Does Canada’s CBC have a soft spot for deranged violent white men?
How would you describe a man who shot more than 20 people dead in a rampage? Would “A denturist with a passion for policing”do the trick? How about a man who armed himself to the teeth after gorging on QAnon conspiracy theory sites and broke into the Prime Minister’s home? Would a good humoured and friendly guy who was just having a hard time at work due to the pandemic fit the bill?
Canadian media has failed to serve the public interest when instead of delving deeper into the growing threat of paranoid anti-government conspiracism, fuelled by online disinformation, it flattered the perpetrator of the worst mass shooting in Canadian history and the Rideau Hall intruder, respectively, with such generous and normalizing public introductions.
It seems major media outlets in Canada struggle to present white middle-class men in our country who go off the rails as anything other than the polite stereotypical Canadian in the Tim Horton’s commercial who we are told is us. How could such polite and normal people do this? It’s so unlike him/us. We aren’t gun crazed Americans after all.
In a previous role as breaking news editor, I learned to quickly scan the wires and assess the race of a suspect by the questions local reporters were asking police. A question on terrorism meant Muslim, gangs meant Black. “Was mental health a factor?” — ding ding — white.
As Mi’kmaq lawyer and professor Pamela Palmater writes in NowMagazine this is a systemic problem in Canadian media. The Globe and Mail was deservedly trounced by readers after it described the Nova Scotia shooter as a friendly denturist with a “passion for policing” (eventually the headline was edited to “obsession about policing) but I’m singling the CBC out after the recent stories it has put out about the friendly and good humoured sausage making Rideau Hall Intruder who acted on his apocalyptic anti-government paranoia.
In both Nova Scotia and Rideau Hall, paranoia about COVID-19 and distrust of government were factors media mentioned only in passing.[1] just as they did in the Toronto driving rampage of 2018, where the Van Attack killer was influenced by an online “Incel” Reddit group (“Involuntarily Celibate” men who engage in misogynistic rage fantasies).
There’s a much larger, and even more concerning story connected with these events that is unfolding in Canada, and it’s far from friendly and good humoured. The paranoid online world of Incels, white supremacy, and anti-government conspiracsim, is a terrifying place, and it is empowering men to terrorize us in the real world at an increasing rate.
How many more times do we have to hear about white men and boys in particular being radicalized online in paranoid conspiracy chatrooms before we put the magnifying glass on this and do something as a country?
It’s a problem that more and more academics are devoting energy to as they see it fundamentally undermining democracy itself, just as it is undermining the global fight against COVID-19 at a time when we know trust in government is one of the most important weapons in the fight against the pandemic.[2]
In addition to academics like Dr. Michael Barkun who has long examined the issue, new books by Dr. Thomas M Konda (Conspiracies of Conspiracies) and Dr. Nancy Rosenblum and Dr. Russel Muirhead (A lot of people are saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy )[3] demonstrate that this is a political and sociological problem, not a problem of individual men struggling in the face of challenges due to the pandemic. These paranoias about the pandemic are part of an online zeitgeist that is gripping aggrieved white men in particular, who feel diminishing power in an increasingly complex world.
The World Health Organization and United Nations have termed this growing paranoia and dissemination of conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic in particular as “The Infodemic”[4] present not only in the Nova Scotia mass shooting, and the Rideau Hall episode, but even more obviously in the growing anti-Asian racism we’ve seen in this country[5], the burning of 5G cell towers[6], or “Pro-Infection” rallies where crowds of conspiracy theorists march to hospitals to deride nurses and doctors for being “traitors and dupes” of the Illuminati.[7] Tell me how these are not acts of terrorism? As Dr. Konda emphasizes in his new book, Conspiracism is becoming “The belief system of the 21st century” and men in Canada are terrorizing others after adopting it or being exposed to it.
This is not just a small corner of the internet where a few obsessed folks are hanging out either, this emergent belief system is influencing public behaviour and public opinion at a concerning rate. Like declining rates of vaccination for preventable diseases, or the politicization of wearing masks in public.
A recent NBC story examined how 50 million pieces of misinformation about the pandemic had been identified by Facebook in April of this year alone.[10] It’s no better on Twitter, where a recent Carnegie Mellon study examined 200 million tweets about COVID19 in in the span of a few months to find that nearly half of all tweets about COVID19, including those demanding to reopen America and remove public health orders came from computerized botz (alogrithms) and fake accounts, promoting the Wuhan Lab, 5G cell towers and other COVID19 conspiracy theories.[11]
Researchers with Australia’s, Queensland University of Technology found that MAGA bots, or “Trump supporters” and “QAnon bots” were among the worst culprits in the spread of this disinformation and misinformation online.[12]
Canada is not immune from this. A recent survey revealed that half of Canadians believe in one of four main conspiracy theories about the Coronavirus pandemic. The Rideau Hall Intruder was one of them, QAnon conspiracy theories are what fuelled him to drive from Manitoba to Ottawa armed like Rambo. Interviews with his neighbours suggest the Nova Scotia Shooter was influenced by online conspiracies and paranoia too.
As the heartbreaking May 21st story “My Dad, the QAnon Conspiracy Theorist” illustrates in painful detail, the rise of paranoid conspiracism can also be an important factor in worsening mental health, alienating individuals and breaking families apart.[18] It’s no surprise that worsening mental health would be an outcome of adopting such a sick and deranged “belief system”. Often times people only realize how terrible their mental health or physical health overall had become after they escape from a cult.
No matter where it originates from, Donald Trump’s Twitter account[13] or Russian Intelligence[14] this deep paranoia and disinformation spreading through internet chatrooms and YouTube conspiracy videos is making its way to Canadian computer screens and is now manifesting in violence in our communities and even attempted violence towards our Prime Minister and his family. Something needs to be done.
Scant attention has been paid to the connections between the increasing and varied forms of paranoid acts of violence in Canada and the flourishing world of online conpsiracism. I was pleased to see Susan Delacourt of the Toronto Star examine it this weekend. We need more of this.
We need a national conversation about this.
Canadians need our media to take a good hard look at how the paranoid dark world of online conspiracism is manifesting in real world consequences in our country as white men feel compelled to arm up and go to war with the world around them after succumbing to the delusions and paranoia of a deeply troubling belief system that offers no constructive solutions but violence, distrust and hate.
[1] The Globe and Mail originally described the Nova Scotia Gunman who killed 22 in April of 2020 as “A denturist with a passion for policing”but eventually changed it after a sufficient enough number of readers expressed outrage with such a flattering and normalizing description. The edited headline read “obsessed with policing”
Unsealed court document reveals N.S. gunman called a ‘psychopath’ by witness who knew him, Elizabeth McMillan, CBC News, May 19, 2020 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/mass-killing-nova-scotia-search-warrant-1.5575059
[2] Public Trust In Health Authorities Is Key To Fighting Coronavirus, Is It At Risk? https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/05/810129440/public-trust-in-health-authorities-is-key-to-fighting-coronavirus-is-it-at-risk
[3] Konda, Thomas, M., (2019) Conspiracies of Conspiracies: How delusions have overrun America, University of Chicago Press
Muirhead, R., Rosenblum, N., (2020) A Lot of People are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy, Princeton University Press
Also see the works of Dr. Michael Barkun, in particular his 2003 book A Culture of Conspiracy https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520276826/a-culture-of-conspiracy
[4] UN tackles ‘infodemic’ of misinformation and cybercrime in COVID-19 crisis accessed a https://www.un.org/en/un-coronavirus-communications-team/un-tackling-%E2%80%98infodemic%E2%80%99-misinformation-and-cybercrime-covid-19
[5] B.C. leaders from every level of government condemn rise in anti-Asian racism, CBC News, May 13th 2020 accessed at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-government-condemn-racism-1.5568228
[6] Conspiracy theorists burn 5G towers claiming link to virus, CTV News, April 20th 2020 accessed at https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/conspiracy-theorists-burn-5g-towers-claiming-link-to-virus-1.4905039
[7] VANCOUVER HELD YET ANOTHER ANTI-LOCKDOWN PROTEST OVER THE WEEKEND (PHOTOS), 604Now, DANA BOWN, MAY 11, 2020 https://604now.com/vancouver-anti-lockdown-protest-photos/
[8] Coronavirus ‘not manmade or genetically modified,’ say U.S. intelligence agencies, Associated Press, April 30th, accessed at https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/odni-statement-coronavirus-origin-1.5550691
[10] Facebook says it labeled 50 million pieces of coronavirus misinformation in April, NBC News, May 12th 2020 https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/facebook-says-it-labeled-50-millions-pieces-coronavirus-misinformation-april-n1205316
[11] Nearly half of Twitter accounts pushing to reopen America may be bots, MIT Technology review https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/05/21/1002105/covid-bot-twitter-accounts-push-to-reopen-america/
Researchers: Nearly Half Of Accounts Tweeting About Coronavirus Are Likely Bots, NPR News, https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/05/20/859814085/researchers-nearly-half-of-accounts-tweeting-about-coronavirus-are-likely-bots
[12] Covid-19 misinformation: pro-Trump and QAnon Twitter bots found to be worst culprits, The Guardian, May 31st 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jun/01/covid-19-misinformation-pro-trump-and-qanon-twitter-bots-found-to-be-worst-culprits
[13] Coronavirus: Trump stands by China lab origin theory for virus, BBC News, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52496098
[14] Canadian-led NATO battlegroup in Latvia targeted by pandemic disinformation campaign, CBC News, https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/nato-latvia-battle-group-pandemic-covid-coronavirus-disinformation-russia-1.5581248
[15] Survey reveals half of Canadians believe at least 1 of 4 online conspiracy theories, CTV News, https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/survey-reveals-half-of-canadians-believe-at-least-1-of-4-online-conspiracy-theories-1.4949550
[16] What a far-right Bolsonaro presidency in Brazil means for Canadian business, CBC News, October 29th, 2018 https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/brazil-canada-trade-bolsonaro-politics-foreign-policy-1.4878379
[17] Coronavirus: How Brazil became the second worst affected country in the world, The Conversation, June 29th, 2020 https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-how-brazil-became-the-second-worst-affected-country-in-the-world-141102
[18] My Dad, the QAnon Conspiracy Theorist, Reed Ryley Grable, May 21st 2020, Narratively, https://narratively.com/my-father-the-qanon-conspiracy-theorist/