ABSURD: FBI Declares War on ‘Conspiracy Theories’, Cites Left Wing Snopes As Source
Tom Pappert
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On Thursday the FBI released a statement suggesting right wing conspiracy theorists are elevating as a national threat, and deep in their document, they quoted the far-left, often wrong Snopes as a source for the agency’s information.
According to Yahoo! News, the FBI considers right wing conspiracies a grave national security threat, with “QAnon” theories listed prominently. In its new statement, the agency loses all credibility by considering Snopes a viable source of information.
The FBI for the first time has identified fringe conspiracy theories as a domestic terrorist threat, according to a previously unpublicized document obtained by Yahoo News. (Read the document below.)
The FBI intelligence bulletin from the bureau’s Phoenix field office, dated May 30, 2019, describes “conspiracy theory-driven domestic extremists,” as a growing threat, and notes that it is the first such report to do so. It lists a number of arrests, including some that haven’t been publicized, related to violent incidents motivated by fringe beliefs.
The document specifically mentions QAnon, a shadowy network that believes in a deep state conspiracy against President Trump, and Pizzagate, the theory that a pedophile ring including Clinton associates was being run out of the basement of a Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant (which didn’t actually have a basement).
Twitter user Jordan Sather points out the excerpt noting that Snopes is a quality source of information, writing “they cited Snopes as a source and called them the ‘oldest and largest fact checking cite [sic] on the internet’.”
“Is this real life?” Wondered Sather.
https://twitter.com/jordan_sather_/status/1156975521416146945
Sather posted screen shots from the FBI document, which reads “Snopes is the oldest and largest fact-checking site on the Internet”, something they wrote twice under two separate citations.
This would be well and good, except Snopes has been repeatedly demonstrated to get the facts wrong. Some also argue it has been weaponized as a tool against conservative satire, frequently fact checking obvious satire websites The Babylon Bee and NPC Daily.
Big League Politics most recently reported on Snopes fact checking NPC Daily earlier this year:
NPC Daily, a viral new right wing satire website using the popular non-player character meme, recently published an article titled “Disney announces that Woody will be ‘openly bisexual’ in Toy Story 4”, which prompted Snopes to inform readers that the children’s movie character will not, in fact, discuss his sexuality on the big screen.
Snopes referenced a clearly fake tweet used in the NPC Daily article by Disney, and wrote that “This report was not a genuine news account, nor was such a tweet issued by Disney.”
Apparently unable to determine the difference between “satire” and “fake news”, Snopes condemned the article as “fake” in its article. In fact, Snopes only begrudgingly admits the article is satirical in nature twice, first in the subheading of its article, and again at the tail end.
Beginning last year, Big League Politics revealed that Snopes fact checked The Babylon Bee, a self described Christian satire website:
Perhaps their most ridiculous fact check was on an article where Babylon Bee claimed that CNN purchased an “industrial sized washing machine” so they could spin news. Most people would find the article hilarious, despite being fake, but Snopes instead found it important to make it known that the claim was false.
Snopes also fact checked an article where Babylon Bee claimed that Planned Parenthood defended Bill Cosby, because “sexual assault is only 3% of what he does.” The satirical article was obviously poking fun at Planned Parenthood, who claims that abortion is only 3% of what they do.
To say the least, it is less than comforting to know that the FBI is taking the word of obvious leftists with a clear agenda against conservative “conspiracy theory” groups in the United States.
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