#2916: Jorge Gonzalez et al.

This is a bit of a placeholder entry. A topic of concern that received some attention (but not much) in the run-up to the 2020 election (and after) was the vast amount of conspiracy mongering, hate, denialism and QAnon nonsense – a “barrage of false, often racist and anti-Semitic, narratives” and claims that a vote for Biden would mean supporting a violent takeover of the US and giving the country away to “Jews and Blacks” – that was produced targeting Spanish-speaking residents on radio and social media; both misinformation produced by Americans and misinformation from abroad (including from the Colombia-based Informativo G24). Now, we don’t speak Spanish ourselves, and are therefore unable to assess the situation in anything resembling detail, but it would be neglectful of us not to mention the issue and how scary and destabilizing it actually is.

 

Much of the disinformation was and is anonymous and of unclear origin, but known purveors of insanity include Miami businessman Jorge Gonzalez, who in August 2020 read (without giving his name or any information about where it came from) a 16-minute unhinged script about the dangers of Black immigrants, women and Jewish people (the one claiming that a Biden victory would mean that the US would fall into a dictatorship led by “Jews and Blacks” as well as claiming that Biden was leading a political revolution “directed by racial minorities, atheists and anti-Christians” and supports killing newborn babies) on Radio Caracol – the station’s executives apologized afterwards, but the channel remains infamous for pushing wingnut conspiracy theories and hosting deranged dingbats like Colombian conspiracy theorist Omar Bula-Escobar and, in particular, his paranoid delusions about George Soros. We have no real clear idea of how influential or prominent Gonzalez really is, however.

 

Then there is Carinés Moncada, a host of Miami’s Actualidad radio, who e.g. tried to argue that the Black Lives Matter movement is inspired by “dark spirits” and warned listeners who considered voting for Biden that “If someone knocks on your door tomorrow, the way they’re knocking in other states, if they knock on your door, and they want to rob you, and they want to burn you, don’t complain. Don’t complain because that’s what you’re voting for. For anarchy, for rapes, for attacks.” Meanwhile, Puerto Rican-born pastor and QAnon-promoter Melvin Moya circulated doctored videos of Biden with titles like “Signs of pedophilia”. There are plenty of others, but as mentioned: We don’t really have anything resembling an overview.

 

Diagnosis: Terrifying, and the realization that we can’t even figure out what’s going on at any level of detail – we’re subject merely to glimpses of the horror and harm – lends the whole situation a kind of Cthuluesque quality.