Crankosphere: manipulating the media discourse, part one

When they can’t win on the science and in the legitimate journals, they write books and do films to connect their claims with red string and corkboard, evading those pesky peer reviewers

It’s been fascinating to watch as people weather the pandemic, coming to grips with the reality that grifting misinformers are manipulating the discourse in numerous and dangerous ways. This is causing real harm — illness and death, as well as abuse heaped upon the scientists and public health teams who are trying to row us forward and through the rapids. Amazon algorithms that push their barmy conspiracy claims from their polemic books and video “documentaries” to become best sellers and reach many eyeballs — and come with instructions for their acolytes to give them reviews and purchases to deliberately help peddle them along to the top of the best sellers lists. That process was well documented and existed before the pandemic, but continues to be weaponized now.

Elizabeth Warren recently called out Amazon for their impact on flogging harmful misinformation: Elizabeth Warren asks Amazon to ‘stop peddling misinformation about Covid vaccines and treatments.’ But it’s not clear how effective this will be.