What do these theories say?
While they are as varied as they are bizarre, several claim that the assassination attempt was ordered by liberal figures of the “deep state” or by President Joe Biden himself. This last claim, unverified and without proof, was even taken up by a Republican elected official, Mike Collins, on the social network X, who wrote that the president had “sent the order,” without further details. The sharing of these theories takes place as much on social networks popular with the American far right like Gab, Parler and Donald Trump’s network, Truth Social, as on more well-known platforms like X, Telegram, Facebook and Instagram.
Are far-right supporters the only ones behind these false claims?
No, quite the opposite. The assassination attempt against Donald Trump has brought to light a phenomenon called “BlueAnon,” an amalgamation referring to the “QAnon” movement, according to which satanic and pedophile elites rule the world, and to the color associated with the Democratic Party, whose growing number of supporters adhere to conspiracy theories. The result of the loss of trust in traditional institutions that is causing more and more Americans to turn to partisan sources of information, according to an analysis by Washington PostThe daily newspaper thus underlines that the “distortion of reality no longer occurs mainly on the right.”
And what do the supporters of “BlueAnon” claim?
Essentially, that dark forces are working to destroy the candidacy of President Joe Biden and bring Donald Trump back to power on November 5, summarizes, in an interview with the Washington Post, Karl Folk, a researcher at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, said:. “This more conspiratorial mindset has become more pronounced in liberal circles over the last eight months,” he also notes. Thus, for some Democratic supporters who may be associated with the “BlueAnon” movement, Donald Trump himself staged the attack of which he was the victim in order to boost his candidacy.
Are these unfounded theories focused only on Trump?
Not only that. It took on new significance last month after Joe Biden’s disastrous performance in a televised CNN debate with Donald Trump. Some die-hard supporters of the president claimed on social media that he had been drugged before the debate. Others suggested, again without evidence, that ABC News doctored the audio of Joe Biden to make him appear infirm during an interview with George Stephanopoulos—an interview the White House hoped would restore confidence in Biden’s vigor.
What to do in the face of this proliferation of fake news and unfounded theories?
Don’t jump to conclusions! It will take several days for authorities to establish the shooter’s motives, if they can, and how he was able to attack the former president. “We are about to see a lot of misinformation spread about who shot them, who carried it out and the events that led up to this moment,” Roberta Braga, founder of the Digital Democracy Institute of the Americas think tank, wrote on X. “Watch for emotional language,” she warns. Indeed, fake news travels faster than real news because it relies on emotion, whether positive or negative, the Centre québécois d’éducation aux médias et à l’information reminds us on its website.
According to information from New York Times and Washington Post