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(May 7, 2026 at 4:00 pm)Fake Messiah Wrote: MAGA Melts Down With Rat Virus Cruise Conspiracies
Right-wing influencers and commentators are pushing bizarre conspiracies about the rodent-borne illness that has killed three luxury cruise ship passengers.
“HOLY SH*T. Twenty-three hantavirus cruise passengers returned home to ‘all corners’ of the World even America with one person already sick, per NYP,” the MAGAVoice account posted to its 1.3 million followers early Thursday morning. “THEY ARE GOING TO TRY AND DO IT AGAIN. BUCKLE UP…”
The account, receiving more than 10,000 likes between its virus posts, followed up: “Strange how viruses only occur when President Trump is in office and during Elections…”
MV Hondius, the vessel at the center of the outbreak, was stranded off Cape Verde most of the week but is now sailing north to disembark passengers in the Canary Islands on Monday.
No healthy passengers have exited the ship since hantavirus was confirmed to be spreading human-to-human, but a passenger revealed Wednesday that 23 passengers disembarked and returned home—including some to Georgia, California, and Arizona—when the ship was docked on St. Helena island in the southern Atlantic Ocean on April 21.
Despite this, some MAGA accounts are spreading a rumor that all passengers who wish to have already been permitted to leave the vessel.
“If an outbreak happens on a ship, leave it on the ship,” posted the right-wing influencer 0Hour1. “Bring the doctors on the ship with equipment and make it a floating ICU. Did they learn nothing?”
DC Draino, a MAGA influencer with 2.3 million followers on X, reshared the post and wrote, “People on X giving better pandemic advice than everyone at WHO combined.”
A scientist from the WHO has outright said the virus is “not the next COVID.” Still, there are figures on the right who are suspicious that the outbreak is somehow part of a sinister, years-long ploy.
Much attention has been paid to an X account named “Soothsayer” that posted in 2022, “2023: Corona ended... 2026: Hantavirus.”
Among those intrigued by the post is Libs of TikTok founder Chaya Raichik and former MAGA darling Marjorie Taylor Greene.
“They manipulate the virus (bioweapon), make the vaccine (poison), and then make the profits because they own the vast majority of your elected leaders,” Greene wrote, resharing a post that said hantavirus is a side effect of COVID-19 vaccines. “They call this science. I’ll go ahead and say it, fuck all the way off.”
Those on the right are not just freaking out that hantavirus will be the next COVID-19, but are also offering similar solutions to combat it. The anti-vaxxer Dr. Mary Talley Bowden says those infected with the hantavirus can treat it with ivermectin.
“Hantavirus is a RNA virus, and ivermectin should work against it,” Bowden said. “Ivermectin blocks RNA viruses from entering the nucleus, inhibits viral replication, disrupts integrity of the viral membrane and can prevent viral replication.”
Greene said she was grateful for Bowden’s advice.
In another post, the former Georgia lawmaker suggested that a hantavirus outbreak may have been manufactured to line the pockets of pharmaceutical companies. However, it appears only Bowden is pushing medication sales over the outbreak so far.
“I’ll be selling ivermectin for Texans only, no prescription needed,” she wrote on X, adding that the “made in the USA” drug would cost as much as $110 from her.
Pentagon begins releasing new files on UFOs and says the public can draw its own conclusions
The Pentagon has begun releasing new files on UFOs, saying members of the public can draw their own conclusions on “unidentified anomalous phenomena” like an object that a drone pilot says shone a bright light in the sky and then vanished.
It said in a post on X on Friday that while past administrations sought to discredit or dissuade the American people, President Donald Trump “is focused on providing maximum transparency to the public, who can ultimately make up their own minds about the information contained in these files.” It said additional documents will be released on a rolling basis.
Besides the Pentagon, the effort is led by the White House, the director of national intelligence, the Energy Department, NASA and the FBI.
A newly unveiled website housing the documents on unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs, has a decidedly retro feel, with black-and-white military imagery of flying objects displayed prominently on the page, with statements displayed in typewriter-like font. The first release includes 162 files, such as old State Department cables, FBI documents and transcripts from NASA of crewed flights into space.
Another file is a NASA photograph from the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, showing three dots in a triangular formation. The Pentagon says in an accompanying caption that “there is no consensus about the nature of the anomaly” but that a new, preliminary analysis indicated that it could be a “physical object.”
But experts have urged caution around the release of the new files, warning that UAP videos are often misinterpreted and mischaracterized by those unfamiliar with advanced military technology. The Pentagon’s 2024 report rebutted claims that the U.S. government has recovered alien technology or confirmed evidence of alien life.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
May 8, 2026 at 10:32 am (This post was last modified: May 8, 2026 at 10:33 am by h4ym4n.)
(May 7, 2026 at 7:14 pm)awty Wrote:
(May 7, 2026 at 4:00 pm)Fake Messiah Wrote: MAGA Melts Down With Rat Virus Cruise Conspiracies
Right-wing influencers and commentators are pushing bizarre conspiracies about the rodent-borne illness that has killed three luxury cruise ship passengers.
“HOLY SH*T. Twenty-three hantavirus cruise passengers returned home to ‘all corners’ of the World even America with one person already sick, per NYP,” the MAGAVoice account posted to its 1.3 million followers early Thursday morning. “THEY ARE GOING TO TRY AND DO IT AGAIN. BUCKLE UP…”
The account, receiving more than 10,000 likes between its virus posts, followed up: “Strange how viruses only occur when President Trump is in office and during Elections…”
MV Hondius, the vessel at the center of the outbreak, was stranded off Cape Verde most of the week but is now sailing north to disembark passengers in the Canary Islands on Monday.
No healthy passengers have exited the ship since hantavirus was confirmed to be spreading human-to-human, but a passenger revealed Wednesday that 23 passengers disembarked and returned home—including some to Georgia, California, and Arizona—when the ship was docked on St. Helena island in the southern Atlantic Ocean on April 21.
Despite this, some MAGA accounts are spreading a rumor that all passengers who wish to have already been permitted to leave the vessel.
“If an outbreak happens on a ship, leave it on the ship,” posted the right-wing influencer 0Hour1. “Bring the doctors on the ship with equipment and make it a floating ICU. Did they learn nothing?”
DC Draino, a MAGA influencer with 2.3 million followers on X, reshared the post and wrote, “People on X giving better pandemic advice than everyone at WHO combined.”
A scientist from the WHO has outright said the virus is “not the next COVID.” Still, there are figures on the right who are suspicious that the outbreak is somehow part of a sinister, years-long ploy.
Much attention has been paid to an X account named “Soothsayer” that posted in 2022, “2023: Corona ended... 2026: Hantavirus.”
Among those intrigued by the post is Libs of TikTok founder Chaya Raichik and former MAGA darling Marjorie Taylor Greene.
“They manipulate the virus (bioweapon), make the vaccine (poison), and then make the profits because they own the vast majority of your elected leaders,” Greene wrote, resharing a post that said hantavirus is a side effect of COVID-19 vaccines. “They call this science. I’ll go ahead and say it, fuck all the way off.”
Those on the right are not just freaking out that hantavirus will be the next COVID-19, but are also offering similar solutions to combat it. The anti-vaxxer Dr. Mary Talley Bowden says those infected with the hantavirus can treat it with ivermectin.
“Hantavirus is a RNA virus, and ivermectin should work against it,” Bowden said. “Ivermectin blocks RNA viruses from entering the nucleus, inhibits viral replication, disrupts integrity of the viral membrane and can prevent viral replication.”
Greene said she was grateful for Bowden’s advice.
In another post, the former Georgia lawmaker suggested that a hantavirus outbreak may have been manufactured to line the pockets of pharmaceutical companies. However, it appears only Bowden is pushing medication sales over the outbreak so far.
“I’ll be selling ivermectin for Texans only, no prescription needed,” she wrote on X, adding that the “made in the USA” drug would cost as much as $110 from her.
Rep. Lauren Boebert weighs in on the government's release of UFO files, saying aliens are actually "fallen angels and Nephilim" from the Old Testament: "I do believe that this is more spiritual and, if you really want to go there, demonic."
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
Buckeye battles conspiracy theories that Bill Gates caused Hazen Fire
Nope, Bill Gates and secret data centers in the West Valley didn’t cause that giant smoky plume you’re seeing in the sky west of Phoenix. On Wednesday, the city of Buckeye wanted to make that very clear through cheeky social media posts.
The smoke is from the Hazen Fire, which sparked near Highway 85 on the afternoon of May 2. It has been burning through a highly flammable invasive plant species — tamarisk, also known as salt cedar brush — in the Gila riverbed a mile south of Buckeye. As of Thursday morning, six days into the blaze, the fire is 78% contained and has burned through 1,191 acres, according to the city.
In an Instagram post featuring a cartoonified Gates, the city took aim at conspiracy theories. “No, this is not Bill Gates land,” the post reads. “No, there are no secret data centers being built here.” The cartoon Gates points north of the city toward land that he owns, while emoji data centers mark the location of planned developments. In the south, a bold red arrow points to where the Hazen Fire is blazing, significantly to the south of both projects.
Conspiracy theories have been swirling online that Bill Gates-owned land, secret data centers or future developments were connected to the fire. The city was “tagged extensively in social media posts and comment threads containing misinformation about the Hazen Fire,” city spokesperson John O’Halloran wrote in an email to Phoenix New Times.
“The motivation behind the post was simple: Misinformation surrounding the Hazen Fire was spreading faster than the wildfire itself,” he added. “We felt it was important to refocus attention on the actual emergency response and provide accurate information to the public.”
In 2017, Gates purchased nearly 25,000 acres of land north of Buckeye to develop a “smart city” named Belmont. The project remains undeveloped. According to the Data Center Map, there are also two areas for planned data center development in Buckeye, but neither is near the location of the fire.
The land where the fire has spread is largely owned by the Maricopa County Flood Control District, the Arizona Game & Fish Commission, the city of Buckeye and several industrial corporations, including concrete company Vulcan Materials.
Despite the city’s attempt to set the record straight, many social media users remain distressingly unconvinced.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
All of Phoebe Bridgers’s surprise shows have something in common: alien sightings. They’ve all taken place in cities with a strong connection to UFOs
Phoebe Bridgers has returned to Earth after a three-year solo hiatus to bring us new music. But if you’re hoping to catch one of her surprise shows, you’ll have to hope that your town has an extraterrestrial history. Her first show was in Roswell, New Mexico, on May 8, the same place where conspiracy theorists alleged the US government uncovered a UFO crash. The next day, she played in Lubbock, Texas, where people reported seeing mysterious lights in the sky (aka the Lubbock Lights). Tonight, Bridgers plays in Little Rock, Arkansas, a city with UFO sightings dating back to 1896 and with PB concert plans from August. “It’s all been very top secret,” Rev Room co-owner Chris King told Arkansas Online. “We didn’t tell our staff until this morning. It all happened very organically. The one thing that was stressed to us was they really wanted the people from the local community to attend the show. They want local crowds and I think we are gonna have a great one here tonight.” Is Pine Bush, New York, home of the Silent Invasion and the UFO festival, next on the map?
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
I spent years convinced the moon landing was faked — and the single piece of evidence that changed my mind isn't one most conspiracy debunkers ever bring up
The position I was in, for about fifteen years, was that I believed, with varying degrees of conviction, that the moon landings had been faked. I want to be clear that I was not, in any obvious sense, a conspiracy theorist. I did not believe in lizard people. I did not believe in flat earth. I did not, by the standards of internet conspiracy culture, qualify as a serious member of the community. I was, more accurately, a person who had absorbed, somewhere in my late teens, the specific moon-landing claim, and who had, in the years since, found the standard counterarguments insufficient to dislodge it.
I would, when the topic came up at dinner parties, push back gently on the assumption that the landings had occurred. I would mention some of the standard suspicious features: the flag waving, the apparent lack of stars in the photographs, the various technical objections that have, since the late 1960s, been the standard furniture of the conspiracy claim.
What changed my mind, somewhere in my early thirties, was not a technical argument. The Soviet Union, in 1969, was the principal geopolitical adversary of the United States. The space race was, by the late 1960s, one of the most public competitive theaters of the Cold War. The Soviets had every conceivable incentive to expose the landing as a fake, if it had been a fake. They had the technical expertise to evaluate the claim.
The Soviets did not, at any point in the subsequent decades, claim the landings were faked. They accepted, from the moment the landings occurred, that the landings had occurred. They congratulated the Americans publicly. Their own scientific establishment, including the scientists who had been most directly competing with the American program, accepted the result. This acceptance continued through the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the opening of its archives.
When I encountered this observation, sometime in my early thirties, I found that I could not, in any honest way, account for it within the conspiracy framework.
The technical objections about the flag and the stars and the radiation belts could, in principle, be the result of various confusing technical features I did not understand. The geopolitical objection could not be the result of a technical feature.
I want to think about why this piece of evidence is so rarely brought up in the standard moon-landing debates, because the rarity is, itself, instructive.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
(May 12, 2026 at 10:57 am)Fake Messiah Wrote: I spent years convinced the moon landing was faked — and the single piece of evidence that changed my mind isn't one most conspiracy debunkers ever bring up
The position I was in, for about fifteen years, was that I believed, with varying degrees of conviction, that the moon landings had been faked. I want to be clear that I was not, in any obvious sense, a conspiracy theorist. I did not believe in lizard people. I did not believe in flat earth. I did not, by the standards of internet conspiracy culture, qualify as a serious member of the community. I was, more accurately, a person who had absorbed, somewhere in my late teens, the specific moon-landing claim, and who had, in the years since, found the standard counterarguments insufficient to dislodge it.
I would, when the topic came up at dinner parties, push back gently on the assumption that the landings had occurred. I would mention some of the standard suspicious features: the flag waving, the apparent lack of stars in the photographs, the various technical objections that have, since the late 1960s, been the standard furniture of the conspiracy claim.
What changed my mind, somewhere in my early thirties, was not a technical argument. The Soviet Union, in 1969, was the principal geopolitical adversary of the United States. The space race was, by the late 1960s, one of the most public competitive theaters of the Cold War. The Soviets had every conceivable incentive to expose the landing as a fake, if it had been a fake. They had the technical expertise to evaluate the claim.
The Soviets did not, at any point in the subsequent decades, claim the landings were faked. They accepted, from the moment the landings occurred, that the landings had occurred. They congratulated the Americans publicly. Their own scientific establishment, including the scientists who had been most directly competing with the American program, accepted the result. This acceptance continued through the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the opening of its archives.
When I encountered this observation, sometime in my early thirties, I found that I could not, in any honest way, account for it within the conspiracy framework.
The technical objections about the flag and the stars and the radiation belts could, in principle, be the result of various confusing technical features I did not understand. The geopolitical objection could not be the result of a technical feature.
I want to think about why this piece of evidence is so rarely brought up in the standard moon-landing debates, because the rarity is, itself, instructive.
Interesting. That's the angle I have always used in the rare cases when I have engaged Moon Hoax idiots. It never seemed to convince anyone, at least not on the spot. I'm thinking that if you're daft enough to think the moon landings were a hoax, you're probably daft enough to think the Cold War was a hoax too.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
Troubling, bizarre conspiracy theories in Donald Trump's late night Truth Social spree
In the space of a few hours from about 10pm to midnight, Trump shared posts on his site more than 50 times.
The president was mostly sharing screenshots of conspiracy theories about Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the result of the 2020 election.
"FACT right here: 'OBAMA is the most DEMONIC FORCE in American politics in decades'," one screenshot read.
He also reposted a CCTV video of a man deliberately knocking over a waiter's tray of multiple plates of food, as well as a screenshot of another X commenter criticising him.
One particular screenshot came from a verified X account claiming to be John F Kennedy Jr.
"Barack Hussein Obama wiretapping Trump tower during the 2016 election was a million times worse than anything Nixon did during Watergate. It's time to arrest the Renegade," the account read.
"FOLLOW ME, THE NEXT DROP WILL BE SHOCKING."
Kennedy died in a plane crash in 1999, well before X existed.
But adherents to the QAnon conspiracy theory believe Kennedy is still alive and will return to support Trump.
Another screenshotted tweet reads: "Arrest Obama the traitor".
The late-night screed came hours after Trump was accused of falling asleep in the middle of the day during an Oval Office meeting.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
