Flood of Hatred, Lies
Just Grows and Grows Like a Cancer
It’s like a malignant tumor, you get one removed and find out another has grown. Or like cockroaches, you kill one and 10 more come out of the walls. Or like the pandemic, just when COVID-19 seemed under control, another variant emerges, followed by another variant, with no end in sight.
I am talking about the dark, nether world of websites, Facebook groups, Tweets, pop ups and all of the social network sites and echo chambers that are multiplying like bandicoots, spreading trump’s big lie about voter fraud and other prevarications in a wildfire that is raging out of control and threatens to further brainwash and overturn the country.
I searched “Trump” on Facebook groups and came up with 45 pro-trump groups, with hundreds of thousands of followers, with names like “Prayers for President Donald J. Trump” and “Trump 2024 Save America Again” to “President Trump is the Greatest President Ever” and “Africans for Trump” and “FLOTUS Melanie, Dedicated to the Most Beautiful First Lady,” which claimed 378,000 followers, far more than any of the sites dedicated to the ex-president, so there is some justice. In examining the groups, I found that the pro-trump groups generally spread the same stench-filled lies of trump and that the anti-trumpers tended to be factual, and that’s no surprise.
While the pro-trump groups nearly doubled the 27 anti-trumper groups, the anti-trumpers were far superior in creativity with names like “I Hate Donald Trump More Than Anything,” “Trump is a Malignant Narcisist” and my favorite, “I Hate Donald Trump 1,000 Times More Than You Do.”
And then there was “Trumpet Students Worldwide” which had nothing to do with Gen. Bone Spurs but rather is a group for trumpet aficionados.
The virulence spread on the Facebook groups is part of a pernicious, frightening, widespread and ever expanding effort at spreading the trump lies. And as they say, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., the wingnut, QAnon follower, was permanently barred from Twitter for “repeated violations” of its COVID-19 misinformation policy. Greene answered by urging that people quit Twitter and sign up with the far right platform “GETTR” and the “free speech” site, “Gab.” Like her slave master, trump also was kicked off Twitter after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol over fears he would incite his followers to commit more violence. And like Greene, trump also has lashed out at the “fake news” of Twitter.
The Internet archive website the WayBack Machine, reported that since Greene was suspended from Twitter on Jan. 2, she has gained 44,600 followers on Gab, as well as around 23,600 followers on GETTR, amounting to more than 68,000 new social media followers overall. GETTR has claimed that more than 171,000 people joined the network in one day, the biggest single day sign ups since it launched on July 4. The site claimed the jump in popularity was a result of Greene’s suspension and the growth in popularity of various other conservative figures.
GETTR, a Twitter-style platform with posts and trending topics, advertised itself on the Google and Apple app stores as “a non-bias social network for people all over the world.”
GETTR was created by Jason Miller, a former senior advisor to the 2020 Trump campaign and no relation to Stephen Miller, the former trump advisor who is credited with shaping trump’s racist and draconian immigration policies.
Jason Miller had been named communications director during trump’s presidential transition but he withdrew after reports that Miller, who is married, had an affair with campaign staffer A. J. Delgado, which produced a child in July 2017. In 2017, he became a contributor on CNN, but left that post in 2018 after he was accused of drugging his pregnant mistress with an abortifacient, a concoction to cause an abortion. In 2019, as part of a failed defamation lawsuit, Miller admitted in a deposition in U.S. District Court that he had a history of visiting prostitutes and patronizing “Asian-themed” massage parlors. The right wing TV website, Newsmax, hired him as a contributor in In March 2021, and Miller left his position as Trump’s spokesman in June 2021 to become the CEO of GETTR.
There’s more, much more.
Trump’s “Truth Social” platform is reported to launch on Feb. 21, Presidents Day. It is unclear how exactly Truth Social will look or operate but its Apple app claims the media platform will encourage an “open, free, and honest global conversation without discriminating against political ideology.”
And if that isn’t enough, paid ads hyping gold, silver and copper trump presidential coins have been popping up regularly on such websites as Newsweek, the Washington Post, CNN and others. The ads are sponsored by Money Metals Exchange of Eagle, Idaho, which calls itself a “national precious metals investment company.”
The profile of President Trump is featured on the coin with the inscription “Donald J Trump” along the top, as well the words “45th President” right underneath his chin.
The ads include a “biography” of trump that notes he will “go down as one of the most iconic presidents in American history.” It notes trump’s “defeat” to Biden in the 2020 election.
“Millions of Americans believe the election was stolen, and those numbers have risen over time as evidence mounts,” the bio notes. “President Trump won election in 2016 based on a populist message which included border security, downscaling foreign wars and entanglements, and support for American businesses.”
The “bio” says that while trump was impeached twice, “opponents failed on both occasions. The charges — collusion with Russia to win elections and later using his office to coerce Ukrainian officials to investigate his political adversaries — seemed fabricated and politically motivated by his supporters.”
“Trump may be out of office, but the history surrounding his Presidency is still being written. Many expect it will ultimately mark a major turning point for the nation,” it concludes.
Jessica Balfour, a spokeswoman for Money Metals Exchange, said in an email that the company does not donate proceeds of the sales of the trump coins to trump or related organizations. It was not clear how much trump was paid to allow his likeness on the coins.