The website NewsPunch (formerly The People’s Voice and Your News Wire has for a while been one of the most prolific and influential producers of fake news in the US and one of the main promulgators of QAnon-related conspiracy theories, in particular during that conspiracy theory complex’s early cycles. The website was founded by Sean Adl-Tabatabai, his husband, Sinclair Treadway, and his mother Carol, but many of its most popular stories are penned by one Baxter Dmitry.
Now, “Baxter Dmitry” is presumably a pseudonym, and at least the photograph that used to appear next to the author’s name on the website turned out to be a picture stolen from a random Latvian computer programmer. Whoever he is, however, Dmitry is the source of a rather dizzying array of conspiracy theories about virtually anything you could create conspiracy theories about, and his articles are enthusiastically picked up and shared by a wide array of typical conspiracy theory outlets (like the WND), confused and frightened grandparents, groypers, bots and MAGA fans. Indeed, Dmitry has a large number of followers e.g. on Twitter willing to share his articles and comment on them as if they had the faintest trace of a relationship to reality. A brief set of sample headlines:
- “Bill Gates Vows To Pump mRNA Into Food Supply To ‘Force-Jab’ the Unvaccinated”, discussed here
- “German government leaked document declares COVID-19 is ‘a global false alarm’ ”, discussed here
- “Retired MI5 Agent Confesses On Deathbed: ‘I Killed Princess Diana’ ”
- “Pope Francis: ‘Relationships With Jesus Are Dangerous And Harmful’”
- “The 1918 Influenza Epidemic Was Caused By Vaccines”,
- “[It] is nearly impossible to categorize post-vaccine deaths as vaccine-related” – which is really an accurate summary of a piece of misinformation from Robert F. Kennedy, jr.
- “Father of Global Warming’ Scientist Finally Admits Theory Is Wrong”, a climate change denialist conspiracy theory article that simply invents quotes and attributes them to climate scientist James Hansen
- “Cuba Claims Justin Trudeau Is Fidel Castro’s Son,” discussed here
- “CDC Doctor, Who Claimed Flu Shot Caused Outbreak, Missing Feared Dead”, discussed here and quickly picked up by deranged lunatics like Erin Elizabeth
- “Sweden Bans Mandatory Vaccinations Over 'Serious Heath [sic] Concerns' ”, another out-of-thin-air fabrication
Or among recent ones:
- “EU Vows To Ban ‘Gendered Language’ In Everyday Speech”
- “WEF Unveils ‘Flying Microchips’ That Can Detect ‘Thought Crimes’ and ‘Disable Your Brain’”
- “Federal Troops, Armored Vehicles Moving En Masse to Texas As Biden Regime Prepares To ‘Clear Out’ National Guard”
- “FDA Says School Children Must Be Indoctrinated With Pro-Vaxx Messaging To Ensure Compliance”
- “Top Doctor Blows The Whistle, Admits Vaccinated People Are Developing Full Blown AIDS” (even the “top doctor” in question, antivaccine crank Peter McCullough, would be surprised by that attribution).
Even Snopes is only able to cover a fraction of Dmitry’s bullshit.
Dmitry was for instance instrumental in popularizing both pizzagate conspiracy theories (e.g. his “Pizzagate: BBC Cover Up Another Huge Pedophile Scandal”) and the core QAnon claim that leading librul elites are really a Satanic ring engaged in ritual sacrifice of children for the procurement of adrenochrome and that Trump is covertly leading a secret battle to bring them down (including the Frazzledrip conspiracy, e.g. in his “‘Horrific’ Hillary Clinton Snuff Film Circulating On Dark Web”).
Diagnosis: To what extent Dmitry himself believes the nonsense he spends most of his time inventing is unclear and unlikely (hence the question mark); spreading FUD is potentially a lucrative career, however, and he has certainly achieved a noticeable detrimental impact on civilization.
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