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Jan 7 • 20 tweets • 11 min read
#THREAD on GB "News", mainly courtesy of @PrivateEyeNews.

The polarising, increasingly unhinged, & dangerously irresponsible multimillionaire hedge-funder funded GB "News" has become a rich breeding ground for harmful conspiracy theories, effectively becoming the UK's Fox News.
The channel was only founded in 2021 amid much-regretted promises from then frontman Andrew Neill that it would not become a "British Fox News" but has slid deep into #misinformation, #disinformation, & pure #propaganda, often about the COVID pandemic.
In one recent show, presenter Patrick Christys praised a largely discredited new book which claims Covid was genetically engineered and leaked on purpose, with help from US chief national scientific adviser Anthony Fauci and cover-ups by UK scientists.
The book, by one Andrew Huff, has been treated sceptically by other media outlets, but Christys and guest Dominique Samuels claimed it proved that so- called Covid conspiracists were "completely vindicated" on a host of issues.

ecohealthalliance.org/2022/12/ecohea…
Dan Wootton interviewed 'online personality' Andrew Tate, who was allowed to refer to an "imaginary pandemic" and deny that hospitals had been overrun without any challenge. (Tate has been arrested on suspicion of human trafficking, rape and forming an organised crime group.)
Off-air & away from @Ofcom regulation, presenters share absurd conspiracies. Samuels tweeted praise for conspiracy theory documentary Died Suddenly, which falsely alleges the Covid vaccine was created by the global elite to kill people & depopulate earth.
Meanwhile, on his personal podcast, GB "News" presenter Mark Steyn said the slowing of the birth rate of "#Aryans", who built "western civilisation", had been accelerated by Covid vaccines. He openly celebrated the fact that @Ofcom does not regulate his personal show.
In 2018, Sky News Australia sparked outcry after it broadcast an interview with a far-right nationalist extremist who has expressed his admiration for #Hitler: then Sky News Australia CEO Angelos Frangopoulos said “It was an error of judgment". Frangopoulos is now CEO of #GBNews.
Another purveyor of wacky Covid opinions is Nick Dixon, a host of GB News's paper review & presenter of the Daily Sceptic podcast, which grew out of a Lockdown Sceptics website founded by Toby Young.

Online, Dixon praises unvaccinated people, calling them "pure bloods".
It's not only the pandemic where those given voice & prominence by GB "News" veer towards the unhinged.

Calvin Robinson, who dresses in an old-fashioned clergy uniform despite the CofE having declined to ordain him, shared an unfounded theory about Ukraine war.
Robinson makes the unfounded claim that Ukraine war money is actually a money-laundering operation for US aid to be donated to the Democratic party via the use of cryptocurrency.
And during recent immigration debates, Calvin Robinson, who is black, repeatedly praised the views of Enoch "Rivers of Blood" Powell, tweeting that "Powell provided an important contribution to the conversation" and changing his background image to a picture of the politician.
Indeed, Robinson - now a regular on Fox "News" where he self-identifies as "Anglican Deacon", "Father" Calvin Robinson - is quite happy to use his @Twitter account as an unpleasant extension of his GB "News" role.

He's also 'Strategy Adviser' to Lawrence Fox's Reclaim Party.
On a recent episode of his Sunday GB "News" programme Common Sense Crusade, Michael Coren, a priest in the Anglican Church of Canada, defended "buffer zones" around abortion clinics to stop anti-abortion activists upsetting people using the services.

newstatesman.com/quickfire/2022…
Coren was promised by producers there would be "civility & friendly disagreement" both on & off air.
However, entirely predictably, host Calvin Robinson took to Twitter to accuse Coren of "twisting scripture" and being "pro- abortion and anti-prayer".
Calvin Robinson told his followers that what Coren had said was "wicked... Judgement awaits". Coren predictably received a slew of what he described as "angry, venomous and abusive" messages as a result.

Robinson also a senior fellow at Policy Exchange.

On-air #misinformation from GB "News" is also
having real world influence.

A recent spate of reports falsely representing that a traffic-calming measure in Oxfordshire was a "climate lockdown" went viral and resulted in abuse & death threats being directed at council staff.
Broadcast regulator @Ofcom does regulate a little: there are two active investigations against GB "News", both against Steyn.

Last spring he wrongly said that having additional Covid vaccines was killing people & slammed a "media silence" on the issue.

pressgazette.co.uk/news/ofcom-gb-…
In October Steyn's guest, the seldom accurate Naomi Wolf, claimed women were being harmed by Covid vaccines.

But @Ofcom is complaints-based, & as most viewers in the GB "News" echo chamber are unlikely to complain, much of its output goes unmonitored.

Even when we do complain to @Ofcom about GB "News", it rarely seems to have any effect.

However, the more of us complain, the more likely they are to stop shamelessly normalising far-right speakers, far-right conspiracy theories, & far-right rhetoric. 🙏

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More from @docrussjackson

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Jan 9
#THREAD

#Sociopaths: lack empathy & are unable to feel remorse for their actions; tend to lack emotions in response to events around them; have a high feeling of love & admiration toward themselves, but also have low self-esteem, which they often hide under a facade of charm. Image
#Sociopaths: have a highly calculative nature; can start manipulating others for their own personal benefits; usually manipulate other people without any feelings of guilt or remorse; & can also be quite charming, even if they fail to understand the feelings of others. Image
#Sociopaths: are capable & are adept at appearing to be charming & normal; usually possess a high IQ, which they use for manipulation purposes; always strive for attention; usually desire the approval of others; but are extremely sensitive to criticisms. Image
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Jan 9
#THREAD

"One dimension of democracy’s current crisis is hyper-partisan polarization.

It is not just that citizens disagree sharply about current conditions, who or what is responsible, & paths forward. They also exaggerate their disagreements...
turn to ad hominem abuse, & are led by political or social media provocateurs to attack opponents as enemies. They forsake constructive discussion of issues & policies for the pursuit of winning at all costs. Hyper-partisanship is reinforced by vanity, narcissism, & careerism."
"Academic discussions & debates among ostensible political allies sometimes degenerate into the same sort of acrimony. In this symposium, however, I am fortunate to be challenged constructively by thoughtful critics; they raise the quality of analysis & discussion."
Read 5 tweets
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Jan 9
Was it something I said?

Image
Read 4 tweets
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Jan 8
Dutch supermarket chain, Jumbo, introduced slow checkouts when it discovered some people enjoy chatting while paying for their goods. The added personal touch is helping many people, especially the elderly, deal with loneliness. Jumbo has installed slow checkouts in 200 stores. Image
These "slow lanes" were first introduced by Jumbo in the summer of 2019 as a part of the Dutch government's One Against Loneliness campaign. There are 1.3 million adults over 75 in the Netherlands, and 33% of them say they feel at least moderately lonely.
In the North Brabant province's town of Vlijmen, the first Kletskassa opened for business. The feedback was so encouraging that the business decided to build 200 of these lanes across the nation.
Read 6 tweets
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Jan 8
#THREAD

It is deeply disturbing that GB "News" presenter Mark Steyn claims "Aryans" built "western civilisation" in his podcast. This thread explains why normal, decent people no longer use the term, not least because of its connotations with white supremacism & the #Holocaust.
While it is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, the atrocities committed in the name of Aryanist supremacist ideologies means academics & other normal decent people avoid the term 'Aryan' like the plague.
The theory of an “Aryan race” appeared in the mid-19th century & remained prevalent until the mid-20th century, when for reasons obvious to any decent person, the term fell out of favour, & is generally used exclusively by the far-right & neo-Nazis.

britannica.com/topic/Aryan
Read 43 tweets
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Jan 8
#THREAD

May I join the legion of others saying 'who the fuck is Fiona Bruce MP?'

What do we know about the anti-abortion evangelical Christian Bruce?

And as so few voters have even heard of her, how on earth is she the MP with the fourth biggest outside earnings?
Following her selection as the Conservative Party candidate for the Congleton constituency in 2010, Bruce denied allegations that she had been chosen following an orchestrated campaign by religious groups sympathetic to her evangelical Christian beliefs.
Bruce is a council member of the Evangelical Alliance - a national alliance & member of the World Evangelical Alliance. Founded in 1846, the activities of the Evangelical Alliance aim to promote evangelical Christian beliefs in government, media & society.
eauk.org/about-us/
Read 60 tweets

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