War Fever

On the rise of ‘the Ukraine war is fake’ conspiracy theorists.

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An apartment in Irpin destroyed by a Russian bombardment in the area. Evidence of the destruction wrought by the war is still very visible in the town of Irpin, close to Kyiv. (Photo by Dominika Zarzycka/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images)

Years ago a progressive friend asked my opinion about one of the right’s kookiest political news sites. “Do they believe the things they write,” he wondered, “or is it a grift?”

Ah, the eternal question. One that no one but the kooks themselves know the answer to. 

My response to him was that I’m not sure it’s either/or.

Sometimes it is. The latest court filing from Dominion Voting Systems has pretty definitively answered the “kooks or grifters?” question about Fox News, for instance.

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  1. Jfan

    This phenomenon is not unique to the right. The mainstream press has often repeated and amplified liberal fantasies so thoroughly that even the liars come to believe them. To take the most extreme, but not only, example, in 1995-1996 the Democrats and the news media propagated a lie that the Republican budget cut spending on Medicare, when it provided for 7% annual spending increases. If you didn't believe Dan Rather, Peter Jennings could confirm it. So could the New York Times. So could the AP. In 1996 I attended a congressional debate and was startled when comments by the Democratic incumbent made me realize that he believed his own party's lies.

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  2. Theodore Spencer Verona

    I fought in Ukraine in the early months....the destruction and carnage is very real. It utterly shocks me that such conspiracies can be peddled with no shame.

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    Alina M.

    For anyone who's interested in seeing what's the war has been like in Ukraine, I highly recommend this 2-part documentary on YouTube. English subtitles are available:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhssmUtN874 PART 1
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlkzADUfb3s PART 2

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    Cooke.Esl.Jeff

    I must be way out of the loop as I have never heard of catturd 1 or 2. Sigh. But for anyone with the slightest inclination to learn about Ukraine there is an abundance of information. Start here with Frontline: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/ukraine-life-under-russias-attack/

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    Stomaino

    The worst kind of conman is the kind that believes his own con. A non-political example is Ed Wood, the director of Plan 9 from Outer Space. He really believed he was a great filmmaker.

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    O.M.G. calling from Vaudeville, AZ

    To wit, some comments on Nicks passing scene (hat tip, for you that don’t already know, Thomas Sowell),
    America’s Now Biggest Sore Loser Donald J Trump KNOWS to his very rotten, soon to be rotting in hell (forgive me Jesus please make like Calgon, but take The Devil that went down to Georgia instead) collective soulless huckster crony capitalist pig existence that has NOT been self reprogrammed into believing his own B.S…..for f sake Cato, when the worlds most successful bull shitte artist gets called out on his own bull shitte, The Don just ups the ante because he is, like Sadamn Insane, playing with his own deck full of canards….his Minnie me millions of true believers will, like Mikey, eat anything…for his is a world full of grand wizard of oz jurors all over MAGA country…who eat up Only One America Network and News Maxxx for breakfast, lunch and dinner and FOX[Y] News desert. The fact that Sean Hanutty , that Frrr Carlson and complete Laura, rhymes with…, smugly, as it is so disgusting to bear witness, has the audacity of dope to showy display a crucifix hanging around her neck, all fixed the news so that they decide what the Trumper Sicko fans want reported has been going on since the printed page and air Germanic radio was controlled by populists propagandists…and now has a filthy foreigner Murdoch laying down the spins 21st century style. Ever hear of the one about Rudolf Hearst sleeping with Teddy Kennedy, I mean Roosevelt. This filthy shitte isn’t new Cato the…Donald Trump lies with the ease he breathes, but the huckster isn’t actually buying what he is selling…but I digress
    It’s bad enough that rich white trash like The Don keep getting richer via a complete fing phony legal defense fund (fun fact, the former to be disgraced John Eastman has been reduced to begging for monies for his legal defense fund on the corner, like a still recovering addict, on of all things, Trump apologists Dennis Prager Show…no lament by the host about “Didn’t you know if you get into bed with a client that is The Devil that you were most definitely going to get burned…what did you think the words Donald Trump meant for all these years counselor!?), but “just so we understand” how low American Greatness can sink…WHERE IS THE FING OUTRAGE over the public airwaves that a former so called leader of the free world is trolling an ally while Ukranian apartment buildings with innocent human beings is burning because of a wicked devil from the east deposed POTUS calls “genius”…again, how is it TheDon keeps avoiding the gallows, I mean jail…and how do such pedophiles, I mean propagandists keep getting away with peddling anti truth social b.s. will forever have me believing Idiocracy was based on a [premonition] true story and there outta be a state of gentleman justice Mike Judge.
    One last lament Cato. The air raid siren was a publicity stunt , as premeditated as the fair warning to the Ruskies don’t dare bomb anywhere near the President of the United States, for you know what that would start….hence neither president was scurried to a bomb shelter like their sacred lives depended on it
    PRAY TO END TRUMPISM, and to see The Don and all the grifters and hucksters like M.T.G. get their comeuppance Gotta run on. Thanks for taking my rant Boing Frogs. DEATH TO PUTIN. Praise Allah Pundit. Peace through superior mental firepowerShow less

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  7. Raincheck

    The sons of great men so rarely live up to the original. Catturd was a great man, but Catturd2 is the product of coddling and a decadent lifestyle.

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    1. Ag80593420

      I see what you did there. ;-)

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    Mattjabour

    Are you really surprised? Two decades ago, two planes flew into two of the tallest skyscrapers in downtown NYC, and people today still doubt it happened. Just be glad Alex Jones is too broke to throw in his two rotted cents.

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    Mudskipper

    What is amusing about Catturd's post is that he doesn't seem to realize that American soldiers aren't fighting in Ukraine. We have no power to heavily integrate our reporters into Ukraine's troops.

    If pointed out to him, I'm sure he'll consider this a minor detail that can be waved away...

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    1. Theodore Spencer Verona

      https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/idaho-man-dies-fighting-volunteer-ukraine-rcna52456

      This was my friend. He went by Bird. While i understand that you are saying that no UNIFORMED American soldier is fighting, there are plenty of foreign volunteers that are fighting and they should be remembered and honored for doing so. Here is just one of them that I knew and served with in Ukraine.

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        Mudskipper

        Yes, you are right. I meant no uniformed Americans fighting as part of the US military.

        I'm sorry for the loss of your friend. He was a brave and generous man to fight in Ukraine.

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        1. Theodore Spencer Verona

          Thank you. There are many more foreigners who have met their end too and many more still fighting well after I left. I shake with rage at the very idea someone would even imply that this is....fake. The barbarism of the Invader is very, very, very real. thank you for your kind words.

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            Mudskipper

            I'm sure you do shake with rage. It must be absolutely maddening to hear them suggest that while they are hiding out in the comfort of their homes.

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    2. Theodore Spencer Verona

      Volunteers are and they are well documented. I fought there (American) and we do so entirely as unaffiliated VOLUNTEERS not mercenaries. To see some of their footage (I will spare you from my own) i suggest, funker530.

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  10. John

    Nick. I know all of this but you keep putting my experiences in order. Thank you. Yesterday I strongly criticized the Editor at hot air. I am polite but they continue to push the idea that Anthony Fauci funded the research that caused the pandemic. I had to object because I’ve done this and know how funding is determined. The articles on Hot Air are nonsense. But thats OK with them. It fits their far right propaganda and is a safe place for those people only interested in conspiracy theories to indulge themselves.

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