Conspiracy theories

Tuesday

Rod Liddle

Corona Derangement Syndrome

Everything to do with this virus is now false news. All the statistics are meaningless: we have no reliable means of calculating the spread and depth of the disease, either from country to country or even within a single country. Pompous dumbos, a vibrant and important tranche of our respective commentariats, insist we must pay no heed to anything but the ‘science’. But nobody knows what the science is. The epidemiologists disagree among themselves. Other branches of the medical profession (those whose interest is in, say, malaria, or cancer), as well as statisticians, are astonished by what they see as an overreaction to an illness which really isn’t quite punching its weight in the Grim Reaper stakes.

lockdowns derangement lockdown

Tuesday

Cockburn

The twilight of Diamond and Silk

Disheartening news from the world of punditry this week, as it emerged that dynamic MAGA duo Diamond and Silk have been cut loose by Fox News. The pair rose to prominence in the lead-up to the 2016 election, with their snappy and boisterous Facebook videos in support of Candidate Trump. That spirit seems to have been their undoing: As CNN put it: 'Over the last few weeks, the duo has advanced all sorts of misinformation and conspiracy theories about the coronavirus. They've questioned the death toll. They've questioned whether the virus is being "deliberately spread." They've suggested the "Deep State" is working "behind the scenes" and that it is "engineered." On and on and on it goes. 'On Wednesday, "Diamond & Silk" posted a tweet.

diamond and silk

Thursday

Will Lloyd

Misreading the Twitter presidency

It was a season of complete insanity and boredom. At least that’s how Virginia Woolf recorded the year 1932 in her diary. Her friends kept dying. Europe stared into the abyss and the abyss marched past its windows wearing brown shirts. ‘All England’, she wrote, was ‘spoiled.’She recorded her husband Leonard, as he tended to the flowers in their Sussex garden, muttering: ‘Things have gone wrong somehow.’For liberals today, as they did for Mrs and Mr Woolf many decades ago, things have gone wrong.

donald trump twitter

Friday

Ben Sixsmith

In defense of conspiracy theories

Here are a few fascinating facts about the death of Jeffrey Epstein, the mysterious financier, friend to the rich and powerful, prolific ephebophile and alleged organizer of a child abuse ring. He was taken off suicide watch despite apparently attempting suicide just weeks before; his guards were asleep while he was reportedly hanging himself despite his being perhaps the most high-profile convict in the United States; two cameras outside his cell allegedly malfunctioned, and his friend and alleged accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell has somehow disappeared. Perhaps there are innocent explanations for all of these curious facts, but can you sincerely blame anyone who asks the question of whether there has been a conspiracy? The Epstein case really has something for everyone.

conspiracy theories