HOW BIOLABS BECAME A "THING' ON THE AMERICAN RIGHT - AND THEN FOR PUTIN
Russia has always claimed its adversaries were the ones using biological weapons when they themselves were about to use them. But they didn’t use it to justify the Ukraine invasion until last week. When Putin gave his rambling speech before the invasion, he never mentioned biolabs.
"Biolabs" weren't a talking point until Russia's first line of propaganda that Zelensky was a “nazi”failed spectacularly.
This past week, the American far right has demonstrated that they not only are supporting Vladimir Putin’s attack on civilization, but that they can come up with his propaganda for him.
The best example of this is the false story that the United States and Ukraine are operating bioweapon laboratories in Ukraine and plan to release a “bird flu” that will spread to Russia (never mind that bird migration patterns are north-south, not east-west - facts are for the reality-based fools).
The talk of US-Ukraine “biolabs” began in the darker corners of the American Right, primarily in Qanon spaces, in the weeks of the crisis before Putin’s invasion. It also rose in the antivaxxer community, where Anthony Fauci is the Demon Of Choice, since they believe he used his Goerge Soros connection to finance the biolab in Wuhan where Covid-19 was created.
Fauci, now chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden, is one of the the right wing “go-to” fear figures. Denizens of the fever swamps have long claimed that he is implicated in a vast number of QAnon conspiracy theories. There are many offshoots of that central theory in the QAnon world: Fauci actually made the virus; he was arrested for his part in the plot; he met up with former President Barack Obama and Melinda Gates in a lab in Wuhan; he was the original CEO of Moderna which was founded by Soros and invested in by Jeffrey Epstein. QAnoners believe that Fauci, specifically, is using the labs to cook up a sequel to the COVID-19 virus.
Fox News dimbulb Jeanine Pirro said last week on The Five“What I think is interesting about these biolabs — we deny, we deny, we deny. ‘It’s preposterous. Don’t waste any ink on it,’and yet, isn’t it interesting that we haven’t heard or seen Fauci in weeks?” When Geraldo Rivera replied “Give Fauci a rest, for goodness sake,” Pirro replied “No, I don’t want to. Now it’s time for him to face some questions.”
According to Qanon, the Biden administration is also involved in co-running the weapons. Biden is an easy sell for the conspiracy theorists, given the long-running falsehood that he engaged in corrupt activities in Ukraine related to his son, Hunter, while vice president. For the wingnuts, the conspiracy was proven when Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland “slipped up” and admitted the United States does have “biolabs” in Ukraine. Ultra-contrarian substacker Glenn Greenwald - the dumbest moron on Substack - was quick to point out, in his piece embracing the conspiracy theory, that she served in “Hillary Clinton and John Kerry’s State Department under President Obama.”
Ane then we got Tulsi Gabbard, daughter of the leader of one of the craziest religious cults in the country, who is a “Democrat” because she ran as one to get into Congress, since Hawaii doesn’t put Republicans in office, supported the theory and when she was called out as a traitor by Romney tweeted back that if he couldn’t prove the charge of treason he should resign.
(You should completely ignore political morons like Greenwald and Gabbard, along with Jill Stein and Susan Sarandon.)
Vladimir Putin said nothing about this conspiracy theory before last week, when it made it to the “respectable” portals of U.S. far right media. It only became a “thing” in Russian propaganda after their war machine was discovered to have sand in the gears and they began flailing for justification of their effort.
The “biolabs” conspiracy theory began to take off on the day of the invasion with a Twitter thread from a now-banned account called @WarClandestine. The account was previously a QAnon account that had been evading bans with new names. The tweet posted a graphic comparing maps of the Russian airstrikes to supposed “US biolabs in Ukraine.” The conspiracy theory bled from @WarClandestine to far-right media like Infowars and Steve Bannon’s podcast to Fox News and Tucker Carlson. This despite a Fox News national security reporter debunking the lie by presenting the actual facts to Sean Hannity on his show.
WarClandestine’s "biolabs" thread spread like wildfire across the right on Rumble and the QAnon forum TheGreatAwakening. It got a massive push by TheDonald, now called PatriotsDotWin. (You might remember TheDonald because its users posted literal battle plans before January 6th.)
@WarClandestine got his insider info about the “Ukrainian biolabs” from an antivaxx Gab user eight days before the invasion. Where he found the “map” of Ukrainian biolabs for his viral tweet. At the time the original post had 3 comments. It just wasn't part of the talking points yet. Until @WarClandestine’s tweet went viral.
Once @WarClandestine’s post took off among right-wing influencers, it was everywhere on the English-language far-right. Pro-Trump and Q forums had become uneasy about rooting against Putin. The “biolabs” allowed them to put their focus back on their major enemies: Bidens and Anthony Fauci.
By last Tuesday, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs ministry started pushing the conspiracy theory, de facto aligning with Russia. Last Wednesday, Tucker Carlson put the theory in first place on his show, claiming the “Biden administration was funding secret biolabs in Ukraine.”
Russian propaganda finally had its line that resonated with the global far-right: The reason they invaded is now the biolabs, despite not mentioning that before invading. Vladimir Putin is trying to defend civilization from the “dread lib’ruls” who would spread disease among the godly.
This biolabs conspiracy theory is a textbook demonstration of the intellectual rot in the right wing media ecosystem. A crazy theory pops up on the fringes of the right wing dark web and gradually propagates itself to the daylight as more mainstream right wing outlets latch on to it, and throughout its improbable journey no one fact checks, vets, or debunks it; everyone just rolls with it because it speaks to something that, deep down, they just know has to be true. There are no guardrails in right wing media. It's all a propaganda factory meant to stoke those who are predisposed to believe the worst about those with whom they disagree.
This project works due to the support of the paid subscribers. There are now two more than there were at the last post. If the 255 free subscribers changed to paid subscriptions, this site could work full time and the plans I have to improve this could become reality. If you like the analysis you are getting here, please consider upgrading your subscription.
Comments are limited to paid subscribers.
This was fascinating. Thanks for putting the chronology together for us.
I first became aware of the absolute insanity of QAnon when the two "ladies" who helped me clean my house verbally attacked me and a friend with their crazed notions about Soros and Democrats who eat babies. Interestingly, both are ardent Lutherans. They no longer are allowed into my home. I consider them dangerous. I'll live with cat hair and dust, but I won't tolerate threats of violence and that's essentially what those two QAnon followers espouse, along with their Alice in Wonderland foolishness!
Do you ever feel as though you are caught in some kind of horror film? Wingnuts for sure. Problem is these folks are all connected and feed off each other, then they push the poison on the rest of the world. Putin keeps reaching for "reasons" when there are none except his own paranoid madness, wanting his legacy to be that of the man (and I do mean man) who rebuilt the Russian empire from the ruin of the late 1980's to early 90's. We are all caught in his own private nightmare. The problem is, how to escape? The first thing to do is wake up! Keep resisting the madness. Give to good, reputable causes. Stand up with others publicly to defend democracy and those who are seeking to uphold democracy through their own work in the public sphere. They are there and they need to know you and I have their backs.