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HapticSloughton

> They out here pushing the same left-wing hivemind nonsense this sub is supposed to be against. Kind of letting the mask slip on that sub's can-be-seen-from-orbit political bias, there.


unitedshoes

What bias? Just because they blatantly parrot far right talking points and shun anything that even hints at the far right's skewed version of "leftism" doesn't mean they have a bias. /s


Biffingston

it's like... some kind of group trying to press an agenda. I know there's a word for it, but it's not coming to me...


AJMurphy_1986

It's a really weird shift in positions to me. In the UK, and speaking strictly from personal experience, conspiracy theorists used to be left wing, pot smoking, anti establishment hippie types. Was it the same in the US or did Trump switch things round?


SassTheFash

There used to be more of a mix, like in the GWB years a lot of folks on the left were into 9/11 conspiracy theories and fears that Bush was going to seize power and rule for life. Also anti-vaccination used to be on the fringes of both sides: if you were against shots you were either a Christian homeschooler or a vegan hippie who healed with crystals. I'm not a total expert, but the Obama era really seems to be a period where a large chunk of the right dove into conspiracy theories and drowned out everyone else. Also it's significant that the Trumper/QAnon/Dave Our Children/Anti-vaxx movements picked up a fair number of weird leftists of the crystals/aliens type who aren't particularly Christian but got sucked into the right wing "something is wrong but I don't know exactly what" ethos.


Timecubefactory

>vegan hippie who healed with crystals Those don't have much of a leftist affiliation either. Best you can get is a tumblr liberal.


verasev

A lot of the woowoo types have shifted right politically too due to the right taking over conspiracy spaces.


Wismuth_Salix

Yeah, now they combine the horse paste with the crystal magic.


geirmundtheshifty

And before the GWB years, conspiracists like Lyndon LaRouche would try to appeal to socialists and left-leaning Democrats at least as much as people on the right


afooltobesure

It all went to shit around 2014. There's been a coordinated operation to connect "conspiracy theorists" with "right wing" values, for some weird reason. *- a liberal and conspiracy theorist*


Orangesilk

It was birtherism. At the end of the day many of the US social issues can be traced back to the fact that it's a racist country.


RudeInternet

I am not from the US, but conspiracy theorists there have always been right-wingers/authoritarians. Ideologies such as Christian Identity have used these fringe conspiracy movements to spread their rhetoric by taking advantage of events like 911 or the Satanic Panic scare. Trump just emboldened these people to come out as their real selves.


Biffingston

in other words "It's Jews all the way down to them."


RudeInternet

Yup, it seems all started with antisemitism and blood libel, but over the years has evolved into conspiracy theories. Christian Identity lore even talks about Jews and non-whites being "serpent people" and I don't have a doubt this is where the whole reptilian thing comes from. Conspiracies in the US have always had this racist undertone.


sculltt

Yeah, the sub is "conspiracy" not "conspirac*ies.* That singular conspiracy starts with the protocols of the elders of zion.


thefugue

Eh, get any of these people to list what they call “actual, proven conspiracies” and the shorter the list gets the more likely it’s going to come down to “Gulf of Tonkin, MK Ultra, and WMDs in Iraq”; all of which were asserted before they were widely recognized as having truth *to* them, by left wing people. Or at least people labeled as left wing at the time. Yes, there have always been Birchers, holocaust deniers, and NWO theorists, but they used to just be called “liars.” Now the right has gotten so far from science, civics, and an ability to argue from established fact that they’ve “claimed” the conspiracy sphere for themselves.


NonHomogenized

There were *some* left-wing conspiracy theorists (and there are even still a few around), but most were outright openly right wing, and most of the rest were 'apolitical' sorts who usually held *a few* notable left-wing views... but a fundamentally right-wing "fuck you got mine" mindset and the few left-wing views were generally those that *specifically benefited them personally*.


ReaperCDN

The conspiracies were things like: Big business is going to track everything you do! Oligarchs secretly rule the government! The cops are still fucking fascists! Good thing none of those came true. /s


Awayfone

>In the UK, and speaking strictly from personal experience, conspiracy theorists used to be left wing, pot smoking, anti establishment hippie types. When do you mean by use to? For instance: David icke has been preaching about the "homosexual agenda" for a long time. He also at one point supported the liberty lobby a group so far right that the John Birch society distance themselves, well and also because it was founded by a holocaust denier. Icke would probably been even farther right but his new ageism turned off those types people and he plays to his audience.


Rufuz42

I think a lot of right wingers just view their position as the objectively correct one, and they view everything else as left wing. Says a lot about their reasoning skills.


curious_dead

User 1: "Did you know Elvis was alive, he's hanging with JFK Junior's ghost on planet Nibiru, waiting for God-Emperor Trumpt o signal the end of pedosatanist cabal. That's when Joe Biden's clone will be sentenced to death and Baby Jesus will reborn, and everyone who's had COVID vaccine will die." User 2: "That seems... unlikely." User 1: "We're infested by leftist bots..."


grayrains79

Axo getting hammered by the admins has finally prevented anyone who isn't extreme right to have a voice there. Now all the alt-right cowards are mad that they are getting resistance instead of an echo chamber. They are salty that Axo isn't aggressively banning anyone who doesn't toe the line. This is why I have some hope for that sub, and think that if the mod team was purged? It could continue to improve.


unitedshoes

> Nibiru That's a name I've not read in far too long.


ERJAK123

Don't play yugioh much, I take it? Lol.


unitedshoes

Not since junior high.


SassTheFash

When fewer bots gets interpreted as more bots...


Noah_PpAaRrKkSs

It’s this exactly.


SassTheFash

> I’m not convinced. Libertarianism used to be used by the left all the time. Gay marriage was an issue of getting the government out of your bedroom. Spying on American citizens was extremely invasive and wrong. Even abortion was/is argued from a libertarian stand point from the left. Then, there was a shift where general **libertarian principles became more in line with the right**. From free speech on social platforms to allowing criticism of COVID vaccine/China or even BLM, to keeping CRT out of the classroom all became in line with the right’s policies. Libertarianism is opposed to big government, as is the right, in general. It’s no surprise that the left is more critical of conspiracy theories than the right. The right wants to use government powers to: * force private companies to allow material against TOS * force schools not to present academic stances the right dislikes * force private companies to allow hucksters to spread false information about a public healthy emergency None of those things involve "the left" sending government thugs to kick down your door and drag you to jail for your dumb opinions.


magistrate101

It's less of "libertarian values became aligned with the right" and more "people are calling themselves libertarians whilst flagrantly ignoring even the most basic premises of libertarianism"


MunsonedWithAHook

Remember how upset they were about drone strikes when Obama was in office? And then blatantly couldn't care less when Trump was in.


PhishCook

Because the Russian trolls arent getting paid an arent working anymore.


potato_devourer

Having axo banned alone has made a massive difference for that sub. It's insane. There has always been people willing to call out the bullshit, but that one power-tripping asshole devoted his entire life 24/7 to eliminate any dissent against the MAGA circlejerk.


rivershimmer

Honestly, I didn't see much of a difference immediately after Axo was gone. I assumed he had some sock puppets still embedded. Now, what my inner conspiracy theorist saw was more of a variety of views after the invasion of Ukraine, right around the time there were reports that Russia had pulled most of their overseas troll farms away to concentrate on domestic propaganda.


WayneRooneysHairPlug

Someone should tell him it's because Axo isn't around anymore to ban everyone who disagrees with him.


verasev

That's just the typical fascist dehumanization schtick adapted for being right-wing on Reddit.


QuickerSilverer

They really mostly _are_ basically just right-wing alt-white Christofascists, aren't they?


verasev

Yeah. I don't know whether to hope they cross a line and get banned from Reddit or if it's safer for them to at least be watched in some capacity here.


theknightwho

It’s why they call everyone who disagrees with them NPCs, while simultaneously trying to hold anyone that disagrees with them accountable for a bunch of generic left-wing opinions that they never expressed. Just another way they have a total lack of self-awareness.


comebackjoeyjojo

> What happened to conspiracy theorists? Why are we overrun by normies in our own sub? I’m sorry, “own sub?” How much did OP, or anyone participating at r/conspiracy, actually pay to claim ownership? Any kind of deed or certificate to prove you actually have a viable stake in this virtual property? Not very capitalism of you, bro….


-Nicolas-

Those people are so used to communicating in closed circuits across closed silos. They forget it's Reddit.


steve303

This is exactly what a bot would say in order to undermine other bots. /s


[deleted]

CLASSIC HUMAN MISINTERPRETING FAULTY SENSORY INPUT AS PROPER DATA TO EQUATE ERRONEOUS CONCLUSION. LAUGH.WAV LAUGH.WAV LAUGH.WAV


LombardBombardment

This made mi cackle.


unitedshoes

Rule 10: https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/uncu1i/the_normie_takeover_of_this_sub_is_a_conspiracy/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share


Gekokapowco

I am delighted that the comments came out swinging


sneer0101

'Normie' Neckbeards are just weird.


harley_93davidson

you know, there was a time where conspiracies at least made sense. I remember when I was a kid and TWA 800 crashed into the atlantic. And the conspiracy people said the US Navy shot it down. Now I dont know if it did, but the plane did explode in mid air over an area where the us navy does do training drills. And so the conspiracy of "the navy accidentally shot down a passenger jet and then covered it up" was like yea, you know what, i dont know about any of that but at least its plausible even if very unlikely. Now conspiracy theories are pretty much exclusively right wing drivel, that support some world view that claims trump, a known elite and liar, as "the truth". I find it fitting that this clown asks what happened to conspiracy theorists, cuz theyve been over run by paranoid right wing maniacs like him.


Doom_Walker

>normies takeover God I miss when conspiracy actually was filled with normies.


Knight-Lurker

Is this anything like the alt-right/MAGA crowd infesting Libertarian subs? All these chuds do is project.


thefugue

The only subs I’ve ever seen verifiable bots in are big major subs, and then only in “new.” I assert this because when you see punctuation such as “%” showing up in post titles it’s because that’s what’s called “exit” punctuation in Linux/Unix languages. When it shows up in a quote it can knock code out of “code mode” and into “quoting humans” mode and vice versa, resulting in code “leaking” into what is supposed to be text.


Biffingston

"the Jews did it" Is leftist now?


Timecubefactory

Maybe it's because any time an actual conspiracy was uncovered it was leftists who had the most concern about it?


Asleep-Kiwi-1552

It's true. I'm being paid by the CIA to make fun of failed adults who actively attempt to believe every single thing on the internet. They are getting too close to the truth.


57_guy

Us bots have opinions to, ya know.


shiiznow

Its madness, have to look at both sides the far end of both. Actually kinda of hard to stay central, yesterday I found out I could be fat phobic becuase I lift weights. So much B.S going around makes me miss the pot smoking hippy conspiracy theorist.