A War On Truth
February 22nd, 2020. Michael ‘Mad Mike’ Hughes straps himself into a homemade, steam-powered rocket and launches himself into a cloudless California sky. Like the four or five dozen spectators watching the launch, Mike believes that the Earth is flat and plans to record footage from high enough in the atmosphere to prove it. Instead, a parachute malfunction sends his rocket crashing into the desert at over three hundred miles an hour. He’s killed instantly.
January 6th, 2021. Ashli Babbitt storms the U.S. Capitol building along with hundreds of Donald Trump’s supporters. Over the preceding months, despite a lack of credible evidence, Ashli became convinced that the presidential election was “stolen” by widespread voter fraud. As she tries to force her way through to the House Chamber, Ashli is shot in the neck by a Capitol police officer. She dies later that day.
August 17th, 2021. Robert Steele writes what will turn out to be his final post, on his popular COVID conspiracy blog. Even though his symptoms are severe enough that he needs a ventilator, Robert continues to tell his followers that the coronavirus is a hoax. He dies a few days later.
At first glance, these stories might seem unrelated. But in a sense, all of these people died of the same cause. Each of them believed…
