Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia are busy peddling new evidence-free conspiracy theories. Do their latest fantasies involve Chinese weather balloons, or the “Biden crime family?” No. They’re about COVID and the resulting lockdowns. Like the ones that actually happened under Donald Trump? Nope—they’re brand-new pretend ones.
Maybe you’ve heard that a new COVID-19 variant known as EG.5 is spreading across the country. Hospitalizations have been on the rise since July, with a 14% increase during the first week of August alone. Coupled with the World Health Organization monitoring another new variant, known as BA.2.86, COVID headlines have increased as of late. The good news is that the total number of hospitalizations is down from where we were last year at this time, but the emergence of new variants and a resulting rise in hospitalizations are important pieces of public health information to share with Americans.
But according to Lee and Greene, these news reports are another example of the Joe Biden-controlled “deep state” trying to control the population. What’s their evidence? An InfoWars article and a blog by a guy whose moniker is “Tyler Durden.” (Yes, that’s the name of the uber-misogynist main character in the Chuck Palahniuk novel “Fight Club.”
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Late Friday night, Lee posted an InfoWars article on his no-longer secret Xwitter burner account that promised the Biden administration was set to begin rolling out “FULL Covid Restrictions” in September. Like a real macho man, Lee wrote, “Over my lifeless body.” I mean, maybe over your body while it’s in severe respiratory distress?
The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the article Lee was ready to lay down his life for provides zero evidence to back up the all-caps claims it makes. What a surprise! State Democratic Rep. Brian S. King posted about Lee’s lies, writing, “Infowars is your source for such garbage? Please. Even you are better than this. Stop peddling misinformation.” We will have to agree to disagree that Lee is “better than this.” He clearly is not.
Lee has not responded to requests from reporters to back up the claim he boosted.
A few days later Greene retweeted an article from zerohedge.com titled, “Is This The Real Reason ‘Eris’ Cases Are Spiking?” Greene didn’t add anything to the tweet other than three “thoughtful face” emojis. ‘Cause she’s a deep thinker, y’all.
The article makes wild claims that the new COVID variants are fictional “deep-state” creations and increased public health warnings are just attempts at controlling the world by “forcing obedience” on Americans. This bit of blogging adds a new wrinkle to the established conspiracy theorist conceit that the COVID “plandemic” vaccines were about making money. According to this theory, “they already have the money,” and now they want to keep the word’s population hypnotized to do their bidding. Who is responsible for this dastardly deed? “They” is.
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American political parties might often seem stuck in their ways, but they can and in fact do change positions often. Joining us on this week's episode of "The Downballot" is political scientist David Karol, who tells us how and why both the Democratic and Republican parties have adjusted their views on a wide range of issues over the years. Karol offers three different models for how these transformations happen—and explains why voters often stick with their parties even after these shifts. He concludes by offering tips to activists seeking to push their parties when they're not changing fast enough.
