yankovic Just Made a Hilarious Song That's Perfect For Alex Jones Fans
Weird Al Yankovic has been on a social media roll lately, releasing song parodies of Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" ("Word Crimes") and Pharrell's "Happy" ("Tacky"). But it's his take on Lorde's "Royals" ("Foil") that's a fantastic satire that skewers the tin foil hat crowd. ...read more
Alex Jones Minion Dan Bidondi Is Now Running for Public Office... Seriously
The great thing about America is that almost anybody can run for public office. The frightening thing about America is that almost anybody can run for public office. Let's say you're somebody who once interrupted the question-and-answer portion of an important post-Boston ...read more
This Is the Damage a Single Unvaccinated Child Can Now Do
If you need a real world example of the damage being caused by the ongoing campaign of disinformation against childhood vaccinations, look no further than a new study published in Pediatrics. According to the pretty extraordinary report, researchers have traced a measles ...read more
Arizona State Senator Holding Meeting To Address Problem of Chemtrails, Fails To Address Larger Problem of Very Stupid People
We spend a good amount of time here either debunking or mercilessly ridiculing conspiracy theories and those who believe in and espouse them. The reason for this is simple: media proliferation has reached the point where there's as much misinformation out there as there is ...read more
This is One of the Craziest Fox News Rants Ever, and It's Not Hannity or O'Reilly
Judge Jeanine Pirro's television career began as the host of a reality courtroom show not unlike Judge Judy or any of the dozens of other knockoffs. But for the last few years, she's become a regular contributor to NBC's Today as well as the host of Justice with Judge Jeanine, ...read more
Guy Who Allegedly Shot a BLM Agent and California Patrolman Is Exactly the Type You'd Imagine
Photo (FILE): Jim Urquhart/Reuters I'm not sure how this didn't immediately hit the media bloodstream but apparently over the weekend there was a shooting in California, near the Nevada state line, that left a California Highway Patrolman and an agent for the U.S. Bureau of ...read more
Ranting Douchebag Defends Vegas Killers, Says Their Actions Saved Lives
Las Vegas cop killers Jerad and Amanda Miller were big fans of Alex Jones. You can tell because Jerad Miller's Facebook page contained several references to Jones as well as repostings of InfoWars pieces, he occasionally left comments at InfoWars, and because Jones went way the ...read more
We're the Killers: Meet the Anti-Government Conspiracy Theorists Behind the Vegas Shooting
The husband-and-wife team that shot and killed two Las Vegas police officers, then killed a third person at a nearby Wal-Mart before taking their own lives, had an extensive history of far-right, anti-government beliefs and were obsessed with conspiracy theories and the idea of ...read more
Laugh At Gwyneth Paltrow All You Want, But You Probably Have Crazy Beliefs Too
One of the easiest ways to get pageviews is to write an impassioned screed against a celebrity for having done or said something stupid, outrageous, or offensive. Virtually all writers reliant on social media have done it at some point, either out of a sense of obligation to get ...read more
Truthers and the All New Hillary-Has-Brain-Damage Conspiracy Theory
Grace McDonnell was one of nearly two-dozen children killed by rounds of ammunition fired from Adam Lanza's AR-15 at Sandy Hook Elementary. Since then, a memorial playground was established with a commemorative sign featuring Grace's photograph and the message: "Celebrating the ...read more
The Bundy Ranch Fiasco: Another Chapter in the Continuing Story of Unhinged, Anti-Government Outrage
There are so many layers of ridiculousness in the Bundy Ranch story, it's difficult to know where to begin. Above all else, it ended up being a fantastic opportunity for a pack of ignorant states' rights cowboys to get intimate with their rebellion and secessionist fetishes, ...read more
WATCH: New Documentary Claims the Sun Revolves Around the Earth, Proves We Are the Stupidest Planet in the Universe
There's a positively vicious little piece getting a surprising amount of social media circulation right now -- surprising because it's actually two years old. Titled "Age of Ignorance," the piece is a scathing polemic written by Charles Simic for the New York Review of Books, ...read more
Abby Martin and Amber Lyon: When Conspiracy Theories Collide
At face value there admittedly shouldn't be much left to say about Abby Martin. She made a statement against Russia on a Russian state network; she unfortunately has a long history of being a player in the conspiracy theory movement headed by Alex Jones; she's still working for ...read more
The Truth(er) About Abby Martin
A minor confession: I admit to not having been completely familiar with Abby Martin's full body of work when we began writing about her three days ago. I'd seen her show a couple of times and obviously knew that she had just taken a laudable stand against the Russian invasion of ...read more
The Triumphant Return of Dan Bidondi and the Alex Jones Army of Idiots
One of the interesting things about columns on conspiracy theories is that they tend to have a very long half-life. I can write a piece mocking Alex Jones and his insistence that every tragedy under the sun is a "false flag" attack by the government, and a year later Jones's ...read more
If You're Going To Traffic in Conspiracy Theories, Here's What You'd Better Know...
I'll make this quick. I was going to write it in the comment section of the post I banged out earlier today on Joe Rogan's schooling of Roseanne Barr on the basics of science, but I think it probably deserves its own spot. This is mostly because I'll probably want to be able to ...read more
Quote of the Day: Joe Rogan Drops Some Science on Roseanne
"Here is the problem, there is science behind those trails. You can track when it is going to happen and when it is not going to happen. It is all based on the humidity in the atmosphere. That is what it is all based on. When you have a jet engine and it burns jet fuel and it is ...read more
Meet the Man Who's Even Crazier Than Alex Jones
Yesterday, Cesca threw together a quick post on a conspiracy theory that was apparently too crazy even for Alex Jones. The theory: that Paul Walker's car had been destroyed not by a head-on collision with a tree but by a drone strike. On Monday while writing about Walker's death ...read more
Quote of the Day: Doocy the Clown Is Just Asking Questions
"Don’t you think it’s a little curious? Some of my friends were talking over the weekend, isn’t that curious timing? Out of nowhere, you know, in the midst of Obamacare not unrolling correctly, the president’s poll numbers never been lower then, look, John Kerry pulls a rabbit ...read more
Roseanne Barr Has Completely Lost Her F*cking Mind
Roseanne Barr is the libertarian left's answer to Victoria Jackson: she was popular on TV years ago, mostly for one very specific brand of shtick, but somewhere along the line willfully gave up entertaining people in favor of being a rabid political ideologue, loud-mouthed ...read more
Capitol Shooting Was False Flag Attack, Says Completely Insane Person
If you had "about five minutes" in the over-under on how long it would take for Alex Jones to insist that today's Capitol shooting was a "false flag" attack, congratulations -- give yourself a prize. From Media Matters: JONES: Shots fired, U.S. Capitol. Oh, they're -- ...read more
Breaking: Conspiracy Theorists Will Believe Any Ridiculous Thing
From the Department of Getting Paid To State the Incredibly Obvious comes this tidbit: If you're a conspiracy theorist, you probably don't believe what scientists have to say about vaccinations, genetically modified foods, and climate change. From Mother Jones: The new ...read more
The Single Worst Thing Ever To Come Off of Glenn Greenwald's Keyboard
Well, it's finally happened. Behold the single worst thing to ever be shot out of Glenn Greenwald's Twitter feed: Actually, I suppose that if you're looking to compile physical evidence of Greenwald's sins against both journalism and intellectual honesty and to gain an ...read more
The Conspiracy Theory Nexus of Glenn Beck, Glenn Greenwald and Alex Jones
If you see any remaining daylight between the rapidly converging spheres of the Glenn Greenwald Left and the Alex Jones Right, you'll have to point it out to me because not only have those two factions begun to merge, but they're locked together in what could be a permanent Venn ...read more
Don't Be a George Zimmerman Crash Hero "Truther"
I'll try to make this quick. If you're one of those people now posting long-winded internet screeds filled with supposed hard evidence that proves that George Zimmerman didn't really help pull a family out of an overturned vehicle last week in Central Florida, please stop. ...read more
This Is Why Jenny McCarthy Is Dangerous
"Dirty, lying little piece of big business funded, corporate scum. Tell your children that tonight." -- Eric144144 responding to Slate's column, "'The View' Hires Notorious Anti-Vaxxer Jenny McCarthy" This column isn't about how Jenny McCarthy shouldn't be given a nationwide ...read more
The Conspiracy Theory Vortex Sucks Down Another One
When it comes to the topic of conspiracy theories and their believers, I could, were I so inclined on a Friday, simply pop up a now-famous quote from the late, great Christopher Hitchens and let that be the end of it: “That which can be asserted without evidence, can be ...read more