How To Con Conservatives

    Once upon a time there was a guy named Kevin. Kevin was a con artist, who came up with a very simple way to con a very specific audience. You see, Kevin realized there were people who not only believed in conspiracy theories, but very much wanted to be told about more conspiracy theories. Now, there are of course actual conspiracies. But for these people, the theory was all the proof they needed, facts were not important, and any fact that opposed the conspiracy was part of the conspiracy. Very easy targets for a con man.

    And oh did Kevin make money off of these people. He realized he could sell these people anything if he marketed as something 'they' were keeping from you. The government doesn't want you to know about this. Pharmaceutical companies are hiding this from you. Scientists are paid to keep this under wraps. Whatever he was selling, didn't matter. People would send him money for it. Because they were that willing to buy into the conspiracy. The product was secondary to being in the know. When Kevin went to prison, well that was just further proof of his claims. 'They' wanted to silence him.

    Now, Kevin may no longer be allowed to sell bogus claims to people, but so many people learned his tactics. In fact, the entire alt-right media was built around it. Even in the mainstream right leaning media, editorials and entertainment news hosts routinely use the same methods to con their audience. I doubt Kevin originated the tactics, but clearly people saw how easily he was able to sell obvious garbage to a large audience that was very willing to swallow garbage.

    And now it's so much worse. Worse for people who like facts and proof. So much easier for the alt-right to make a ton of money selling their bs. Because now they can make a video or write an article, and intentionally include something they know will get it taken down off social media. Then, when it gets pulled, the fact that it was removed proves to their audience that it is important and true. It does not matter what the content actually is, 'they' wanted it hidden so clearly it must be right.

    Sometimes, I'm pretty sure they post things the first time already claiming it had been taken down. Because that's all they need, a headline that says 'Watch Before YouTube Removes Again' and even if YouTube had never removed the video, people will hurry and watch and never question the information presented. It's just too easy.
    After that, the audience does all the legwork. They make memes and message friends and repeat the claims. Now the information is everywhere, often disconnected from the source, so it's not right wing media propaganda, it's a known and trusted friend sharing information. And it comes as a flood, they see the same garbage information repeated from multiple people, so even the not as gullible conservatives just kind of accept it. And if it even somewhat fits their bias, they won't fact check. So just by convincing a small group of conspiracy theorists, they're able to soften all conservatives to an idea. And the more regular conservatives accepted these more and more outlandish ideas, the more their worldview changed until they don't trust scientists, or any doctors, or media, or government information unless it fits with this twisted worldview.
    Going into the election, you'll see, it will happen very frequently. Right wing political groups will make ads about Biden and Democrats that have no factual information. Most will just be accusations. The ad will get pulled for being lies, then the same information will come back as a screenshot with a title claiming censorship. Or, no ad to begin with, just misinformation with a headline of having been banned, so share it now before it's taken down again!
    Now a lot of conservatives are moving to right wing social media platforms. So it's going to get even worse. They're convinced Twitter and Facebook are the liberal elite and are censoring information. So they are going to other platforms, where all the information is generated by the far right, and no one will fact check any of it, so they will be subjected to oceans of misinformation intended to shape their opinions. And they'll accept it because these platforms are run by the good guys, and all the information is shared by people they know and already agree with. And when dissenting voices get pushed off the platforms they'll see it as necessary, not censorship. And so the conservatives in the US are about to enter an unprecedented era of groupthink. They're already 90% of the way there. But it's going to get a lot worse before it gets any better.