Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on February 26, 2022 in Orlando, Florida. ( Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Unraveling viral disinformation and explaining where it came from, the harm it's causing, and what we should do about it.
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Also, in Ukrainian, the word term “chy-na” on its own has several meanings. One of them is “price,” but it can also mean “rank” and “tire,” which don’t fit quite as neatly into QAnon’s conspiracy theory.To the uninitiated, this conspiracy would seem ludicrous—because it is— but consider the toxic cesspool where it’s being shared. QAnon believes that the war in Ukraine isn’t a war at all but that Trump is working in secret with Vladimir Putin to expose a network of biolabs being used to develop chemical weapons—that may be transported to Russia by birds. This sweeping conspiracy isn’t only taking hold in QAnon forums; it’s also being boosted by right-wing figures in the U.S., including Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
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This theory is being posited in combination with the idea that, just as Ukraine is being “cleansed” by the Russian invasion, Taiwan needs to be “cleansed” by a Chinese invasion.
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