Someone is Lying on the Internet
Random internet videos are as trustworthy as gas station sushi on a summer afternoon. But that doesn’t stop their circulation, especially by those with an agenda- or a conspiracy- to further. Take, for example, the following video that found its way around the internet this week, purporting to show the construction site of a Syrian refugee community in West Virginia:
Wow Unbelievable! Scary, who authorized this? BHO?#NotMe
What this guy is saying is frightening, it makes me feel like we've already lost the battle. How long can we hang on to our America.
We all need to #WakeUp now&smell the coffeeYuge #DemExit don't just #WalkAway #RunAway pic.twitter.com/4PDCHfbsdf
— Norberg For City Council⭐️⭐️⭐️🇺🇸 (@GregNorberg) March 6, 2019
A few notes for the uninitiated: the more emojis included with the handle of a Twitter user, the less prone said user is to sensibility. The inclusion of multiple gold stars in particular (a nod to the disgraced General Michael Flynn) are a telltale sign of a Q Anon fan. This video checks all the boxes for your garden variety tin-foil hat Q Anon tweet:
Trump Country Setting? Check. Immigrants? Check. Muslims? Check. Righteous indignation over the use of your tax dollars for “those people”? Check. Blue collar American fed up with it all? Check!
And it also has the main characteristic of a Q Anon offering: It is not real. Noted another West Virginian who saw the video:
1) That’s Littlepage Terrace on the West Side of Charleston. It is a 2 min walk from my office.
2)The property has been subsidized housing since the 1940s and still is to this day.
3)There are no Syrians living there.— C.A. Marino™️ (@CA_Marino1) March 6, 2019
4)The “Funeral Home” he points to and says being demolished is actually a Rite Aid. and it’s not being demolished.
5)The project cleaned up the west side and replaced buildings that were an eyesore.Before and after pics of the project -Exact spot where video was filmed. pic.twitter.com/j6TRWz1Z3F
— C.A. Marino™️ (@CA_Marino1) March 6, 2019
As a resident of West Virginia, I can assure you that there are few Syrian refugee settlements in my state. In fact, according to the most recent available information, a grand total of 7 Syrian refugees have settled in West Virginia- since 2002, and there is no forthcoming influx of “321” Syrians. The WOWK News story he references does not appear to exist. (It is true that in 2016-2017 a local organization was in place to offer resettlement assistance to 30 Syrian refugee families; however, the project was halted due to decisions by the US State Department.)
But then, not much of this man’s rant makes sense: “This will be a sharia Muslim zone and no non-christians will be allowed to walk here. Except Muslims.” (So, it will be a Christian and Muslim zone?) In addition, I can tell you based that man’s accent he is definitely not from West Virginia. He’s a mid-western refugee at best, but I digress. It just makes one wonder what the motive is for the creation of this blatantly false propaganda. Perhaps the true intention is to turn West Virginians against additional cigarette and gas taxes by making them think this is the intended use of those funds.
It’s humorous how silly and easy to debunk this video was, but it is no doubt finding its way to the computers and smartphones of plenty of people all over West Virginia and the rest of the country who will swallow it hook, line, and sinker. It has been “liked” and retweeted over 8000 times as of this writing. It misinforms, fans the flames of resentment and hatred, and deepens the divide. And that’s not funny.
Truth is orthogonal to virality.
To the extent that Truth is kinda dull, Truth might even be negatively correlated to virality.Report
Karl Rove was probably sadly right with his comment on the “reality based community.”
A few months ago, SNL lampooned Fox News covering the migrant caravan. They had a joke about “feel facts.” Things that are not true but you feel they are true and that is good enough. Kurt Andersen believes the tendency for feel facts has always been part of the United States and describes it ad nauseum in Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire. There is also the famous Paranoid Style in America….
It doesn’t matter if something can be easily unproven or is patently not true. If people want to believe something, they will find a way to do so. I’m probably guilty of this too but not to the extent of QANON and Pizzagate hopefully.Report
There is in fact a funeral home there. A simple google maps search will tell you that.Report
I’ll see your “google search” and raise you first hand knowledge because I live here.
1. There’s a funeral home near there but it is not in the direction he gestured.
2. This video was recorded at least a year ago and no funeral home has been demolished and no mosque has been built and there is no “Sharia zone” and no Syrian refugees in the area.Report
That’s, like, your opinion, man.Report
Thanks Em for pointing this out. After theCovington fiasco, beginning to feel all these shocking videos whether on the left or right are created for clicks, and money. The scare tactics are the bait to rile up everyone in order to perpetuate a dangerous myth. I’ve been reflecting more and more on my own behavior on twitter and one thing that remains consistent is I let the trigger words and shockudrama to manipulate my emotions so I react exactly how the creator of corrupted content wants:foolish.Report
The print media had editors and fact checks and paid people for a good job. The internet requires total suspension of belief and is good for memes and themes.Report
The remarkable thing is that West Virginia should be – should be – desperate for immigrants. Our population growth is in the red, and bringing people here who want to be here makes very good sense. But instead our state is run by cowards who spend all of their time freaking out about people who aren’t here, all while making decisions that hasten the state’s inevitable death.Report
We don’t need more people, destroying our natural beauty. We need the jobs to support the people we currently have. Bringing in more people will just raise the unemployment and homeless rate at this point. There is lots of children. Growth is coming along just fine without bringing in people from other areas, and then not have enough work, or high enough wages for them. WV is not known for paying out the highest wages, because out cost of living is lower than other states. And I’d like to keep it that way. (Lower cost of living than other states).Report
What disturbs me about is less that it’s untrue (which seems pretty obvious), but that even if any part of it were, the way the dude portrays it is so horribly racist and xenophobic. Anyone who believes this account does so because they’re already horrible racists and xenophobes.Report
This is, most likely, an untrue post about WV! But, without the wall, 1,000,000 people are expected to enter this country during 2019. It is going to be interesting to see how many are housed in WV. Just like some of the southern States, the monetary obligation to build housing, upgrade existing schools, provide transportation and communication, utilities, and provide food, will be tremendous. The way of life that you have experienced throughout your life, will certainly change because when they are planted into an area, most demand that sharia law be the end all. You talk about cultural shock…..you have little idea!
To allow people to come into our country on our terms (laws) not in hordes of people overwhelming the border(on their terms)should not be the allowed by our government. Yet, Congress is more interested in creating a mess within its system , than see the harm of open borders. Diseases such as TB, children’s diseases, adult diseases,, will become more prevalent. They are innoculating and treating illnesses of the children and adults that are being processed. The medical systems, which already has its problems, are being overwhelmed. We cannot survive if this continues! Obviously, the. U S money sent to Hondores does not reach its people. These comments has nothing to do with race…it has to do with solidifying and saving a country that has a constitution that should be upheld.
Allah is their savior….he isn’t kind!Report
OMG please stop with this utter nonsense. It’s funny, everyone speaks of this ad then when i ask them where is it happening i get vague answers. Sure they may follow sharia law but they aint gonna force on us, it’s kind of like a community watch. It’s not up to you to decide how anyone else lives. Live your life however you want and leave people free to live their’s. The Constitution zero restictions on immigration bruh. Nada.This isn’t your’s, its everybody’s and anyone who wants to pursue life, liberty and happiness. This was never our land, we stole it, they least we could do is share with everyone. American Nazi Party on the rise.Report
What im saying that sounds the Nazi party from 1930’s. I dont get why people hate muslims and mexicans so much. I have never once had a bad experiance with them and quite honestly, they seem to show more respect to people then Americans. Our country needs immigrants to grow and they cost a lot less then people think. I’m ashamed to be an American. When history looks back at us putting me, woman and children in camps they will think we were animals. My fellow Americans, immigrants cost us less then 200 a person but our defense cost’s over 3000 a person. Im good on that. Bunch of ignorant, greedy and selfish people in this country. America is and ideal, not a place with borders. No where in The Constituation does it say you must be born here because we stole the land from the natives you naive people. Sick of it. Im a patriot that knows what being American not a Nationalist who thinks i am entitled to this land. “We the People” does not translate to “We who were born here”. Open your brains before its too late. Lastly, we are not free people, can’t even go catch dinner in the like without permission from the almighty gov’t. Revolution will come .Report
You got me.
I’m running the long con, pretending for years to be a West Virginian just so that when the perfect internet video came along I could pretend to debunk it.
Go ahead and search wowktv.com’s website to find that news story this guy references. You’ll find it doesn’t exist. But you can google Littlepage Terrace and find photos of this site, as well as news stories about how they tore down the old dated low income housing- and put up new low income housing, which the residents of the old development returned to. And then you can check the federal stats regarding the number of Syrian refugees in WV. Try that handy link I provided.
So there’s my proof.
Where’s yours?Report
According to the WV encyclopedia, West Virginia is already up to its eyeballs in Syrian refugees. Reminds me of my home town in Eastern Kentucky.Report
There has been some historic immigration of Syrians in the early 1900s as that link shows, but there have been exactly 7 Syrian refugees placed in WV from 2002-2017. And given the restrictions in place over the last few years, I don’t think that number has increased much. Definitely not currently up to our eyeballs in Syrian refugees, no.Report
Refugees from the Ottoman Empire that are cited in that article, which combines Syrians and Lebanese, from the 1880’s to the 1920’s is hardly “up to its eyeballs.” Those families were also almost all Orthodox, Maronites, and various other minority religious sects. The screed of the idiot in that video of a Muslim invasion is a ridiculous lie. There are around 3K practicing Muslims in WV, and while that is up from the 1900 in 2010, (most of which have been there several generations) in a state of 1.3 Million people it’s a statistical nothing. I am personally friends with and worked alongside the head of the largest Muslim family in Huntington, who are of Iranian decent having immigrated after the fall of the Shah, and still have family there. The video Em debunked is nonsense, through and through. BTW that linked article was written by Mark Sadd, who I also know because his law firm Lewis Glasser has been my family’s estate planning lawyers for decades and is administrator of the family land trust where I grew up. There is no Syrian refugee crisis, or any other refugee issue in the state of West Virginia. Frankly, the state of West Virginia needs more immigrants, not less, as it is demographically dying. Folks like the ones cited in that article who came to WV and made their lives and fortunes in business and other ventures are more than welcomed.Report
Thanks for this. I used it in class to discuss the loss of truth in our culture. Do you know of any other pages which support your position?Report
You can click the link in the post that shows the number of Syrian refugees in West Virginia since 2002. You can google “Littlepage Terrace” and find articles (with pictures that confirm it is the same spot) about the new town homes built to replace the old apartments, and how they are still HUD housing. And you can search the WOWKTV website for the story about the supposed 300 refugees coming in- it doesn’t exist.Report
Immediately I didn’t think was true; but why the need to mention President Trump “Trump country”.Report
Generally, people who don’t like their neighbors, want to bring strangers in. Hoping that the new people will somehow change the relative power balance in their favor. Americans are historically as welcoming and friendly as any people on the planet, but for the most part, enjoying their neighbors, do not feel a desire to challenge the good relations by bringing in strangers that may disturb the status quo. I think that the reason some people are giving way before the demands of immigrants and refugees is because they are in retreat. They claim the moral high ground in order to diguise the evidence that they have surrendered. Americans, because we are hard working, moral and considerate of all opinion have allowed the malcontents to disturb our deserved since of equanimity.
If we keep our wits and are able to keep the disruptors from turning us against each opther we can preserve what it is not an exaggeration to say, is the greatest hope for our species.Report
He is actually from Ohio but claims to be a Isreali national. That’s a very fake accent… He is “family” to me and married to my Great Uncle George even tho they pretend to be father and son to scam people out of their homes and life savings. So I know 1000% what I’m talking about.Report
I am just investigating this whole matter to ascertain the truth. The reason people are easily triggered has little to do with racism or any phobias and much to do with what can be observed all over the world and our own nation. Islam is more than a religion. It has as one of it’s main tenets a supremacy ideology. You are a fool to deny that.Report
Love one other.Report