Experts are continually warning that dangerous websites dedicated to disinformation, misleading stories, and conspiracy theories are leaving people confused about what to believe. Thankfully, GWU! has put together a guide to navigating dangerous propaganda and the insidious web of internet conspiracy and lies that try to get you to do and believe things you shouldn’t. Avoid being conned by fancy wordplay and wacky headlines that disinformation websites use to sway your opinion all to make a quick buck with GWU!
1. Pay Close Attention to the URL
If the website address seems suspicious then you’ve likely landed on a Grifter website. The best course of action is to exit immediately. Suspect urls could include acronyms such as CNN or MSNBC. Another example would be any web address ending in .gov, such as cdc.gov. These are all known sources of disinformation.
Although you may be inclined to read on, thinking these sites come from an authoritative source, nothing could be further from the truth. The makers of these slick looking sites count on you trusting their perceived authority. If they are controlled by corporations and politicians, beware. They have poured unlimited time and money into feeding you disinformation in an effort to appear to be legitimate sources of trustworthy information. They aren’t.
2. Grifter Websites Often Create a Sense of Urgency
Have you ever been on a site and felt like something terrible was about to happen? Perhaps there’s a flashing red doomsday climate change clock or a number ticker constantly adding figures of people with the seasonal flu. This is a sure sign that you may be getting grifted.
The more distracting graphics on a site tend to allow for the most disinformation. These are classic tactics of the Alt-Left, aka quacksalvers.
3. Stories That Promise You One Thing and Deliver the Opposite
How many times have you clicked on a Facebook or X link only to find the story doesn’t make any sense? Like, for example, how the COVID vaccines could be safe and effective if people were getting so sick after taking them. (See quadruple vaxxed Jill Biden—ed) Or they contain messaging that claim ‘words’ are ‘LITTERAL VIOLENCE!’
If so, you may have googled yourself a prime example of a swindle site. It doesn’t have any answers, but is more than happy to feed you false information until you stop asking logical questions.
The burden of truth for an argument is the writer’s responsibility. Don’t blindly trust anyone and do your own research.
4. Everything About the Website is Too Good to be True
Headlines like ‘The best summer vacation destinations to lower your carbon footprint’ or ‘How Ukraine will win the war’ play on your good intentions (and limited Left wing brain power—ed).
Be weary of falling for the grifter’s clickbait tactics. Once inside you’ll be bombarded with catchphrases like ‘Climate Change’, ‘We’re all in this together’, ‘January 6’, ‘Anti-LGBTQ+’, ‘Threat to our Democracy’ and ‘Ukraine War.’ These keywords may seem innocent and SEO friendly, but they are only the first stumble down the rabbit hole of misinformation.
5. They Alienate You From Friends and Family
Raise your hand if you read a story in the last three years about not getting together with people who didn’t comply with vaccine mandates? Yes, that’s what we thought.
Websites that seek to divide through fear and paint friends as enemies are just another dupe stop on the information superhighway. Sites that encourage division and hatred of those who are different always have alternative motives such as pressuring you into taking dangerous experimental medical procedures, buying slave made electric cars, believing men can be women, or endorsing senile dictators to run your Banana Republic. Remember: ‘Staying apart so we can stay together,’ was absolutely retarded.
6. They Are Never on Your Side
Ever notice how when you try to write to a website they never respond or acknowledge your presence? Or your comments are mysteriously deleted?
These sites can best be described as part of ‘The Ghost Web.’ The creators of these dubious WordPress sites cut and paste information from other sources, like ‘news’ agencies AP and Reuters without fact checking the stories for truthfulness or bias. It’s more than likely that the site is actually run by no more than one or two individuals with a personal ax to grind. They are often run from poorly financed news rooms in Times Square or the offices of international so-called ‘public broadcasters’. Then again, it could also be the entire CIA spy apparatus.
7. They’re Waaaaaay Too Interested in You
Are you constantly being asked to agree to page long terms of service agreements that collect your personal data just to read one article? Are you reminded ad nauseam that ‘journalism isn’t free’? Are you invited to fill in personal information and post pictures and videos of yourself and loved ones doing stupid trending nonsense?
Be careful, you may be feeding an AI data harvesting algorithm that doesn’t have your best interests at heart. Consider the value of the information you are giving up. Is it a fair exchange for being beaten over the head with socialist propaganda and/or being able to see what your classmate from 20 years ago ate for lunch yesterday?
8. Debunk the Fact Checkers
Websites that want to have the final say on ‘the truth’ can never be trusted. Don’t be afraid to do your own research and come to your own conclusions. The people who do the fact checking are owned by Blackrock who also own well, everything.
It’s funny how we only needed fact checkers when the people delivering the facts stopped reporting them.
9. Overuse of the Same Cast of Figureheads and So-called Experts
When sites cast recurring crisis actors such as Greta Thunberg, AOC or Dr. Fauchi you’re right to be suspicious. Are there really no other voices with relevant takes on important environmental, social and health issues? And what about dissenting voices? Honest counter opinions to issues are often drowned out by ‘experts in hate’ from left wing infiltrated universities side hustling on the news.
Sites that take shortcuts to the truth by simply repeating carefully staged viral moments and sound bites likely lack the sufficient resources to actually research anything. That is why they rely on repeating rather than reporting. No one is coming to save you, stop looking for heroes where there are none.
10. Check Who Writes the Cheque
Find out who is paying for the site. Is it a lobby group? Bigpharma? The government? Whoever is footing the bill has a hand (if not their entire governing/corporate body—ed) in creating and approving the content posted. Sites like this use cherry-picked data from one-sided research. This causes a feedback loop of self-fulfilling results like vaccines being safe and effective (according to the manufacturer that tested it on fifty people with no placebo group—ed).
Advertisers on the site may also sway the bias of the content. Lobby groups, Big Pharma and governments have massive media budgets and are happy to spend it to sell whatever propaganda they’re pushing.
Remember that with grifter sites like these not as much about following the science, as it is about following the money.
