Science Denial Imports

How Billy TK plunged down the Covid conspiracy rabbit hole

Q-Anon has found its way to Aotearoa. arguably, it has been here much longer than most people have noticed. But it is here now. It has cropped up in lockdown protests. It pops up in live Facebook videos, comment sections all over social media. We even have a political hopeful who appears to be a Q devotee (cultist). 

So, what the fuck is QAnon?

QAnon is a conspiracy theory held mostly by, and started by, conservative Americans. An anonymous user who called themselves 'Q' claimed they were on the inside of the Trump administration and had important information about how Trump was working from the inside to take down the elites. The elites are all part of a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who trap children underground and have sex with them and harvest their blood and adrenochrome so that the elites can get high off it. Their belief is that Trump is going to save them. It sounds like the sort of thing you would use as an extreme strawman to make fun of a run-of-the-mill conspiracy theorist, you know, like the "tinfoil hat". But this is what they believe. The 'Pizzagate' conspiracy theory feeds into it as well, but the Q followers really emerged in 2017, on 4Chan. Unsurprisingly, when it comes to someone as narcissistic as Trump, a conspiracy theory involving him being the saviour against an evil cabal proved too alluring, and he has amplified Q messages on Twitter. Q posts information, mostly cryptic, messages known as "breadcrumbs". If you've seen hashtags like #savethechildren, or #WWG1WGA (Where we go 1, we go all...) or #trusttheplan, or deep state, or a storm coming, chances are you may have encountered a QAnon follower. 

Q constantly makes claims and predictions. Predictions about mass arrests, or certain celebrities being in on it. Celebrities being dead and replaced by clones... Followers make posts about pointing out certain TV shows or movies hinting at the existence of Q, due to some irrelevant, obscure detail. Sound familiar? Surprisingly, none of the predictions have come true. Q couldn't even predict the arrest of Epstein, who strangely seems to have been friends with Trump. But they claim that's just because he was "on the inside, getting in with the elites", all the while failing to realise that Trump is one of these "elites". Trump is not on the outside, he never was. Not to mention the allegations of pedophilia and rape on Trump's part anyway...  So they're like, worshipping a pedophile/rapist who they think is going to take down the pedophile/rapists...? Sounds completely normal....

So, why Aotearoa, and what does a global pandemic have to do with a cabal of pedophiles??

Among all of this are the claims of 5g towers causing the disease, or vaccines causing it, or Bill Gates. Or that the disease is a complete hoax and the elites are lying about it to move the children in tunnels, or that it's the military using the hoax to save the kids from the tunnels.... A lot of the conspiracy theories you may have heard during 2020 probably have something to do with Q-Anon cultists. Steven Novella over at Science Based Medicine has written about the crossover with all of these science denial claims and Q recently. These claims have been present since the beginning of Covid-19 here in New Zealand, especially the 5g claims. We even had a few people trying to burn down and damage 5g towers (and inadvertently 4g cell towers). Q is very much present in Aotearoa. 

We have had several lockdown protests, started by and supported by US antivaxers, and Billy Te Kahika. These protests heavily feature protest signs complete with conspiracy claims, Godwin's Law, signs featuring Jacinda Ardern in a Hitler likeness... just generally 'great' people, you know? The most concerning thing about all of this, is that the protests are getting more popular. The first few had only 16 people present, easy to laugh off. But the last few have had hundreds. If there's something we've learned from the antivaccine movement the last few decades. it's that you don't need too many people to make a difference and damage society. 

A lot of people have been hurt by Covid-19, in different ways. At time of writing, the pandemic has killed a reported 1,040,000 people and infected over 35,000,000 people. Another source of pain has been from the lockdowns, a necessary part of trying to stamp out this virus and slow the spread. A lot of people have lost their jobs and are angry (which is happening internationally, not only in Aotearoa). Not everybody who is pissed off about losing their job turns to conspiracy theories. At a time when people are stuck at home, with nowhere to go, there is a lot of online activity. People turn to the internet to take their minds off the world. They surf Facebook, Twitter. They watch Netflix. They watch the news. They stream documentaries. They watch YouTube. All of these things can be harmless. In the right circumstances. In the wrong circumstances, they can be used nefariously. 

“You put marginalized people under pressure and fear and they look for non-mainstream and unorthodox theories to regain their sense of control and agency,”  

Michael Grimshaw, of the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.

The YouTube algorithms can have devastating consequences. You watch one video that claims the disease isn't actually that bad, it's only so many people dying, the flu kills more, but we don't lockdown for that (maybe we should? Another conversation for another time). Then a recommended video comes up about vaccines causing harm. Then another one talking about the dangers of 5g, and before you know it, you're down the rabbit hole and believing that Trump is the saviour against a shadowy elite of satan-worshipping baby-killing reptilian-overlords. It may sound outrageous, but it doesn't take much. This seems to be what happened to our kiwi QAnon proponent, Billy Te Kahika. 

Billy has now taken to making his own predictions, Q style. Using his Advance/New Zealand Public Party platform to push claims like "New Zealand will be going under martial law on October 1st". Something that never happened. He predicted that New Zealand would go back to Level 4 lockdown, the night that PM Jacinda Ardern announced the nation was going back to Level 3. He has claimed insider knowledge, because of his connections to Police and military etc. Like Q, none of his predictions have come true. Like Q, his followers have easy rebuttals. "He made it public, so "they" changed the plan!!!"

The problem with science denial.

This pandemic has revealed to people a side of science that they are not used to. Usually, the public get the tertiary information months, or even years after it has been replicated and talked about, peer reviewed, and tossed around, thrown out, picked up again, and examined over and over again. This year, in 2020, we have been met with a virus that has challenged us. It has challenged everything. Our health, our science, economy, families, everything we knew about the world. 

When it first emerged, we knew nothing about it. Over the past 10 months, very smart people have had to adapt, and learn, and teach, and try to control it. We have come a long way in the last 10 months. We have learned. We constantly have new information presented to us, that sometimes will contradict something that was claimed earlier. This is what science is sometimes. Adapting to new evidence. Learning when presented with new evidence. This is too much for some people. They see this as "scientists are lying to us! They said this last month, now they're telling us this!" Understandably, this could be quite demanding for some people. 

So, a YouTube video that claims it's not that bad, or these scientists are lying to us can be quite easy to swallow. After all, you don't know anyone that's died, right? For anyone that has lost someone from this disease, this can be an especially disgusting claim. A claim that has its roots in the antivaccine movement. Antivaxers and Covid deniers - that Venn diagram is basically a fucking circle. 

Billy Te Kahika has garnered support form old school antivaxers, to new Covid-19 deniers, to Q-Anon supporters. He is also working alongside US antivaxers and other quacks, because real, legit, respected doctors don't want to be seen supporting dangerous conspiracy theories. One of these quacks is Rashid Buttar, a dangerous quack who has been investigated numerous times, for dangerous treatments on autistic children, among other practices. Billy TK has interviewed him on Facebook live, alongside antivaccine superquack, Del Bigtree, via the other conspiracy theory nut, Vinny Eastwood. That travesty is here. Interviewing and highlighting quacks is not how you get taken seriously. But it is how you garner support from fellow conspiracy theorists. It can help reinforce those with preconceived beliefs, or it can add to a building conspiracy theory library. It can grab new followers. It can do a lot of damage. 

From the "Plandemic" claims, to lockdown protests, to burning down cell towers, to shooting up pizza restaurants, to general vaccine refusal, it's all related. And it's all dangerous. We have seen what disconnected responses to the pandemic can do overseas. We have seen what refusals to wear masks or follow basic procedures to prevent spread can result in overseas. Conversely, we have seen what coordination and cooperation can achieve here, and other places overseas. The last thing we need right now is refusal to abide by basic procedures. Conspiracy theorists undermine everything we have done to stop the spread of this deadly disease. 

Q-Anon devotees are here. I have lost friends to it. There's not a lot I could do. They would not listen. There's no reasoning with someone who did not use reason to get where they are now. 

Who's behind this?

In New Zealand, we have a number of different people pushing the American flavoured conspiracy theory onto our people. There are numerous Facebook groups here pushing this shit. Such as the private group, unironically called FACTS NZ, which hilariously is an acronym. I'll let you go and have a look at that for yourself. FACTS NZ is a group run by two expat Californians living in Aotearoa, called Kieren and Jessy. They have been reported about before in the media. They're also the ones behind a lot of the lockdown protests. 

Here's a post about tunnels from that group, a post shared about tunnels in New York.

Another post about Australia, referencing tunnels in NZ. 

From What's the Harm Facebook page

And comments like these are common place in these groups, or on Advance NZ/NZPP's public Facebook page....

And here's one taken from an Advance supporter, posted by the satire page Christiansfornewconsurvative 

And we could go on and on about Billy Te Kahika and his politics, lies, taking koha money ($100,000 unaccounted for), claims that he is a marked man and will be fleeing New Zealand after the election, threats of an "international assassin" targeting him, all his bullshit, the anti1080 Outdoors Party ex-fans signing on, but  let's concentrate on the Q-Anon bullshit. He denies being a conspiracy theorist, like most do. Here's a pretty good video, put together by Gerard Otto, about Billy contradicting his "not a conspiracy theorist". He's used the term "plandemic", claims "Jacinda and the Labour party are a greater threat to New Zealand than any war", 5g "destroys DNA"... the list goes on. He's constantly caught out lying. His predictions are bullshit. 

All of this even lead to a reporter asking Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield if "5g was causing the virus", to an incredible reaction from Ashley and Jacinda. 

Here's a Tweet about an earthquake recently, in which the Prime Minister was actually being interviewed live. This special Q snowflake claimed that was "them", blowing the tunnels. 

Our own Hilary Butler, the antivax peddler, has also posted about Q-Anon, this one here, "A Storm Is Coming" is synonymous with Q followers. Plus, blaming Democrats, who are part apparently of the cabal.

Another one from Hilary:

Basically, we have a lot of prominent people (in the conspiracy world anyway) in Aotearoa pushing bullshit from the Q story. 

More tunnels and earthquakes

What can we do? 

Hopefully this has helped to highlight some of the Q-Anon stuff that's made its way here to Aotearoa. What can we do about it? Well, there's not a lot we can do outside of the normal recognising and countering misinformation I hope this can help you to recognise language used by Q-Anon. If you've got a friend who's starting to go down that way, talk to them. This blog here probably won't do much good, because it's probably too harsh to help someone out of the rabbit hole. These kinds of things usually end up pushing people further. This is more for the people who are trying to counter this stuff already, yeah, more "preaching to the choir" type of thing, like most sceptics' pages usually tend to be. 

So, if you have a friend or a loved one who is starting to join the Q queue (that's not what they call their group, but it should be), then there are plenty of resources out there to help them out. From Psychology Today, & Forbes and former cult-deprogrammer.

Good luck. But remember, there's only so much someone can do for someone, and remember, this is a conspiracy theory that bases itself on knowing information that nobody else does, and they believe they are helping the world, and can help you, and the tunnel-children, by converting you. They are not looking to be rescued.  

And most importantly, this will not be a one conversation event. You're not going to magically snap them out of it. The Q-Anon conspiracy theory has been called part conspiracy theory, part religious cult and part role-playing game. It's hard to break something like that with plain old evidence.

Thank you for taking the time to read, and share the blog. Thank you so much to What's the Harm, Paul, and Rod Cook for helping out with this one. It's been a while since I wrote a blog, and it's been fun to write again, even if it is about some absolute bullshit. 

UPDATE: Yesterday, on 12/10/2020, Stuff released a 45 minute documentary on Billy Te Kahika and his past. It has been fact-checked and corroborated. 

Also, another quick edit, if you think I have "inferred" anywhere here in this post that these people are mentally ill, please let me know. That was not my intention. It's far too simplistic to make claims like that. Also, I am not a psychologist, nor do I know every single follower. 

Thanks,

Skeptical Kiwi