A Michigan man who'd reportedly been sucked into online conspiracies involving QAnon and 2020 election theft lies was killed by police after allegedly shooting his wife and daughter.
This goes back way before 4chan, to the late 70s, when a guy in California named Art Bell started a radio program called "West Coast AM". West Coast AM aired wacky conspiracy theories in the wee hours of the morning on AM radio throughout California and the rest of the west coast. In 1989 the show would be syndicated internationally and quickly become the most popular overnight radio program in North America. So now you have a bunch of isolated and alienated truck drivers, insomniacs and various other not playing with a full deck folks all hopped up on pseudoscience, ahistory, and the most outlandish conspiracy theories you could cook up. Shortly thereafter the worldwide web comes about and now they can start communicating with each other on various forums, YouTube, various social media platforms, etc.
If I had a time machine the first thing I'd do wouldn't be to go back and minecraft Reagan, or Thatcher or any other proto-neoliberal ghoul. I'd go back to 1978 and plant one squarely between the eyes of Art fucking Bell. That's the man most responsible for the misdirection of working people's correct and good fury towards absolute nonsense like Qanon.
Wasn't Art Bell mostly harmless? I didn't live on the West Coast when he was around but I remembered excerpts from his show that made the rounds during early Youtube. A lot of it seemed to revolve around aliens, cryptids, "sounds of hell," and other things like that.
I do remember Rush Limbaugh being huge in the 90's on the East Coast and isolating people by telling them that "they" were your enemies and hated you.
He was definitely not harmless. Whether his intentions were just to entertain and make money, or something more nefarious, all that "reptilians are responsible for the new world order" stuff definitely was the embryonic brain worms for the batshit stuff we see today.
I disagree, all this stuff was already in the water (especially with the UFO and cryptid crazes of the 70's and 80's) so to speak, all Art Bell did was get a place on the radio and just let people talk, arguably for one of the first times. That said, all those places on the internet would exist with or without Art Bell, it's just that Art Bell somehow managed to see the future and get ahead of the curve for talk radio.
Yep, I used to listen to it in the 90s on my Walkman during long ass overnight bus rides back to campus from basketball games. It was on all the AM stations, which was all that came in besides country music, riding around rural Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois
It's not from there, shit goes way further back. America's current conspiracy worldview is basically the Protocols of the Elders of Zion from like 1900, with an added apocalypse fetish thanks to christian fundies.
I'll say I haven't listened to Art Bell enough to really judge him, and what I have heard was the cryptid/UFO stuff you described. But I mean, whether he specifically did or didn't, I'd still say treating thinly-veiled nazis with the same triviality as Bigfoot dipshits is a bad idea.
"'Subscribe to PewDiePie' was actually said just before the fascist murder spree with the intent to defame Pewds and seeing it in any other way is just SJW hysteria!" :soypoint-1: :heated-gamer-moment: :soypoint-2:
4chan and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race
This goes back way before 4chan, to the late 70s, when a guy in California named Art Bell started a radio program called "West Coast AM". West Coast AM aired wacky conspiracy theories in the wee hours of the morning on AM radio throughout California and the rest of the west coast. In 1989 the show would be syndicated internationally and quickly become the most popular overnight radio program in North America. So now you have a bunch of isolated and alienated truck drivers, insomniacs and various other not playing with a full deck folks all hopped up on pseudoscience, ahistory, and the most outlandish conspiracy theories you could cook up. Shortly thereafter the worldwide web comes about and now they can start communicating with each other on various forums, YouTube, various social media platforms, etc.
If I had a time machine the first thing I'd do wouldn't be to go back and minecraft Reagan, or Thatcher or any other proto-neoliberal ghoul. I'd go back to 1978 and plant one squarely between the eyes of Art fucking Bell. That's the man most responsible for the misdirection of working people's correct and good fury towards absolute nonsense like Qanon.
Wasn't Art Bell mostly harmless? I didn't live on the West Coast when he was around but I remembered excerpts from his show that made the rounds during early Youtube. A lot of it seemed to revolve around aliens, cryptids, "sounds of hell," and other things like that.
I do remember Rush Limbaugh being huge in the 90's on the East Coast and isolating people by telling them that "they" were your enemies and hated you.
He was definitely not harmless. Whether his intentions were just to entertain and make money, or something more nefarious, all that "reptilians are responsible for the new world order" stuff definitely was the embryonic brain worms for the batshit stuff we see today.
I disagree, all this stuff was already in the water (especially with the UFO and cryptid crazes of the 70's and 80's) so to speak, all Art Bell did was get a place on the radio and just let people talk, arguably for one of the first times. That said, all those places on the internet would exist with or without Art Bell, it's just that Art Bell somehow managed to see the future and get ahead of the curve for talk radio.
Was that where it came from? I stand corrected then.
Yep, I used to listen to it in the 90s on my Walkman during long ass overnight bus rides back to campus from basketball games. It was on all the AM stations, which was all that came in besides country music, riding around rural Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois
It's not from there, shit goes way further back. America's current conspiracy worldview is basically the Protocols of the Elders of Zion from like 1900, with an added apocalypse fetish thanks to christian fundies.
I'll say I haven't listened to Art Bell enough to really judge him, and what I have heard was the cryptid/UFO stuff you described. But I mean, whether he specifically did or didn't, I'd still say treating thinly-veiled nazis with the same triviality as Bigfoot dipshits is a bad idea.
Good post, don't forget Bill Cooper
Fuckin hell at least go further back and shoot Father Coughlin instead
It's all ironic and just jokes and if you react to it you're part of the joke! :heated-gamer-moment:
Holy shit you just reminded me of when r/kotakuinaction claimed that the Christchurch shooter was "just joking" about hating Muslims in his manifesto
"'Subscribe to PewDiePie' was actually said just before the fascist murder spree with the intent to defame Pewds and seeing it in any other way is just SJW hysteria!" :soypoint-1: :heated-gamer-moment: :soypoint-2:
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