When talking about “fake news” it’s important to understand how paranoid conspiracies are the default vocabulary of movement hucksterism.
I’ve subscribed to conservative newsletters and mailing lists for years; Idiosyncratic conspiracies were always there.
There are a few evergreen favorites, like FEMA camps, but usually it’s a tone rather than a particularly fully-formed theory.
The conspiratorial tone is casual & ubiquitous: There’s a cover-up! Big gov is trying to keep you in the DARK! THEY don’t want you to know!
And — this is where it’s really chilling — this material is an ever-present part of the advertising in that media ecosystem.
Even more than the editorial, even more than the news-ish stories, the interstitials and the sidebars and the popups? Wall-to-wall fear.
This arrived in my inbox this morning. It links to a 10 minute long video of footage from epidemics, natural disasters, and vague warnings.
Eventually, the meat: they’re selling an ebook on basic first-aid skills. Wrapped in language about the immanent breakdown of civilization.
It’s easy to write it off as just another piece of spam, or say that there are always bottom-feeders. But the conservative media ecosystem?
It is packed with this stuff. Preroll ads. Email blasts. "Sponsored messages from our trusted friends at http://ClickSellMedia.biz,"etc.
Stop and imagine for a sec what it’s like to spend 5, 10, 20, even 30 years in an information universe where ALL NEWS is surrounded by that.
It’s easy to laugh at “preppers” but follow the money — to the con artists selling scared people overpriced MREs by the pound.
Martial law, plagues, military coups, roving gangs, secret conspiracies to keep YOU in the dark, and only OUR GUIDE can protect your family!
Those messages, wrapped around everything published in the conservative media ecosystem, are a big part of how radicalization happens.