Conspiracy Theorists Are Punching Each Other in the Face for Anti-Vax ‘Charities’

Influencers in the UK’s COVID-conspiracist movement are organising a charity boxing match to raise funds for anti-vax home schooling.

The “Hope and Glory” boxing night, to be held in London in June, will pit 12 fighters against each other from the so-called “resistance”  – the conspiracy-obsessed movement that believes coronavirus is a plot against the masses. 

A poster advertising the event, featuring pictures of shirtless fighters with their fists up, has been circulated on COVID-conspiracist Telegram channels. Organisers say the night is “to give all truthers a venue to meet up for the evening and enjoy each other’s company,” while raising funds for HOPE Sussex, a “community education venue” for homeschooled children that’s associated with the “resistance” movement. Ringside tickets to the event are selling for £50 ($65.80).

The event is the latest example of macho posturing from leading figures within the UK’s radicalised COVID-conspiracist scene, which has become increasingly militant in its attempts to halt the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine, especially to children.

The fight night is being sponsored and promoted by a man named Danny who runs a popular conspiracy Telegram channel, “Truth Pills,” with more than 31,000 subscribers, devoted to exposing “the COVID hoax, governments, paedophiles, and everything else against humanity!”

One of the teams of fighters will be led by Danny Glass, a British Army veteran who is a leader of Alpha Men Assemble, a hard-line group that’s been holding combat training sessions intended to prepare members for radical direct action protests against unspecified targets they believe are responsible for the so-called coronavirus plot against the people. 

READ: Conspiracy theorists ‘Alpha Men Assemble’ hold combat training sessions

The group is heavily influenced by “sovereign citizen” ideology, a once-obscure conspiracy theory that’s become a driving force in COVID “resistance” movements internationally, whose followers believe that the government is illegitimate and that they’re essentially above the law.

READ: “Sovereign citizen” activists tried to seize Edinburgh Castle. They failed

The other team is led by a prominent anti-vax activist known as Matthew, who regularly posts videos of himself encouraging to COVID conspiracist Telegram channels. He was the leader of a group of sovereign citizen activists that stormed a pharmacy in Normanton, Yorkshire in January demanding that it stop administering COVID vaccines, citing a police crime reference number they falsely believed meant that the vaccines were under criminal investigation.

READ: Police debunked the ‘COVID crime number’ theory and anti-vaxxers are furious

Danny, of “Truth Pills”, who is scheduled to fight at the charity night himself, has also previously attended Alpha Men Assemble training sessions. He posted a video to Telegram after one meet-up praising the hard-line group as “the path we need to be taking.”

“This is what I’ve been waiting for: some leadership, some organisation, some real, real stuff,” he said in the video.

“These dirty disgusting governments, police, doctors, nurses – we know who our enemy is now.”

Asked about the motivation for holding the fight night, and whether the fighters would be taking a cut of the ticket sales, Danny refused to comment.

The fight night is being held to raise funds for HOPE Sussex, which describes itself as a “community education venue” dedicated to “creating a new home education ethos, that allows kids to live and learn freely in a conscious community.” The head of the school has previously given a speech at an Alpha Men’s Assemble meet-up, while COVID conspiracist influencers like Danny, from “Truth Pills,” have previously urged supporters to donate to the project.

The support for HOPE Sussex reflects a broader push within the anti-vax scene to take their kids out of mainstream schooling, in order to shield them from COVID vaccination drives and other influences they see as harmful.

Following a VICE World News investigation last year, experts have condemned efforts by COVID conspiracy theorists to take their kids out of regular schools.

READ: Sovereign citizens are trying to set up their own anti-vax ‘schools’ in the UK

“This is an unregulated way of funnelling children into a conspiracy mindset at a very early age,” said Joe Ondrak, head of investigation for Logically, a tech company that combats online disinformation and monitors Telegram chatrooms where breakaway schools are discussed.