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Joe Salant #ableist #crackpot #fundie #quack vice.com

An evangelical pastor who briefly shot to fame in 2015 for recording a rap song in support of Sen. Ted Cruz is now selling industrial-strength bleach tablets to parents and has admitted that many of his customers are using the product to treat autism in their children.

Joe Salant, who grew up in an affluent New Jersey family, became a born-again Christian after coming out of drug rehab when he was in his early twenties, having spent six months in jail for drug possession. Recently, he has become part of the American Renewal Project, which aims to have a pastor from “every church in America” run for elected office by 2024. Salant preaches a Christian nationalist ideology that positions the church at the heart of all aspects of American society.

In his spare time he continues to release rap records with titles like “Human Sacrifices” and “Dies in Vain,” in which he raps about child trafficking.

In recent months he’s taken on a new role as the U.S representative for a company called Safrax, which markets chlorine dioxide tablets that are advertised on the company’s website as industrial products for odor removal, disinfection, and as cleaners for hot tubs and jacuzzis.

But over the phone, Salant said many people are using the treatments in an attempt to treat autism in children.

“Autism? Yeah, I mean it’s a common treatment,” Salant said, according to a recording of a phone call obtained by Ireland-based activist Fiona O’Leary and shared with VICE News. “We’re not allowed to recommend [our products] for it specifically but yeah, the protocols in the Andreas Kalcker book [which] we have on our website… it’s commonly used for that.”

A message on the Safrax website informs customers that there is a 2-4 week delay in sending out orders specifically due to overwhelming demand for the product as a result of the tablets being featured on the radio show of pseudoscience conspiracist Mike Adams. Salant claimed on the customer phone call that Safrax has no official relationship with Adams, but added that “we’re fans” of his show.

Trump Supporters #ableist #conspiracy #crackpot #quack #psycho vice.com

These are some anti-vaxxers feelings about Trump taking credit for saving lives with vaccines.

Ed Dowd: “Unfortunately, Trump is still hanging his hat on this vaccine, That guy needs to get off this asap or he’s done.”

Alex Jones: “He’s almost autistic when it comes to admitting he’s wrong.”

Tracy Beanz: “This is a very serious issue for me,” “I can’t look past it. By now there is no reason he shouldn’t know what is happening. Hate me if you want. I can’t look past this.”

The vast majority of the almost 2,700 responses to Beanz’s post agreed with her claim that Trump’s defense of the vaccine roll out meant they could no longer support him.

Stew Peters: “Millions have been maimed and murdered,” he falsely tweeted. “This is 100% disqualifying in my book.”

Telegram users: “Trump’s just as culpable and every time he continues to push it, more and more want him sitting next to Fauci and Gates at NUREMBERG 2.0,”

“Everybody in this movement needs to demand Trump denounce the vaccines, Everybody should be hounding him on all social media. If there’s a rally there needs to be chants. See him walking into his building in New York and yell at him to denounce the vaccines.”


Q-Anon supporters #conspiracy #crackpot vice.com

There is very little that former President Donald Trump can do to anger his ultra-loyal QAnon support base, but shilling NFTs seems to be one of them.

On Thursday, when Trump announced that he was launching a series of $99 digital trading cards with some truly disastrous graphic design, even QAnon supporters turned on the former president. [Referring to them as] “shit storm debacle NFT announcement” “foolish NFT cash grab,” “This is shady shit” “A fucking NFT? He needs a new PR team.” “a dogshit play.” “Cringe and tacky.” “tone deaf to a VAST MAJORITY of Trump’s base.”

But just as quickly as QAnon believers criticized the announcement as a major disappointment, the community quickly did what it does best and came up with multiple reasons to excuse Trump’s money-grabbing scheme.

Some accounts pointed out that a Q drop back in 2019 mentioned a “Trump card” while others pointed out that it had been 1,700 days since that Q drop was posted, and because Q is the 17th letter of the alphabet, then it obviously means something very important.

Others performed even more complex mental gymnastics to reach a point where they were able to make sense of Trump’s decision to sell NFTs to his supporters, claiming that it was a plan to undermine NFTs.

“The invention of NFT was always an attempt to clamp down on free speech,” one QAnon supporter wrote on Telegram. “What Trump is doing is clever, we all know the liberals will hate anything Trump supports. By creating his own NFTs he has destroyed liberal support for NFTs and thus shut down any notion that any Democrat can support the creation of the NFT legal internet censorship structure.”

Romana Didulo #conspiracy #crackpot vice.com

Followers of a QAnon influencer [Romana Didulo] who's convinced some Canadians she’s the true Queen of Canada are saying their utilities are being cut off because they were told by their sovereign that they no longer had to pay bills.

One woman has repeatedly told her fellow QAnon Queen followers she’s “stopped paying hydro, water, natural gas, property taxes, line of credit, and my credit cards.” She pushes hard on her fellow true believers to join her in not paying their bills and chastising those who continue to pay.

“The more who do it, the quicker we can be free of enslavement,” she wrote on one of the group’s Telegram channels. “Those still living in fear are making it harder to get out. Don’t be afraid, because we’re in this together.”

Many, many others have posted that they, too, have stopped paying their bills after hearing that Romana Didulo—a QAnon influencer who has them convinced she’s running Canada behind the scenes—made a decree that electricity is free. Several have posted their power has been shut off or that they were on the verge of having it shut off and relented to finally paying. Some said that when they reach out for help about the situation, they’re mocked for their beliefs.

Elon Musk #conspiracy #wingnut vice.com

On Monday night, Elon Musk tweeted an explicit encouragement to his 121 million followers to look into the QAnon conspiracy movement.

“Follow [rabbit emoji],” Musk tweeted. Seemingly innocuous, “follow the white rabbit” is a line taken from Lewis Carroll’s book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland that has since made multiple appearances in pop culture, most notably in the original Matrix film.

But since 2018, the saying has become synonymous with QAnon and when pushers of the conspiracy urge others to look into the movement. The term “white rabbits” was mentioned on three different occasions in Q drops, twice in 2018 and once in 2019. This gave the term even more importance to the community, which believes Trump is waging a secret war against the deep state.

Within minutes of Musk’s tweet, QAnon communities on message boards, Telegram channels, on Trump’s Truth Social platform, and on Twitter itself, lit up with excitement, believing that the world’s richest man was sending them a direct message.

While Musk has dismissed the claims that he is promoting QAnon, experts worry that the explicit signals he is giving the QAnon community by referencing the white rabbit will embolden them even further, and possibly cause violence. And over the last few weeks, Musk hasn’t done much to dissuade QAnon believers: Twitter has reinstated a host of major QAnon accounts onto the platform.

“[Musk] is on pace to start posting Q drops to millions of normies and there's nothing anyone can do to stop him,” one QAnon influencer wrote on Telegram.

Marjorie Taylor Greene #conspiracy #crackpot #quack vice.com

It’s been barely three weeks since the WHO first confirmed that cases of monkeypox had started spreading throughout western Europe and North America. Over 100 cases of the virus, which is endemic in parts of west and central Africa, have been detected in nearly a dozen countries, including the UK, and Canada and the US. Still, that has offered plenty of time for right-wing conspiracy theorists to push deeply false information about the impact and origins of the virus.

A leading proponent of these unfounded claims is US congresswoman and anti-vaxxer Marjorie Taylor Greene who is pushing the theory that coverage of the outbreak is a coordinated ploy by Bill Gates and the governments of the world to profit off the return of masks and lockdowns.

In a live video on Facebook, Greene claimed that “disgusting” and “terrifying” images of the skin of monkeypox sufferers will be used to scare people into submission. When that’s done, she told viewers, Gates will then attempt to make money by forcing you to buy a “Bill Gates pillow” to go alongside your “Dr Fauci pillow” that you can “cuddle with every night because Bill Gates is going to save the day.”

“Bill Gates is very concerned about monkeypox because this is something, apparently, he can make a lot of money off of,” Greene added. "Him and his other buddies; you know, all the Democrat donors, that is.”

Marge says Bill Gates is going to use Monkeypox as another scam to make money and control the world, and he also wants everyone to eat fake meat created in a lab and drink “poop water.” “Why is Bill Gates running everything?”

Kuachua Brillion Xiong #conspiracy #crackpot #god-complex #fundie #psycho vice.com

A California man arrested in Iowa with an assault rifle and body armor last week allegedly told investigators he was putting together a list of “evil individuals” he wanted to kill, including former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, according to court records.

The Cass County sheriff’s deputy who pulled Xiong over said that Xiong told him he was going to D.C. to take pictures of the White House, that “he was traveling to see things because it is unknown how long he has here on Earth,” and that Xiong expressed “his disapproval for government due to the sex abuse of children, some of which that has occurred by President [Joe] Biden.”

When police searched Xiong’s car, they found “an AR-15 style rifle, loaded magazines, boxes of ammunition and several items of body armor and medical kits,” the deputy alleged.

Later, agents with the U.S. Secret Service conducted an interview with Xiong, during which he allegedly told them he was told by God to “combat evil demons in the White House” and that it was “necessary for him to kill those in positions of power.”

Xiong also allegedly compiled a “hit list” using around 100 videos downloaded from TikTok, “which included but is not limited” to Clinton, Obama, Fauci, and Zuckerberg, the affidavit says. Xiong also allegedly said during the interview that he would also kill Biden “unless he promised to comply to Xiong’s demands.”

Thierry Baudet #quack #racist vice.com

A far-right politician has been ordered by a Dutch court to delete social media posts comparing the treatment of unvaccinated people to the mass murder of Jews during the Holocaust.

Thierry Baudet, leader of the Forum for Democracy party, had been taken to court by Jewish organisations and a group of Holocaust survivors over a series of posts that made the comparison, which is frequently made by anti-lockdown and corona-skeptic activists.

Among Baudet’s offending posts were tweets calling unvaccinated people "the new Jews," and those “who look the other way … the new Nazis.”

Other posts included a photo of a Dutch child prevented from attending the traditional celebration of the Feast of Saint Nicholas, alongside an image of a Jewish boy, wearing a Star of David, awaiting deportation from a Polish ghetto. Another featured an image of Buchenwald concentration camp with the text: "How is it POSSIBLE not to see how history repeats itself?”

In a ruling on Wednesday, the judge ordered Baudet to delete the four posts within 48 hours or be fined €25,000 (about £21,000) a day, and banned him from making any other posts comparing the Holocaust with the coronavirus pandemic.

RIA Novosti #crackpot #conspiracy #fundie #magick vice.com

The Kremlin owned news organization RIA Novosti is claiming that its journalists discovered signs of black magic in a village in east Ukraine. The journalists claimed the evidence of magick was found in what it claimed was the headquarters of a Ukrainian military unit. “A satanic seal was found on its wall, evoking associations with Hollywood films about evil spirits,” RIA said in its report.

The graffiti on the wall looks like a sigil—a kind of magickal seal used for various purposes by practitioners. It’s a circle with various squiggles in the middle and the word “zein” written below it. RIA shared photos of the sigil as well as a walk through of the house on its Telegram channel.

According to Ekatrina Dais, a Russian culturologist RIA spoke with, the sigil is a magickal symbol. “What it means is difficult to say for sure, in it you can see both the inverted sign of anarchy, and part of the ‘SS’; sign, the rune zig, it is clearly visible in the extreme left sector of the circle, and the Hebrew letter ‘zain’ written in German, meaning a sword or weapon,” Dais told RIA.

According to RIA, Ukrainian soldiers gathered in this place to consecrate weapons with blood magick. “Among the headquarters instructions, they found a press release from the Ukrainian security forces with a story about losses in the Donbass,” the story said, according to a translation provided by Google. “There are lines of blood on the document, although there are no such traces anywhere else.”

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Nicholas Pereira #crackpot #god-complex #quack #wingnut vice.com

In a riding tucked away in one of Canada’s most forgettable provinces, you’ll find a candidate preaching about a topic sorely undercovered this election: semen retention.

Nicholas Pereira is the People’s Party of Canada candidate in Saint John-Rothesay, New Brunswick, but on the internet, he’s known as Nakula Das, a YouTuber dedicated to making sure his followers don’t ejaculate. Pereira’s videos are of the vlog variety, typically addressed to his “semen retention army,” and at times beginning with a prompt salute to his “soldiers.” He also offers his teachings on Instagram where he posts about techniques such as “testicle breathing.”

“Breathe deeply into your balls. Imagine your testicles expanding like lungs. When you exhale, imagine your testicles deflating like your lungs would,” the Canadian political candidate wrote in an Instagram post four weeks ago. “Most men never breathe into their balls consciously.”

In over 130 videos on his page, Pereira philosophizes about how men not orgasming is their key to a better life. He can teach his followers the true way to achieve their maximum potential—but only after they sign up for one of his webinars, of course. On Patreon, another place Pereira teaches his followers how not to ejaculate, the PPC candidate writes that he “is creating an Army of Semen Retention Practitioners” and a place “where men don’t cum to transform their lives.” Pereira also offers to teach his followers to become “sexual alchemists” who are “a powerhouse both in and outside the bedroom.”

Aleksei Pavlov #conspiracy #crackpot #fundie #magick #psycho #racist #wingnut vice.com

Aleksei Pavlov, an assistant secretary on the Security Council of Russia, has called for the “desatanization” of Ukraine.

“I believe that with the continuation of the special military operation, it becomes more and more urgent to carry out the de-Satanization of Ukraine,” Pavlov said.

Pavlov said he didn’t know how many covens of satanists there were in Ukraine but that he expected it to be in the hundreds. “Some of them were created ‘having been sharpened in advance for a specific purpose and flock’, others ‘simply existed as branches of richer patrons,’ others— ‘and did in the form of a kind of closed joint-stock company with a couple of hundred small-town adepts,’” the TASS story said, quoting Pavlov. He also highlighted the fact that the Church of Satan is an officially recognized religion in the U.S. and that its influence has been spreading in Ukraine since the 1990s.

On the Russia-1 television channel, satanism has come up repeatedly. “Who is the Ukrainian God? It’s the devil, basically,” a guest on one of Russia-1’s shows said, according to a translation by Russian Media Monitor’s Julia Davis. “And when we’re surprised at the cruelty of these people, there’s nothing to be surprised at. That’s paganism. It demands human sacrifices. It demands blood.”

Two unknown men #racist #psycho vice.com

On Monday night, a Ring surveillance camera captured two men dressed in black with masks covering their faces walking up to Servicio de Inmigracion in Bakersfield, California. The two men proceed to dump the accelerant over the side of the building and parking lot in front.

As one of the men continued to spread the fuel, the second squatted over a puddle of the accelerant and tried to light it on fire, the video shows. The fire ignited violently t and the man sprinted away with his leg on fire. The second man panicked and fell down twice, and like his comrade, sprinted away from the scene of the crime on fire.

The man could be heard screaming as he ran into the night.

The owner of the business said Servicio de Inmigracion told a local Fox News outlet they help their customers work with the immigration process and pay their income taxes. Another worker said that the suspects dropped their phones as they fled the fire and they are now in the hands of authorities.

Matthew Coleman #psycho #conspiracy #fundie vice.com

Matthew Coleman made his first public appearance exactly one month after he allegedly murdered his two young children in Mexico by shooting them with a spear gun.

Coleman, 40, a deeply devout Christian who taught kids surfing in Santa Barbara, told FBI agents that he carried out the heinous crimes because he was “enlightened” by QAnon and other conspiracies and he believed his children were going to “grow into monsters.” Killing them was the only way to “save the world.”

…
At the time these messages [about his fundiementalism] likely didn’t raise any red flags among Coleman’s family and friends, but following his admissions to FBI agents last month that “he was enlightened by QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories and was receiving visions and signs revealing that his wife possessed serpent DNA and had passed it onto his children” these comments are clear signs that Coleman was was becoming radicalized by some conspiracy theories.

Modi, and other Hindu extremists #psycho #racist #fundie vice.com

Gregory Stanton, A Genocide prevention expert who predicted the Rwandan genocide five years before it happened has warned of the possibility of a similar campaign against India’s Muslims.

Stanton was alarmed by a conference held in India’s Haridwar city last month where Hindu religious leaders close to the ruling party swore to take up arms to kill the country’s Muslims, in order to create a “pure Hindu nation.”

In a video of the event, a member of a Hindu nationalist political party, Pooja Shakun Pandey, said: “If 100 of us are ready to kill two million of them, then we will win and make India a Hindu nation.”

In the recent briefing, Stanton said discriminatory policies that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government insitituted in Indian-administered Kashmir and the state of Assam have laid the initial groundwork for genocide.

Lyndsey Marie and Leeannstar23 #quack #crackpot vice.com

The term “pureblood” doesn’t exactly have the best connotations. But now unvaccinated people on TikTok are, er, trying to reclaim the term as a way to tout their “superiority” over their jabbed fellow citizens.

The new “pureblood” trend seems to have gotten a big boost from conservative TikToker influencer Lyndsey Marie in a post shared last week replete with hashtags like #harrypotter, #pureblood, and #unvaccinated.

“From now on, I refuse to be referred to as ‘unvaccinated,’” she declared. “I want everyone to now call me Pureblood.”
The video has since racked up nearly 250,000 views and Lyndsey Marie is now promising her followers that a line of “pureblood” merch (which will feature an image of a lion and the text, “PUREBLOOD; Unmasked, Unvaxxed, Unafraid.”)

Meanwhile, the term has inspired scores of other un-vaxxed social media users to make their own videos.

Some have incorporated zombie-like filters, others have embellished their captions with the droplet of blood emoji, and one user, Leeannstar23, took the analogy a step further.

“In like five, ten years, maybe less, all the people who are unvaccinated —we’re gonna be hunted,” she warns. “It’s gonna be like ‘Resident Evil.’ We’re gonna be the antidote, because everyone else is fucked, and we’re gonna be the only ones with pure blood.”

Chinese Communist Party #wingnut #sexist vice.com

The Chinese government has ordered a boycott of “sissy pants” celebrities as it escalates a fight against what it sees as a cultural import that threatens China’s national strength.

In a directive issued on Thursday, China’s TV watchdog said entertainment programs should firmly reject the “deformed aesthetics” of niangpao, a derogatory term that refers to effeminate men.

Young, delicate-looking men who display gentle personalities and act in boys’ love dramas have amassed large fan bases mostly comprising women. Many of them, like Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo, are China’s top-earning celebrities.

the more gender-neutral aesthetics have come under criticism from conservative voices in society. Some officials and parents fear the less macho men on TV would cause young men to lose their masculinity and therefore threaten the country’s development.

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Education pledged to promote sports education in Chinese schools in response to a politician’s proposal about “preventing men from becoming too feminine.”

The latest boycott order is part of a broader response to what the government deems as “chaos” in Chinese entertainment. Days before the order was issued, a commentary published by a Communist Party mouthpiece called the popularity of “sissy pants” a social problem that would distort the taste of the Chinese youth.

Push Those Buttons #quack #crackpot vice.com

Anti-vax activists in London staged an event on Monday “against tyrrany [sic], genocide, vaccine passports [and] injecting children” by encouraging protesters to press every pedestrian crossing button in the capital simultaneously.

A Facebook group entitled “Push Those Buttons” encouraged anti-vaxxers to create “gridlock traffic” between 7AM and 10AM, despite most pedestrian crossings in London being automated, meaning the buttons have no impact on when traffic stops.

Nevertheless, a description on the group addressed to “fellow button pushers” said that the event’s organisers wanted to “bring London to a total standstill and remind this government that NOTHING moves or happens in this country unless the people agree to it.”

“If we all commit to this project, London will be gridlocked,” the message said. “You can do this right where you live, it only needs your commitment and your finger!”

Devid R #conspiracy #quack #psycho vice.com

A German man involved in the COVID-19 conspiracy community killed his wife and three daughters after his wife was caught with a fake vaccination card, police say.

German police say they believe a man, who has been referred to as Devid R., committed the quadruple murder-suicide last week. [I]n a suicide note, the man indicated the couple was worried that the government would take their kids away because his wife was found with a fake vaccination certificate he’d provided to her.

Like much of the rest of the world, Germany is in the midst of tightening up its regulations in light of the latest COVID variant of concern, Omicron. Residents are required to provide proof of vaccination to access some amenities, and some jobs also require their employees to be vaccinated. This was true of Devid’s wife, who was employed at a technical university. Her university noticed the fake vaccination card and asked her about it.

Local media reports that the punishment for faking a vaccination certificate is a year in prison or a fine and that authorities said Devid would have just been fined for providing her with the fake certificate.

Various Anti Vaxxers #conspiracy #crackpot #quack vice.com

A conspiracy ripping through the anti-vax world may finally drive some anti-maskers to do the unthinkable: wear a mask and keep their distance.

The conspiracy—which comes in several shapes and sizes—more or less says the vaccinated will “shed” certain proteins onto the unvaccinated who will then suffer adverse effects. The main worry is the “shedding” will cause irregular menstruation, infertility, and miscarriages. The entirely baseless idea is a key cog in a larger conspiracy that COVID-19 was a ploy to depopulate the world, and the vaccine is what will cull the masses.

Anti-vax influencers are instructing their fellow anti-vaxxers as well as anti-maskers (at this point the two communities overlap to a huge degree) that one of the best ways to defend themselves from this blight is to co-opt…social distancing, the very strategy they have long decried.

Sherri Tenpenny, an anti-vaxxer who was found to be key in spreading COVID-19 conspiracy theories, suggested on a recent anti-vax livestream that you may have to “stay away from somebody who's had these shots…forever.”

Another prominent anti-vaxxer suggested quarantining people who have been vaccinated. “There is something being passed from people who are shot up with this poison to others who have not gotten the shot,” said Larry Palevsky, a New York pediatrician and anti-vaxxer, on a separate livestream.

It’s not just social distancing that anti-maskers/anti-vaxxers are begrudgingly accepting. Some conspiracy theorists are wondering if perhaps their longtime bane, the mask, could become their salvation. One perplexed poster on the fringe site 4chan asked their fellow anons if they should “wear a mask around the vaccinated, because they shed the mRNA stuff?” “I am going to be watching these vaccine shedding stories like a hawk,” wrote another man on Twitter. “Is my family going to need to wear masks to protect ourselves from the vaccinated?”

Rev. Marcin Mironiuk #conspiracy #racist vice.com

A Catholic priest in Canada has been placed on indefinite leave after VICE World News reported that he called news of unmarked graves at residential schools a “huge lie.”

Mironiuk made harmful and false comments about residential schools and unmarked graves during multiple Polish-language masses on July 18, streamed online, at Our Lady Queen of Poland parish in south Edmonton. Mironiuk said he personally visited Kamloops without disclosing he was a priest, and repeatedly asked to see the “mass graves,” after more than 200 were confirmed at the former residential school in the area in May.

Mironiuk also compared the events to the Jedwabne pogrom, a historical massacre during World War II marked by ethnic Poles killing hundreds of Jews, including children, in the Polish town of Jedwabne. Mironiuk said Poles are not to blame for the murders, even though scholars confirm Poles were likely culpable. Exhumation was limited because the Jewish community asked researchers not to disturb the remains.

Mironiuk said the unmarked graves at residential schools are “the same lies” as those told of the massacre. “The Jewish community raised the alarm and said, ‘This is sacred land, don't dig.’ It’s the same lies, my dears,” the priest told the congregation.

Vladimir Putin #homophobia #pratt #transphobia #wingnut vice.com

In an address to the Russian public, Putin said that the country of Russia and its culture are being “canceled” by Western forces, which are removing them from history and disparaging their cultural works. In short, he said, Russia is being treated the same way as Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.
“They canceled Joanne Rowling recently, the children's author. Her books are published all over the world,” Putin said. “Just because she didn't satisfy the demands of gender rights.”
Putin compared the criticism Rowling has received for her transphobic politics to a great variety of perceived indignities to the Russian people: the apparent removal of Russian writers and composers from undefined places in the West, Nazi book burnings, and even America dropping the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.
“We remember that footage when they were burning books,” Putin said. “It's impossible to imagine such a thing in our country. We're insured against these things thanks to our culture.”

Equality and Human Rights Commission #transphobia vice.com

Leaked EHRC Guidance Reveals Plans to Exclude Most Trans People From Bathrooms
Under unpublished guidance leaked to VICE World News, Britain’s equalities watchdog wanted to restrict the lives of trans people unless they held a Gender Recognition Certificate – despite only 1% of trans people in the UK having one.

Trans people in Britain would be excluded from single-sex spaces unless they possess a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) under unpublished guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). GRCs are currently held by as little as 1 percent of trans people in the country.

VICE World News has been leaked sections of an unpublished guidance pack dated from the end of 2021 from Britain’s equalities watchdog, which advised businesses and other organisations such as shops, prisons and gyms to “protect women” by barring most trans people from their single-sex spaces, including toilets, wards and changing rooms.

A trans person looking for legal recognition of their gender identity currently requires medical assessments and psychiatric interviews in order to “prove” their gender and receive a GRC. Non-binary identities are not recognised in UK law.

According to the leaked EHRC guidance, a trans person should be barred from accessing spaces matching the gender they’re living as, unless they hold a GRC. But official data estimates only 1 percent of trans people in the UK currently have one.

Baroness Kishwer Falkner, the chair of Britain’s equalities watchdog wanted workplaces and businesses to “exclude trans people” from these spaces to “protect women’s rights”, VICE World News was told by ex-EHRC staff members.

The guidance was due to be released last month but has not yet been published.

Whistleblowers told VICE World News that Falkner was “furious” about UK department store John Lewis adopting gender neutral fitting rooms in April 2021 and had subsequently “pushed for the EHRC to adopt a totally gender critical position”.

“Falkner was furious about John Lewis ‘letting down women,’” one ex-staffer said. “She was being transphobic… The team just wants to exclude trans people more,” said another.

[…]

Dan Oke #quack #wingnut vice.com

It was January 13 and a crowd of about three dozen people, young and old, some in cashmere scarves and others in camo jackets, formed a half-circle around the leaders of Stand4Thee, a Canadian anti-lockdown group, and began reading from a script. “We are arresting Walter Sendzik, the man acting as the mayor of... St. Catharines,” the mass of voices said. For over four-and-a-half minutes, the group, led by Stand4Thee co-founder and karate sensei Dan Oke, read out a litany of made-up charges against Sendzik (who wasn’t present), including torture against children, intimidation, and committing bodily harm (by forcing people to wear masks.) They even provided him with a 1-800 number for legal aid. The arrest attempt appeared largely symbolic, a classic protest tactic, but when reached by phone, Oke told VICE World News the attempted citizen’s arrests are serious. Furthermore, his group wants to see a series of public trials for politicians whose lockdowns have caused, what they believe to be, untold damage to the Canadian population, particularly children. “What we're looking for with the ‘Nuremberg Two’ would just be justice,” Oke said, referencing the mass trials of Nazi war criminals after World War II. He admitted it’s unlikely “we would get an officer to show up and, you know, handcuff a mayor,” but still thinks a trial is a possibility—if the group gains enough followers to march on a courthouse and force one. “If 8,000, 10,000, or even 1,000 people showed up in front of a courthouse, or just made a declaration that we are holding a publicly televised or streamed common law trial right now... Under 'common law, we have the right and the authority to do that,” said Oke. “So can we do it? Yes. Yes, we can.”

David Jordan #crackpot #wingnut vice.com

The BBC has said it would give flat Earth conspiracy theorists airtime in a bid to offset “cancel culture” and showcase its impartiality.

David Jordan, the BBC’s director of editorial policy and standards, said that the broadcaster’s commitment to balancing opinions would mean controversial views could be shared – including factually incorrect ones.

Speaking during a Lords communications and digital committee, Jordan said: “Flat Earthers are not going to get as much space as people who believe that the Earth is round, but very occasionally, it might be appropriate to interview a flat Earther, and if a lot of people believed in a flat Earth, [then] we would need to address it more than we do at the present time.”

Jordan told the Lords that the BBC were at the “hard edge of impartiality” and that much of its editorial battles came regarding gender and race issues.

“We don’t subscribe to the cancel culture that some groups put forward,” said Jordan. “Whether or not some members of our staff like it, it’s not the point. They have to adhere to that too and they leave their prejudices at the door when they arrive. They need to be prepared to hear views which, perhaps personally, they don’t agree with.”

The comments come a day after hundreds of activists protested outside the BBC’s offices to protest how the broadcaster reports issues related to trans people and other minorities.

Anti-vaxxer #wingnut #quack vice.com

Looking for a Great Reset Survival Partner

Looking for a woman who is as serious as I am about staying free of the great reset and covid agenda, and every other name for the globalist, technocratic transformation of human life. I’m not covid vaxxed and I’m staying unvaxxed.

What matters to me: Truth, personal and family loyalty, a self determined and natural way of life.

Hard No’s: Intersectional, progressive or modern left-wing politics. I’m positive toward my people and culture and I believe in nature, biology and physical reality. Woke politics doesn’t mix with that.

Marjorie Taylor Greene #wingnut vice.com

In a chaotic, but absolutely riveting, Twitter rant Tuesday, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene suggested that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s proposed gun laws could result in a Russian invasion.

“Trudeau foolishly completely ignores how taking guns away from his people makes his country weak and vulnerable to being invaded and easily taken over by another stronger country,” “Like, perhaps Russia, who is very angry at America right now.”

“Canada has an incredibly weak military & now with Trudeau’s gun grab, his people are left defenseless not only by a criminal attacker, but also defenseless against another country’s military invasion,” MTG wrote in tweet No. 3.

“This is a terrible violation of rights to innocent Canadians by their Gov.”

“A heavily armed population backing up a strong military force is a mighty deterrent to any foreign would-be invader,” Greene wrote in her fourth tweet.

“Does Trudeau expect America to defend them? Of course, and so do the rest of western allied nations,” she wrote in her fifth tweet. “The US taxpayers pay for the defense of many countries that do not deserve our military support for free or at all.”


"Patricia" #fundie #wingnut #conspiracy vice.com

When Patricia left her home in Texas last month to join a QAnon cult that believes John F. Kennedy and JFK Jr. are about to return from the dead, she said she had no intention of ever returning

She thanked her husband of 32 years and her two children for “being a great family” and said she would see them soon

Then, her daughter Laura found her mom’s journals, filled with page after page of indecipherable nonsense

“??Before she went to Dallas she kept a couple of journals,” Laura told VICE News. “We don't know if it was people on Telegram telling her these things, or she's just having delusions, but it's just books of what she believes JFK Jr. is saying to her directly”

But even more worrying were the words written on the front and back covers of the books

“I'm going to follow God. Thank you for a wonderful life. Look up to the sky, I will always be close by”

To Laura, this sounded worryingly like a suicide note. Then, those fears seemed to be confirmed last week when the head of the cult took part in a video chat in which his followers discussed the need “to experience that physical death”
[…]
Patricia and Laura are not their real names, but VICE News is using pseudonyms in order to protect the family’s privacy. VICE News called and sent messages to Patricia on several occasions but didn’t get a response. The account of Patricia’s actions is based on interviews with her daughter and sister

Laura and her family eventually had to resort to drastic measures to rescue Patricia from the cult. “We obtained guardianship and my mother is now in a behavioral health center following a psychiatric evaluation,” Laura said on Thursday

Yoel Kraus #fundie vice.com

Israel’s ultra-Orthodox communities have become hotspots for COVID-19, and in some neighborhoods, residents continue to ignore social distancing guidelines.

A number of factors have contributed to the spread of the virus inside these communities, including widespread suspicion of the government, adherence to communal prayer and activity, and high population density in these neighborhoods.

“We have the Torah. That’s the religious law. We can’t go by the laws of the state,” said Yoel Kraus, who lives in the Mea Shearim neighborhood with his wife and 17 children.

Anti-vaxxers #conspiracy #crackpot #quack #racist vice.com

(At the Defeat the Mandates rally in Washington DC) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. unfavorably compare the conditions under which they are living to those faced by Jews living under the Nazis. “Even in Hitler’s Germany, you could cross the Alps to Switzerland,” Kennedy said in remarks his own wife called “reprehensible and insensitive.” “You could hide in an attic like Anne Frank did.”

… There were signs reading “STOP SEGREGATION,” “SEGREGATION IS NEVER THE SOLUTION,” “JOE BIDEN IS A VACCINE RACIST,” “RESIST MEDICAL TYRANNY” (this was accompanied by a swastika made of syringes), “‘You must never be fearful about what you’re doing, when it is right’—Rosa Parks,” “SEGREGATING MANDATES HAVE NO PLACE IN A FREE SOCIETY” (this was accompanied by a prohibitory sign over the phrase “Jim Crow 2.0”), “STOP THE VACCINE HOLOCAUST,” and “AMERICA=LIBERTY, MANDATES=SLAVERY.” The person holding this last sign was a pleasant and healthy-looking man named Eric, from San Diego.

“America’s built on freedom of choice,” he said when I asked him if he could unpack his sign a bit. “Now, what they’re trying to do is mandate something that you don’t have a choice to do, so that’s why it means slavery. Because slavery, as you well know, you can’t have a choice. It’s either you’re a slave, or you die. So we’re trying to let people know the other side: ‘Hey, you have a choice. You’re an American, you’re in a nation that gives you those liberties.’ Just because people push one narrative and try to give you information that just causes fear and doubt? No, look to the other side and see what the facts are as well.”

Anil Kumar, Barkha Trehan #sexist vice.com

This week, as the Delhi high court hears arguments to potentially criminalize marital rape, the debate has crash-landed out of the courtroom into keyboard warrior territory.

The hashtag #marriagestrike has been trending on Twitter in India, with a number of men vowing to shun marriage altogether if marital rape becomes a criminal offense in the country.

Proponents of the marriage strike movement believe that a marital rape law could wrongfully prosecute innocent married men with false rape charges, especially as a means for wives to gain additional alimony in divorce cases.

“Already as of now in India, it is a crime for a man to get married. If a man gets married and if he is accused [of rape], there is no way for him to defend himself. He has no protection,” Anil Kumar, creator of the #marriagestrike hashtag and founder of men’s rights organisation Save Indian Family Foundation.

[…]

Men’s rights groups such as Purush Aayog are pushing back legally and saying rape laws have no space in a marriage.

“I strongly think that consent and willingness of sexual acts are ingrained within the act of marriage. If you will bring this rape law inside the marriage and the husband will be given punishment, then who will marry?” Barkha Trehan, a woman and president of Purush Aayog.

Khem Veasna #fundie vice.com

When a politician started sharing his doomsday prophecy on Facebook last week, his supporters left their lives behind and traveled from around the country to northwestern Cambodia’s Siem Reap province. According to authorities, some even traveled from as far as South Korea to seek refuge from the apocalypse, prompting the Cambodian embassy in Seoul to issue a public statement warning migrant workers against abandoning their jobs to fly home

Photos posted on Khem Veasna’s Facebook page, which has over 370,000 followers, show a large crowd assembling at his farm[…]Authorities estimated the number at around 15,000 to 20,000[…]Among those arriving at his farm are families with children and elderly relatives

Those waiting out the apocalypse at Veasna’s farmhouse have passed the time listening to the preachings of the president of the small but well-established opposition group, the League for Democracy Party (LDP)[…]
In recent years, Veasna has been veering away from politics and cultivating a cult-like persona among his thousands of followers, referring to himself as a brahma—a religious title broadly meaning heavenly king

The growing cult around Veasna escalated on Aug. 23, when he made a series of apocalyptic predictions on his Facebook page. He has claimed that a “black hole” in his spine has been sending him a message about an impending flood that would wipe out the earth[…]
Veasna’s supporters have remained stubbornly fixated on his doomsday calls, ignoring days of orders from local authorities to go home[…]He was supposed to disband the crowd by the end of Tuesday

George Brake #psycho #conspiracy vice.com

A Newfoundland man who allegedly told police he was going to “execute local politicians” after leading officers on a high-speed chase in a truck full of knives 'appears to have had a social media profile full of wild right-wing conspiracies. George Brake, 66, was on his way to “stop the election” when he was arrested, police said. (Newfoundland is currently in the midst of a provincial election campaign.) RCMP said that they first became aware of Brake when they received a call on January 26 regarding a man behaving “erratically,” making political statements, and talking about firearms. “At that time Mr. Brake threatened to execute local politicians,” said RCMP spokesperson Jolene Garlan at a Wednesday press conference. Inside his truck they found a bounty of knives, 36 in total—some even had blades over half a foot long. "They ranged in size, shape, style," Garland said. "They were certainly capable ... of carrying out any serious threats." A Facebook page associated with Brake shows a deep interest in right-wing conspiracies and anti-lockdown rhetoric. The posts included shares from from sites like Infowars and pro-Trump outlet One America News Network, Facebook videos from various pro-Trump influencers, or posts from fringe conspiracy accounts. Several posts indicate he believed that Trump didn’t step down but handed over the reins to the military—a theory popular in QAnon—and that the Capitol Hill riot was an Antifa false flag operation. He’s also shared numerous posts that call into question the legitimacy of the COVID-19 pandemic, the effectiveness of masks, and amplified messages by Canadian anti-lockdown groups. There were also several darker posts alleging a demonic New World Order. One of the YouTube videos he shared was called: “The Elite Torture Children & Drink Their Adrenalised Blood.” Another page he shared—“Stopping Satanic World Government.” RCMP said all local candidates in Deer Lake were a target, including Premier Andrew Furey.

Chris Saccoccia and Kelly Anne Wolfe #quack #psycho vice.com

[Context: Chris Saccoccia is a leading Canadian anti-masker who was arrested for threaten to shoot several people including fellow anti masker Rob Carbone and trying to run a cop over with his car.]

In a video posted to Instagram Thursday afternoon, Kelly Anne Wolfe, another Canadian anti-mask leader, said that despite his Thursday bail hearing, Saccoccia is still behind bars and lamented the position he is currently in. “Chris is in jail…” she said in her video. “Yes, it is getting serious, it's getting very serious.” Wolfe, who has considerable sway in the anti-mask community, turned her attention to Carbone halfway through the video and told him repeatedly he was “done.” She called him said an “embarrassment to society” and described him as a “little kitten.” She ended her video with an ominous statement.
“Wait till you see what I do with this piece of shit. So you better run, but you'll never be able to hide because we're going to put you in jail where you fucking belong, you fucking pussy.”

Jose Ruba #homophobia #fundie vice.com

C-6, a bill to ban conversation therapy practices, is expected to pass its third and final reading at the House of Commons in the coming weeks before moving to the Senate.
“We pray that if it does get to the Senate, Lord… that it would go no further,” one man said. “And we pray for more time, Father, to actually see opinions sway, to actually see this bill killed forever.”
Since last year, dozens of people from Christian groups have come together regularly like this to pray and strategize against proposed laws that would criminalize conversion therapy practices. Bill C-6 defines conversion therapy as a practice designed to change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual, to change a person’s gender identity or gender expression to cisgender, or to repress or reduce “non-heterosexual attraction” or sexual behaviour or non-cisgender gender expression.
Jose Ruba who says he has previously received Christian counselling to “reduce” his own “same-sex attractions” to become celibate, [says]there’s a lot on the line if the bill passes as is. “I'm providing counselling for a young man who's struggling with LGBTQ questions,” Ruba said, “If Bill C-6 was the law right now, I could be in trouble for sharing what we believe to him...He’s a minor. But he wants to talk to me. And that's why we're here tonight,” Ruba continued. “Because young men like him still need to hear the Gospel.”

Chris Saccoccia and Rob Carbone #crackpot #god-complex #quack vice.com

A well-known Canadian anti-masker believes he's put the leader of the Republican Party of Canada in control of the Canadian banking system after copyrighting the name of government legislation.

On Tuesday, Chris Saccoccia, a popular conspiracy theorist and anti-masker, took to Instagram from the couch of his friend Rob Carbone, the leader of the Republican Party of Canada (not related to the other Republican Party), to show his 185,000 followers a document the pair received in the mail.

“This document right here shows the registration of the Canadian Infrastructure Bank (CIB), which controls all the banks in Canada,” Saccoccia says incorrectly, as the CIB is, in fact, a Crown corporation tasked with financially assisting public-private infrastructure projects. “It shows Justin Trudeau signing off on the man who is in charge of all these banks: Mr. Rob Carbone,” Saccoccia says.

Saccoccia goes on to say that Carbone plans on making him Canada’s minister of finance.

The document he’s brandishing shows that Carbone had copyrighted the term “Canada Infrastructure Bank Act (S.C. 2017, c. 20, s. 403),” which is the title for the act that established the Canada Infrastructure Bank. According to Canada’s Copyright Register, the title is legally held by Carbone.

Freedom Princess #quack #conspiracy vice.com

The latest Instagram story from Freedom Princess Canada shows a woman dressed like Frozen’s Elsa being crowned.
“Wear a crown, not a mask, and be the ruler of your own life,” the caption read. [Spoiler alert: Elsa renounces the crown at the end of Frozen 2.]
“What can you do to spread some pixie dust in your life?” reads another post under an image of the same woman, now dressed as Tinkerbell. “Kindly say NO when people ask you to cover your beautiful face with a mask.”
Yet another post shows the woman dressed as Cinderella and a caption telling children what to do when asked to wear masks and socially distance.
“We need to have the courage to tell others that this is NOT OKAY,” the caption says. “We need to keep our friends and family close, not far away from us, even if that means speaking up against restrictions that our teachers and leaders are imposing on us.”
Freedom Princess is a new anti-mask project featuring professional princess cosplayer Mary-Jean Harris creating videos of herself dressed up as characters, made famous by Disney, who espouse anti-mask rhetoric. (Harris stresses her characters are fairytale characters, not Disney characters.) The anti-mask community, as well as other conspiracy movements, have long been crying “save the children!” in their outreach efforts, but typically it’s an emotionally manipulative way of recruiting adults. Direct attempts to convert children to these conspiracies have been far rarer.
A person responding by email from the Freedom Princess account, who also did not identify themselves, said COVID-19 exists but wants to encourage kids to “think for themselves and stand up for what they believe in.” In particular, they want kids to “not take what the media says at face value, since the promotion of mandatory masks and excessive social distancing has been significantly harming them and their families.” The person told VICE they’re “not trying to reach children directly” but instead hope that parents will share Freedom Princess videos with their children.

Corey Hurren #conspiracy #psycho vice.com

The man who drove his truck through the gates of Rideau Hall—where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lives with his family—and had an armed standoff with police was sentenced to six years today.
Corey Hurren, a 46-year-old Canadian Armed Forces reservist, posted conspiracy content on social media shortly before ramming the gates. He pleaded guilty to seven firearms charges in February and mischief. When he was arrested, he was armed with three long guns, including a semi-automatic rifle, and had said that he was prepared to die during the standoff with police. Hurren said he was hoping to “speak” to Trudeau when he stormed the property. The prime minister nor his family were at Rideau Hall during the time of his attack.
On social media, Hurren shared several posts that indicated his beliefs in conspiracies surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and one post that showed he harboured an interest in QAnon. Hurren seemed particularly interested in a conspiracy about Event 201, which attempts to prove the pandemic is the work of a group of elites for nefarious purposes. These conspiracies, paired with gun control legislation brought about by the Liberals, pushed Hurren to take action.
He wrote a note that he left in his car during his attack that directly referenced Event 201. “With the firearms ban and seeing more of our rights being taken away, on top of bankrupting the country, I could no longer sit back and watch this happen,” reads a portion the note. “I hope this is a wake-up call and a turning point.”

Cam’ron #fundie vice.com

See, the 43-year-old rap icon and Dipset veteran revealed to the long-running hip-hop podcast that he isn't sold on the whole dinosaur thing. He tells hosts Jeff and Eric Rosenthal, seemingly unprompted, "I have fights with people about dinosaurs and their existence all the time.”

Asked to elaborate, he continues: “I’m not believing nor disbelieving. It’s like, there’s no proof. Because they throw these big bones, pause, up in a museum, and then be like, ‘Yo, these are the people that were here before us…’” After getting pushback from the hosts that yes, the bones themselves are quite literally proof that dinosaurs existed, Killa Cam was still unfazed. He explains, "I'm not necessarily going for that one. If we get more proof on it, cool, but I’m not going off museum facts. I been to every museum when I was young, I’m like, ‘Word, so they just found all these bones and glued them together.'"

Interviews this absurd don't happen very often. When asked about whether or not he believes the Earth is flat, Cam'ron responds with a simple "Nah" which further confounds the podcast hosts. The chat is the perfect amount of lively and hilarious but with an ample dose of grating pseudoscience to keep it balanced.

Cam'ron, who later mistakes paleontology for archeology, says, "I wish I could be an archaeologist and be like, ‘I found some shit.’ I’d be at the beach every day like, ‘Yo, look what I discovered,’ and just make some shit up." Even though his grasp of science is way off, it's 100% worth a watch.