In the ongoing war on elections, a troubling tactic has emerged over the past two years: Attempts to gain unauthorized access to election systems, including by attempting to strong-arm local officials into granting access to voting machines.
was later publicized by the QAnon conspiracy theorist Ron Watkins and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.
We should drop using the profoundly inapt term “theorist” for these people. They are hoaxers and propagandists. “Conspiracy hoaxer” is more mellifluous anyway.
In fact, Lindell frequently pops up in these stories
Lindell probably just has way more money than sense, but the way he keeps showing up and actually managing to get people to commit felonies (pleaded to misdemeanors) for him, I have to wonder if he isn’t more of a Joker sort of character. Joker always acts like he’s an agent of Chaos with no plan and no agenda, but in most stories, the character is actually extremely conniving and he’s always acting toward an intentional goal.
Could Lindell be more of an evil (if still incompetent) mastermind than just a foolish CEO with an addiction problem?
I’m partial to the old label of “conspiracy monger”. It has a certain old school charm and I also like that “monger” has its roots in “peddler” (as in “fishmonger”) and there also the added echos of “mongrel”, which definitely seems appropriate here…
Easier for the fraudsters to fool others if they sound informed. Here’s a little secret - they’re not. And it sounds like almost all election officials aren’t handing over "the keys to the castle. "