It’s time once again for news and views that you can peruse. It’s time once again for your regularly scheduled Weekly Reader! Got some hot links, blog posts, or articles from a local paper you’d like to share? Head over to the comments and let us know.
The men behind QAnon (from ABC News): “For nearly three years, QAnon followers have been feverishly deciphering thousands of cryptic clues and predictions posted online by the shadowy persona of “Q” at the center of a metastasizing movement that experts say is the first far-right extremist conspiracy theory in the modern era to penetrate mainstream American culture and Washington politics.
Yet, a consensus of leading researchers and critics who study and debunk QAnon disinformation told ABC News that a key to identifying “Q” has been hiding in plain sight for years — on a pig farm south of Manila in the Philippines — at least until recently.”
This Was Always the Endgame (from Love Joy Feminism via Patheos): “This is the moment conservatives have been waiting for for decades. This is the reason white evangelicals voted for Donald Trump in 2016. I grew up in a conservative evangelical home in the 1990s and early 2000s, and this was the fabled moment we spoke of: when we would gain control of the Supreme Court and overturn Roe v. Wade.”
Pedophilia is Alive on Facebook — Report These Pages Immediately! (from Medium): “For one, they track our behavior and listen in — don’t believe me? Talk about something really obscure today and see if it doesn’t pop up in your Facebook ads. Also, the fact that a photo of a child in their underwear with the “penis area” being prominent does NOT violate Facebook standards — I have to seriously rethink my involvement on the platform.”
QAnon explained: the antisemitic conspiracy theory gaining traction around the world (from The Guardian): “There are many, many threads of the QAnon narrative, all as far-fetched and evidence-free as the rest, including subplots that focus on John F Kennedy Jr being alive (he isn’t), the Rothschild family controlling all the banks (they don’t) and children being sold through the website of the furniture retailer Wayfair (they aren’t). Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, George Soros, Bill Gates, Tom Hanks, Oprah Winfrey, Chrissy Teigen and Pope Francis are just some of the people whom QAnon followers have cast as villains in their alternative reality.”
“Cuties,” the Extraordinary Netflix Début That Became the Target of a Right-Wing Campaign (from The New Yorker): “The girl is Amy Diop (Fathia Youssouf), an eleven-year-old of Senegalese descent, who lives in France with her observant Muslim family. At the film’s beginning, she moves with her mother, Mariam (Maïmouna Gueye), and her two younger brothers into a new apartment in a Parisian housing project. The apartment has a secret: a room, kept locked, that Amy is ordered to avoid. Amy (short for Aminata, and pronounced with a short “a,” like the French word ami) is a dutiful child, kept in line lovingly but sternly by Mariam and by “Auntie,” her great-aunt (Mbissine Thérèse Diop), who’s steeped in traditions that she passes along to her niece. Amy, who’s quiet and shy, is also socially isolated—she has no cell phone, knows no one at school, and isn’t inclined to express herself or introduce herself. As for her father, he’s away, visiting the family’s homeland. Much is being made of the festive plans for his return—but Amy learns, accidentally, that the point of his trip is to take a second wife, and that he’ll soon be returning to Paris with her. The sealed room in the family’s apartment will be the new wife’s bridal chamber.”
Trump lied about science (from Science Mag): “Over the years, this page has commented on the scientific foibles of U.S. presidents. Inadequate action on climate change and environmental degradation during both Republican and Democratic administrations have been criticized frequently. Editorials have bemoaned endorsements by presidents on teaching intelligent design, creationism, and other antiscience in public schools. These matters are still important. But now, a U.S. president has deliberately lied about science in a way that was imminently dangerous to human health and directly led to widespread deaths of Americans.
This may be the most shameful moment in the history of U.S. science policy.”
JK Rowling and Cormoran Strike and the Mythical Man in a Dress (from TransParent Expedition via Patheos): “The deranged man in a dress is not terribly original. We have seen it used in Psycho, Silence of the Lambs and some other works. This is not a compelling twist. It is, in conjunction with the threat she created in her letter as simple truth, a fear she may very well have and has created with less facts than a trafficking lecture taught by a Q’anon adherent.”
Fact check: 35,000 “malnourished” and “caged” children were not recently rescued from tunnels by U.S. military (from Reuters): “A spokesperson for New York City’s Child and Family Services told Reuters via email that to their knowledge, the claim circulating on social media is not true. A spokesperson for New York City’s Administration of Child Services also told Reuters that they were “not aware” of any rescue operation like the one described in the claim.
A spokesperson for the New York Police Department told Reuters via phone also said that they were “not aware” of the alleged rescue reported in the claim.”
After being told to ‘soldier on’ through postpartum breast changes, mom is dying of breast cancer (from Today): “The next day she called her doctor and went for a series of tests in June. She has learned that she has breast cancer and it had spread to the lymph nodes in her right arm, the left side of her neck and her chest wall “behind my ribs and between my lungs.””
Trump called him ‘my African American’ and upended his life (from The Grio): “Since that day, Cheadle’s life has changed completely. He lost friends, went into hiding, and even lost his girlfriend, a staunch Democrat who no longer wanted to be seen in public with him.
Today, Cheadle no longer supports President Trump and has lost respect for some Black conservatives.”
That’s all for today. Drop by again for more information on the interesting and the weird that you didn’t know you needed in your life. Until next week, stay safe and happy reading!
Iacon East 