Communicating Covid-19: Everyday Life, Digital Capitalism, and Conspiracy Theories in Pandemic Times (Societynow) 1801177236, 9781801177238

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COMMUNICATING COVID-19 Everyday Life, Digital Capitalism, and Conspiracy Theories in Pandemic Times

BY CHRISTIAN FUCHS University of Westminster, UK

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Emerald Publishing Limited Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK First edition 2021 Copyright © 2021 Christian Fuchs Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited Reprints and permissions service Contact: [email protected] No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters' suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-80117-723-8 (Print) ISBN: 978-1-80117-720-7 (Online) ISBN: 978-1-80117-722-1 (Epub)

CONTENTS List of Tables List of Figures Acknowledgement

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Introduction: Pandemic Times Everyday Life and Everyday Communication in Coronavirus Capitalism Conspiracy Theories as Ideology Bill Gates Conspiracy Theories as Ideology in the Context of the COVID-19 Crisis Users’ Reactions to COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories on Social Media Donald Trump and COVID-19 on Twitter Conclusion: Digital Communication in Pandemic Times and Commontopia as the Potential Future of Communication and Society

Bibliography Index

LIST OF TABLES Ta ble 1.1 .

COVID-19 Infection and Death Statistics.

Ta ble 2.1 .

David Harvey's (2005b) Typology of Social Space.

Ta ble 2.2 .

Social Space in the Coronavirus Crisis.

Ta ble 2.3 .

Lefebvre's Distinction Between the Lived and the Living.

Ta ble 2.4 .

Five Types of the Means of Communication.

Ta ble 4.1 .

Sampling of Relevant Artefacts.

Ta ble 5.1 .

Data Sources Used in the Conducted Empirical Research.

Ta ble 5.2 .

The Coding Scheme Utilised in the Conducted Research.

Ta

descriptive Statistics of the Analysed Dataset.

ble 5.3 . Ta ble 5.4 .

Named Enemies in the Use of the Friend/Enemy Scheme; Total Number of Postings Using the Friend Enemy Scheme: N = 452, Listed are all Persons and Groups That in Total had More Than Ten Mentions.

Ta ble 5.5 .

The Ideological Square Model, Own Visualisation Based on van Dijk (1998, 267).

Ta ble 6.1 .

Exit Polls in the 2016 and 2020 US Presidential Elections Showing the Share of Voters Who Fall Into a Specific Category.

Ta ble 6.2 .

Sample of 19 Trump Tweets About COVID-19, Accessed on 19 December 2020, Numbers Are Given in Thousands.

Ta ble 6.3 .

Share of Weekly Deaths due to COVID-19, Pneumonia and Influenza in the United States, 2020.

LIST OF FIGURES Figu re Everyday Life and Everyday Communication. 2.1. Figu re Everyday Life and Everyday Communication in the Coronavirus Crisis. 2.2. Breitbart's Spreading of Rush Limbaugh's COVID-19 Conspiracy Theory on Social Figu Media, https://www.facebook.com/Breitbart/posts/rush-limbaugh-it-looks-like-there coronavirus-is-being-weaponized-as-yet-another-e/10164646988865354/, 3.1. Accessed on 28 March 2020. Figu re A Tweet by Donald Trump Containing Fabricated. 6.1. Figu re Election Fraud Conspiracy Theory Tweets by Donald Trump. 6.2.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Earlier versions of Chapter 2 and Chapter 3’s Section 3.3 have been previously published as a journal article that has been reproduced and built upon with kind permission of the journal tripleC (http://www.triple-c.at). Original source: Fuchs, C. (2020). Everyday life and everyday communication in coronavirus capitalism. tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique, 18(1), 375–399. https://doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v18i1.1167

1

INTRODUCTION: PANDEMIC TIMES ABSTRACT This chapter introduces the goal of the book, namely to answer the question: How have society and the ways we communicate changed in the COVID-19 pandemic crisis? It outlines the context, namely the COVID-19 pandemic's transformation of society and analyses what role capitalism plays in this role as context of the pandemic that is not its cause but a condition and that does not determine but conditions the effects of the pandemic on society.

1.1 COMMUNICATING COVID-19 This book is a contribution to the analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic on society. It takes a sociological and communication studies approach for analysing the following question: How have society and the ways we communicate changed in the COVID-19 pandemic crisis? This main question was broken down into a series of sub-questions. There is one chapter in this book dedicated to each sub-question: Chapter 2: How have everyday life and everyday communication changed in the COVID-19 crisis? How has capitalism shaped everyday life and everyday communication during this crisis?

Chapter 3: What is a conspiracy theory? How do conspiracy theories matter in the context of the COVID-19 crisis? Chapter 4: How do COVID-19 conspiracy theories about Bill Gates work? Chapter 5: How do Internet users react to COVID-19 conspiracy theories spread on social media? Chapter 6: How has Donald Trump communicated about COVID-19 on Twitter? How have conspiracy theories influenced his Twitter communication about COVID-19? The book is organised in the form of seven chapters. The introduction sets out the societal context of the study. Chapters 2–6 address the mentioned questions. Chapter 7 draws conclusions for the future of communication and society.

1.2 SARS-COV-2 AND COVID-19 In 2020 and 2021, the pandemic crisis that emerged from the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) this virus causes shook the world. The virus originated in bats. It was most likely transmitted to humans by the pangolin (Andersen et al. 2020), a subdomain of the mammal clade of Ferae, to which besides the pangolin also carnivorans (e.g. dogs, bears, cats, big cats) belong. The virus first appeared in December 2019 on a food market in Wuhan, the capital of the Chinese province of Hubei, and spread worldwide. Table 1.1 shows some data about COVID-19 infections and deaths. Until mid-March 2021, one year after the World Health Organization (WHO) had declared the disease a global pandemic, there were more than 120 million infections worldwide with 2.7 million individuals who had died from the disease. This means an average mortality rate of 2.2%. Although not as deadly as SARS or MERS, COVID-19's currently guesstimated 2% mortality rate is comparable to the Spanish flu, and like that monster it probably has the ability to infect a majority of the human race unless antiviral and vaccine development quickly come to the rescue (Davis 2020b, 14)

Table 1.1. COVID-19 Infection and Death Statistics. Total Total Cases Country Total Cases Country Country Deaths per 1 million US 30,288,789 US 550,537 Czechia 133,077 Brazil 11,693,838 Brazil 284,775 Slovenia 97,431 India 11,473,946 Mexico 195,119 US 91,129 Russia 4,418,436 India 159,249 Israel 89,608 UK 4,274,579 UK 125,831 Portugal 80,149 France

4,146,609

Italy

103,432 Panama 79,904

Italy

3,281,810

Russia

93,364

Spain

3,206,116

Turkey

2,930,554

France 91,437 German 74,677 y

German 2,610,769 Spain y 121,773,47 Global Global 0

72,793

Lithuani 76,760 a Bahrain 76,395

Country

Country

2,229 1,942 1,899 1,847 1,807

1,737 Ecuador

5.1

Italy

1,712 China

5.1

Bulgaria

1,695 Bolivia 4.6 Afghanista 1,656 4.4 n

US

Belgium 69,936

Portugal

15,622.4 Global

Yemen Mexico Sudan Syria Egypt

Mortalit y Rate (%)

Czechia Belgium Slovenia UK Hungary Bosnia and Herzegovin a

Sweden 72,170

2,691,03 Global 0

Deaths per 1 million

23.5 9.0 6.7 6.7 5.9

1,643 Liberia

4.2

345.2 Global

2.2

Source: WHO, https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/. Accessed on 18 March 2021. Included are only countries that have at least 1 million inhabitants. Countries governed by right-wing leaders such as the United States (Donald Trump), India (Narendra Modi), Brazil (Jair Bolsonaro), Russia (Vladimir Putin), Turkey (Recep Erdoğan) and the United Kingdom (Boris Johnson) are among those with the highest absolute number of COVID-19 cases. Partly these leaders did not take the virus seriously enough, implemented only half-hearted lockdown measures, or underestimated or downplayed the seriousness of the disease. Countries with the highest mortality rates are predominantly developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The underdevelopment of the Global South means not only high levels of poverty but also the lack of basic public services, including a well-developed health-care system. Poor countries and countries where neoliberal governments privatised or cut public support for hospitals or intensive care have been particularly affected by COVID-19. With a death rate of 2.2% until March 2021, COVID-19 is not comparable to a mild flu. Using global data for the years from 2002 until 2011, Paget et al. (2019) calculated that there was an average of 389,213 annual deaths from seasonal influenza. The World Health Organization

(2019) estimates that each year around 1 billion individuals worldwide catch the flu. Based on these data, the average mortality rate of seasonal influenza is 0.04%, which means that as an approximation one can say that COVID-19 is at least 55 times deadlier than seasonal influenza. The twenty-first century has thus far been a century of multiple crises. At its start, 9/11 in 2001 created a political crisis that set off a vicious cycle of terror and war. In 2008, a new world economic crisis unfolded that had its origin in the systematic crisis proneness of capitalism and the financialisation of the economy since the 1970s as response to falling profit rates. Many governments bailed out failing banks and corporations, which increased national debt so that they implemented austerity measures, from which workers and the poor suffered. In 2015, a humanitarian refugee crisis emerged in Europe that has been the consequence of war, natural disasters and global inequalities. Following the world economic crisis, in a significant number of countries right-wing authoritarian political leaders came to power or strengthened their share of the vote, including Donald Trump in the United States. A crisis of democracy unfolded. In 2020, COVID-19 hit the world and created a simultaneous health crisis, economic crisis, political crisis, cultural crisis, moral crisis and global crisis.

1.3 HEALTH CRISIS, ECONOMIC CRISIS, POLITICAL CRISIS, CULTURAL CRISIS, MORAL CRISIS In order to prevent the pandemic getting out of control, many governments introduced lockdowns so that at times most people had to stay at home and all, but absolutely essential shops and institutions had to stay closed. The result was a politically created economic crisis in the context of a major global health crisis. In 2020, the global gross domestic product shrunk according to estimations by 4.4% (data source: IMF World Economic Outlook, October 2020). At the political level, governments had to increase national debt in order to guarantee the survival of humans during lockdown phases. At the political and cultural level, difficult debates emerged about what sectors of society should remain opened or should be closed during COVID-19 waves. These debates affected realms such as education (schools, nurseries, universities), arts and culture, tourism and gastronomy. In some countries, hospitals' intensive care units reached their limits, which required that society and those taking decisions on medical ethics formulated guidelines in order to decide who should and

who should not get an intensive care bed when there is a shortage. Social distancing increased feelings of loneliness and depression. At the level of ideology, COVID-19 conspiracy theory movements emerged that question the existence of the pandemic, the need for countervailing measures (social distancing, wearing masks, lockdown) and spread anti-vaccination propaganda. In turn, the danger emerged that fewer people get vaccinated against COVID-19 and that the health crisis is prolonged. The United Nations Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities (2020) documented the effects of the pandemic on world society with the help of statistics. It summarises some of these effects: ‘The pandemic is pushing an additional 71–100 million people into extreme poverty; Globally, the first quarter of 2020 saw a loss of the equivalent to 155 million full-time jobs, a number that increased to 400 million in the second quarter, with lower- and middle-income countries hardest hit; Simulations suggest a steep and unprecedented decline in the Human Development Index (HDI), undermining six years of progress; […] Even before the pandemic, women did three times more unpaid domestic and care work than men; since the pandemic, however, data from rapid gender assessment surveys indicate that women in some regions are shouldering the extra burden of an increased workload, particularly in terms of childcare and household chores. […] Global foreign direct investment is now projected to fall by as much as 40% in 2020; Global manufacturing output fell by 20% in April 2020 compared to the same period of the previous year, accelerating an already declining trend’ (Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities 2020, 3)

1.4 COVID-19 AND CAPITALISM Capitalism is not the direct cause of SARS-CoV-2. COVID-19 conspiracy theories construct such a direct link by claiming that Bill Gates and pharmaceutical companies have secretly engineered the virus in order to

make profits from vaccines. We will analyse such crude economistic ideology as part of this book. Such conspiracy theories have been appropriated and advanced by the far-right and the anti-vaccination movement. Capitalism is not the direct cause but a context of COVID-19. Capitalist society has acted as context in several respects, namely: Agricultural capitalism; The global spread of SARS-COV-2; Points of change; Governance; Ideology; Globalisation and de-globalisation; Class relations in pandemic times; Vaccine capitalism and vaccine nationalism. 1.4.1 Agricultural Capitalism The global activities of capitalist agribusinesses and their expropriation of cheap land have destroyed natural habitat, have had negative impacts on humans, animal species and plants, and created the foundations of SARSCoV-2 (Davis 2020b, Foster and Suwandi 2020, Malm 2020, Wallace 2016, 2020). The result has been the loss of biodiversity, which has brought wild animals such as bats into closer contact with humans and has in turn increased the chance of the ‘the contraction of zoonotic diseases from wild to domestic animals to humans’ (Foster and Suwandi 2020). Bats carry many pathogens. Capitalist deforestation and urbanisation has resulted in ‘opening the forests to global circuits of capital’ (Wallace 2016, 327), which has brought bats and other wild animals into closer contact with humans. Eating wild animals has become fashionable among parts of the new bourgeoisie, has turned pangolins, lemurs, bats, racoons, squirrels, rats, badgers, etc., into luxury commodities and has created the job of wild animal hunters as wage labour. The Wuhan ‘wet market’ was one of the places in the world where wild animals were traded and the place where the zoonotic spillover that caused the outbreak of COVID-19 took place. The Marxist political economist and geographer David Harvey points out the negative effect of capitalism on nature:

Capital modifies the environmental conditions of its own reproduction but does so in a context of unintended consequences (like climate change) and against the background of autonomous and independent evolutionary forces that are perpetually re-shaping environmental conditions. There is, from this standpoint, no such thing as a truly natural disaster. Viruses mutate all of the time to be sure. But the circumstances in which a mutation becomes life-threatening depend on human actions. […] If I wanted to be anthropomorphic and metaphorical about this, I would conclude that COVID-19 is Nature's revenge for over forty years of Nature's gross and abusive mistreatment at the hands of a violent and unregulated neoliberal extractivism (Harvey 2020, 180, 183–184) In his book Epidemics and Society, the historian Frank M. Snowden (2019, 478–480) uses Ebola as a case that shows the link between epidemics and agricultural capitalism: The oil palm is native to West Africa […] What was new in the late twentieth century was the project to cut down the forests by clear cutting to establish a monoculture of large oil palm plantations. […] Palm oil was appealing to agrobusiness because it met a gamut of industrial and consumer uses. […] It is estimated that half of the items for sale in a modern supermarket contain palm oil as an important component. […] Palm oil companies comprehensively transformed the landscapes they encountered, and in ways that were not conducive to the health of the population or the environment. They began by destroying the existing primary forest by fire and bulldozer. Having cleared the land, they then established a monoculture of oil palm cultivated in large plantations. […] negative features […] included the loss of biodiversity, the contribution of deforestation to the greenhouse effect and global warming, population displacement, the low wages and harsh working conditions of plantation workers, the unfavorable long-term position of nations that develop on the basis of producing raw materials in the global market, and the inability of perennial crops like palm oil to respond to market fluctuations. […] The areas where Ebola outbreaks have occurred since 1976 map perfectly onto the geography of deforestation in Central and West Africa. The link

between Ebola and deforestation is the fact that the fragmentation of African forests disrupts the habitat of fruit bats. Before the arrival of agrobusiness, the bats normally roosted high in the forest canopy, far from human activities. In the wake of clear-cutting, however, these ‘flying foxes’, as they are known locally, forage ever closer to human settlements and grow dependent on household gardens with their scattered trees and crops. […] This transformation allowed Ebola to ‘spill over’ from bats to humans in West Africa in the wake of deforestation 1.4.2 The Global Spread of SARS-COV-2 The globalisation of capitalism and society has made the world more interconnected and networked, which is why the COVID-19 pandemic is a global pandemic and crisis. 1.4.3 Points of Change Lockdowns of the economy have created points of change and transition where the future of society and capitalism is open. 1.4.4 Governance Neoliberal cuts in the hospital sector have increased death rates. The COVID-19 crisis has shown how damaging neoliberal privatisations and cuts to public health care have been, which has made the question acute if the politics of privatisation, austerity, commercialisation, commodification and marketisation should be continued in the future. The immediate question in the near and middle future is who should cover the main burden for reducing national debts. Public authorities and healthcare systems were almost everywhere caught short-handed. Forty years of neoliberalism across North and South America and Europe had left the public totally exposed and ill-prepared to face a public health crisis of this sort, even though previous scares of SARS and Ebola provided abundant warnings as well as cogent lessons as to what should be done. In many parts of the supposed ‘civilized’ world, local governments and regional/state authorities, which invariably form the front line of defense in public health and safety emergencies of this kind, had been starved of funding

thanks to a policy of austerity designed to fund tax cuts and subsidies to the corporations and the rich (Harvey 2020a, 183) Giving the failures of neoliberalism, it might no longer be so easy to impose a new neoliberal regime that makes the working class pay and suffer. Debates about the increased taxation of capital and wealth are likely to be more on the public agenda in the years to come. 1.4.5 Ideology Existential crises of humans and society create fears. The history of class society and capitalism is, therefore, also a history of ideology and conspiracy theories that have emerged and intensified in phases of crisis. Ideology gives short-circuited, polarising answers to the question, who caused a crisis and how it can be solved. It often scapegoats particular groups and individuals and neglects the systemic and structural aspects of crises. In crises, ideology is often used for distracting attention from the real causes of the crisis and the progressive political conclusions that can be drawn in such situations. Ideology is a means used by the dominant class for trying to secure its class power in the situation of profound crisis. 1.4.6 Globalisation and De-globalisation In the pandemic crisis, economies have turned inwards and focused on national economies and politics. We have experienced a rupture that brought a certain de-globalisation of the world economy during the pandemic crisis. This rupture poses the question of what role global capital and trade should play in the future and if economies will in the future be more or less global, more or less regulated by the nation state, more or less public, more or less commodified, etc. 1.4.7 Class Relations in Pandemic Times The poor, those conducting precarious, low-paid jobs and those working in key infrastructures cannot shield and distance themselves as much from the virus as others and are, therefore, more likely to contract and die from COVID-19. The rich, chief executive officers (CEOs), manager and corporations can buy themselves out of high-risk pandemic areas by moving to other parts of the world and moving capital along with them. The

poor and workers are less globally mobile and are stuck in localities, which means they cannot escape from local dangers and outbreaks of diseases. David Harvey (2020) points out the class character of the pandemic's effects and the interaction of class, racism and gender in this context: the workforce that is expected to take care of the mounting numbers of the sick is typically highly gendered, racialized, and ethnicized in most parts of the world. It mirrors the class-based workforces to be found in, for example, airports and other logistical sectors. This ‘new working class’ is in the forefront and bears the brunt of either being the workforce most at risk from contracting the virus through their jobs or of being laid off with no resources because of the economic retrenchment enforced by the virus. There is, for example, the question of who can work at home and who cannot. This sharpens the societal divide as does the question of who can afford to isolate or quarantine themselves (with or without pay) in the event of contact or infection. […] COVID-19 exhibits all the characteristics of a class, gendered, and racialized pandemic. While efforts at mitigation are conveniently cloaked in the rhetoric that ‘we are all in this together’, the practices, particularly on the part of national governments, suggest more sinister motivations. The contemporary working class in the United States (comprised predominantly of African Americans, Latinx, and waged women) faces the ugly choice of contamination in the name of caring and keeping key features of provision (like grocery stores) open or unemployment with no benefits (such as adequate healthcare). Salaried personnel (like me) work from home and draw their pay just as before while CEOs fly around in private jets and helicopters (Harvey 2020, 186–187) 1.4.8 Vaccine Capitalism and Vaccine Nationalism The pharmaceutical industry has played an important role in the COVID-19 pandemic because it has developed vaccines against the disease. The COVID-19 pandemic crisis brought along the rise of vaccine capitalism. BioNTech (Germany)/Pfizer (US), Moderna (US), AstraZeneca (UK and Sweden), Johnson & Johnson (US) or CureVac (US) were among the pharma corporations that have played an important role. They received

large sums of state funding, which shows that pandemic capitalism and vaccine capitalism form a type of state capitalism where state power and capitalist corporations are intertwined by state funding of capitalist activities and a stricter regulation of the economy than under neoliberal capitalism. Some of these pharma corporations are among the world's largest corporations. In 2020, Pfizer was the world's 58th largest corporation, Johnson & Johnson the 34th largest, AstraZeneca the 161st largest and Moderna the 1590th largest. 1 These transnational pharmaceutical companies hold intellectual property rights on the vaccines they developed and the right to determine to whom they sell how much vaccines for what price. In 2021, when the pandemic crisis entered a stage that vaccines were rolled out, a vaccine war and vaccine nationalism emerged. Given vaccines have been treated as a commodity in the pandemic crisis, some countries ordered much more vaccines from certain pharma corporations than others and paid higher prices. This issue is a question of financial power and relations between governments and the pharma capitalism. Countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States secured themselves access to large amounts of different vaccines and as a consequence were able to quickly vaccinate a large share of their population. Developing countries and other countries have been disadvantaged in the access to vaccines because they lack economic power and political influence. The commodity character of COVID-19 vaccines, the private property character of the scientific knowledge underlying these vaccines and the capitalist control of vaccine production have advanced nationalism. Vaccine capitalism turned into vaccine nationalism. Governments first and foremost have focused on their national interest first, which has undermined international solidarity. In a pandemic crisis, vaccines are goods of common and public interest that are crucial for securing the survival of human beings. Capitalism puts profit over humans and, therefore, in a pandemic crisis, favours the survival of the rich over the survival of the poor. In a pandemic crisis, vaccine production should be turned into a common good that is collectively owned. This can be done by enforcing laws that socialise pharmaceutical corporations and turn them into public organisations owned by public bodies such as the WHO. Another measure is to turn the scientific knowledge underlying vaccines from a private property that is secured by intellectual property rights into commons that is treated as knowledge available to and accessible to all, which enables organisations throughout the world to use this knowledge

for producing vaccines. Only a political economy that stresses the public interest, public ownership and common goods is suited to properly secure the survival of humans in a pandemic crisis. The right answer to a pandemic is not vaccine capitalism and vaccine nationalism, but rather vaccine socialism and vaccine internationalism.

1.5 COMMUNICATION IN PANDEMIC TIMES The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about phases of lockdown that have changed the way humans work, lead their everyday lives and how they communicate. Internet platforms have played an important role in this context. One aspect of Communicating COVID-19 is the analysis of changes everyday life and everyday communication have been undergoing. Times of deep crises create fears, risks, uncertainties and changes. Crisis-ridden societies are, therefore, prone to the emergence of ideologies and conspiracy theories that instrumentalise such situations. In the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, right-wing ideology has joined together with conspiracy theories and anti-vaccination ideology for creating distinct COVID-19 conspiracy theories. Communicating COVID-19 analyses how COVID-19 conspiracy theories have been communicated, received, spread and contested on social media. This book shows that times of deep crisis are not just times of social change but also times where communication and communication technologies matter in the production, dissemination and challenge of ideologies. 1Forbes Global 2000 List of the World's Largest Public Companies for the year 2021,

https://www.forbes.com/global2000, accessed on 10 June 2021.

2

EVERYDAY LIFE AND EVERYDAY COMMUNICATION IN CORONAVIRUS CAPITALISM ABSTRACT In 2020, the coronavirus crisis ruptured societies and their everyday life around the globe. This chapter is a contribution to critically theorising the changes societies have undergone in the light of the coronavirus crisis. It asks: How have everyday life and everyday communication changed in the coronavirus crisis? How does capitalism shape everyday life and everyday communication during this crisis? This chapter focuses on how social space, everyday life and everyday communication have changed in the coronavirus crisis. The coronavirus crisis is an existential crisis of humanity and society. It radically confronts humans with death and the fear of death. This collective experience can on the one hand result in new forms of solidarity and socialism or can on the other hand, if ideology and the far-right prevail, advance war and fascism. Political action and political economy are decisive factors in such a profound crisis that shatters society and everyday life. Keywords Coronavirus; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; everyday life; everyday communication; critical theory; critical theory of communication; means of communication; communication

technology; capitalism; ideology; fake news; false news; crisis; public health; Henri Lefebvre; David Harvey

2.1 INTRODUCTION The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a highly infectious respiratory disease. Its name stems from the fact that it looks like a crown under the microscope. The virus is highly contagious and has a death rate that is multiple times higher than one of the seasonal flus. Common symptoms include fever, dry cough, shortness of breath and extreme tiredness.The majority of cases have a mild development, but in a certain share of cases, a severe pneumonia develops that can be life-threatening. The first patient suffering from the disease was identified on 1 December 2019 in Wuhan, a city with more than 11 million inhabitants in China's Hubei province. By the end of January 2020, there were almost 12,000 reported cases in Mainland China.1 Given the networked and global character of contemporary societies, the novel coronavirus (SARSCoV-2, referred to as ‘coronavirus’ in this chapter) spread globally within a short time period. Earlier experience had shown that one of the downsides of increasing globalization is how impossible it is to stop a rapid international diffusion of new diseases. We live in a highly connected world where almost everyone travels. The human networks for potential diffusion are vast and open (Harvey 2020a, 181–182) On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus to be a pandemic. By 29 March 2020, there were 638,146 confirmed coronavirus cases in a total of 203 countries that had resulted in 30,105 deaths.2 As a reaction to the virus threats to humankind and human lives, many countries introduced wide-ranging public health measures such as the shutdown of public life and social distancing measures. This chapter is a contribution to the social theory analysis of coronavirus crisis' implications for society. It asks: How have everyday life and everyday communication changed in the coronavirus crisis? How has capitalism shaped everyday life and everyday communication during this crisis?

Section 2.2 analyses how everyday communication has changed in the COVID-19 crisis. Section 2.3 discusses the role of social Darwinism in the coronavirus crisis. Section 2.4 provides an understanding of social distancing. Section 2.5 outlines the transformation of space-time in the coronavirus crisis. Section 2.6 deals with the problems individuals face in this crisis. Section 2.7 discusses aspects of socialism and barbarism in the coronavirus crisis. Section 2.8 analyses the relationship of the COVID-19 crisis and class. Section 2.9 focuses on the transformation of urban and rural spaces in the crisis. Section 2.10 draws some conclusions.

2.2 SOCIAL SPACE, EVERYDAY LIFE AND EVERYDAY COMMUNICATION IN THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS Based on the French philosopher Henri Lefebvre's (1974/1991) theory of space, the critical theorist David Harvey (2005b) provides a typology of social space (see Table 2.1). Using Lefebvre's distinction between perceived, conceived and lived spaces as three dimensions of space, Harvey distinguishes between physical space, representations of space and spaces of representation. He adds to Lefebvre's theory the distinction between absolute, relative and relational space. Spaces are absolute in that they are locales that have certain physical boundaries. They are relative because objects are placed in them that have certain distances from each other. And they are relational because these objects stand in relations to each other. In society, humans produce and reproduce social space by a dialectic of social practices and social structures. The cells in Table 2.1 describe particular aspects of social space. Table 2.1. David Harvey's (2005b) Typology of Social Space. Physical Space (Experienced Space) Absolute space Relative space (time) Relationa l space (time)

Physical locale Humans in a physical locale

Representations of Space Spaces of Representation (Lived Space) (Conceptualised Space) Symbols, maps and plans of physical locales Symbols used and meanings created by humans in physical locales

Social relations of Language as social and humans in a societal structure physical locale

Locales as social spaces where humans live, work and communicate Humans as social actors acting in social roles Communicative practices that produce and reproduce social relations, sociality and social spaces

Table 2.2 shows how social spaces are changing and organised in the coronavirus crisis. Table 2.2. Social Space in the Coronavirus Crisis. Representations of Space Spaces of Representation (Lived Space) (Conceptualised Space) Plans and strategies The home as the dominant social spaces of how to use the and supra-social space where humans supra-locale of the Absolute The home as the simultaneously organise multiple aspects of supra-locale home for the space their life and work, convergence of absolute organisation of spaces in the home everyday life Symbols used and meanings created Relative Humans stay Convergence of humans' social roles in the predominantly in one by humans in the space supra-space of the home locale, their homes supra-locale of the (time) home Social relations at a physical distance The convergence of humans' communicative practices in the convergent space and under Relationa organised via Language as social communication conditions of the convergent time of the l space structure technologies home, mediation of the convergence of (time) between home space-time by communication technologies locales Physical Space (Experienced Space)

In the coronavirus crisis, humans are largely confined to the physical space of the home, for which certain organisational strategies are needed, so that everyday life can be organised from the home. Humans experience, conceptualise, live and thereby also produce social space-time in manners that make social spaces converge in the supra–time-space of the home. Communication technologies play a decisive role in organising everyday life from the locale of the home in the coronavirus crisis. Everyday life refers to social practices within the totality of society (Lefebvre 2002, 31). Everyday life is an ‘intermediate and mediating level’ of society (45). Lefebvre identifies three dimensions of everyday life: natural forms of necessity, the economic realm of the appropriation of objects and goods, and the realm of culture (62). So Lefebvre sees nature, the economy and culture as the three important realms of everyday life. What is missing is the realm of politics, where humans take collective decisions that are binding for all and take on the forms of rules. The critique of everyday life analyses how humans live, ‘how badly they live or how they do not live at all’ (18). Lefebvre argues that in phases of fundamental societal change, everyday life is suspended, shattered or

changed (109). The coronavirus crisis has suspended, shattered and necessitated the reorganisation of the practices, structures and routines of everyday life. Lefebvre distinguishes between the lived (le vécu) and the living (le vivre) as two levels of everyday life (see Table 12.3). Fig. 2.1 shows a model of everyday life. Table 2.3. Lefebvre's Distinction Between the Lived and the Living. The Lived (le vécu) Individual Experience, knowledge, doing Practices Present

The Living (le vivre) Group Context, horizon Structures Presence

Source: Lefebvre (2002, 166, 216–218).

Fig. 2.1. Everyday Life and Everyday Communication. At the level of lived reality, humans produce social objects through communicative practices. They do so under the conditions of the living, i.e. structural conditions that enable and constrain human practices, production and communication. The level of living life consists of an interaction of social structures, social systems and social institutions. All structures, systems and institutions have economic, political and cultural

dimensions. In many social systems, one of these dimensions is dominant, so that we can differentiate between economic, political and cultural structures/systems/institutions. At the level of lived life, humans relate to each other through communicative practices. These communicative practices are the foundations of the production, reproduction and differentiation of economic, political and cultural structures/systems/institutions that condition human practices. There is a dialectic of the living and the lived in any society. This is a dialectic of human subjects and social objects. Means of communication mediate the dialectic of objects and subjects and the relations between humans. We can distinguish five types of the means of communication (Table 2.4). Table 2.4. Five Types of the Means of Communication. Primary communication technologies Secondary communication technologies Tertiary communication technologies Quaternary communication technologies Quinary communication technologies

Role of Mediation by Technology Examples Human body and mind, no media technology Theatre, concert, performance, is used for the production, distribution, interpersonal communication reception of information Newspapers, magazines, Use of media technology for the production of books, technologically information produced arts and culture Use of media technology for the production CDs, DVDs, tapes, records, and consumption of information, not for Blu-ray disks, hard disks distribution Use of media technology for the production, distribution and consumption of information

TV, radio, film, telephone, Internet

Digital media prosumption technologies, userInternet, social media generated content

Fig. 2.2 visualises the transformation of everyday life and everyday communication at the time of the coronavirus crisis. Humans isolate themselves and, therefore, avoid direct communicative relations. This circumstance is visualised at the level of the lived by enclosed individuals and small enclosed groups. Dense networks of direct communication and direct social relations are suspended. At the structural level of the lived, the economic, political and cultural dimensions are not organised as separate locales but tend to converge in the social system of the home that takes on the form of a supra-locale from where economic, political and the cultural life are organised and structured from a distance. Humans spend the vast majority of their time in physical isolation in their homes, from where they access and organise social structures, systems and institutions at a

distance by making use of secondary, tertiary, quaternary and quinary means of communication. The use of the primary means of communication, namely face-to-face communication, is avoided. Whereas under regular conditions humans organise the economy, politics and culture in the form of separate social systems that they access in everyday life by commuting to different specialised physical locales, in the coronavirus crisis specialised physical locales are suspended. These systems' structural social roles are preserved; a multitude of humans who are located in the physical locales of their homes organise these systems at a distance with the help of mediated communication. Humans hardly communicate with each other face-to-face but through mediating communication technologies.

Fig. 2.2. Everyday Life and Everyday Communication in the Coronavirus Crisis. 2.2.1 The Coronavirus Crisis as Deceleration of Everyday Life? In the coronavirus crisis, most people traverse only smaller physical distances and fewer goods are transported so that everyday life is decelerated and comes to a relative standstill. There are fewer people for overall less time on the streets, in public and intermediate spaces. At the same time, the number of social activities and communicative practices taking place from the home and conducted from there at a distance massively increases. As a consequence, communication networks such as

the Internet and mobile phone networks are used at a maximum capacity. The thinning out of social activity in public spaces corresponds to the thickening and multiplication of social activities taking place in the home and locally. The coronavirus crisis deglobalises and, therefore, localises everyday life. The German sociologist Hartmut Rosa (2020b) argues that the coronavirus crisis means ‘forced deceleration’.3 He argues that there is a …massive deceleration of real physical life, where on the one hand one feels silenced and excluded but on the other hand one discovers new forms of solidarity and new forms of amenability4

(Rosa 2020b) Rosa is rather optimistic about the consequences of the coronavirus crisis. On the one hand, he sees the loss of ontological security and trust, so that ‘relationships become suspect’ 5 and there is ‘growing alienation’ 6 (Rosa 2020a). On the other hand, he sees new opportunities for resonance, a condition where humans enter into unalienated relations with others and the world: We have time. Suddenly we can hear and experience what is happening around us: Maybe we indeed hear the birds, look at the flowers and greet the neighbours. Hearing and answering instead of domination and control are the beginning of a relation of resonance from which something novel can emerge7 (Rosa 2020a)

2.3 BORIS JOHNSON'S SOCIAL DARWINISM As a reaction to the pandemic, social distancing was implemented as a public health measure in many countries. Some have taken strict measures such as curfews, whereas others only recommended social distancing but did not enforce it by law. Some countries have shifted their policies. Boris Johnson's Conservative government in the United Kingdom first took a laissez-faire approach. It did not initially shut down public life and allowed large gatherings and events to continue even after the crisis

was declared as a pandemic. This included the annual Cheltenham festival, which saw more than 251,684 people gather at the racecourse for the four-day festival. 8 At that time, Prime Minster Boris Johnson advised people that they should wash their hands as protection (Vidal 2021). While the festival was going on, the WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic and the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United Kingdom doubled (Vidal 2021). The science of infection in mass gatherings shows clearly that pilgrimages, festivals and sports crowds can all pose health risks, even facilitating the global spread of diseases such as Zika or Sars, as spectators return home (Vidal 2021) The festival is very likely to have contributed to the surge of COVID-19 cases. By 3 April, the GL52 postcode, which covers the racecourse area, had the most Covid-related hospital admissions in Gloucestershire. Three weeks later, the local NHS trust had recorded 125 deaths – nearly double the numbers in much larger centres such as Bristol. NHS data analysts Edge Health have calculated the impact of the Cheltenham festival, along with the two big football matches played in Manchester and Liverpool that same week, and found that together they caused over 100 deaths, 500 hospitalisations and 17,000 infections. (Vidal 2021) In a press conference on March 12, Johnson said that due to coronavirus ‘many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time’. At the same time, he did not take measures such as shutting down public life as other countries, such as Italy, had begun to do. The strategy that he announced together with his scientific and medical advisors was based on not containing the virus but letting it spread until ‘herd immunity’ is reached. Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty argued that the ‘our top planning assumption is up to 80% of the population being infected’. Given the United Kingdom has 66 million inhabitants and the death rate of coronavirus is on average one percentage, this implies letting more than 500,000 people die from coronavirus in order to reach what in medical

jargon is called herd immunity. In a Sky News interview, Chief Scientific Advisor Patrick Vallance defended this approach by saying that ‘of course we do face the prospect of, as the Prime Minister said yesterday, an increasing number of people dying. […] This is a nasty disease’. 9 Johnson and his chief medical and chief scientific advisor chose a social Darwinist approach where the fittest survive and the government tolerates that others die although public health measures could reduce the amount and share of deaths. Charles Darwin's half-cousin Francis Galton (1822–1911) argued that society should be based on ‘the workings of Nature by securing that humanity shall be represented by the fittest’ (Galton 1909, 42). Just like the Thatcherism that the Tories have advanced preaches and practices survival of the fittest companies in the capitalist economy, Johnson and his advisors planned to use the same principle as population policy. The implication is that those who are old, weak and ill are sacrificed. In a radically neoliberal society such as the United Kingdom and the United States, the Darwinist Alfred Russel Wallace's concept of nature is applied to society: in the coronavirus crisis, the …best organised, or the most healthy, or the most active, or the best protected, or the most intelligent, will inevitably, in the long run, gain an advantage over those which are inferior in these qualities; that is, the fittest will survive (Wallace 1889/2009, 123) The UK government later repeatedly took measures common in many countries of continental Europe such as the closure of schools and nonessential businesses, the prohibition of public events and the order that people have to stay at home. But these measures came too late, and the United Kingdom became one of the countries with the highest number of COVID-19 deaths per population. By 17 March 2021, 185 inhabitants per 100,000 inhabitants had died from COVID-19 in the United Kingdom, and there had been a total of 4.3 million cases and 125,580 deaths resulting from the pandemic10. In September 2020, when COVID-19 infections again started rising significantly in the United Kingdom, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) called for a circuit breaker lockdown, but the government only took half-hearted measures and it took until 5 November until a national lockdown was declared. The United Kingdom also did a bad job at testing and tracing infections (see McKee 2020). In January 2021, six out of 10 respondents in a UK-wide poll said that the government did a bad job in handling the pandemic. (Ibbetson

2021). In March 2021, a majority of people supported a statutory public inquiry into the UK government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic (Booth 2021).

2.4 SOCIAL DISTANCING Humans are social and societal beings. They live in and through social relations in society. Communication is the process of the production and reproduction of sociality, social relations, social structures, social systems and society (Fuchs 2020a). In a social relation, at least two humans make sense of each other's actions. Each of them interprets what the other one is doing, which leads at least to new thoughts and potentially results in changes of the social system. Throughout the pandemic, billions of humans experienced and practiced a radical rupture and reorganisation of their social life. In modern society, we organise our everyday life as social practices that take place in distinct social systems, where we repeatedly in a routinised manner spend certain time periods together with others in order to achieve certain goals. Key social systems of our everyday life include the home, the workplace, and educational organisations (nursery, school, university). And there are public spaces accessible to everyone where we spend leisure time, meet others, commute from one place to another one or organise other aspects of our everyday life. Such spaces include parks, playgrounds, cafés, trains, buses, the underground, shops, etc. The division of labour and activities means that humans spend certain times of the day in particular spaces. An example is work in an office or factory from Monday to Friday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. This means that space and time are zoned into particular time periods spent at certain places. The flexibilisation, globalisation, digitalisation, individualisation and neoliberalisation of capitalist society have transformed the space-time of everyday life. More and more people work from different spaces, including their home and public spaces, at a variety of times. The workplace, the home and public spaces have partly converged. The boundaries between leisure time and labour time, play and labour, consumption and production, the office and the home, etc., have become blurred. For many people, this tendency has meant an increase of their labour time and the extension of the logic of capital into spheres outside of the traditional workplace. More and more people have had to work more in order to survive but have only done so in precarious ways.

The measure of social distancing practiced as a response to the coronavirus crisis does not mean the dissolution but the radical reorganisation of social relations. Humans avoid face-to-face social relations and substitute them by mediated social relations, in which communication is organised with the help of the telephone, social media, messenger and video communication software such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Zoom, Skype, Panopto, Blackboard Collaborate, Jitsi, Discord, etc. Social distancing is not an avoidance of communication but the substitution of face-to-face communication that bears the risk of contagion by mediated communication. Mediation becomes a strategy of both avoidance and survival. Social distancing is not a distancing from the social and other humans but communication and sociality at a distance.

2.5 THE RADICAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE SPACE-TIME OF EVERYDAY LIFE IN THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS This profound shift in the way we communicate had radical effects on everyday life. The blurring and convergence of social spaces that had been advanced by neoliberalism was suddenly taken to its extreme. The intermediary spaces of public life, where we used to spend leisure time and transit times in cafés, restaurants, parks, nature, public transport, etc., emptied out, which created ghost towns and urban ghost spaces. Politicians had to decide between two basic policy options in light of the coronavirus crisis, namely to either radically disrupt everyday life and ask the majority of citizens to stay at home or to minimally disrupt everyday life. The first option tries to save human lives by reducing the direct communication and direct social relations as far as possible and thereby inevitably creates an economic crisis. The second option keeps up direct communication and direct social relations, which risks human lives in order to try to avoid an economic crisis. In existential crises such as the coronavirus crisis, neoliberal political strategies choose to keep most businesses open. In contrast, socialist strategies shut all non-essential businesses that are not needed to guarantee the survival of society. In the second strategy, human life and well-being stand above economic interests. In the first strategy, economic growth and profitability are put before human life. Neoliberals have at time also resorted to lockdowns of the economy because they feared that the

damage to the economy is larger from the negative health impacts caused by lots of deaths than from locking down the economy for a certain time. This means that to a certain degree they took up the Keynesian and socialist idea of regulating the economy by government measures. Social space is structured and regionalised into specific locales. These are time-space locations, zones, stations and domains such as homes, streets, cities, workplaces, schools, nurseries, parks, shops, restaurants, cafés, means of public transport, etc. Locales refer to the use of space to provide the settings of interaction, the settings of interaction in turn being essential to specifying its contextuality. […] Locales may range from a room in a house, a street corner, the shop floor of a factory, towns and cities, to the territorially demarcated areas occupied by nationstates. But locales are typically internally regionalized, and the regions within them are of critical importance in constituting contexts of interaction (Giddens 1984, 118) A locale is a particular physical or virtual space that is used at particular time, typically in a routinised manner, which implies repetition, for social actions and communication that have a particular goal. Space-time is organised in the form of demarcated and bounded zones or regions (locales) that are the physical, spatial and temporal context of specific types of action and communication. Locales are the places and physical settings of humans' communicative practices. In the coronavirus crisis, the social spaces and locales of work, leisure, education, the public sphere, the private sphere, friendships and family converge in the locale of the home. The home is at the same time workplace, family and private space, school, nursery, leisure space, natural space and a public space from where we connect to friends and professional contacts, etc. Social spaces converge in the home. In this convergent social space, it can easily become difficult to organise everyday life by breaking up time into small portions of which each is dedicated to specific activities in a routinised manner. In the coronavirus crisis, the home has become the supra-locale of everyday life. Whereas daytime used to be for many individuals working time, at the time of the coronavirus crisis it has to be simultaneously working time, play time, educational time, family time, shopping time, housework time, leisure time, care time, psychological coping time, etc. The convergence of social

spaces in the home is accompanied by the convergence of time periods dedicated to specific activities. The result is that activities that humans usually perform in different social roles at different times in different locales converge in activities that are conducted in one universal, tendentially unzoned and unstructured space-time in one locale, the home.

2.6 THE OVERBURDENING OF THE INDIVIDUAL This convergence can easily result in an overburdening of the individual who cannot manage multiple social roles at the same time in one locale. The situation is made worse by the exceptional psychological burdens that the coronavirus crisis causes, where individuals worry about the lives of their family, friends and themselves, have to think of how to organise everyday activities such as shopping and going out without risking their life and others' lives, have to cope with not being physically close to their family members, parents and friends, dedicate time to supporting old, weak and ill people from their families and communities who self-isolate, etc. In such a crisis, lots of time is survival time, time used for activities that secure immediate physical, psychological and social survival. Routine activities become challenging tasks to which significant amounts of time need to be dedicated, and there are times where individuals are not able to properly continue and ‘function’ because they have to cope with fears of death, illness and the future. In times of crisis, humans like to come together with their closest companions in order to help and support one another. Social distancing puts psychological burdens on many humans because they cannot be physically close to some or many of their loved ones. Mediated communication can provide some emotional support, but lacks the capacity of touching, feeling, smelling, hugging, etc., one another. You can say nice words to a friend or relative via a webcam, but you cannot look him or her into the eyes, which is part of empathetic communication. Physical proximity is an important aspect of care that is missing in the coronavirus crisis, which puts additional psychological burdens on individuals. It is much more difficult to communicate emotions, love, solidarity and empathy in mediated communication than in face-toface communication. Houseworkers have traditionally had to deal with multiple types of work, including care, education, cleaning, cooking, shopping, etc., at the same time in the locale of the home. In a sense, the coronavirus crisis is a

process of radical mass housewifisation that confines work, social action and communication to the locale of the home. This condition has been characteristic for houseworkers for many years (Mies et al. 1988). The way the state acts and responds in such a crisis has an additional significant impact on the individual. Socialist crisis action makes sure that humans have the time and resources needed to survive the crisis without becoming poor, indebted, bankrupt, etc. It recognises the need of humans for sufficient time during which they engage in survival work. It provides the material foundations needed for survival work. Neoliberal crisis action tolerates an increase of poverty, misery, debt, precarity, homelessness, unemployment, etc., in order to reorganise society in the interest of capital in a state of emergency. Thinking this logic to its end implies that neoliberal crisis management establishes a stateorganised dictatorship of capital that enslaves the impoverished, indebted and precarious working class that struggles to survive. The coronavirus crisis is a rupture and existential crisis of society that poses both potentials for the development of socialism and solidarity on the one side and dictatorship on the other side.

2.7 SOCIALISM OR BARBARISM The coronavirus crisis certainly means that humans make fewer direct social relations, commute much less, live quite locally and traverse less physical distance. But, this does not necessarily imply the deceleration of social life. The speed of social life has to do with the amount of experiences we make per unit of time. Even if we do not move at all, we can live in a high-speed society where vast amounts of information are rapidly processed and large numbers of decisions are taken and many actions are performed per unit of time. Whether or not the coronavirus crisis is an opportunity for generally slowing down the pace of modern life is first and foremost a question of political economy. It depends on whether or not governments take measures that allow humans to survive without depending on constantly having to perform labour under precarious conditions and provide material foundations that help to avoid an overburdening of the individual from the convergence of social spaces, social times and social roles. What humans realise in the coronavirus crisis is that life, well-being, health and survival are not self-evident. This crisis is a radical confrontation of the individual and society by death. The collective

experience of the fear of death can create new forms of solidarity in society and elements of socialism. The …threat of viral infection also gave a tremendous boost to new forms of local and global solidarity, plus it made clear the need for control over power itself. […] the present crisis demonstrates clearly how global solidarity and cooperation is in the interest of the survival of all and each of us (Žižek 2020a) But if right-wing demagogues manage to ideologically manipulate these fears, then the realisation of such potentials might be destroyed and fascist potentials that divide society and advance dictatorship, genocide, war, inhumanity and mass murder might be realised. The coronavirus crisis radicalises the perspectives for the future of society. It makes it more likely that we are either heading towards socialism or barbarism.

2.8 CORNAVIRUS SOCIETY = RISK SOCIETY AS CLASS SOCIETY Coronavirus and other risks can also affect the rich and powerful such as Prince Charles, Prince Albert, Boris Johnson, Rand Paul, Michel Barnier or Tom Hanks. But, this circumstance does not imply, as the German sociologist Ulrich Beck (1992) claims, that we live in a classless world risk society where existential risks affect everyone equally beyond status and class. The rich and powerful can purchase access to the best private doctors and hospitals and can escape from risks, whereas the poor, workers and everyday people suffer the consequences of privatisation and universal commodification, which means they are more likely to die. The coronavirus crisis once more shows that the risk society is first and foremost a class society. 2.8.1 The Most Vulnerable In the coronavirus crisis, those worst hit and most vulnerable are humans those who do not have a home to which they can retreat, such as the homeless and refugees who are on the run or live in refugee camps. It is

very difficult for these groups to shield themselves from the virus. Politicians can either protect these vulnerable groups by creating and providing suitable shelters that allow social distancing or abandon them by not providing support, which implies that many vulnerable individuals will die. Humans in developing countries often live in overcrowded spaces in poor metropolises or in areas that lack access to water, soap, hospitals, doctors, etc. Protective measures such as social distancing and washing one's hands can, therefore, be more difficult to organise in such spaces. The lack of material foundations of protection, therefore, can especially affect and harm humans in poor countries and regions. 2.8.2 The Working Class in the Coronavirus Crisis For many, life and work have been radically transformed in the coronavirus crisis. Yet there are vast groups of workers who cannot work from home and from a distance. They depend on a differentiation of social spaces and direct social relations in order to produce. Examples include personal services (cooks, cleaners, waiters, bartenders, hairdressers, travel attendants, childcare workers, etc.), manufacturing labour, construction labour, agricultural work, food processing labour, garment labour, drivers, transport labour, refuse labour, elementary labour, etc. Many of these occupations have low and medium skills and rather low wages. Given that many workplaces were shut down in the coronavirus crisis, lower-paid and lower-skill workers who depend on direct social relations and the access to work spaces outside their homes faced a high likelihood of becoming unemployed. For example, in Austria, the number of the unemployed rose from around 400,000 to 550,000 within 10 days in March 2020 (APA 2020). The largest share of the newly unemployed belonged to the economic sectors of accommodation, gastronomy and construction (APA 2020). During the crisis especially highly qualified white-collar workers can continue to work from their homes. This includes both employees and freelancers. Think for example of the activities of architects, managers, scientists, engineers, designers, teachers, academics, writers, artists, analysts, administrators, accountants and financial workers, marketing and public relations workers, software developers and other digital workers creating digital goods and services, lawyers, translators, secretaries, typists, call centre agents, consultants, etc. Such workers may in principle be able to work from home. In many countries, there is a general guideline or rule in the coronavirus crisis that says that those who can conduct their work from home should or have to do so.

There are two main problems such workers face: They may face social and psychological overburdening when trying to work in the home that at the time of an existential crisis is a convergent space of manifold activities, including care work, educational work, wage labour, survival work, etc. Given the relative shutdown of society, there is a reduced demand for services, which means that there might be diminishing sources of income for many homeworkers. It is decisive how governments support white-collar workers and other workers in the coronavirus crisis. Neoliberal strategies put capital and economic growth first, which means that white-collar workers are expected to work at normal capacity and pace from home and cannot rely on special support. Socialist strategies put survival, health, well-being and social security first and, therefore, support white-collar workers and other workers materially, so that they do not face the existential danger of material ruin. 2.8.3 Critical Infrastructures There are a number of occupations in the organisation of critical infrastructures that are necessary for society's survival in an existential crisis. Such foundational work is performed by, for example, doctors, nurses, care workers, midwives, paramedics, pharmacists, psychologists, firefighters, public transport workers, journalists, public service media workers, police officers, food producers, food processing workers, food delivery and transport workers, supermarket workers, post office and delivery workers, sanitation workers, pharmaceutical workers, manufacturing and assemblage workers producing medical equipment, utility workers, telecommunications workers, emergency workers, legal sector workers, etc. Workers in critical infrastructural sectors face a higher risk of falling themselves ill because in their work they have more direct social contacts than others. Think, for example, of doctors and nurses treating COVID-19 patients in hospitals. It is important that governments and organisations do everything that is possible in order to provide protective equipment, measures and working conditions that protect these workers. A particular problem during the coronavirus crisis was the lack of protective equipment, as a result of which many nurses and doctors contracted the virus. Workers in critical infrastructures show a high level of solidarity that is

needed for securing the survival of society and humankind. It is insufficient that they are publicly lauded as heroes. The crucial importance of their work should be acknowledged not just symbolically but also economically and socially by, for example, special bonus payments that are not just symbolic, special retirements benefits, etc. Especially in emergency situations, the market provision of key infrastructures is bound to fail because the commodity form operates based on the profit principle and not on the principle of human interest. Insofar as key infrastructures are not public services, establishing public ownership combined with worker control is a measure that puts humanism over the logic of capital accumulation. Neoliberalism has in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom prevented or undermined the public provision of health care. As a consequence, there is a lack of resources in (including personnel and physical resources) and of individuals' access to the health-care system. In a state of exception such as the coronavirus crisis, dysfunctional health-care systems multiply the number of deaths. It has become evident that universal health care and public ownership of the care sector are of crucial importance for guaranteeing well-being for everyone. The writer and activist Mike Davis (2020a) argues in this context that the coronavirus pandemic shows that ‘capitalist globalization now appears to be biologically unsustainable in the absence of a truly international public health infrastructure’. Bernie Sanders commented in this context in the following way on the coronavirus crisis: [M]illions of people are now demanding that we have a government that works for all. What role should the campaign play in continuing that fight to make sure that health care becomes a human right, not a privilege, that we raise the minimum wage to a living wage, et cetera, et cetera. people now understand that it is incomprehensible that we remain the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to all, that we have an economy which leaves half of our people […] living paycheck to paycheck. […] What kind of system is it where people today are dying, knowing they're sick, but they're not going to the hospital because they can't afford the bill that they'll be picking up? (Sprunt 2020)

The implication of Sander's programme is that countries struck by coronavirus should …hire enough people to identify COVID-19 home-by-home right now and equip them with the needed protective gear, such as adequate masks. Along the way, we need to suspend a society organized around expropriation, from landlords up through sanctions on other countries, so that people can survive both the disease and its cure (Wallace et al. 2020) Coronavirus makes evident that the world needs to realise a global right to public health care, i.e. public health care at a high standard for all. The spiral form of endless capital accumulation is collapsing inward from one part of the world to every other. The only thing that can save it is a government funded and inspired mass consumerism conjured out of nothing. This will require socializing the whole of the economy […] without calling it socialism (Harvey 2020, 186). 2.8.4 The Social Murder of Workers in the Coronavirus Crisis In the coronavirus crisis, being a digital worker who can work from home is a privilege that reduces the risk of unemployment, illness and death. Other workers, especially those in the tourism industry, personal services, the hospitality industry and the culture and entertainment industry, who cannot conduct their services from a distance, lost their jobs. Key sector workers such as food workers, supermarket workers or health-care workers, who work in industries that are absolutely essential for society, could not work from a distance, and a shutdown of these realms of work was impossible. Where there is a lack of personal protective equipment, workers in key sectors face a much higher risk of becoming infected and potentially dying from COVID-19. Digital corporations that focus on the provision of platforms that support distance learning, distance work, video communication or online shopping significantly increased their profits in the coronavirus crisis. An example is the Californian corporation Zoom Video Communications that was founded in 2011. In the nine-month period from 1 February until 31 October, Zoom's

profits after tax had increased from US$ 10.0 million to US$ 411.7 million. 11 In 2020, Zoom was the world's 1601th largest transnational corporation. 12 Zoom's share value increased from US$ 66.93 on 16 December 2019 to US$ 399.43 on 15 December 2020. 13 Amazon's online shopping business also boomed during the coronavirus crisis. In the first financial quarter of 2020, its revenues increased from US$ 59.7 billion from the same period in 2019 to 75.5 billion, which is an increase by 26.5%. 14 Amazon's stock price increased from US$ 1,900 at the start of 2020 to US$ 3,200 in the middle of July 2020. 15 In December 2020, Amazon's stock value stood at roughly the same level as in July of the same year. 16 In the 12 months that ended on 30 September 2020, Amazon had made profits of US$ 17.4 billion, an increase by US$ 6.0 from the profit level of US$ 11.4 billion during the same period in 2018/2019. 17 This means an increase by 52.7%. In 2020, Amazon was the world's 22nd largest transnational corporation with annual profits of US$ 10.6 billion in 2019. 18 In 2020, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos reached a total wealth of US$ 113 billion, making him one of the world's richest people. 19 Amazon workers are precarious service workers who according to reports faced the risk of getting infected by COVID-19: In order to meet the demands of a country in which homes must suddenly be retrofitted to accommodate classrooms, co-working spaces, gyms, hair salons and so on, Amazon announced last month that it would hire 100,000 additional workers in its fulfillment centers and delivery networks, jobs for which many people will be desperate, given the decimated state of the retail and service industries. […] Though the company has increased pay by $2 an hour, employees around the country at Amazon warehouses and its subsidiary, Whole Foods, have been staging walkouts to demand better health protections during the pandemic. For years, Amazon has resisted the efforts of organized labor. […] In a letter to Mr. Bezos, […] labor leaders also addressed concerns that conditions at Amazon warehouses were unsafe: workers there were ‘reporting crowded spaces, a required rate of work that does not allow for proper sanitizing of work spaces, and empty containers meant to hold sanitizing wipes’. […[ various colleagues coming to work […] [were] unwell: fatigued, lightheaded, nauseous […] Later in the month, one of

his colleagues, Barbara Chandler, tested positive for the coronavirus. She was advised by those in human resources at the facility to keep the news on the ‘down low’, she told me. Frustrated by what he perceived as the company's lack of transparency, Mr. Smalls made it his mission to disseminate information about cases of Covid-19 at the warehouse (Bellafante 2020) Amazon workers in countries such as the United States, France and Italy protested against these conditions. Amazon has not released data on the number of its workers that became infected and the number of those that died. In the Amazon warehouse in Shakopee, Minnesota, 88 out of 1,000 employees reportedly got infected within 70 days (García-Hodges et al. 2020). Tönnies Holding is a German meat processing corporation that has more than 16,500 employees. Its headquarters is in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, a town in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where the company also operates a large meat processing plant. In 2018, the company achieved annual revenues of 6.65 billion Euros 20 . In 2020, the wealth of Clemens Tönnies and Robert Tönnies, who are the two major owners of the Tönnies Holding, was US$ 1.8 billion each, which equally placed them as the world's 1196th richest persons in 2020. 21 In summer 2020, there were more than 1,500 COVID-19 cases among workers in the Tönnies factory in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, among them many low-paid migrant workers who are bogus self-employed and live in crowded accommodations (Deutsche Welle 2020a,b,c). The agglomeration of workers in crowded spaces played a role in the spread of COVID-19 among Tönnies workers. A report in Der Spiegel describes the conditions that the predominantly Eastern European Tönnies workers faced in Rheda-Wiedenbrück: They tend to be hired by subcontractors, they are poorly paid, quickly replaced and inadequately protected – even during the current coronavirus pandemic. […] Now, Clemens Tönnies – sometimes referred to as the Pork Chop Prince or the Meat Baron – has a problem. For years, he has ruthlessly pursued efficiency, but now, the entire country wants to know what goes on behind his factory gates. He has perfected the art of extracting all he can out of both his employees and the animals they process, transforming living creatures into an industrial product.

His strategy was volume, volume, volume and he cut his costs to the bone, becoming the favorite supplier to Germany's discount grocery chains. The company enjoys a 30% share of the pork market in Germany. […] A Polish worker in Rheda-Wiedenbrück has a bit more to say, though he is fearful of speaking openly. He says he earns 1,600 euros for 190 hours of work per month. His shifts begin at 3 a.m. and end at 1 p.m., with a 30-minute break every three hours. ‘We stand at the conveyor belt about 20 to 30 centimeters apart, right next to each other. Often, the speed of the belt is ratcheted up and the supervisor watches us closely’. […]Like the Romanians in the white-plastered house near Münster, many workers aren't actually Tönnies employees, instead working for subcontractors, and without them […] According to Tönnies Holding, 50% of its workers are actually employees of such a company (Becker et al. 2020, 10–11, 11, 14) Romanian Tönnies workers described the housing conditions they faced: Romanian worker: It was always very crowded; there were sometimes 10, 12, occasionally even 14 people in one apartment. The monthly rent was 200 euros each. The buildings belonged to the subcontractors. […] But it just isn't fair to cram so many people into one apartment! (Deutsche Welle 2020a) Most workers interviewed, many of whom were very upset, have been either employed by the huge meat producer Tönnies or its subsidiaries. They have described extremely exhaustive work and aggressive language. The workers accused managers of not putting enough protective measures in place in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some have also said that the shared accommodation, in which they were forced to live, was cramped and inhumane (Deutsche Welle 2020b) In The Condition of the Working Class in England, Friedrich Engels introduces the notion of social murder, by which he means poor working

conditions that endanger the lives of workers. Social murder means that workers die ‘indirectly, far more than directly’ (Engels 1845, 38) through social structures that cause the death of workers and that …society places hundreds of proletarians in such a position that they inevitably meet a too early and an unnatural death, one which is quite as much a death by violence as that by the sword or bullet; when it deprives thousands of the necessaries of life, places them under conditions in which they cannot live (Engels 1845, 106) Capitalism places: the workers under conditions in which they can neither retain health nor live long; that it undermines the vital force of these workers gradually, little by little, and so hurries them to the grave before their time. I have further to prove that society knows how injurious such conditions are to the health and the life of the workers, and yet does nothing to improve these conditions. That it knows the consequences of its deeds; that its act is, therefore, not mere manslaughter, but murder (Engels 1845, 107) The Condition of the Working Class in England's second chapter ‘The Great Towns’ focuses on spatial conditions of working-class life. It is an analysis of everyday urban life. Engels described how in English workingclass districts ‘many human beings here lived crowded into a small space’ (Engels 1845,39) where there is ‘little air – and such air!’ to breathe (Engels 1845,65). The Tönnies scandal shows that 170 years after Engels' report on the conditions of the working class, poor and highly exploited workers still face threats to their health and life due to the agglomeration of many workers in cramped spaces. The poorest cannot afford social distancing and are forced to risk their lives. Capital draws profits from these risks because space is considered as a production factor of capital so that crowding workers into small work and living spaces increases profitability. Tönnies makes profits by low wages for long hours. And subcontractors in addition rob parts of the workers' wages by charging high rents for overcrowded substandard accommodation. Renting out small places to extremely vulnerable workers allows rentiers to divide space into small compartments

and to command a high rental price for these compartments. In addition, by keeping the compartments in a shabby condition, the rentier tries to keep his investment costs low in order to be able to maximise their gains. Amazon and Tönnies are examples of companies that have been criticised by observers in the context of COVID-19. These observers have argued that workers were put at risk of catching the virus by a lack of protective measures. Work inequalities have been reinforced on the COVID-19 crisis. Migrant workers and unskilled workers are more likely to have jobs that cannot be conducted over a distance. Slaughtering animals and packing books into parcels have not yet been fully automated and robotised. They cannot be conducted at a distance via the Internet. Lowpaid, low-skill workers who cannot work from a distance have faced an increased risk of catching COVID-19 and dying from the virus. In the COVID-19 crisis, social murder has taken on new forms. 2.8.5 The Social Distancing of Old, Weak and Ill Individuals Old people and people suffering from cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes, cancer or having a weakened immune system are at a particular risk to die from coronavirus. Many governments, therefore, have recommended or mandated that at-risk groups should stay at home and isolate themselves. This, however, increases the psychological burden that results from reduced direct social contact. As noted above, the use of communication technologies for staying in touch with loved ones and communities is not a fix for the lack of direct social contacts, although it is a means for providing certain forms of emotional support. Older people, however, face a digital divide. This group's physical, motivational and skills access to digital technologies such as computers, the Internet, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, apps, social media, etc., is significantly lower than in the younger generation. In 2019, 98% of European Union (EU) citizens aged 16–24 were Internet users, whereas only 60% of those aged 65–75 uses the Internet. In the age group of 65– 75, 31% had low and 2% no digital skills in 2019. 22 Given the digital divide, older people face a particular risk of feeling lonely and depressed as a result of social distancing. Whereas neoliberal strategies simply tell pensioners to isolate without supporting measures, a socialist strategy would devise measures in order to alleviate the psychological burdens of social isolation. Examples include social and community services that provide food, install easy-to-use communication

technologies in at-risk group members' homes, engage in daily contacts with at-risk individuals, etc. 2.8.6 Children, Youth and (E-)Learning in the Coronavirus Crisis In the coronavirus crisis, some countries during specific phases shut nurseries, primary and secondary schools, as well as universities. As a consequence, children and youth needed to stay at home with their parents. The general expectation has been that teaching continues at a distance making use of e-mail, video conferencing, messaging systems and a variety of e-learning technologies. The first problem that arises is that children, and especially small children, need lots of attention, which conflicts with parents being able to work from home. Parents have to act not just as workers and carers but also as teachers. A socialist strategy has to put childcare and well-being over labour. The implication is that in an existential crisis of society, wages should be continued to be paid and subsidised by governments without performance expectations. States of emergency are radical ruptures of society and everyday life. One cannot expect that life, work and education can continue as normal. Therefore, also the educational performance expectations of pupils and students should be suspended or put at a minimum level. One feasible option is that learning materials and support are provided, but there are no exams and all students and pupils automatically pass. The second problem is that e-learning that is purely mediated and virtual tends to be inefficient and difficult to organise. Therefore, blended learning where virtual learning at a distance is combined with face-to-face learning sessions has become the generally accepted standard in elearning. Blended learning …is the full integration of face-to-face and online activities. Blended learning can include the blending of individual collaborative activities, modes of communication (verbal written), and a range of face-to-face and online courses constitute a blended program of studies

[…] and and that

(Garrison 2011, 75–76) Blended learning

…represents a significant conceptual and practical breakthrough in enhancing the quality of teaching and learning […] The great advantage of blended learning is that while it is transformative, it builds upon traditional ideals of communities of learners and familiar face-to-face learning (Garrison 2011, 82) The radical virtuality of e-learning in the coronavirus crisis easily reaches limits and causes problems. Keeping up the performance principles of grading, success and failure under such difficult learning conditions is counterproductive to the cultural and social development of young people. There was a digital divide of e-learning during the pandemic. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) conducted a global study of remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study included a total of 100 countries. 76% of children who could not be reached by e-learning lived in rural areas, and 72% lived in poor households (UNICEF 2020, 11 [Figure 7]). …Around the world, over 70 per cent of students who cannot be reached live in rural areas and over three-quarters come from the poorest 40 per cent of households. […] Unsurprisingly, digital and broadcast remote learning have a higher potential reach in wealthier countries than in poorer ones, as well as in wealthier and/or urban segments of the population (UNICEF 2020, 1) There is a geographical and class divide of e-learning. Internet access and digital skills are less available in rural than urban areas. Rich families can better afford the time and support children need during lockdown than poor working-class families who cannot afford the time to learn together with their children and the hardware required for access to e-learning. In some countries, the view of politicians and many people during certain phases of the lockdown was that children have little or no infectiousness and, therefore, kindergartens and schools should remain open at all costs, otherwise the right to education would be undermined. However, experts such as virologist Christian Drosten pointed out, based on scientific evidence (Jones et al. 2020), 23 that children are also infectious. There is ‘little evidence from the present study to support

suggestions that children may not be as infectious as adults’ (Jones et al. 2020, 2). If the right to education is given priority over the right to life, children can easily become symptomless carriers and ‘superspreaders’ of COVID-19 who are highly educated but then may no longer have parents or grandparents. In pandemic crises like the COVID-19 crisis, the right to survival outweighs the right to education. If all children and youth in a society do not attend school for a year, then world does not come to an end. Government investment makes it possible for that school year to be repeated. School is simply cancelled for a year. Education can be made up. The dead, on the other hand, cannot be brought back to life. Radically upholding the right to education in the COVID-19 crisis is a form of contempt for humanity.

2.9 GLOBAL CITIES AND RURAL AREAS IN THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS Global capitalism created a power gap between global cities on the one side and rural areas on the other side. Global cities are urban spatial agglomerations of capital, labour-power, companies, banks, infrastructure, corporate headquarters, service industries, international financial services, telecommunication facilities, etc. Global cities include, for example, New York, London, Tokyo, Paris, Frankfurt, Zurich, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Sydney, São Paulo, Mexico City and Hong Kong. ‘The more globally the economy becomes, the higher the agglomeration of central functions in a relatively few sites, that is, the global cities’ (Sassen 1991, 5). ‘The need to minimize circulation costs as well as turnover times promotes agglomeration of production within a few large urban centers which become, in effect, the workshops of capitalist production’ (Harvey 2001, 245). Geographical expansion goes hand in hand with geographical concentration (Harvey 2001, 246). Whereas wealth and power are concentrated in global cities, there is a lack of resources, people, and infrastructures in many rural areas, which is a source of social problems. In the coronavirus crisis, people living in densely populated global cities are at a disadvantage in comparison to those in rural areas. There is a lack of natural spaces and accessible gardens in global cities, which makes it hard for families and individuals living in such cities to endure quarantine and social isolation. It is especially difficult for those who have kids but live in small apartments

without access to a garden. In addition, the high population density in global cities makes it more likely and easier that the virus spreads than in sparsely populated rural areas. People in rural areas are then less likely to contract the coronavirus, and they have better access to nature, which makes it easier to cope with quarantine measures. High-density human populations would seem an easy host target. It is well known that measles epidemics, for example, only flourish in larger urban population centers but rapidly die out in sparsely populated regions. How human beings interact with each other, move around, discipline themselves, or forget to wash their hands affect how diseases get transmitted (Harvey 2020, 181) In the coronavirus crisis, the unequal geography has partly been reversed in respect to the absolute and relative number of illnesses and death. Rural areas certainly can face the disadvantage of less-equipped and advanced hospitals, but their inhabitants are less likely to contract coronavirus than the inhabitants of global cities.

2.10 CONCLUSION This chapter asked: How have everyday life and everyday communication changed in the coronavirus crisis? How does capitalism shape everyday life and everyday communication during this crisis? The chapter outlined profound changes of how space-time is organised in societies struck by the pandemic. It became evident that the well-being of everyday people depends on political economy and what policies governments take in response to the crisis. Political responses to the crisis range on a continuum between neoliberalism on the one side and socialism on the other side. The next section will focus on how and what type of ideology is communicated in the context of the coronavirus crisis. We can summarise this chapter's main findings: Social distancing: The social distancing practiced during the coronavirus crisis is not an avoidance of communication and social relations but the substitution of face-to-face communication that bears the risk of

contagion by mediated communication. Social distancing is not the distanciation from sociality and communication but rather sociality and communication at a distance. The rupture of everyday life and everyday communication: The coronavirus crisis brought about a radical transformation of the space-time of everyday life and everyday communication. In this crisis, the social spaces and locales of work, leisure, education, the public sphere, the private sphere, friendships and family converge in the locale of the home. The home takes on the role of the supralocale of everyday life from which humans organise society at a distance with the help of communication technologies. Activities that humans usually perform in different social roles at different times in different locales converge in activities conducted in one universal, tendentially unzoned and unstructured space-time in one locale, the home. The danger of overburdening individuals: The convergence of space-time in the home characteristic for the coronavirus crisis can easily overburden the individual who cannot manage multiple social roles at the same time in one locale. Public health policies that unburden the individual are, therefore, of key importance for managing such a crisis. Communication technologies as means of sociality at a distance: Communication technologies play an important role in the organisation of everyday social life under the exceptional conditions that the coronavirus crisis poses for society and individuals. Primary means of communication are, by and large, avoided. There is the wide use of mediated communication with the help of secondary, tertiary, quaternary and quinary means of communication. Face-toface communication is replaced by mediated communication, which creates challenges because closeness, love and emotions are hard to achieve and communicate in mediated communication. You cannot hug someone over the Internet. Coronavirus and class structures: Although everyone can contract coronavirus, the social effects of the pandemic are unequally distributed along class structures. The poor, the old, the weak and the ill are especially vulnerable and affected. Whereas some workers can continue to work from home but face

the danger of overburdening activities and lack of demand, other workers lose their jobs and face the danger of destitution, unemployment and homelessness. Government measures: Government responses to the coronavirus crisis range on a continuum between neoliberalism and socialism. Neoliberal strategies could, for example, be found in the United Kingdom. They take a laissez-faire approach that avoids disrupting everyday life and put economic growth and the profit imperative over human interests and human lives. Everyone is left to themselves, which means that only the strong survive. Such responses make clear that neoliberalism is a form of social Darwinism. Socialist strategies are based on the idea of collective solidarity in fighting the pandemic. Measures are taken that minimise the death toll and try to safeguard a good life for everyone. Human interests and human lives are put over capitalist interests. The coronavirus crisis is an existential crisis of humanity and society. Socialist measures aim at providing resources and forms of relief to humans that allow them enough time for survival labour in order to better cope with the difficulties of the ruptures of everyday life and to be better able to reorganise routine activities, cope with fears and anxiety, support friends, family and communities, etc. 2.10.1 Socialism or Barbarism The coronavirus crisis is an existential crisis of humanity and society. It radically confronts humans with death and the fear of death. This collective experience can, on the one hand, result in new forms of solidarity and socialism. Humans realise that life, well-being, health and survival are their most important and most fundamental goods that they need to take care of themselves and of each other and that collective and global solidarity is needed in order to overcome the pandemic. But, on the other hand, there is the danger of war and fascism. The biggest political danger of the coronavirus crisis is that the far-right uses the state of emergency in order to spread false news, nationalism, hatred, which can result in violence, warfare, dictatorship, genocide and fascism. The coronavirus crisis radicalises the perspectives for the future of society. It makes it more likely that we are either heading towards socialism or barbarism. Just like 100 years ago, bourgeois society also today and in the

coming time ‘stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism’ (Luxemburg 1916, 388). ‘In this hour, socialism is the only salvation for humanity’ (Luxemburg 1971, 367). 1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%9320_coronavirus_pandemic_in_mainland_C hina. 2WHO, https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019, accessed

on 30 March 2020. 3Translation from German: „Zwangsentschleunigung“. 4Translation from German: „Dem steht eine massive Verlangsamung im realen

physischen Leben gegenüber. Wo man sich einerseits stillgestellt und ausgeschlossen fühlt, andererseits plötzlich neue Formen von Solidarität und neue Formen von Zugewandtheit entdeckt“. 5Translation from German: „Beziehungen werden suspekt“. 6Translation from German: „wachsende Entfremdung“. 7Translation from German: „Wir haben Zeit. Wir können plötzlich hören und

wahrnehmen, was um uns herum geschieht: Vielleicht hören wir wirklich die Vögel und sehen die Blumen und grüßen die Nachbarn. Hören und Antworten (statt beherrschen und kontrollieren): Das ist der Beginn eines Resonanzverhältnisses, und daraus, genau daraus kann Neues entstehen“. 8 https://www.thejockeyclub.co.uk/cheltenham/media/press-releases/2020/03/crowd-of-

68859-for-fourth-day-in-2020/. 9 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XRc389TvG8. 10WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard, https://covid19.who.int/table, accessed

on 17 March 2021. 11Zoom Video Communications: SEC Filings form 10-Q, quarterly report which provides

a continuing view of a company's financial position, 4 December https://investors.zoom.us/sec-filings, accessed on 16 December 2020. 12

Forbes Global 2000 List of the World's Largest Public https://www.forbes.com/global2000/, accessed on 16 December 2020.

2020,

Companies,

13Yahoo! Finance, https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/ZM, accessed on 16 December

2020. 14Amazon Inc., SEC filings, form 10-Q for the quarterly period ending 31 March 2020,

https://ir.aboutamazon.com/sec-filings. 15Yahoo! Finance, https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AMZN. 16Yahoo! Finance, https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AMZN, accessed on 16 December

2020. 17Amazon Inc., SEC filings, form 10-Q for the quarterly period ending 30 September

2020, https://ir.aboutamazon.com/sec-filings.

18 Forbes 2000 list for the year 2020, https://www.forbes.com/global2000, accessed on

11 July 2020. 19 Forbes World's Billionaires List for 2020, https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/. 20 https://toennies.de/en/home/, accessed on 11 July 2020. 21

Forbes World's Billionaires List for https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/, accessed on 11 July 2020.

the

year

2020,

22Eurostat, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat. 23Compare: https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/new-on-the-covid-19-front-lines-

children-may-be-driving-the-pandemic-after-all-a-95e4c0e7-2ea0-479b-ac27d17f07d147a5, https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/medizin/corona-studie-kinder-sindgenauso-ansteckend-wie-erwachsene-a-a9552b85-5980-4810-ada5-1acc3bde095a.

3

CONSPIRACY THEORIES AS IDEOLOGY ABSTRACT This chapter deals with the question: What is a conspiracy theory? It provides a concept of conspiracy theories and situates conspiracy theories in the context of COVID-19. In order to understand how COVID-19 conspiracy theories work, one requires a theoretical concept of conspiracy theories. The developed understanding is especially grounded in Frankfurt School critical theory. Section 2 of this chapter works out a critical theory concept of conspiracy theories. Section 3 is an introduction to the communication of COVID-19 conspiracy theories. Keywords Ideology; conspiracy theories; conspiracy theories; coronavirus; SARS-CoV-2

COVID-19

3.1 INTRODUCTION This chapter provides a concept of conspiracy theories and situates conspiracy theories in the context of COVID-19.

In order to understand how COVID-19 conspiracy theories work, one requires a theoretical concept of conspiracy theories. The developed understanding is especially grounded in Frankfurt School critical theory. Section 3.2 of this chapter works out a critical theory concept of conspiracy theories. Section 3.3 is an introduction to the communication of COVID-19 conspiracy theories. Given that conspiracy theories are particular forms of ideology, we first will take a brief look at the notion of ideology. 3.1.1 Ideology Terry Eagleton (1991, 28–31) provides an overview of different understandings of ideology. The most general definitions equate ideology with ideas and worldviews. For a critical theory, such an understanding is unsuited because it does not allow to use ideology for characterising negative aspects of the discursive, linguistic, symbolic and communicative dimensions of society. In critical definitions, ideology refers to ‘ideas and beliefs which help to legitimate the interests of a ruling group or class specifically by distortion and dissimulation’ and arise ‘from the material structure of society as a whole’ (Eagleton 1991, 30). Ideologies veil class relations and domination, legitimate class society and domination, naturalise exploitation and domination, and distract attention from the true status of society and the true causes of society's problems. ‘One can distinguish two functions of ideology, justification […] and concealment’ (Horkheimer 1957, 273, translated from German). Ideology presupposes societal structures, in which different groups and conflicting interests act and strive to impose their interest onto the totality of society as its general interest. To put it shortly: The emergence and diffusion of ideologies appears as the general characteristic of class societies (Lukács 1984, 405, translated from German) Marx argued that ideologies are modes and strategies that ideologues employ for presenting distorted pictures of society and

make the latter's ‘relations appear upside-down as in a camera obscura’ (Marx and Engels 1845/1846, 36). Ideologies are not simply structures but processes and social relations between rulers and ruled that involve production and reproduction. Ideological workers create the content of ideologies that are communicated by ideologues. They are ‘the thinkers of the class (its active, conceptive ideologists, who make the formation of the illusions of the class about itself their chief source of livelihood)’ (Marx and Engels 1845/1846, 60). Individuals and groups confronted by ideologies react in certain manners, they ignore, partly share, share, adopt, support, spread, partly contest, contest or struggle against ideologies. Ideology is a particular communication process (for a concept of ideology as part of a critical theory of communication, see Fuchs 2020a, Chapter 9; for an overview of Marx's concept of communication, see Fuchs 2020b, Chapter 9).

3.2 WHAT IS A CONSPIRACY THEORY? 3.2.1 Definitions Let us have a look at some definitions of conspiracy theories: Mark Fenster is a legal scholar. In his book Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture, he gives the following definition: A conspiracy theory is the ‘conviction that a secret, omnipotent individual or group covertly controls the political and social order or some part thereof’ (Fenster 2008, 1). A conspiracy theory assumes that the ‘perceived secret elite’ dominates over and manipulates ‘the entirety of economic, political and social relations’ and expresses ‘fears of an omnipotent Other’ (Fenster 2008, 89). Conspiracy theory as a populist theory of power, then, is an ideological misrecognition of power relations, calling

believers and audiences together and into being as “the people” opposed to a relatively secret, elite ‘power bloc’ (Fenster 2008, 89) It may frequently or even usually be “ideological” under either a Marxist-influenced or non-Marxist approach that would view conspiracy theory as expressing a false consciousness or distorting some fundamental truth. But it expresses a longing for involvement, a desire for political meaning and significance on the part of the political subject (Fenster 2008, 194) Joseph E. Uscinski is a political scientist who has specialised on the analysis of conspiracy theories. In the book Conspiracy Theories: A Primer, he provides a definition of conspiracies and conspiracy theories: A conspiracy involves a small group of powerful individuals acting in secret for their own benefit and against the common good. […] Conspiracy theory is an explanation of past, present, or future events or circumstances that cites, as the primary cause, a conspiracy. Like conspiracies, conspiracy theories involve the intentions and actions of powerful people; for this reason, conspiracy theories are inherently political. Conspiracy theories are accusatory ideas that could be either true or false, and they contradict the proclamations of epistemological authorities, assuming such proclamations exist (Uscinski 2020, 22, 23) A conspiracy theory refers to an unauthoritative accusatory perception that a small group of powerful individuals acted/are acting/will act in secret for their own benefit, and against the common good

(Uscinski 2020, 41) Cass R. Sunstein is a legal scholar, who together with the legal scholar Adrian Vermeule in the co-authored article ‘Conspiracy Theories: Cause and Cures’, outlines his understanding of conspiracy theories: A conspiracy theory is an effort to explain some event or practice by reference to the machinations of powerful people, who attempt to conceal their role (at least until their aims are accomplished) (Sunstein and Vermeule 2009, 205). Michael Butter studies American literary and cultural history. Peter Knight is a specialist in American studies. Butter and Knight edited the Routledge Handbook of Conspiracy Theories. In the introduction to their handbook, they give the following definition: Conspiracy theories …assume that everything has been planned and nothing happens by coincidence; they divide the world strictly into the evil conspirators and the innocent victims of their plot; and they claim that the conspiracy works in secret and does not reveal itself even after it has reached its goals. […] nothing happens by accident; nothing is as it seems; and everything is connected (Butter and Knight 2020, 1) Synthesising these definitions, we can say that a conspiracy theory is an explanation of aspects of society that claims that there is a secret group that executes a conscious, sinister plan for obtaining or exercising (world) domination, pulls the strings of power behind the back of ordinary citizens, acts 100% in a planned and interestdriven manner so that there are no coincidences and all official interpretations of events must necessarily be manipulated and deceptive, and conceals its interests, plans and actions. A conspiracy theory operates based on the friend/enemy scheme that assumes that the secret group has particularistic interests that are opposed to the interests of ‘the people’. It tries to unite diverse groups who often have opposed interests under the category of the

‘people’ who are opposed to, deceived by and dominated by the perceived secret conspirator, whereby attention I deflected from the class and power structures in society. This means that conspiracy theories together form a particular type of ideology that exists in class and dominative societies. 3.2.2 Elements of Conspiracy Theories 3.2.2.1 Secret Domination and Concealment In conspiracy theories, there is no chance in society and there are hidden, sinister, consciously carried out plans of the powerful everywhere. Everything is done with a sinister, secret plan in mind that is hidden from everyday people. The hidden sinister plan is the main feature of any conspiracy theory. In contrast to conspiracy theories, Marxian theory argues that in class societies, there are structures of alienation that compel humans to act in certain roles and follow certain rules of actions in order to survive. The worker is compelled to earn a wage in order to survive, and the capitalist is compelled to accumulate capital and exploit workers in order to survive. There is not a sinister, hidden plan in capitalism and class societies in general, but the structural reality of class relations and relations of domination that shape the lives and roles of humans and condition their actions. In conspiracies, there are acts that individuals, groups and institutions try to keep secret from the public. Think, for example, of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI's) COINTELPRO, the Watergate scandal, the Tuskegee experiments or the July 1944 attempt to assassinate Hitler. There is a difference between actual behaviour that is kept secret and is not known to the public and imagined secretive behaviour that has no material foundations and is fictive and imaginary. 3.2.2.2 Personalisation In capitalism, there are fetishistic structures that make domination and class relations disappear behind things and reified structures, so that the relations of production, exploitation and domination appear natural and self-evident. Fetishism is not a sinister plan but a

structural reality of capitalism. Conspiracy theories are a reaction to alienation. Their followers surmise that reality in class society is not always as it immediately appears. But conspiracy theories draw false and ideological conclusions by explaining society as being based on a conscious, sinister plan that can never be fully revealed, explained, analysed, evidenced and understood. Conspiracy theories are a form of false consciousness (ideology) that decodes alienation in a false manner, so that domination is personalised in the form of a conspirator who pulls the hidden strings of domination. Conspiracy theories overlook society's structure, namely that alienation operates as a structure that interacts dialectically with the conscious, unconscious, intended and unintended actions of humans in society. Conspiracy theories personalise domination. The personalisation of domination implies that one needs and should simply remove the conspirator in order to overcome society's problems instead of, as Marxist theory argues, having to replace social structures of alienation by humanist, democratic-socialist structures and practices. As a consequence, conspiracy theories are prone to anti-Semitism, racism, exterminatory logic and fascism. ‘More dangerously, conspiracy theories can express – and in American history frequently have helped organize – virulent hostility to racial, ethnic, religious, sexual, or political Others’. (Fenster 2008, 11). 3.2.2.3 The Friend/Enemy Scheme Theodor W. Adorno outlines the connection of conspiracy theory as ideology and violence. He argues that conspiracy theories are a necessary feature of capitalism. ‘With bourgeois property, education and culture spread, driving paranoia into the dark corners of society and the psyche’, which includes the proliferation of conspiracy theories (Horkheimer and Adorno 2002, 163). Adorno et al. (1950, 228) see superstition and stereotypy – the ‘belief in mystical determinants of the individual's fate; the disposition to think in rigid categories’ – as a feature of fascist ideology. Conspiracy theories are rigid and stereotypical in that they use a particular form of the friend/enemy scheme that is combined with superstitious and

mystical belief in the existence of a secret enemy who exerts a hidden plan of domination. Just as the masses-hope-for-their deliverance from distress through absolute oneness with a person, so they ascribe their distress to certain persons, who have brought this distress into the world through a conspiracy. The historical process is personified in this manner. Hatred, resentment, dread, created by great upheavals, are concentrated on certain persons who are denounced as devilish conspirators (Neumann 1957/2017, 618) Not all superstition, mysticism and conspiracy thinking are fascist, but fascist ideology has an aspect of superstitious, mystical and conspiratorial belief in that is irrational but for those believing in it is a highly rational irrationality that guides their thoughts and actions. 3.2.2.4 Violence The friend/enemy scheme often leads to the perception of violence as means for solving the perceived problems by eliminating the enemy. ‘Paranoid forms of consciousness rend to give rise to leagues, factions, rackets’ (Horkheimer and Adorno 2002, 163). The ‘paranoiac brooding and the projection of conspiracies end with suggestions for acts of violence’ (Löwenthal and Guterman 1949, 26). For example, Hitler claimed there was a Jewish world conspiracy and used this conspiracy theory as justification for organising the Shoah as the fascist rackets' practice of the industrial extermination of Jews. Fascism mobilises conspiracy theories against constructed enemies in order to organise what Franz L. Neumann (1957/2017) calls persecutory anxiety: individuals who feel alienated and believe in conspiracy theories become entrapped in ideology, so that they feel persecuted by the constructed enemy and want to in turn persecute and eliminate this enemy. Fascists mobilise ideology and anxiety in order to organise violence and terror as reactions to fears of a constructed enemy and fears of alienation that is perceived as being caused by this enemy.

In fascism, conspiracy theory is an ideological strategy for mobilising dissatisfied individuals against scapegoats: In nurturing the idea of a permanent conspiracy directed against the eternal dupes, the agitator plays upon and enlarges the tendency among people who suffer from a sense of failure to ascribe their misfortunes to secret enemy machinations. The dismissed employee, the jilted lover, the disgruntled solder deprived of a promotion, the student who fails an examination, the small grocer driven out of business by a chain competitor – any of these may be inclined to blame mysterious persecutors motivated by obscure grudges (Löwenthal and Guterman 1949, 24) Neumann (1957/2017) argues that Jews, communists, Jesuits, Freemasons and capitalists have in history been the five main secret agents present in conspiracy theories. 3.2.2.5 Rational Irrationality Conspiracy is negative hyperrationality that turns into irrationality. Those who believe in conspiracies search for hidden indicators of the existence of conspiracies. The constant search for indicators is the rational aspect of conspiracies. Such indicators are then interpreted by coming up with assumptions, suspicions, allegations, superstitions and conclusions that are not underpinned by facts. Conspiracy theory believers take phenomena that have no connection to a certain event or unrelated phenomena as proof for the existence of a conspiracy. They say one has to ‘join the dots’, which means that they make fantastic assumptions about why the phenomena in question are evidence and proof. The alleged conspiracy indicators are over-interpreted and joined with baseless arguments and assumptions. This is the irrational aspect of conspiracies. ‘They [conspiracy theorists] simply counter conventional narratives with suspicions and allegations that, more often than not, resist coherent emplotment or satisfying narrative resolution’ (Dean 2000).

Conspiracy theories present suspicion as sufficient elements of a theory. They are poor forms of theories that are based on mere speculations, prejudices, suspicions and ideologies. Conspiracy theorists are constantly searching for hidden knowledge and truths and claim to uncover hidden truths of events based on ungrounded and often pointless observations. They constantly try to come up with narratives and explanations that run counter to dominant interpretations and explanations. They assume that official stories and explanations have to be necessarily totally false. Like religion that postulates the existence of God, conspiracy theories are a matter of belief. The followers of a conspiracy believe in the existence of dark forces that planned and execute a conspiracy. Conspiracy theories are, therefore, ideological. Conspiracy theories also advance the claim that powerful actors try to deceive the public about the true events, true actors or the latter's true interests involved in a conspiracy. Frederic Jameson (1988, 356) argues that conspiracy theories are forms of paranoia, …the poor person's cognitive mapping in the postmodern age; it is a degraded figure of the total logic of late capital, a desperate attempt to represent the latter's system, whose failure is marked by its slippage into sheer theme and content. (Jameson 1988, 356) We all know the cliché about conspiracy theories as the poor man's ideology: when individuals lack the elementary cognitive mapping capabilities and resources that would enable them to locate their place within a social totality, they invent conspiracy theories that provide an ersatz mapping, explaining all the complexities of social life as the result of a hidden conspiracy (Žižek 2004, 319)

Conspiracy theorists and their followers are often not able to engage in a rational debate about the conspiracy they believe in. They either refuse debate or see everyone who questions their claims as brainwashed, manipulated and not able to see what is ‘really going on’. Followers of conspiracy theories find their own irrational beliefs highly rational and proclaim that rational questioning of their conspiracy theory is irrational. ‘When people believe a conspiracy theory, they tend not to consider it theory at all, but rather fact’ (Uscinski 2020, 25). Given conspiracy theories are based on suspicions and the belief that these suspicions represent the truth, they are non-falsifiable so that believers are closing themselves off from rational debate and immunising themselves against rational arguments. 3.2.2.6 Determinism Conspiracy theories assume that behind the visible power structure and its actors, there are hidden, secret and unknown actors with unknown intentions who are pulling the strings and are directing the actors that are visible to the public. They do not acknowledge that there are aspects of chance and unintentional consequences of actions in society. For believers of conspiracy theories, all consequences are driven by intentions and plans. They have a deterministic understanding of humans and society, which causes them to constantly search for secret plans. Conspiracy theories' …basic premise is that, behind the public Master (who, of course, is an impostor), there is a hidden Master who effectively keeps everything under control. […] the efficiency of the fantasmatic logic of Conspiracy demands that the Enemy remains an unfathomable entity whose true identity can never be fully disclosed (Žižek 1996, 18, 30: footnote 4) Conspiracy theories feature a ‘general suspicion of experts and politicians’ (Dean 1998, 17). They assume that experts and politicians always and necessarily lie. The contemporary age of authoritarian capitalism has by some been described as an age of

post-truth and fake news that is characterised by a strong distrust in expert knowledge and the belief that what one finds ideologically acceptable and emotionally pleasing is true (Fuchs 2018a, 2020c). It is, therefore, no surprise that we have been experiencing the proliferation of conspiracy theories in the past couple of years. The underlying reason for this proliferation is neoliberal capitalism's negative dialectic that has resulted in economic and political crises and rising inequalities. Capitalism has thereby delegitimized itself, which has resulted in a phase of uncertainty and crisis where people search for alternatives. The Left has not been sufficiently able to present socialism as viable alternative. In contrast, right-wing authoritarian politicians, movements and parties have been relatively successful in advancing ideologically driven narratives. They blame immigrants, refugees, experts, socialists, intellectuals, progressive cultural politics, etc., for society's problems and offer racism, xenophobia, nationalism, law and order politics, militarism and other forms of right-wing policies as solutions. Many contemporary rightwing ideological projects utilise conspiracy theories. Žižek (2006) reminds us that one should not simply pathologise conspiracy theorists. Conspiracy theories are not simply the psychological reflexes of mentally ill persons, but one of the consequences of highly antagonistic societies where social problems, injustices, inequalities and crises explode and culminate in new qualities. ‘The problem is not that ufologists and conspiracy theorists regress to a paranoiac attitude unable to accept (social) reality; the problem is that this reality itself is becoming paranoiac’ (Žižek 2006, 1555). 3.2.2.7 The Communication of Conspiracy Theories Conspiracy theories are communicated via public, semi-public and private means of communication. The Internet is a particularly important means for communication about conspiracy theories. The capitalist Internet and other capitalist means of communication are not the cause of conspiracy theories but rather are manifestations of societies that are prone to conspiracy theories and social forms that mediate conspiracy theory communication. The Internet makes it easy for users to produce and disseminate content. It is a space that

enables prosumption and user-generated content. When conspiracy theories proliferate, as in authoritarian capitalism, the Internet, therefore, is a space that users rely on for spreading, disseminating, consuming and discussing conspiracy theories. Social media have contributed to the fragmentation of the public sphere and have created online filter bubbles and echo chambers where users stay among like-minded individuals and do not engage with those who have views that are unlike their own. Social media are also echo chambers of conspiracy theories. Those who start believing in conspiracy theories can via social media intensify their belief and entrapment in such ideology. Section 3.3 focuses on the communication of ideology in the context of coronavirus. It provides an introduction to the communication of coronavirus conspiracy stories and false coronavirus news.

3.3 THE COMMUNICATION OF CORONAVIRUS CONSPIRACY STORIES AND FALSE NEWS In 2020, Slavoj Žižek (2020a) warned against not taking the coronavirus seriously: Both alt-right and fake Left refuse to accept the full reality of the epidemic, each watering it down in an exercise of socialconstructivist reduction […] Trump and his partisans repeatedly insist that the epidemic is a plot by Democrats and China to make him lose the upcoming elections, while some on the Left denounce the measures proposed by the state and health apparatuses as tainted by xenophobia and, therefore, insist on shaking hands, etc. Such a stance misses the paradox: not to shake hands and to go into isolation when needed IS today's form of solidarity. Downplaying and denying the seriousness of coronavirus is an ideological dimension of the crisis. The spreading of fake news is another manifestation of ideology in the state of exception.

3.3.1 False News There is no generally accepted definition of fake news. The core of many definitions is that fake news is factually false news that is circulated online, predominantly on social media, lacks journalistic professional norms and tries to systematically and deliberately mislead and misinform (Fuchs 2021b, Chapter 7). Some observers prefer to use the terms mis- or disinformation. Some of those who spread fake news, such as Donald Trump, use the term in order to try to attack credible news sources. Based on the tradition of ideology critique that stresses that false consciousness is an expression of ideological attempts to manipulate the public's perception of reality, a critical theory approach to fake news should better use the term ‘false news’. False news is an expression of a highly polarised political landscape, where lies are used for trying to manipulate election results and decision-making (Fuchs 2020c). The Cambridge Analytica scandal was a typical manifestation of false news (see Fuchs 2021b, Chapter 6; Cadwalladr and GrahamHarrison 2018): bogus personality tests were offered on Facebook in order to collect vast amounts of personal data from almost 100 million users. These data were then used in election campaigns to confront users with false news, which were disseminated in the form of personalised advertising, among other things. In false news culture, facts are declared to be wrong and lies are declared to be true. There is a distrust of experts, liberals and socialists. There is a distrust towards facts and rationality and a belief that truth is what one finds ideologically and emotionally agreeable. Demagogues try to scapegoat experts and political opponents by claiming that they form an elite that hates the people and considers them as silly. Demagogues spreading false information claim that they stand on the side of the people who share their ideology and that elites deliberately bias and misrepresent reality. The coronavirus crisis created a state of exception in many countries and parts of the world. Suddenly billions of people's everyday life was disrupted and had to be reorganised. They have had to fear for their lives and the lives of friends and family. They

have had to think of how to organise their children's care, how to manage to live in isolation, how to best organise shopping, how to deal with the situation's psychological stress, etc. The situation of crisis, uncertain futures, collective shock and the collective fear of death characteristic for the coronavirus emergency is a fertile ground for the spread of false news. We do not know exactly what the motivations of those spreading false coronavirus news have been, but it is possible to provide an overview of the main themes of false stories that have circulated at the time of the global spread of the pandemic. 1 3.3.2 Types of False COVID-19 News There are two main types of false COVID-19 news stories: False news related to the origin of SARS-CoV-2; False news about how the virus is contracted and can be killed. The first type focuses on how the virus is produced, the second on how it circulates and can be destroyed. Fake news stories about the origin of SARS-CoV-2 include: The virus is a Chinese biological weapon developed in the Wuhan Institute of Technology. The Chinese government collaborated with other forces, such as the Democratic Party in the United States or the North Korean government, in releasing the virus in order to bring down Donald Trump. COVID-19 is a hoax invented to minimise Donald Trump's chances of being re-elected. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) created and spread the virus as a biological weapon in order to challenge the economic and political power of China, Russia or Iran.

Israel developed and spread the virus in order to create a financial market crisis and financially benefit from the resulting volatility. Israel or Jews such as the Rothschild family or George Soros manufactured the virus in order to seize world power. Chinese spies stole the virus from a virus research laboratory in Canada. COVID-19 is part of a population control strategy developed by Bill Gates and the UK government–funded Pirbright Institute. Donald Trump created the pandemic in order to arrest or kill paedophiles, political opponents and Hollywood actors. Eating meat is the cause of the virus. 5G wireless networks caused the outbreak of COVID-19. QAnon conspiracy theory: A cabal of liberals created the virus in order to create a state of exception that allows them to abduct children, harvest their blood and produce drugs from this blood that enhances the longevity of the the cabal's members. The virus was manufactured in order for the pharmaceutical industry and Bill Gates to make money from producing vaccines. The virus was manufactured in order to kill certain population groups or reduce the world population with the help of vaccines. The virus was manufactured in order to erect a totalitarian society and a surveillance society where microchips that track humans are injected into humans via COVID-19 vaccines. Fake news stories about contracting COVID-19 and killing the virus include:

Foreigners and immigrants contract the virus in order to kill white people and Western nations. Immigration, globalisation and open borders are the cause of the virus' spread. A vaccine against infection with the virus already existed at the start of the pandemic. Cocaine cures COVID-19. Africans are resistant. Pets spread the virus. Vinegar kills the virus. Drinking boiled ginger or lemon water or cow urine kills the virus. Gargling bleach kills the virus. Going to the sauna kills the virus. Using a hair dryer kills the virus. Taking medicinal herbs kills the virus. The Holy Communion protects one from the virus. Using silver-infused toothpaste kills the virus. Spiritual healing kills the virus. COVID-19 vaccines contain microchips that track humans. 3.3.3 Breitbart, Rush Limbaugh and False COVID-19 News Let us have a look at an example of a false COVID-19 news story. Breitbart is a far-right propaganda website. On 27 March 2020, it was the 256th most accessed Web platform in the world. 2 This means that Breitbart stories reach a very large audience. On 24 February 2020, Breitbart ran a story about right-wing radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. The Rush Limbaugh Show is, with an average of more than 15 million listeners, not just the US's most-listened-to talk radio show but also the country's most-listened-to radio programme. 3 Created in 1988, this show is a prototype and main

manifestation of far-right broadcasting. It aired on weekdays and around 600 local radio stations broadcast it. 4 The Breitbart article's title was ‘Limbaugh: Coronavirus Being “Weaponized” to Bring Down Trump’. 5 Limbaugh claimed that SARS-CoV-2 probably is a ChiCom [Chinese communist] laboratory experiment that is in the process of being weaponized. All superpower nations weaponize bioweapons. […] It looks like the coronavirus is being weaponized as yet another element to bring down Donald Trump. I want to tell you the truth about the coronavirus. 6 Some people believe that it got out on purpose, that the ChiComs have a whole lot of problems based on an economy that cannot provide for the number of people they have. So losing a few people here and there [is] not so bad for the Chinese government. 7 ‘The coronavirus is an effort to get Trump’. 8 So what Limbaugh claims is that China manufactured the coronavirus in order to target the United States with a bioweapon and weaken Trump's political position by bringing about many deaths. Fact-checking organisation PolitiFact analysed the claims made in this episode of The Rush Limbaugh Show and concluded that the claims were false. 9 Breitbart also made use of its social media channels in order to spread Rush Limbaugh's conspiracy theory. At the time of writing, Breitbart had more than five million followers on Facebook, 1.4 million followers on Twitter, 1.2 million followers on Instagram and 350k subscribers on YouTube 10 . On 25 February 2020, Breitbart posted a link to the Limbaugh story on its Facebook page (see Fig. 3.1). On 28 March, the Facebook posting had been shared 900 times and had received 4,200 emotional reactions and 1,200 comments. At the same time, 2,279 users had commented on the

news article on the Breitbart platform to which the Facebook posting linked.

Fig. 3.1. Breitbart's Spreading of Rush Limbaugh's COVID-19 Conspiracy Theory on Social Media, https://www.facebook.com/Breitbart/posts/rush-limbaugh-it-lookslike-the-coronavirus-is-being-weaponized-as-yet-anothere/10164646988865354/, Accessed on 28 March 2020. The example of Rush Limbaugh's conspiracy claim that China manufactured coronavirus in order to bring down Donald Trump shows how the far-right uses a combination of different media in order to spread false news in the public. In this particular case, the broadcast medium of radio was used in order to launch a false news story. Breitbart used the Internet and social media in order to amplify the false news story. Broadcast media and social media that allow

commenting and sharing together amplified the audience reach and thereby the spread of COVID-19 false news. Like all conspiracy stories, Limbaugh's claims lack evidence and ignore the findings of experts. He builds on the ideological conviction and moral outrage of Trump supporters who think that there is a big conspiracy where intellectuals, socialists, liberals and foreign countries try to attack the United States. False news ignores scientific evidence. There are no indications that SARS-CoV-2 was manufactured by humans. The DNA sequences of the virus are most closely related to viruses found in bats (Cohen 2020a, York 2020, Ye et al. 2020, Zhou et al. 2020). Based on environmental sampling, there is evidence that the virus was contracted from animals to humans at Wuhan seafood market (Zhou et al. 2020). Scientists found out that animals such as the pangolin could be the species mediating the infection between bats and humans (Cyranoski 2020, Han 2020, Lam et al. 2020, Wacharapluesadee et al. 2021, Zhang et al. 2020). Andersen et al. (2020) write based on an analysis of the virus genome that they ‘do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible’. Ignoring scientific evidence, a variety of conspiracy theories have emerged around COVID-19. Speculations have included the possibility that the virus was bioengineered in the lab [Wuhan Institute of Virology] or that a lab worker was infected while handling a bat and then transmitted the disease to others outside the lab (Cohen 2020b) In a letter to leading medical journal The Lancet, 27 public health scientists …strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin. […] Conspiracy theories do nothing but create fear, rumours, and prejudice that jeopardise our global collaboration in the fight against this virus

(Calisher et al. 2020, e42) Scientists ‘overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife’ (Calisher et al. 2020, e42). Seventeen international experts on behalf of the World Health Organization visited China in January and February 2021 in order to determine, in co-operation with 17 Chinese experts, the origins of SARS-CoV-2. The results were published in the form of a study (WHO 2021). The study could not conclusively identify the origins of the virus and calls for further research. The research team considered four scenarios that could have resulted in the introduction of SARS-CoV-2 and voted on the likelihood of each scenario (Page et al. 2021, WHO 2021): (1) the introduction of the virus to humans via an intermediate host was seen as being likely to very likely; (2) the direct zoonotic spillover was considered to be possible to likely; (3) the introduction through the cold food chain was seen as possible; (4) and the introduction through a laboratory incident in the Wuhan Institute of Virology was seen as extremely unlikely. After the release of the WHO report, in the USA voices became louder that the lab hypothesis could not be ruled out, and President Biden ordered that US intelligence services should conduct further investigations into the origins of the virus (Barnes 2021, Shear et al. 2021). At the same time, Chinese voices dismissed such speculations as conspiracy theory (e.g. Zhang 2021, Zhao 2021). In the end, the origin of a virus cannot be determined by a vote or by political speculation, but only by independent research without political, economic and ideological control. Commenting on the WHO study, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom stressed that there were difficulties in ‘accessing raw data’ in China and that future studies needed ‘more timely and comprehensive data sharing’ (Adhanom 2021). He said that concerning the origin, ‘all hypotheses remain on the table’ (Adhanom 2021). Fully independent research conducted by independent researchers who have access to all data, all individuals and all sites of the virus is crucial for determining the origin of the virus. State control, economic control and ideological control hamper the truth. 3.3.4 Nationalism, Fascism, War

The COVID-19 pandemic is a crisis of humankind. The virus was transferred from animals to humans, and given the global and mobile character of societies, it spread globally within three months causing many deaths. Given that contemporary societies are not nationally contained, but involve the international transport of goods and people and global travelling, a novel virus can originate in and spread globally from any part of the Earth. What the far-right tries to do is to deflect attention from the fact that the coronavirus crisis is a crisis of humanity that can only be overcome by global solidarity among and mutual aid of humans. The far-right ideologises the virus. They declare the virus to be a project designed and manufactured by single nations in order to weaken, attack and try to destroy other nations. These groups' goal is to use the crisis situation in order to radicalise nationalism and spread nationalist hatred among the populations of different countries. It is not a rational assumption that a country such as China spreads a virus in its own country, which causes many deaths, in order to attack other countries. Coronavirus has caused many deaths in all parts of the world. Coronavirus ideology works by combining nationalism and conspiracy thinking. The far-right uses traditional mass media and social media in order to spread nationalism and hatred in the context of a crisis of humanity. Donald Trump repeatedly spoke of SARS-CoV-2 as the ‘Chinese virus’ (Mangan 2020). The World Health Organization warned against this term, saying that viruses …know no borders and they don't care about your ethnicity, the color of your skin or how much money you have in the bank. So it's really important we be careful in the language we use lest it lead to the profiling of individuals associated with the virus (Kopecki 2020) The danger of nationalist ideology in a state of exception and a crisis of humanity is that authoritarian characters such as Trump are prone to use violence, which can result in wars, nuclear attacks, the creation of a fascist state, etc.

There is a social dimension of the COVID-19 crisis in that there are a large number of persons who fall seriously ill or die. The relative standstill of society necessary for containing the virus translates into an economic crisis. And there is a political dimension of the COVID-19 crisis, where nationalism and ideology can bring about the rise of fascism and world war. The virus is a natural disaster that threatens humanity. Irrational reactions such as nationalism, ideology and violence pose a serious danger in such profound crises. The lack of solidarity and the displacement of solidarity by nationalism can turn a crisis (an environmental disaster, social and economic crisis, etc.) into a political crisis that features war, mass killings, genocide and fascism. For example, the Great Depression that started in 1928 was one of the factors that conditioned the rise of fascism in the 1930s and the outbreak of the Second World War.

3.4 CONCLUSION Let us summarise some of the main assumptions and characteristics of conspiracy theories: Secret domination: There is a secret group's sinister plan for (world) domination. There is a secret master who pulls the strings behind the scene of those who are officially in power. Concealment: The secret group conceals its interests, plans and actions. Personalisation: Conspiracy theories do not conceive of domination as structure but as specific persons and groups of persons. Friend/enemy scheme: The secret group is opposed to the interests of ‘the people’. Violence: Not all conspiracy theories have fascist and violent implications, but they have fascist potentials that can result in

the call for or execution of violence and terror against the perceived enemies. Rational irrationality: Followers of conspiracy theories constantly search for indicators of conspiracies that they join together with suspicions, allegations, baseless arguments, prejudices, speculation, superstition and mysticism that are not open to rational questioning and debate. Their speculative character makes conspiracy theories impossible to prove or falsify. Determinism: Conspiracy theories rule out the existence of unintentionality and chance. For them, every action is motivated by a conscious, sinister plan. They assume that certain groups always and necessarily lie, conceal their true motivations and hide what is really going on. Followers of conspiracy theories often distrust science, intellectuals, experts and politicians, and assume that these institutions and groups always lie. Besides conceptualising conspiracy theories as ideology, this chapter also gave an introduction to the communication of COVID-19 conspiracy theories. Let us summarise the main results: False COVID-19 news: The collective shock and the collective fear of death that emerged in the COVID-19 crisis created a fertile ground for the spread of false news about the virus. Types of false COVID-19 news: There are two main types of false coronavirus news stories: (a) false news related to the origin of the virus; (b) false news about how the virus is contracted and can be killed. The far-right's communication of false COVID-19 news: The far-right has taken advantage of the COVID-19 crisis in order to spread nationalism and hatred by communicating false COVID-19 news stories via traditional and social media.

Based on the foundations established in this chapter, the chapters that follow present case studies of how COVID-19 conspiracy theories are communicated on social media. 1van

der Linden et al. (2020), Naeem et al. 2020, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misinformation_related_to_the_2019%E2%80%9320_ coronavirus_pandemic, accessed on 27 March 2021. 2 https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/breitbart.com, measured as a 90-day trend,

accessed on 27 March 2020. 3

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-listened-to_radio_programs, accessed on 27 March 2020. 4Rush Limbaugh died in February 2021. 5 https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/02/24/limbaugh-coronavirus-being-

weaponized-to-bring-down-trump/. 6See footnote 5. 7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yp3EBJFKnGo. 8See footnote 7. 9 https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/feb/27/rush-limbaugh/fact-

checking-rush-limbaughs-misleading-claim-new-/. 10

https://www.facebook.com/Breitbart, https://twitter.com/BreitbartNews, https://www.instagram.com/wearebreitbart/, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmgnsaQIK1IR808Ebde-ssA, accessed on 28 February 2021.

4

BILL GATES CONSPIRACY THEORIES AS IDEOLOGY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE COVID-19 CRISIS ABSTRACT This chapter asks: How do COVID-19 conspiracy theories about Bill Gates work? In order to provide an answer, it analyses social media artefacts that make conspiratorial claims about Bill Gates such as the ones that he manufactured the virus, makes money from COVID-19 vaccines, plans to dominate the world and erect a dictatorship, and implants surveillance microchips into humans via COVID-19 vaccinations. The focus is on artefacts that have massively spread and have reached high visibility on social media and the Internet. A critical discourse analysis was conducted of this material. The findings show that and how COVID-19 conspiracy theories construct the existence of a secret elite that dominates the world, use ideological strategies such as the personalisation of domination, the friend/enemy scheme, rational irrationality and logical determinism. COVID-19 conspiracy theories are a necrophilic ideology, an ideology of death that advances death and increases the number of deaths. This pandemic ideology tries to convince humans that vaccines are harmful and that COVID-19 is a hoax, whereby human misery is advanced.

COVID-19 conspiracy theories are to a large degree a right-wing ideology. Keywords Conspiracy theories; coronavirus; SARS-COV-2; ideology

Bill

Gates;

COVID-19;

4.1 INTRODUCTION As we have seen in the previous chapters, the multiple lockdowns and social distancing measures adopted in the response to the coronavirus crisis caused fundamental disruptions to daily life. Our interpretations of society are also prone to challenges and changes in crisis situations. In the coronavirus crisis, we have experienced the rise of ideology in the form of COVID-19 conspiracy theories. The ongoing spread of the coronavirus epidemic has also triggered a vast epidemic of ideological viruses which were lying dormant in our societies: fake news, paranoiac conspiracy theories, explosions of racism (Žižek 2020b, 39) This chapter examines in detail the COVID-19 conspiracy theories surrounding Bill Gates. In 1975, Bill Gates founded the software company Microsoft together with Paul Allen. He was the company's chief executive officer (CEO) until 2000 and its chairman until 2014. The success and dominance of the operating system Windows and software applications such as Microsoft Office made Microsoft the software industry's dominant global company. In 2020, Microsoft was the world's 13th largest transnational corporation. 1 In the fiscal year 2020, Microsoft's profits amounted to US$44.3 billion. 2 With a wealth of US$98 billion, Gates was in 2020 the world's second richest individual. 3 Like other billionaires such as Warren Buffet, George Soros or Michael Bloomberg, Bill Gates is a philanthropist. Together with his wife, he launched the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000. Global Health is one of the Gates Foundation's five programme areas. Our Global Health Division aims to reduce inequities in health by developing new tools and strategies to reduce the burden of

infectious disease and the leading causes of child mortality in developing countries. […] We work with partners to deliver proven tools – including vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics – as well as discover pathbreaking new solutions that are affordable and reliable. Equally important is innovation in how we bring health interventions to those who need them most. We invest heavily in vaccine to prevent infectious diseases and support the development of integrated health solutions for family planning, nutrition, and maternal and child health 4 Until the end of November 2020, there were 1.4 million people who died from COVID-19 and 60 million confirmed cases. 5 COVID-19 was the worst pandemic since the global influenza A outbreaks in 1957/58 and 1968–1970. In 2020, developing COVID-19 vaccines became the major global political concern for stopping the spread of the virus and stopping the high death toll it caused. The anti-vaccination movement, conspiracy theorists and the QAnon movement produced a series of COVID-19 conspiracy theories. The members of the QAnon movement believe that there is a global paedophile ring that rules the world, abducts children for drinking their blood and extracting adrenaline from their blood from which the drug adrenochrome would be produced that would make the elite immoral. They think that this conspiracy can only be stopped by Donald Trump against whom the ring would be plotting (Aliapoulios et al. 2021). Crises mean increasing insecurities. As a consequence of neoliberal capitalism, the world has become more unequal and insecure since the 1980s. The power of transnational corporations and the advancement of neoliberal policies by governments, parties and the state have resulted in decreasing trust in institutions. Since the world economic crisis in 2008, right-wing authoritarian politicians, parties and movements have been on the rise. They promise that nationalism, militarism, xenophobia and racism are solutions to the world's problems. Authoritarian capitalism and the coronavirus crisis are the context of COVID-19 conspiracy theories. Such theories are a vehicle by which those who are angry and feel powerless feel empowered, in control and as part of a community in a highly individualised world. Given that global health, the cure of infectious diseases and vaccinations are a focus of the Gates Foundation, it is no surprise that Bill Gates became a major figure in COVID-19 conspiracy theories. The research presented in this chapter studied how the ideological discourse of COVID-19 conspiracy theories about Bill Gates work. Methodologically, a

critical discourse analysis of a series of online artefacts that circulated on social media was conducted. Section 4.2 outlines the empirical research methodology. Section 4.3 presents and interprets the empirical findings. Section 4.4 draws conclusions. The next section outlines this chapter's empirical research methodology.

4.2 METHODOLOGY In order to understand where these conspiracy theories were originating and how they were spreading, critical discourse analysis was applied to influential materials that circulated online on social media and that claim that Bill Gates is involved in a COVID-19 conspiracy. First, relevant online artefacts were identified. The selection criterion was that the material was produced by individuals who are influential on social media and can reach a lot of followers and have thereby contributed to the spread of COVID-19related Bill Gates conspiracy theories. Table 4.1 gives an overview of the selected artefacts. Table 4.1. Sampling of Relevant Artefacts. I D

Type of Material

Originato r

Tweet from Jordan 1 21 January Sather 2020

Online Mikki 2 documentar Willis y film

3

Online interview

Patrick BetDavid

Relevance Conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccination activist Sather's tweet is often credited as the origin of the claim that Bill Gates created SARS-CoV-2.

Source Wayback Machine archive of tweets a (the tweet was deleted by Twitter for violating the terms of use and spreading a conspiracy theory).

Plandemic (planned epidemic) is a two-part documentary that advances the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 was manufactured in a https://plandemicseries.com laboratory, including the claim that Bill Gates / played a role because he wants to make profit from vaccines. Bet-David, the maker of the entrepreneurship online video channel Valuetainment, interviews conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccine activist Rashid Buttar. The video title is telling: Facebook b ‘Dr Buttar Accuses Fauci, Gates & The Media For Using COVID-19 To Drive Hidden Agenda’.

I D

Type of Material

Online 4 videos

Originato r

Ken Jebsen

Relevance

Source

Jebsen is a German conspiracy theorist and host of the online video series KenFM, where he spreads conspiracy theories. These are two episodes that have a particular focus on COVID-19 and Bill Gates conspiracy theories: ‘Gesichtzeigen!’ (‘Show Your Face!’), ‘Gates kapert Deutschland’ (‘Gates Seizes Germany’).

4a: https://kenfm.de/gesichtzeigen/, 4b: https://kenfm.de/gateskapert-deutschland/

a

https://web.archive.org/web/20200313234701/https://twitter.com/Jordan_Sather_/status/1 219795721286586368. b https://www.facebook.com/PatrickBetDavid.Valuetainment/videos/548947295760733/.

The four selected artefacts have high visibility on the Internet. They contributed to the creation and spreading of COVID-19 conspiracy theories featuring Bill Gates. Plandemic has been one of the most widely watched pieces of COVID19 misinformation (Hatmaker 2020). It spread on YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok, and has been banned on these platforms. In October 2020, YouTube announced that it prohibits ‘content that threatens or harasses someone by suggesting they are complicit in one of these harmful conspiracies, such as QAnon or Pizzagate’. 6 Sather's YouTube channel Spreading the Illusion was deleted. Before its deletion, the channel had around 240,000 subscribers. Sather moved his channel to a separate website and charges for access (https://jordansather.tv/). In November 2020, Patrick Bet-David's channel on YouTube had 2.7 million subscribers. 7 The interview with Buttar premiered on YouTube on 28 April 2020. On 5 May, it had been viewed 1.4 million times. 8 By 25 June, there were 1.7 million views. 9 YouTube later deleted the video when starting to take down COVID-19 conspiracy theory videos. Ken Jebsen's KenFM was operated on YouTube. Before its deletion in November 2020, the channel had over 500,000 subscribers. Jebsen fully moved the video show to his own Web platform (https://kenfm.de/). Second, I identified passages in the material for each of the dimensions of conspiracy theories identified in Chapter 2 of this book. Third, a critical discourse analysis was analysed in order to find out how ideology is communicated about Bill Gates in the context of COVID-19. The analysis focused on how logical conclusions are drawn in COVID-19 conspiracy theories. Basic methodological tools of CDA were utilised (see Fairclough

2015, Reisigl and Wodak 2001, van Dijk 1998, Wodak and Meyer 2001) in order to analyse how COVID-19 ideologies about Bill Gates operate. The findings of these analyses are presented throughout the remainder of this chapter.

4.3 FINDINGS 4.3.1 Secret Domination and Concealment 4.3.1.1 Jordan Sather Let us have a look at an excerpt from Jordan Sather's tweet: Funny enough, there was a patent for the coronavirus was filed in 2015 and granted in 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20200313234701/https://t.co/qqKRS ptDgf This assignee of this patent was the government funded Pirbright Institute out of the UK. And would you look at that, some of their major funders are the World Health Organization and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. https://web.archive.org/web/20200313234701/https://t.co/bmWK6 LpdFY […] And how much funding has the Gates Foundation given to vaccine programs throughout the years? Was the release of this disease planned? (#1) The basic argument this tweet advances is that COVID-19 is not a natural disaster that emerged from the animal world and got transmitted to humans by chance, but that it has rather been deliberately planned by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Gates Foundation in order to earn money from a COVID-19 vaccine programme. 4.3.1.2 Rashid A. Buttar

A comparable claim that refers to a Bill Gates patent on coronavirus is made in an interview given by conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccination activist Rashid A. Buttar: You start saying okay why does a person that has all this money [Bill Gates] and all this power why does he own a patent on a virus? […] So why do you have a patent on a pathogen and then ten months later suddenly you have a disease that's caused by that patented virus. And now you can create a vaccine for it. So if that's not suspect… […] He's not only got the patent on this virus. He's on mainstream media talking about the vaccine, the vaccine, the vaccine. […] I can tell you the vaccines are not safe […] Now he's talking about the necessity for this vaccine (#3). The first logical fallacy of the claim that there is a Gates patent of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a false logical inference that operates on the following assumption: ‘If A's name contains parts of B's name and A has the characteristic a, then B also has characteristic a’. This false logical inference takes on the following form: The name of a patent by the Pirbright Institute contains the word ‘coronavirus’, and this virus was patented; therefore, the COVID19-inducing coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has also been patented and was manufactured in a laboratory. A comparative logical fallacy is the following one: Passion fruits are fruits. I am allergic to passion fruits. Kiwifruits are fruits too. Because kiwifruits are just like passion fruits in being a type of fruit, I am also allergic to kiwifruits. A Reuters (2020a) fact-check points out that …[a]ccording to the institute, its research primarily focuses on respiratory diseases affecting poultry and pigs, including the infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) and the deltacoronavirus. […] Patent number 10130701, referenced in the claim on social

media, filed on July 23, 2015 and granted to Pirbright on 20 November 2018, is effectively a weakened version of one kind of coronavirus that could serve for the development of a future animal vaccine. Coronaviruses form a broad group of RNA (ribonucleic acid) viruses. SARS-CoV-2 is part of the subtype Sarbecovirus, a kind of Betacoronavirus (Pal et al. 2020). Infectious bronchitis virus infects chickens and is caused by avian coronavirus that is part of the genus Gammacoronavirus. Deltacoronavirus is another type of coronavirus. Gammacoronaviruses and deltacoronaviruses originate in birds and pigs, and alphacoronaviruses and betacoronaviruses in bats. Alphacoronaviruses and Betacoronaviruses ‘typically infect mammals, whereas the latter two [Gammacoronavirus, and Deltacoronavirus] predominantly infect birds’ (Pal et al. 2020). COVID-19 conspiracy theories mix up these different types of viruses and assume all references to ‘coronavirus’ mean COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2. The next logical fallacy found in the example is built on the first and basically says: ‘The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has funded the Pirbright Institute. It therefore has planned the release of SARS-CoV-2’. Given the first assumption is false, the second one is also false. In addition, that there has been funding for an organisation by a Foundation does not imply that a particular type of activity has been funded. Conspiracy theories, including the ones about COVID-19, make broad sweeping claims without evidence. According to the Gates Foundation's funding database, in the years from 2013 until 2020 it provided a total of US$ 17,191,011 to the Pirbright Institute for research on foot-and-mouth disease virus vaccines, antibodies, malaria-transmitting mosquitoes, swine influenza, universal influenza vaccination and disease control of ovine rinderpest 10 . There is no evidence that the Gates Foundation manufactured SARS-CoV-2. According to the Pirbright Institute's annual financial reports, in the years from 2013 until 2020 it had a total grant and contract income of around £300 million. 11 Funding from the Gates Foundation made up around £13 million, which is around 4% of the total income from grants and contracts. The Gates Foundation funds many different organisations. It is illusionary to assume that it commissions the manufacturing of a virus that causes a pandemic. 4.3.2 Personalisation

4.3.2.1 Plandemic In the first part of the film Plandemic, molecular biologist Judy Mikovits claims she was jailed and threatened for scientific discoveries that the scientific community and the US government wanted to withhold from the public. She claims that SARS-CoV-2 was manipulated in a laboratory, that it is a virus that does not jump from animals to human, and that it was extracted from animals in a lab and then released. She also claims human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) killed millions because the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, who is also the lead member of the White House's Coronavirus Task Force, and others were delaying publication of Mikovits's research. Mikovits says about Bill Gates: Mikovits: ‘This is the crime behind letting someone like Bill Gates with billions of dollars, nobody elected him, he has no medical background, he has no expertise, but we let people like that have a voice in that country while we destroy the lives of millions of people’. [Excerpt shows Bill Gates saying:] ‘Normalcy only returns when we largely vaccinated the entire global population’. Question: ‘If we activate mandatory vaccines globally, I imagine these people stand to make hundreds of billions of dollars that own the vaccines?’ Mikovits: ‘And they'll kill millions. As they already have with their vaccines. There is no vaccine currently on the schedule for any RNA virus that works’ (#2). Bill Gates is a proponent of global, universal vaccination. The Gates Foundation has supported research on vaccines. In the excerpt, Plandemic's anti-vaccination agenda becomes evident. The claim that vaccines kill millions is baseless. To the contrary, without vaccinations millions would have died from measles, polio, influenza, whooping cough, hepatitis, typhoid, cholera, yellow fever, etc. Studies have found that there is no causal relation between vaccination and death and that reported cases of deaths after vaccination were mostly coincidental. ‘Millions of vaccinations are administered to children and adults in the United States each year. Serious adverse reactions are uncommon and deaths caused by vaccines are very rare’ (Miller et al. 2015, 3291).

In the film, ‘killer vaccines’ are presented as a social problem without any evidence. And this constructed social problem is personalised by associating it with Bill Gates. He is presented as immensely powerful and as influencing governments. The logic of argumentation combines the topos of threat with the topos of numbers. The topos of threat constructs the existence of a big threat (Reisigl and Wodak 2001, 77), while the topos of numbers argues something is dangerous because of large numbers (Reisigl and Wodak 2001, 79). Taken together, these two topoi are used to construct the threat that vaccines ‘destroy the lives of millions of people’ and will ‘kill millions’ is constructed. The friend/enemy scheme is used in the form that an anonymous group of ‘they’ is opposed to ‘the people’. This allegedly conspiratorial, anonymous group of ‘them’ is personalised as Bill Gates. 4.3.3 The Friend/Enemy Scheme and Violence 4.3.3.1 Ken Jebsen An example of the use of the friend/enemy scheme can be found in Ken Jebsen's video ‘Gesichtzeigen!’ (‘True Colours!’): [About the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation:] When they need money, they have thought about how we do that. If we need money, we need a threat, and then we need a disease, and that is why we need pandemics […] Who owns the WHO? […] The second largest donor […] that is Bill Gates. […] Only what is in there [in a COVID-19 vaccine]? Is there perhaps something in there where you can say that you can even locate people with it? Are there any micro-things in there where you can say they are GPS tracked? That would be possible. […] [Jebsen speaks of a digital fascism that would be planned by big pharma, governments, and the moneyed aristocracy] the ‘digital moneyed aristocracy that has our data because we sure’ […] where you are tracked, […] where you have to have a vaccination certificate to be told whether you are allowed to enter this or that country. That means you have to be vaccinated every year, so you have to be re-vaccinated […] because a virus always mutates. That is the business method. I put a lot of shit in there 12 (#4a). In this video, Ken Jebsen joins baseless claims and speculation with the friend/enemy scheme. He constructs an us/them antagonism: on one side, he identifies the WHO, Bill Gates, ‘digital fascism’, ‘big pharma’, ‘the

moneyed aristocracy’ who are said to benefit economically from COVID-19 vaccines along with governments that are said to want to implement a fascist surveillance society that robs citizens of personal freedoms. Jebsen also refers to this group as ‘they’, which sets up an opposition to ‘us’, when saying that ‘they need money’. In the same and the following sentence, he changes perspective and now speaks in the first person plural from the perspective of this constructed conspiratorial group – ‘we need a threat’, ‘we need a disease’, ‘we need pandemics’ – in order to argue that SARSCoV-2 is a capitalist project aimed to make money. Next, Bill Gates comes in, who is said to pull the strings behind the WHO and the alleged conspiracy. The argumentation is based on logical fallacies such as the one that Bill Gates ‘owns’ the WHO because his foundation is the second largest donor. For Jebsen, the mass of citizens is an oppressed group that is allegedly oppressed with the help of vaccines. He refers to this group as ‘we’ and ‘you’ and so speaks collectively and individually to the viewers of his videos: ‘we surf’, ‘you are tacked’, ‘you have to be vaccinated’, etc. Vaccination is presented as the method used by a hidden conspiratorial group to make lots of money and implement a surveillance society. The logic of argumentation used is based on mere speculation and deterministic conspiratorial thought that assumes that there is a hidden, secret world domination and that something is actual because it is thinkable. For Jebsen, there is a political–economic antagonism between vaccination-promoting companies, billionaires and governments on the one side and ‘the people’ on the other side. 4.3.3.2 Rashid A. Buttar Rashid A. Buttar is an American anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist, who among other things argues that SARS-CoV-2 was manufactured by Bill Gates, who he believes controls the WHO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in order to advance eugenics and depopulation via toxic vaccines and implant microchips into humans via vaccines in order to control and monitor them (see the interview with Buttar in #3, Table 4.1). Buttar calls Gates ‘the Devil incarnate’. To call someone ‘the Devil’ is a combination of a religionym (Reisigl and Wodak 2001, 50) that refers to humans in language common in religion and what we could term a moralonym, a morally laden term that signifies absolute evil. By using that term, Buttar communicates the claim that Gates has a political agenda to create hell on Earth via vaccines.

In the same interview, Buttar combines the friend/enemy scheme with the theme of violence: If there is another civil war, it will be based upon the issue of vaccinations. And it may be a civil war in every country. […] I think World War 3 is coming, but I don't think it is going to be coming like people think. […] Right now this is an attack on consciousness. And I think the war will be within each country where there will be those that want the choice and those that are going to be forced to take the choice that are going to revolt. And I hope that the people that are listening right now in that hierarchy, that you understand that if your agenda is population control, there may be lives that are lost in the next battle. But you are barking up the wrong tree because I have great, great confidence in the Creator. I have great confidence in mankind. And your nefarious agenda is not going to come to fruition (#3). In this passage and throughout the interview, Buttar expresses a Manichean worldview where there are two hostile camps: the provaccination lobby and humankind that is harmed by vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines. He characterises the anti-vaccination movement as those who ‘want […] choice’ to be vaccinated or not and as representing the interest of ‘mankind’, and represent the interest of God (‘the Creator’). And he opposes them to a pro-vaccination elite that wants to implement forced vaccinations, have the ‘agenda’ of ‘population control’, execute an ‘attack on consciousness’ by promoting vaccines, have a ‘nefarious agenda’ and are on top of ‘the hierarchy’. Various positive and negative predicates are used to construct an alleged antagonism between the provaccination lobby that is presented as the absolute evil and humankind that is presented as the victim. The anti-vaccination agenda and movement is with the help of another religion – ‘the Creator’ that, as is claimed, guides it – as the saviour of humankind. Vaccination conspiracy theories have certain parallels to anti-Semitic conspiracy theories in that they both claim there is a secret group that has a hidden agenda and plan of world domination. Buttar's argument is based on the populist logic of the construction of an ‘Us’/‘Them’ antagonism between the alleged vaccination elite that has a hidden agenda of world domination and ‘the people’ who are presented as poor, unknowing victims who are and will continue to be killed and dominated by the elite's spreading of ever more vaccinations.

The argumentation that Buttar makes combines the topos of threat (Reisigl and Wodak 2001, 77), by which he says that vaccines endanger our lives and the topos of violence. The topos of violence is used to make the argument that something needs to be done against vaccinations or otherwise the antagonism between the two (constructed) sides will explode and lead to ‘civil war’ and ‘World War III’. Buttar describes himself as soldier, which is a militarionym (Reisigl and Wodak 2001, 51), a special kind of politonym that implies that one should take up arms (‘the sword’) and collectively organise for the ‘battle’: I ask people just to pray. Pray for me that I do God's will and that my sword is swift and accurate and that everyone, every other soldier that is involved in this battle for mankind, for the future of mankind, that their swords are swift and accurate (#3). So the bottom line of the argumentation is that there might be a war and that the anti-vaccination movement is fighting a ‘battle for mankind’. The use of the friend/enemy scheme is a precondition and part of militancy and the logic of war. Buttar describes Donald Trump as ‘doing the best he can’ (#3), sees him as a possible saviour and, therefore, calls on him to implement law-and-order politics: ‘I believe that Trump is doing the best thing he can. And he wants the country back because he knows it is a bunch of bs. […] If President Trump is hearing this right now. My message is one and simple: investigate Gates and what he has done!’ (#3). A petition to the White House that called for investigation into the Gates Foundation for ‘medical malpractice and crimes against humanity’ achieved 675,067 signatures between 10 April and 30 November 2020. 13 It is based on conspiracy theories directed against Gates. 4.3.4 Rational Irrationality 4.3.4.1 Plandemic Part 2: Indoctrination Plandemic 2 (Indoctrination) contains an 18-minute long segment about Bill Gates (start: 46:05, end: 01:04:10). It starts with rational facts about Bill Gates and then subsequently turns into an irrationality that wants to make the viewer believe that Bill Gates funded the manufacturing of SARS-CoV2 in order to derive profits from a vaccine and implement a global surveillance society. The rational part tells the story of Microsoft. Points of criticism include that Gates tried to convince Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who at the time suffered from cancer, to sell his shares cheaply to Gates and to dilute

his share down to almost nothing, and that the company faced anti-trust trials in the United States and the European Union (EU). Then follows the first irrational element that is presented as rational profiteering. It is argued that Bill Gates declared in The Wall Street Journal that vaccines were ‘the best investment I've ever made’, and this creates the impression that he individually made a profit from it by showing an interview excerpt where Gates speaks of a ‘twenty-to-one return’ (#2). The basic impression revealed by the documentary is that Gates is profit hungry, and just like he tried to cheat his business partner and built a monopoly for expanding his profit, the profit motive underlies his interest in vaccines. The claim that Gates expects to make a twenty-fold personal profit from vaccines is false and misleading. In The Wall Street Journal article ‘The Best Investment I've Ever Made’ that was published on 16 January 2019, Gates writes that the Gates Foundations' investment of US$10 billion to provide vaccines in developing countries ‘created an estimated $200 billion in social and economic benefits’. And he explains what he thereby means: When Melinda and I began investing in these funds back in 2000, our goal was to save lives and stop suffering, and by that measure these institutions have succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. But they've also been successful in the way that investments traditionally are: They've created a lot of wealth, because when people aren't sick in bed, they can go to work or school. He continues to write that the vast majority of vaccine development comes from governments, is in danger, that continued sustained government funding is in danger because of unilateralist and nationalist politics, that such funding cannot be provided by philanthropies, and that governments should continue to fund vaccine development in developing countries. Gates does not expect to make money from vaccines. He is so rich that he has no need to do so. He makes an argument for expanding government funding of vaccination programmes, which is to be welcomed. The Plandemic conspiracy theory simply takes the title of the article ‘The Best Investment I've Ever Made’ and a video edit to claim that Gates is personally profiting from vaccine programmes, which is not the case. It is not that no criticism can be made of the Gates Foundation. It has, for example, been criticised for investing in oil companies that cause damage to human health and the environment in Africa, which thwarts the Foundation's goal to advance health care in developing countries

(Democracy Now! 2007, Piller 2007). But conspiracy theories lie, invent claims and manipulate reality, as the studied example shows. The claim appears rational but is the result of a manipulated interpretation of a video interview and a newspaper article. In 2015 and 2016, the Gates Foundation divested from fossil fuel corporations BP and ExxonMobil. Plandemic utilises such rational and progressive critiques by using, for example, an excerpt from a Democracy Now! (2007) episode about the Gates Foundation. Democracy Now! is a left-wing US news programme, a kind of CNN made by socialists. Plandemic then continues to portray Bill Gates as the most powerful influencer of health policies: ‘no one man has more power than Bill Gates to influence and control the health and medical freedom of all people’ (#2). It then continues with claims such as the ones that girls died from Gates Foundation–funded human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccinations in India. Science reported that the deaths of seven girls were unrelated to the HPV vaccine (Bagla 2013). The controversy around the programme focused on a lack of informed consent (Reuters 2020b). Plandemic does not mention these findings and creates the impression that the Gates Foundation was responsible for the death of Indian girls. Plandemic then continues with claims about polio vaccination in India (https://factcheck.afp.com/gatesfoundation-targeted-misleading-claims-about-india-polio-vaccinecampaign), that the Gates-supported Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization has caused ‘serious harm through experimenting with vaccine programmes’ and used Africans as ‘lab rats’ and ‘Guinea pigs of the world’, that Gates supports ‘global genocide’, the ‘global surveillance project’ EarthNow that will allow for ‘24/7 monitoring of all people everywhere’ (#2). The movie's subsequent portrayal of Bill Gates as a greedy capitalist, manipulator of governments, child killer, racist, supporter of a ‘global genocide experiment’ (#2) and surveillant is designed to create the impression that everything that Bill Gates does is and has to be evil and based on a sinister purpose. Gates is constructed as the personalisation of evil by starting with some facts and then manipulating reality. Once the claim that everything Gates does is necessarily evil is fully prepared, the movie uses the logic of suspicion, wild speculation and allegations. For example, it claims: In partnership with MIT Bill Gates has developed a new technology that allows vaccines to be injected under your skin along with your medical records. The quantum dot tattoo will

implant an invisible certificate that can be scanned by authorities using a cell phone app and infrared light.[Bill Gates is shown in an interview excerpt mentioning a ‘digital immunity proof’][…] [Meetings between Gates and Jeffrey Epstein are mentioned and a voice asks] Why would one of the richest man in the world choose to partner with the world's most notorious paedophile?[…] [the final section of the movie follows and focuses on COVID-19 vaccinations] This isn't a vaccine story. This is a population management story. […] We are being conditioned for having the excuse for unbelievable acts of tyranny, which will be justified by ‘remember 2020’. […] And this is also a test of humanity to see how much of our liberty we will let go […] This is a moment for us to recognise that every decision that is being made today by any of the conspiring parties made perfect sense in each increment when each one of these decisions was made. […] they lost touch with their fellow humanity. […] This is our moment to reclaim our humanity […][written text]PLAN (noun) a detailed proposal for doing or achieving somethingDEMIC (adjective) characteristic of or pertaining to a people or populationPLANDEMIC[end of the movie] (#2). The unsupported claim is made that Gates wants to implant microchips into humans. And this claim is followed by the logic of guilt by association, putting Gates into the context of Epstein, paedophilia and sex trafficking. The storyline of the movie then shifts to COVID-19 that is presented as a planned project to abolish freedom that has been long planned by ‘conspiring parties’ led by Bill Gates that ‘lost touch with their fellow humanity’ (#2). Bill Gates is step-by-step constructed and presented as an evil person with sinister plans. The bottom line of Plandemic is that SARS-CoV-2 was deliberately manufactured in order to abolish freedom, make profit from vaccinations and establish global surveillance in real time by microchipping humans. A variety of negative economic, political, ideological and social predications are used (see Reisigl and Wodak 2001, 48–52): greedy capitalist (econonym, ideologonym), powerful manipulator of governments (politionym), child killer (crimionym), racist (ideologonym), global genocide (crimionym, militarionym), global surveillant (politionym), friend of a paedophile and sex trafficker (criminonym). The goal of such predications is to create ‘polarisations, black-and-white portrayals and manichean divisions into good and bad’ (Reisigl and Wodak 2001, 56). A series of false and distorted claims is used for portraying Gates as evil, which is

then joint with suspicion, wild speculation and allegations. The goal is the rationality of irrationality: the irrational claim that COVID-19 is a conspiratorial plan of world domination led by Bill Gates that is designed to abolish freedom and create a global surveillance is presented based on the logic ‘Bill Gates has done evil’. Therefore, it is claimed that everything he does is based on a sinister plan of world domination and capitalist profiteering. His advocacy of vaccination and the COVID-19 vaccine would, therefore, be a sinister plan of world domination, capital accumulation, microchipping humans, dictatorship and surveillance. Rational irrationality is combined with the friend/enemy scheme, personalisation and the deterministic assumption that there are no coincidences and everything that happens is the outcome of a sinister plan. The overall goal of the entire discursive strategy is to question and oppose vaccines by presenting them as projects of capitalism, genocide and totalitarianism. Irrational fears of vaccinations are presented as rational by constructing the argument that everything that Bill Gates does has to necessarily follow sinister intents and is motivated by instrumental reason. The consequence of the anti-vaccination movement is that a significant number of individuals refuse to be vaccinated and to let their children be vaccinated, which results in a larger number of people dying although their premature deaths could have been prevented. 4.3.4.2 Patrick Bet-David's Interview with Rashid Buttar The claim that Bill Gates wants to implant microchips into humans via a COVID-19 vaccination was also made in the interview that Patrick BetDavid held with Rashid Buttar: And he's [Bill Gates] talking about putting in these microchips. And the Gates Foundation controls us. He's one of the founding members of ID 2020. Everybody's going to have mandated vaccinations so that they can track those people and know who's been vaccinated. […] How do we know that these RF chips that they are planning to insert into our hands to register whether or not people have been vaccinated, how do we know that those things aren't emitting a signal? And then they can monitor our, you know, how many people are congregating, where we are going, whatever. This is monitoring. This is Big Brother. […] How do we know that that RF chip is not picking up a signal […] and then affecting our bodies? (#3).

The conspiracy theory that Bill Gates wants to microchip humans to control them made its way to Facebook. For example, the following post was shared more than 21,000 times: ‘Gates wants us microchipped and Fauci wants us to carry vax certificates. Did you NAZI that coming??’ (https://www.facebook.com/cherie.waluk/posts/10221824161703 475). Another Facebook posting was shared more than 52,000 times: ‘Due to the large number of people who will refuse the forthcoming covid-19 vaccine because it will include tracking microchips, the Gates Foundation is now spending billions of dollars to ensure that all medical and dental injections and procedures include the chips so that the only way to avoid being “chipped” will be to refuse any and all dental and medical treatment’. (https://www.facebook.com/sam.powell.739/posts/307828115554 3083). The claim that Gates wants to microchip humans often references (also in Plandemic) a report about a project at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) supported by the Gates Foundation: ‘MIT engineers have developed a way to store medical information under the skin, using a quantum dot dye that is delivered, along with a vaccine, by a microneedle patch’ (Trafton 2019). ‘Kevin McHugh, one of the lead authors of the “quantum dot dye” research paper, said, “The quantum dot dye technology is not a microchip or human-implantable capsule and to my knowledge there are no plans to use this for coronavirus”’ (Reuters 2020c). ‘The study never experimented on humans and did not involve any hardware technology, like microchips’ (Brown and Weise 2020; see also Kasprak 2020). Noam Chomsky, who criticised Microsoft for making use of ‘monopolypricing rights’ (Parramore 2018), says that COVID-19 conspiracy theories are dangerous because they result in a significant share of citizens not wanting to get vaccinated as they assume that …the government may be trying to poison or Bill Gates may be trying to poison them. […] That's the effect of the attack on science and on rationality and on clear thinking (Chomsky 2020)

Chomsky argues that the distrust of science and rationality and the intensified belief in and extended diffusion of conspiracy theories is the outcome of 40 years of neoliberalism that has been a ‘brutal class war’. 4.3.5 Determinism 4.3.5.1 Jordan Sather Let us have a look at an excerpt from Jordan Sather's tweet: Is the Cabal desperate for money, so they're tapping their Big Pharma reserves? Are there vaccines already being manufactured to ‘fight’ this? Coordinated all along? Interesting timing of when this disease is hitting the headlines (#1). The noun ‘cabal’ is a particular predication that combines collectivisation and political actionalisation (Reisigl and Wodak 2001, 48 & 51). The term implies that there is a secret, sinister group forming a collective that wants to achieve a particular political–economic goal, namely making money, by manufacturing and spreading a virus and selling vaccines. A logical fallacy involved in this conspiracy theory is that everything that billionaires do always and necessarily follows the intent to make ever more profit and to manipulate the public. Bill Gates is so wealthy that he can afford to support research and charitable causes without expecting financial returns. He has no need to become richer than he already is. Foundations allow billionaires to reduce their tax payment, which is in some cases one of the reasons why such charitable organisations are set up. Foundations are non-profit organisations that by legal definition not expect to make profit. There are also no reasons to assume that capitalists cannot have besides profit interests humanitarian interests that are not grounded in the profit motive. One of the Gates Foundations' aims is to advance global health: Our Global Health Division aims to reduce inequities in health by developing new tools and strategies to reduce the burden of infectious disease and the leading causes of child mortality in developing countries. 14 There are no reasons to assume that this is not a genuine interest of the Gates', without monetary interests. In the analysed example, the reference to ‘Big Pharma’ is an intensification strategy (Reisigl and Wodak 2001, 81–85) that aims to express that SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-

19 was deliberately designed to create big profits of the pharma industry. There are ample reasons why some billionaires want to do something good and, therefore, engage in philanthropy. Billionaires can afford altruism. Reducing tax payments and improving their reputation may be among the motivations why billionaires engage in philanthropy. In a survey conducted among 201 philanthropists with a net wealth of at least US$100 million, 8% admitted that reputation management and improving public perception of one's family and organisation were motivations (Campden Wealth Limited and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors 2020, 13). We can assume that this share of 8% is an understatement because not all billionaires will admit such a motivation. In the same survey, the most frequently mentioned motivation (75%) is that billionaires want to give something back to society (Campden Wealth Limited and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors 2020, 13). This means that a large share of them seem to have conscious or unconscious feelings of guilt about inequalities caused by capitalism and try to morally compensate these feelings and injustices by engaging in philanthropy. 4.3.5.2 Plandemic 2: Indoctrination In October 2019, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security together with the Gates Foundation and the World Economic Forum organised Event 201: A Global Pandemic Exercise. 15 The event discussed the scenario that a severe coronavirus pandemic breaks out that is transmitted from bats to pigs and then to humans, resulting in the deaths of 65 million people. The overall recommendation the event participants made was that governments should better prepare themselves for pandemics. 16 In Plandemic 2 (Indoctrination), Event 201 is presented in the following manner: Event 201 took place five months before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. The participants of the event were some of the same people that are now deeply involved in the real pandemic and profiting from it as well’ (#2). The movie argues that this timing was no coincidence. David E. Martin, founder of CNBC IQ 100, which is a data-driven index of the top 100 companies that make money from intellectual property, says in the movie: Fact checkers have said this has nothing to do with the coronavirus outbreak. It just happens. This is that wonderful

world of improbabilities where events coemerge and then nature conveniently backs itself into our architecture. That's the scenario we are supposed to accept’ (#2). This example shows that for conspiracy theorists such as the makers and proponents of Plandemic there are no coincidences. Events about actual or possible outbreaks of pandemics are not unusual because in the past 20 years, epidemics caused by viruses that were transmitted from animals to humans occurred relatively frequently and included SARS (2002–2004), swine flu (2009–2010, 2015), MERS-CoV (since 2012) and avian influenza (also known as bird flu, 2003–2019). 17 It is, therefore, a logical move that research organisations and policymakers discuss how societies can prepare themselves for pandemics. Full Fact checked the facts about Event 201: The simulation was based on a coronavirus, but that doesn't mean the organisers knew about the one that causes Covid-19. The first known cases of Covid-19 weren't publicly identified until December 2019, although media reports of unpublished data suggest that some early cases may have been infected in November that year. Coronaviruses are a broad category of viruses which cause a number of different respiratory illnesses. One is the common cold, but the category also includes SARS (the severe acute respiratory syndrome, of which there were outbreaks in 2002 and 2004), and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) in addition to Covid-19 (Full Fact 2020) The example shows that conspiracy theorists explain the whole world based on sinister plans and hidden interests. There is no element of chance in their worldview. For them, a scenario event discussing pandemics is proof that COVID-19 was planned and manufactured. But if dark forces were to plan a pandemic, why would they publicly discuss such a plan five months before the outbreak? 4.3.5.3 Rashid A. Buttar Another example of the use of deterministic logic can be found in the interview with Rashid A. Buttar that went viral on social media:

This entire COVID-19 is part and parcel of a depopulation agenda on a global Scale. […] You need to go back and look at the history of Gates, where he came from, who his parents were, what they did and their relationship to some of these organizations. [Interviewer:] Are you referencing his father being the chairman of the board of Planned Parenthood… […]If you keep on going back, then you start seeing this whole eugenics interest and motivation and philosophy. […] The guy has technology. He couldn't keep viruses out of Microsoft but now he thinks he can keep viruses out of the human body. I find that interesting. He's not a virologist. He's not a doctor. He has no medical training. […] 2011 he talked about these, he insinuated depopulation. Why is a software developer… The same type at the same time as Steve Jobs that came up and Steve Jobs was loved all over the world but Gates was, you know, getting pied in the face 10, 12, 15 years ago. He's been hated by so many people for so long. […] He's got his hands in in the WHO, in the CDC, in all the major bodies that are responsible to safeguard our lives, your life, my life, my children's lives. He's got his hands in there (#3). Buttar claims that Gates is evil because allegedly his parents advanced the eugenics agenda, which in this logic makes Gates guilty by association, Microsoft products are prone to viruses, Gates lacks a degree in medicine but talks about medical issues, lots of people dislike him. In addition, Buttar claims Gates controls the WHO and the CDC and would thereby control human lives. Gates would want to vaccinate the world in order to depopulate it. Bill Gates' father William H. Gates Sr. served on the board of Planned Parenthood whose goal is to advance ‘reproductive health and women's rights’. 18 The organisation's clinics also conduct abortions, which is why the organisation is a thorn in the eye of anti-abortionists who often associate it with eugenics. The founder of the organisation Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, who believed in supporting and advancing women's right to choose, supported the eugenics movement. In his book War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race, Edwin Black shows that Sanger, who lived from 1879 until 1966, ‘argued for an aggressive program of negative eugenics, that is, the elimination of the unfit through mass sterilization and sequestration’ (Black 2012, 135), but warns at the same time not to oppose today's activities of

Planned Parenthood: ‘Opponents of a woman's right to choose could easily seize upon Margaret Sanger's eugenic rhetoric to discredit the admirable work of Planned Parenthood today; I oppose such misuse’ (xxiv). In 2020, Planned Parenthood New York removed its founder's name from its New York clinic because of her views (Schmidt 2020). Antiabortionists have again and again characterised Planned Parenthood as eugenic organisation in order to advance their political agenda of wanting to ban abortion and abolish women's right to choose. For example, antiabortion group Abort73 argues that Planned Parenthood Foundationally, abortion is eugenics. Both are rooted in bigotry and intolerance; both are mechanisms for eliminating the weak and marginalized. […] Today, Planned Parenthood runs the largest abortion business in the United States, killing hundreds of thousands of unborn children each year […] Margaret Sanger died in 1966 and four years later, Planned Parenthood would kill its first “unwanted” unborn child. The language of eugenics may have been purged from their operations, but the practice remains as thoroughly entrenched as its ever been. 19 4.3.5.4 InfoWars In his programme InfoWars, far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones argued that Bill Gates' father ‘worked with Planned Parenthood since the 50s, they are a very wealthy family, multigenerational dynasty, they are part of the eugenics overall scheme’ and that Bill Gates is ‘the mastermind behind a global eugenics program’ 20 . But what does Gates say about population policy? In the 2018 Goalkeepers report, the Gates Foundation deals with the question of the African population and sets out its approach. In the introduction, Bill and Melinda Gates argue that the main challenge is poverty in Africa: Extreme poverty is becoming heavily concentrated in subSaharan African countries. By 2050, that's where 86% of the extremely poor people in the world are projected to live. Therefore, the world's priority for the next three decades should be a third wave of poverty reduction in Africa (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 2018, 6)

The report also says that the goal of family planning programmes in Africa is ‘to empower women so that they can exercise their fundamental right to choose the number of children they will have, when, and with whom’ (14). The Gates see the advancement of health care and education in Africa as the main measures needed, which includes ‘making sure children don't merely survive but also thrive’ and ‘improving the quality of the education all students receive’ (11). Poverty reduction, improving health care and education in Africa surely is not a genocidal and eugenics programme. One can criticise that Bill and Melinda Gates have the development of ‘human capital’ in mind: ‘This means investing in young people. Specifically, it means investing in their health and education, or what economists call “human capital”’ (7). Human capital is in economics used as a term for stressing that human beings are production factors that are key for advancing capital accumulation. Understood in this way, one can criticise that the term implies the vision of creating local forms of capitalist entrepreneurship in Africa, which ignores the inequalities immanent in capitalism. Such a criticism is, however, different from conspiracy theory claims that argue that the Gates Foundation aims to implement a eugenics programme and uses COVID-19 vaccines and other vaccines in order to kill humans so that the size of the world population decreases. There is no evidence for the existence of such a sinister conspiracy. Conspiracy theorists argue that Bill Gates is evil and that, therefore, the Gates Foundations' support of vaccination programmes and poverty-reduction programmes must have a sinister intent aiming at world domination, global surveillance and eugenics. Fact checkers have shown that the claim that Bill Gates designs vaccines for depopulating the world is false (Kasprak 2017). 4.3.5.5 Ken Jebsen Let us have a look at an excerpt from Ken Jebsen's video ‘Gates kapert Deutschland!’ (‘Gates Seizes Germany!’): If you can visit your children when they spend time in Mallorca because of me, if their children can go to school, if you can do your job, if you can approach another person closer than 1.50 metres in public space, if you wear a mask – yes or no – if this country is still in lockdown – yes or no – if you can fly on holiday – yes or no – if you go on holiday to Austria by car – yes or no – that is not up to all of you who elected this government, that is not

up to all of you who finance this government with their taxes, no, that is currently up to Bill and Melinda Gates, the so-called Gates Foundation. These two people have hacked into the world democracies through the WHO and are currently determining what is called normality. The new normality you feel at the moment is that you have to walk around wearing a face mask. […] These people belong to this American elite. […] and they in their delusion, their almost religious delusion, believe that they can make the world a better place, they have bought the World Health Organisation, because the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation finances the World Health Organization to 80% and determines what health is […] And they both, Mr and Mrs Gates, have a soft spot for vaccinations. They believe that the whole world needs to become healthier by being vaccinated. And that is why they bought the World Health Organization. Bill and Melinda Gates, the Gates couple, now have more power than Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin and Hitler put together. […] They have become a couple who dictate to the whole world how they should live. […] Because they have billions, they can buy their way in everywhere. They can even buy the World Health Organization. They can even hijack the World Health Organization. They can even hijack this government. […] They can buy themselves in anywhere in the world and impose their personal will, their personal idea of how the world should be shaped, against all of us. […] Two people and the pharmaceutical industry behind them will dictate to us in the future what we have to do every year, with all the side effects. […] The whole thing is a business model. […] [The government] is now forcing the whole world together with Bill and Melinda Gates to pump some shit into their veins […] We are their rats. We are a gigantic laboratory. […] And you shouldn't put your kids through that. […] Bill and Melinda Gates determine what they pump into your kids' veins. They make your children guinea pigs. […] We have this big problem in Germany that if something is a law, then we have already done it twice. There were laws for Auschwitz, and for the shooting orders [at the Berlin Wall in the GDR], and for what we did to each other in the GDR. There were always draft laws. And we always went along with it. And now we should not go along with it the third time, because this leads us totally into slavery (#4b). 21

In this video, Jebsen combines several logical fallacies: the logical fallacy of hasty generalisation (secundum quid, generalisation drawn from a particular case, unqualified generalisation), the argumentum ad hominem (argument against the person) and the argumentum ad ignorantiam (appeal to ignorance). Jebsen's video is based on deterministic assumptions, namely the assumption that because Bill Gates is rich, everything he ever does is with necessity driven by the secret plan to obtain world domination and to accumulate ever more capital and political power. Therefore, his interest in helping fight infectious diseases could not be motivated by humanism without the purpose of accumulation but must, in the worldview advanced by Jebsen and others, be based on attempts to make ever more money and to control citizens and the world. Jebsen uses the logical fallacy of hasty generalisation (Reisigl and Wodak 2001, 63, 73–74) in the form of an inductive generalisation that assumes that interests and actions in one context determine interest and actions in all other contexts. This logic does not take into account that individuals such as Bill Gates and George Soros are so rich that they have no need to become richer and can afford to do something good such as supporting measures such as reducing child mortality rates, increasing children's health and literacy in Africa, and benefit humankind without resorting to the logic of the accumulation of capital and power. Hasty, unqualified generalisations cannot explain that there is more than one logic and that the dominance of one logic might allow for the relative autonomy of other logics in other contexts. Gates became rich through capital accumulation in the software industry, which allows him to spend money in the realms of research, health care and education without the logic of monetary return. In Gates' case, the logic of capital accumulation has reached a quantitative level where it has turned into a new quality, namely philanthropism that improves Gates' reputation, which is an instrumental dimension, and has humanitarian goals. Jebsen's hasty generalisation becomes evident in the sentence ‘because they [Bill and Melinda Gates] have billions, they can buy their way in everywhere’, from which he infers that they ‘hacked into the world democracies’, determine ‘what is called normality’, force humans to wear a face mask, ‘determine what health is’, ‘bought the WHO’, ‘dictate to the whole world how they should live’, ‘buy themselves in anywhere in the world’, hijack the WHO and governments, ‘impose their personal will against all of us’ and force ‘the whole world’ to ‘pump some shit into their veins’. The logical fallacy here is the assumption that because Bill Gates made lots of money in the software industry, making money and power is

the sole motivation in anything he does. The logic from one context is transferred into all other contexts in a deterministic manner. Aristotle describes the logic of the hasty, unqualified generalisation in the following manner: Fallacies connected with the use of some expression absolutely or in a certain respect and not in its proper sense, occur when that which is predicated in part only is taken as though it was predicated absolutely (Aristotle 1955, 27) Reisigl and Wodak (2001, 63) mention as example for a hasty generalisation that ‘all Jews are tight-fisted, greedy, cunning, businessminded persons’. Of course, hasty generalisations are not only a characteristic of such metaphorical negative other-presentations or of many synecdoches. If one looks at the structure of prejudices from an argumentation theoretical perspective, one can ascertain that in every racist, antisemitic, nationalist, ethnicist and sexist prejudice or stereotype there is inherent a fallacious generalisation (Reisigl and Wodak 2001, 63) Jebsen claims Gates has ‘more power than Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin and Hitler put together’, which means he claims that Gates is the single most powerful individual in the world. Jebsen compares the alleged Gates conspiracy to vaccinate and control the world population to Auschwitz and shootings at the German Democratic Republic's borders. Speculations and false claims are compared to the Nazis' industrial mass murder of millions of Jews. Jebsen and other conspiracy theorists use the argumentum ad hominem, ‘a verbal attack on the antagonist's personality and character (of her or his credibility, integrity, honesty, expertise, competence and so on) instead of argumentatively trying to refute the antagonist's arguments’. ‘[…] this argumentum ad is not concerned with the “facts” of the matter in question’ (Reisigl and Wodak 2001, 72). In the analysed video, Jebsen does not engage with what Gates is actually saying about health care, viruses, vaccines and COVID-19, but engages in attacks on Gates that make unsubstantiated claims about his motives, plans and actions. A central claim is that Gates ‘bought the WHO’, owns it and controls it.

Jebsen makes in this context the false claim that Gates ‘finances the WHO to 80%’. In 2019, 12.18% of the WHO's funding came from the German government, 11.65% from the Gates Foundation and 7.85% from the United States. Based on the claim of financial control follows the claim of governance control of the WHO and the claim that via the WHO Gates controls the world's governments in order to install forced vaccines, make monetary profits and install a surveillance society. Bill Gates is not a member of the WHO's executive board, 22 so it is unclear how he should determine the WHO's key decisions. It is also an overestimation that the WHO directly determines the health policies of governments. Based on the assumption that everything that Bill Gates does is based on a sinister plan of world domination, Jebsen uses the argumentum ad ignorantiam. The argumentum ad ignorantiam is an appeal to ignorance. This argumentum ad means that a standpoint, argument or thesis is to be regarded as true if it has not been refuted, that is to say, if it has not been proven not to be the case (Reisigl and Wodak 2001, 72) COVID-19 conspiracy theories make claims such as the ones that Bill Gates controls the WHO, the world, invented SARS-CoV-2, makes profit from COVID-19 vaccines, installs surveillance microchips into humans via vaccinations, etc. These claims are presented as true without evidence based on an appeal to ignorance, namely the assumption that all claims about Gates' evilness are true if it has not been proven that they are false. Conspiracy theorists also tend to reject fact checks of their claims with the argument that the organisations conducting these claims are manipulated, ‘fake news media’, part of the conspiracy, etc. They create claims that the conspiratorial logic can never be shown to be false but also cannot be proved.

4.4 CONCLUSION 4.4.1 Findings This chapter has dealt with the question: How do COVID-19 conspiracy theories about Bill Gates work? In order to provide an answer, a critical

discourse analysis of popular social media postings that advance conspiracy theories was conducted. The following elements of conspiracy theories about Bill Gates and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that especially spread on social media were documented: Bill Gates dominates the world, including the WHO and the world's governments. Bill Gates is the mastermind behind the manufacturing of SARSCoV-2 in a laboratory and its global spreading. Bill Gates holds a patent on SARS-CoV-2. Bill Gates develops poisonous vaccines as part of a euthanasia programme in order to kill people, especially in Africa. Bill Gates is establishing dictatorships that force individuals to wear protective masks, implement lockdowns and social distancing, install a surveillance society and forced vaccinations, and create vaccine passports. Bill Gates profits financially from COVID-19 vaccines and, therefore, supports their development. Bill Gates develops surveillance microchips that are via COVID-19 vaccinations pumped into the human body so that a surveillance society is created that tracks and monitors everyone. The analysis identified the following discursive elements that are used for advancing the idea of a Bill Gates conspiracy: COVID-19 conspiracy theories make false logical inferences, including the mix-up of names of viruses and patents, hasty and unqualified generalisations, ad hominem attacks and appeals to ignorance. COVID-19 conspiracy theories make false, invented and unsubstantiated claims such as the one that Bill Gates owns and controls the WHO, governments and the world. COVID-19 conspiracy theories personalise domination. They see and present alleged problems not as structural issues but as conspiracies planned by individuals and secret groups in order to dominate the world.

COVID-19 conspiracy theories work with the topos of threat for claiming that a conspiratorial group wants to poison, kill, monitor, control and dominate humans via poisonous COVID-19 and microchipped vaccines. COVID-19 conspiracy theories use a version of the friend/enemy scheme, in which an elite that produces vaccines and benefits economically and politically from vaccines is opposed to the people. Some COVID-19 conspiracy theories take the friend/enemy scheme to the step of arguing that the people can and should respond with violence and war to the alleged vaccination conspiracy. Some of them also call for investigating and imprisoning persons such as Bill Gates and Anthony Fauci whom they see as masterminds behind the alleged conspiracy. At the same time, they see Donald Trump as the world's saviour and only hope for fighting the conspiracy. COVID-19 conspiracy theories negatively portray the alleged conspiracy leaders such as Bill Gates and Anthony Fauci by using linguistic strategies such as econonyms (greedy capitalist, moneyed aristocracy, etc.), ideologonyms (racist, eugenicist, etc.), politionyms (global surveillant, manipulator, powerful elite, etc.), criminonyms (killer, child killer, mass murder, comparison to Auschwitz, friend of a paedophile and sex trafficker, etc.) and militarionyms (comparison to war, genocide, etc.). COVID-19 conspiracy theories present irrationalities about SARSCoV-2 and COVID-19 such as lies, suspicions, allegations, baseless arguments, prejudices, speculation, superstition and mysticism, as rational assumptions (rational irrationality). COVID-19 rational irrationality often involves the rationalisation strategy of mechanistic determinism, in which it is claimed that Bill Gates is a billionaire and that, therefore, everything he does is necessarily evil and always motivated by the interest and plan to accumulate capital and power. COVID-19 conspiracy theories are based on a crude and mechanistic understanding of society, where there are no chance and coincidence and everything is the outcome of a secret plan hatched out and executed by a conspiratorial elite. 4.4.2 COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories as Ideology

An ideology is a set of claims, representations, symbols and interpretations that distort reality in ways that try to distract attention from the actual causes, realities and consequences of class society and domination. Ideology is what Lukács (1971) calls reified consciousness, the attempt to make individuals believe in the naturalness and necessity of certain conditions and claims. The role of ideology is that it justifies and tries to veil, obscure and stabilise class relations and domination. Ideology is a struggle ‘about the veiling or the exposure of the class character of society’ (Lukács 1971, 59). COVID-19 conspiracy theories often claim that COVID-19 does not exist, is not more dangerous than a common flu and that politicians deliberately raise fears over this disease in order to take measure that abolish democracy and create a totalitarian surveillance society. Such claims are ideological in that they obscure the facts: Up until 15 March 2021, just over a year on from the WHO's declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic, there had been 119,603,761 global cases of COVID-19, and 2,649,722 individuals had died from the disease. 23 This means that the death rate was 2.2%. There are around 1 billion cases of influenza per year, of which between 300,000 and 650,000 die. 24 This means a death rate that ranges between 0.03 and 0.07%. COVID-19 is many times deadlier than influenza. In the worst case, COVID-19 conspiracy theories convince individuals to ignore wearing masks and social distancing during COVID-19 waves, which increase the number of infections and deaths. COVID-19 conspiracy theories are a necrophilic ideology, an ideology of death that advances death and increases the number of deaths. The majority of individuals in the world belong to the working class. This means that when COVID-19 conspiracy theories spread and are taken up, it is primarily members of the working class who die and suffer. COVID-19 conspiracy theories are opposed to the objective interest of the working class and all humans leading good lives. They advance preventable deaths. COVID-19 conspiracy theories are a murderous ideology. COVID-19 conspiracy theories argue that wearing masks, lockdowns and social distancing are totalitarian limitations of individual freedom. They argue that a secret elite manufactured and spreads SARS-CoV-2 in order to make money from vaccinations, abolish democracy, establish a dictatorship, poison and kill humans by vaccines and inject microchips into humans in order to establish a surveillance society. Proponents of such theories often propagate resistance against wearing masks and social distancing. They also advance vaccine scepticism. Vaccine sceptics, COVID-19 deniers and opponents of protective measures do not just

endanger their own lives but also the lives of many others. COVID-19 conspiracy theories are an ideology that tries to convince individuals of false assumptions that do not correspond to reality. COVID-19 conspiracy theories claim that there is an antagonism between a secret, conspiratorial elite consisting of governments, experts, scientists, researchers, medical doctors, journalists and some billionaires that affirm vaccination and the mass of people whom the elite tries to manipulate and control. COVID-19 conspiracy theories advance a pandemic populism that tries to create a political polarisation between the ‘people’ and the ‘elite’. In this conspiracy ideology, the people consist both of the working class and capital (with the exception of some billionaires who are presented as members of the vaccine elite). COVID-19 conspiracy theories form an ideology because they distract attention from the class conflict. They present members of both the working class and capital as members of ‘the people’ who are fooled and controlled by a secret vaccine elite that opposes the people's said interests. The key interest of the proponents of such theories is not on criticising exploitation, class relations, poor working conditions, and income and wealth inequalities, but to present vaccines as a form of domination. COVID-19 conspiracy theories form an ideology that opposes the interest of humans to lead a good and healthy life. This ideology tries to convince humans that vaccines are harmful and that COVID-19 is a hoax, whereby human misery is advanced. COVID-19 conspiracies are an ideology of death. COVID-19 conspiracy theories distract attention from class relations and the potentials of class struggles. COVID-19 conspiracy theories are related to far-right ideology in a number of respects. First, the political supporters of COVID-19 denial and anti-lockdown can mainly be found in the camp of right-wing and far-right parties, politicians and activists. In France, the leader of the National Rally, Marine Le Pen, thinks it is feasible to ask if the virus was manufactured in a laboratory (Lepelletier 2020). In Germany, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD, Alternative for Germany) groups, politicians and activists have supported protests directed against protective measures. In November 2020, AfD invited corona deniers to the German parliament. In Italy, far-right politicians such as Matteo Salvini (Lega Nord) advanced COVID-19 conspiracy theories (Nardelli and D'Urso 2020). In Spain, far-right party VOX organised protests against COVID-19 measures (Hernández Suescun and Anderson 2020). In the United Kingdom, Brexit Party (now called Reform UK) leader, Nigel Farage, claims that the COVID-19 pandemic:

…is being shamelessly used to push forward the globalist agenda […] The likes of Tony Blair and other high-minded, holierthan-though types see the coronavirus pandemic as the springboard they needed to launch the final phase of their elitist, establishment-driven plan that would allow unelected, unaccountable, under-qualified puppets to dictate people's lives. […] Mega-globalist Bill Gates, himself a donor to the WHO, put it best when he said the WHO is the only platform where a global pandemic can be debated, understood and where evidence and information can be shared. Indeed, and that is the problem! This is a globalist organization run by a chap who has never been democratically elected, is allowed to self-investigate when embarrassing revelations arise and is focused on protecting or hiding its vested financial interests – as opposed to doing what is best for the people it claims to represent (Farage 2020) In the United States, Donald Trump compared COVID-19 to the flu and claimed that the mainstream media provide fake news about COVID-19: Flu season is coming up! Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu. Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!! http://web.archive.org/web/20201006211228/https://twitter.com/re alDonaldTrump/status/1313449844413992961 Covid, Covid, Covid is the unified chant of the Fake News Lamestream Media. They will talk about nothing else until November 4th., when the Election will be (hopefully!) over. Then the talk will be how low the death rate is, plenty of hospital rooms, & many tests of young people, http://web.archive.org/web/20201028123608/https://twitter.com/re alDonaldTrump/status/1321430459050381313 Second, supporters of right-wing parties are more likely to believe in COVID-19-related conspiracy theories than left-wing and liberal voters. Ferrara et al. (2020) collected a dataset of 242,087,331 tweets related to the 2020 presidential election that were posted between 20 June and 9 September 2020. A subset of these tweets focused on hashtags related to

four conspiracy theories: COVID-19, QAnon, Obamagate and pizzagate conspiracy theories. There was a relatively high presence of bots in conspiracy theory tweets: ‘Nearly 13% of users engaging with conspiracies are bots, as opposed to just 5% bots engaging with non-conspiracy content’ (Ferrara et al. 2020). Almost 70% of users employing such hashtags, for whom a clear political worldview was identifiable, were located on the political right. Conspiratory users tend to skew to the right, suggesting that the users who are prone to share the conspiratory narratives are likely to endorse the right-leaning media. The non-conspiratory users, those unlikely to share the conspiratory narratives, are distributed more equally across the political spectrum with significant proportions of them on left and center of the spectrum. […] Almost a quarter of users who endorse predominantly rightleaning media platforms are likely to engage in sharing conspiratory narratives. Out of all users who endorse left-leaning media, approximately 2% are likely to share conspiratory narratives (Ferrara et al. 2020) In the United States, 37% of Conservatives and 28% of Liberals think that COVID-19 was planned (PEW Research Center 2020b). 47% of Republicans and 25% of Democrats who have heard about this theory think it is true (PEW Research Center 2020c). 41% of Republicans and 7% of Democrats, who have heard of QAnon, think it is a good thing for the country (PEW Research Center 2020a). In France, 40% of the party's voters of the National Rally think that SARS-CoV-2 was manufactured in a lab (Lepelletier 2020). In Germany, 59% of the voters and supporters of the AfD oppose COVID-19 protective measures (Suhr 2020) and also 59% of this group are open for COVID-19 conspiracy theories (Bayerischer 2020), while among the supporters of other parties, these figures are much smaller. A YouGov poll conducted in 25 countries (N = 26,000) showed a significant support for COVID-19 conspiracy theories: More than half of Nigerians, more than 40% of South Africans, Poles and Turks, more than 35% of Americans, Brazilians and Spaniards and between one in four and one in five French, British, Italian and German respondents believed it was definitely

or probably true that Covid-19 had been deliberately created and spread by the Chinese government.[…] The most widely held conspiracy theory by some distance, however, was that despite who may officially be in charge of national governments and other organisations, there was ‘a single group of people who secretly control events and rule the world together’. This was held to be ‘definitely or probably true’ by more than 20% of respondents across 20 countries, including 28% of Britons, 36% of French respondents, 37% of Americans, 45% of Italians, 47% of Poles, 55% of Spaniards, 68% of South Africans and 78% of Nigerians. […] Across 19 different countries 20% or more of respondents said they gave at least some credibility to the view that ‘the truth about the harmful effects of vaccines is being deliberately hidden from the public’, including 57% of South Africans, 48% of Turks, 38% of French people, 33% of Americans, 31% of Germans and 26% of Swedes (Henley and McIntyre 2020) Given that COVID-19 conspiracy theories are opposed to safeguarding the lives of the members of the working class and humans and given that especially far-right politicians, parties, activists and supporters believe in such theories and question anti-pandemic measures, we can argue that COVID-19 conspiracy theories are to a large degree a right-wing ideology. 4.4.3 The Critique of Philanthrocapitalism and the Critique of Conspiracy Ideology Given that COVID-19 conspiracy theories are an ideology, deconstructing and criticising this ideology is an important humanist task. But such criticism does not imply that everything that those whom the conspiracy theorists criticise should be supported. We need a critique of both philanthrocapitalism and conspiracy theories. The Gates Foundations is a manifestation of philanthrocapitalism. The term philanthrocapitalism is used to describe a growing movement which aims to harness the power of the market in order to achieve social outcomes, to increase economic growth in impoverished regions, and to make philanthropy more cost effective

(Global Health Watch 2011, 267) Global Health Watch is a progressive network consisting of civil society organisations Asociaciόn Latinoamericana de Medicina Social (Mexico), Global Equity Gauge Alliance (South Africa), Health Action International (The Netherlands), Health Poverty Action (UK), Medact (UK), Medico International (Germany), People's Health Movement (India) and Third World Network (Malaysia). The network has produced global health watch reports that analyse the relationship of health and neoliberal capitalism. Global Health Watch argues that philanthropy can and does ‘have a good side’ but that it is also important to point out its problems (Global Health Watch 2008, 244). It argues that the Gates Foundation has strengthened Global Health, has helped to improve the survival of children and the poor in Africa and has supported civic activism (Global Health Watch 2008, 256). Global Health Watch, however, also sets out several points of criticism of the Gates Foundation: Lack of accountability: The Gates Foundation's activities in global health lack ‘transparency and accountability’ (Global Health Watch 2008, 222). Organisations controlled by individuals that have ‘inadequate public scrutiny or accountability’ (Humber 2019, 116) influence public matters. Neoliberal privatisation: The reliance on research on funds provided by private foundations set up by the wealthy and capital replaces public funding that should be publicly provided by governments by private initiative. As a consequence, neoliberal privatisation of public services is advanced. The Foundation has been a significant reason for the proliferation of global public–private initiatives (GPPIs) and single-issue, disease-based vertical programmes, which has fragmented health systems and diverted resources away from the public sector (Global Health Watch 2008, 253) Public–private partnerships are potentially important, but unless the mandate, effectiveness and resource base of public institutions are strengthened, and unless there is much stronger regulation of the private sector (especially the giant

multinationals), they can be harmful. Charity and philanthropy are good, but, unless combined with a fairer distribution of power and wealth, they can hinder what is just and right (256). In 2019, 12.18% of the WHO's funding came from the German government, 11.65% from the Gates Foundation and 7.85% from the United States.25 Donald Trump's announcement that the United States will leave the WHO in July 2020 implied that the organisation would have to in the future even more rely on private funding than before in order to uphold its activities. Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 US Presidential Election resulted in a revision of Trump's decision and his unilateralism. The commodification of the health sector: Private–public partnerships ideologically supported by philanthrocapitalism would open up public services and affairs to private capital so that, for example, the WHO works with private health capital (Humber 2019, 117). ‘Partnership with industry is an explicit and prominent part of the Gates Foundation's global health strategy’ (Global Health Watch 2008, 252). The Foundation increases the influence of for-profit private health corporations on public health care which advances the profit motive in the healthcare sector. There are concerns about the Foundation's rose-tinted perspective of the market and the simplistic translation of management practices from the commercial sector into the social and public sector of population health (Global Health Watch 2008, 257) Capitalist interests (reputation, taxation): Philanthropy and corporate social responsibility investments are ways of how large corporations and the rich manage their image and reduce the taxes they have to pay (Global Health Watch 2008, 243– 244). Policy power: The Gates Foundation gives two individuals (Bill and Melinda Gates) large power to influence health policymaking (Global Health Watch 2008, 251).

Technocracy and instrumental reason: The Gates Foundation's focus is on the development of new health technologies not on the further development of existing ones and also not on the social context of health and its power structures (Global Health Watch 2008, 253). There is a ‘bias towards biomedical and technological solutions’ and research (253). ‘Technocratic solutions are important, but when divorced from the political economy of health they are dangerous’ (256). Capitalist entanglements: Observers argue that some of the Gates Foundation's monetary sources and investments contradict its own goal to advance health outcomes. The Foundation's …main funding source, revenues accrued from Microsoft, was amassed through labour practices and monopolistic intellectual property strategies that are contrary to the stated health aims of the Gates Foundation. […] The Gates Foundation's investment in Coca-Cola raises a number of concerns. Increased consumption of cola and other artificially sweetened beverages has been directly linked to the global obesity crisis. […] [Another] concern is the human rights record of Coca-Cola, which has faced allegations that its company executives have conspired in the murder of union workers at its bottling plants in Colombia (Global Health Watch 2011, 268, 269) The points just listed are documented, legitimate, rational and reasonable dimensions of criticism. In contrast, the conspiracy theories analysed throughout this chapter build on a short-circuited, impoverished, deterministic critique of capitalism that is joined with irrational claims that are presented as being reasonable. Criticising such conspiracy theories can result in an opposed extreme, namely to dismiss any critique of capital as conspiracy theory. We require both a rational critique of conspiracy theories and the ills of capitalism. Conspiracy theories and right-wing ideology will exist as long as class societies and domination exist. A deep crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic increases insecurities and fears that give an impetus to conspiracy theories. The struggle for socialism is not just a struggle for a fair and just society where everyone benefits; it is also a struggle against ideology.

1 Forbes 2000 List, year 2020, https://www.forbes.com/global2000/#2bf72e17335d,

accessed on 25 November 2020. 2Microsoft

SEC Filings, form 10-K for fiscal year 2020, available at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Investor/sec-filings.aspx, accessed on 25 November 2020. 3

Forbes World's Billionaires List, The Richest https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/, accessed on 25 November 2020.

in

2020,

4 https://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do. 5 https://covid19.who.int/, accessed on 25 November 2020. 6 https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/harmful-conspiracy-theories-youtube. 7 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIHdDJ0tjn_3j-FS7s_X1kQ, accessed on 25

November 2020. 8

https://web.archive.org/web/20200505070501if_/https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=rnbf9wccdxE&feature=youtu.be, accessed on 30 November 2020. 9

https://web.archive.org/web/20200625031342/https://m.youtube.com/watch? feature=youtu.be&v=rnbf9wccdxE, accessed on 30 November 2020. 10

https://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/GrantsDatabase#q/k=Pirbright, search for Pirbright, conducted on 26 November 2020. 11Pirbright Institute Annual Reports, obtained from https://www.pirbright.ac.uk/and

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/, accessed on 26 November 2020. 12Translation from German: „[Über die Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation:] Wenn die

Geld brauchen, da haben sie sich überlegt, wie machen wir das. Wenn wir Geld brauchen, dann brauchen wir eine Bedrohung, und dann brauchen wir eine Krankheit, und deswegen brauchen wir Pandemien. […] Wer besitzt denn die WHO? […] Der zweitgrößte Spender […] das ist Bill Gates. […]Nur was ist denn da drin [in einer COVID19-Impfung]? Ist da vielleicht etwas drin, wo man sagen kann, ja damit kann man Menschen vielleicht sogar orten? Sind da irgendwelche Micro-Dinge drin, wo man sagen kann, die sind GPS-getrackt? Wäre ja möglich. […] [Jebsen redet über einen digitalen Faschismus, der von Big Pharma, Regierungen und dem Geldadel geplant werde] der digitale Geldadel, der ja unsere Daten hat, weil wir ja surfen. […]wo du getracked wirst, […] wo du einen Impfpass haben musst, damit man sagt, ob du überhaupt in dieses oder jenes Land darfst. Das heißt, du mußt jedes Jahr geimpft werden, also neu geimpft werden […], weil ja ein Virus immer auch mutiert. Das ist ja die Geschäftsmethode. Da pack ich jede Menge Scheiße rein“ (#4a). 13

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/we-call-investigations-bill-melinda-gatesfoundation-medical-malpractice-crimes-against-humanity? fbclid=IwAR0NmuvGdB95t1vVtDDtk5WlWkUh9Gr1HUA3OLwPdwdNTc-mB43W4k4k4z0, accessed on 30 November 2020. 14 https://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do, accessed on 26 November 2020. 15See https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/videos.html. 16 https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/recommendations.html.

17 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_epidemics. 18 https://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are/mission, accessed on 30

November 2020. 19 https://abort73.com/abortion/a_legacy_of_eugenics/, accessed on 30 November

2020. 20 https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2vtwvx, accessed on 30 November 2020. 21Translation from German: „Ob ihre Kinder, wenn sie auf Mallorca meinetwegen Zeit

verbringen, von ihnen besucht werden können, ob ihre Kinder in die Schule gehen können, ob sie ihren Beruf ausüben können, ob sie sich einem anderen Menschen im öffentlichen Raum näher als 1,50 nähern können, ob sie eine Maske tragen – ja oder nein – ob dieses Land noch weiter im Lockdown ist – ja oder nein – ob sie in den Urlaub fliegen können – ja oder nein – ob sie Urlaub machen können auch mit dem Auto in Österreich – ja oder nein – das bestimmen nicht sie, die diese Regierung gewählt haben, das bestimmen nicht sie, die diese Regierung finanzieren mit ihren Steuern, nein, das bestimmt aktuell Bill und Melinda Gates, die sogenannte Gates Foundation. Diese beiden Menschen haben sich über die WHO in die Weltdemokratien hineingehackt und bestimmen aktuell das, was man Normalität nennt. Die neue Normalität, die sie im Moment spüren, dass sie mit einer Gesichtsmaske herumlaufen müssen. […] Diese Menschen gehören dieser amerikanischen Elite an. […] und die in ihrem Wahn, ja fast schon religiösen Wahn, zu glauben, die Welt besser machen zu können, sich die Weltgesundheitsorganisation gekauft haben, denn die Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation finanziert die Weltgesundheitsorganisation zu 80 Prozent und bestimmt dort knallhart, was Gesundheit ist […] Und sie haben beide, Herr und Frau Gates, ein Faible für Impfungen. Sie glauben, die gesamte Welt muss gesünder werden, indem sie geimpft wird. Und deswegen haben sie die Weltgesundheitsorganisation gekauft. […] Bill and Melinda Gates, das Ehepaar Gates, hat inzwischen mehr Macht als Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin und Hitler seinerzeit zusammen. […] Inzwischen ist es ein Ehepaar, das der ganzen Welt diktiert, wie es zu leben hat. […] Weil sie Milliarden haben, können sie sich überall einkaufen. Sie können sogar die Weltgesundheitsorganisation kaufen. Sie können sogar die Weltgesundheitsorganisation kapern. Sie können sogar diese Regierung kapern. […] Sie können sich überall in der Welt einkaufen und ihren persönlichen Willen, ihre persönliche Idee, wie die Welt gestaltet werden soll, durchsetzen, und zwar gegen uns alle. […] Zwei Menschen und die hinter ihnen stehende Pharmaindustrie diktieren uns jetzt zukünftig, was wir uns jetzt alle Jahre wieder in die Venen hauen müssen, mit allen Nebenwirkungen. […] Das Ganze ist ein Geschäftsmodell. […] [Die Regierung] zwingt jetzt die ganze Welt mit Bill und Melinda Gates sich irgendeine Scheiße in die Vene zu pumpen […] Wir sind deren Ratten. Wir sind ein gigantisches Labor. […] Und Sie sollten das nicht Ihren Kindern zumuten. […] Bill and Melinda Gates bestimmen, was sie Ihren Kindern in die Venen pumpen. Sie machen Ihre Kinder zu Versuchskaninchen. […] Wir haben in Deutschland dieses große Problem, dass, wenn etwas Gesetz ist, wir das schon zweimal durchgezogen haben. Für Auschwitz gab es Gesetze, und für die Schießbefehle, und für das, was wir uns in der DDR gegenseitig angetan haben. Da gab es immer auch Gesetzesvorlagen. Und wir sind mit dem immer mitgegangen. Und wir sollten jetzt beim dritten Mal, bei dem nicht mitgehe, denn das führt uns total in die Versklavung“ (#4b).

22See https://apps.who.int/gb/gov/en/composition-of-the-board_en.html, accessed on 1

December 2020. 23 https://covid19.who.it/, accessed on 15March2021, 18:25 CET. 24

https://www.who.int/influenza/Global_Influenza_Strategy_2019_2030_Summary_English. pdf?ua=1, accessed on 2 December 2020. 25 https://open.who.int/2020-21/contributors/contributor, accessed on 30 November

2020.

5

USERS' REACTIONS TO COVID-19 CONSPIRACY THEORIES ON SOCIAL MEDIA ABSTRACT This chapter asks: How do Internet users react to COVID-19 conspiracy theories spread on social media? It presents the findings of a content analysis and critical discourse analysis of user comments collected from social media postings that advance COVID-19 conspiracy theories. A total of 2,847 comments made to seven social media postings whose authors support COVID-19 conspiracy theories were collected, coded and analysed. The analysis shows the contested character of the communication of COVID-19 conspiracy theories and the role of the friend/enemy scheme, verbal attacks, violent threats, satire and humour in such communication processes. Keywords COVID-19; coronavirus; SARS-CoV-2; conspiracy theories; social media; users' reactions; comments; content analysis; critical discourse analysis

5.1 INTRODUCTION The COVID-19 pandemic has created insecurities, a high number of deaths and cases of serious illness throughout the world and especially in countries such as the United States, Brazil, India, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Iran, Spain, Russia, Germany and Colombia, where the number of absolute deaths from COVID-19 was higher than 60,000 in March 2021, a year on from the

official start of the pandemic.1 Many governments have reacted with lockdowns of shops, restaurants and bars, hotels, public institutions, social distancing measures and the requirement to wear masks in places where many people meet in order to try to fight the pandemic. Capitalism is a class society that creates crises and inequalities. It is a type of society that is therefore in general prone to the emergence and spread of ideologies and conspiracy theories, especially in times of economic and political crisis. This chapter asks: How do Internet users react to COVID-19 conspiracy theories spread on social media? It presents the findings of a content analysis and critical discourse analysis of user comments collected from social media postings that advance COVID-19 conspiracy theories. The anti-vaccination movement has gained a new momentum in the COVID19 crisis and has blended with COVID-19 conspiracy theories. Some of the most popular COVID-19 conspiracy theories include claims such as the ones that there is a secret plot of a vaccine elite that has manufactured SARS-CoV-2 in a laboratory and is deliberately spreading the virus in order to make profits from vaccines and establish a dictatorship, that COVID-19 vaccines will contain microchips so that a surveillance society will be established where everyone is under constant surveillance, or that COVID-19 vaccines are used to poison or kill individuals or certain groups of the world populations such as Africans. The anti-vaccination movement has had considerable support from politicians and celebrities such as the actors and actresses Jessica Biel, Jenny McCarthy, Jim Carrey, Alicia Silverstone and Jenna Elfman, or the lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who is the nephew of former US President John F. Kennedy (Dickson 2019). Anti-vaccination celebrities reach millions of fans via their social media profiles. In July 2015, Actor Jim Carrey, who then had around 15 million followers on Twitter, 2 opposed a Californian law that tightened the reasons why parents can opt out of having their schoolchildren vaccinated. He tweeted: ‘California Gov says yes to poisoning more children with mercury and aluminium in mandatory vaccines. This corporate fascist must be stopped’. 3 In September 2014, Donald Trump, who at that point of time had around 2.5 million followers on Twitter, 4 tweeted: ‘Healthy young child goes to doctor, gets pumped with massive shot of many vaccines, doesn't feel good and changes – AUTISM. Many such cases!’. 5 The mercury-based chemical thimerosal was used in some vaccines, has been removed, and there is no evidence it is contained in standard vaccines (Full Fact 2019). There is no proof that vaccines that contain some aluminium are harmful (Reuters 2020d). The claim that vaccines cause autism is based on a fraudulent research paper that was retracted in 1998; there is no evidence for this claim (FactCheck 2017, PublicHealth 2015). A significant share of the population opposes vaccinations or is vaccinationsceptical. In a survey conducted in 2019 in the United States, 45% of the

respondents doubted the safety of vaccines (American Osteopathic Association 2019). In a YouGov survey, 20% of the respondents definitely or probably agreed to the statement that vaccines had harmful effects that were not being disclosed (YouGov 2020). In a European Union (EU)–wide survey, 48% of the respondents answered incorrectly that they think vaccines often produce serious side effects (European Commission 2019). The emergence of COVID-19 gave momentum to the anti-vaccination movement that created and spread new conspiracy theories about the disease and COVID-19 vaccines. Section 5.2 presents this study's methodology. Section 5.3 presents the main findings. Section 5.4 draws conclusions.

5.2 METHODOLOGY Table 5.1 gives an overview of the sources from which comments were collected. They include YouTube videos, postings from Facebook and Twitter, and separate websites. For most cases (#2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7), the data were collected using the data collection tool Export Comments (https://exportcomments.com/). Where no automatic collection was possible, the comments were collected manually by copy-pasting them into an Excel sheet (#1). The data collection resulted in a total of 2,847 comments. Table 5.1. Data Sources Used in the Conducted Empirical Research. I Artefact D Type

1

Online video

2

Faceboo k posting

3 Tweet 4 Tweet 5

Faceboo k posting

6

YouTube video

Source

Ken Jebsen's KenFM: ‘Gates kapert Deutschland’ (Gates Seizes Germany!), https://kenfm.de/gates-kapert-deutschland/ Melissa Ackinson's(candidate in the Republican primary to the 2020 Ohio Senate election) Facebook page, posting with a link to the Plandemic movie https://www.facebook.com/282322822253019/posts/if-you-watch-anything-on-mypage-it-needs-to-be-this-for-those-of-you-paying-clo/853025848516044/ Musician Jim Corr (The Corrs) tweeted a link to an article that claims that Bill Gates wants to inject digital IDs into humans together with COVID-19 vaccines in order to monitor them, https://twitter.com/Jimcorrsays/status/1247129014759817217 Conservative Fox News TV host Laura Ingraham retweeted Corr's tweet, https://twitter.com/IngrahamAngle/status/1247528216434106369 Online video, in which Patrick Bet-David interviews conspiracy theorist Rashid Buttar about COVID-19, https://www.facebook.com/PatrickBetDavid.Valuetainment/videos/548947295760733 / Vegan cookbook author and YouTuber Attila Hildmann posted a YouTube video that supports the QAnon conspiracy theory and claims that COVID-19 is a conspiracy that aims at isolating children from their parents, putting them into asylums and regularly taking blood samples from them, https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=ZeHw2ycEU24

Number of Collected user Comment s 500 263

294 258 621

501

I Artefact D Type

7

Source

Number of Collected user Comment s

Faceboo Chef Pete Evans posted a video ad for the movie Plandemic on his Facebook profile 410 k posting https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3102001553154872 Total: 2,847

The sources selected have in common that their producers spread conspiracy theories and are popular on social media. Ken Jebsen is a former presenter on German public service radio and television. After a controversy about anti-Semitism, he was fired and has continued his career online, where he hosts the YouTube channel KenFM that spreads conspiracy theories. After YouTube started deleting videos that advance COVID-19 conspiracy theories, Jebsen decided to close his channel and moved to his own Web platform. Before its closure, then KenFM YouTube channel had around 500,000 followers. 6 In the selected video, Jebsen spreads conspiracy theories about Bill Gates in the context of COVID-19. Melissa Ackinson was a candidate in the Republican 2020 Ohio Senate election primary for the seat representing Ohio's 26th district. She lost the primary to William F. Reineke who won the election. Ackinson is the Executive Director of Patriots for Ohio, a conservative organisation that describes its aim as ‘disrupting the political machine that consistently introduces, funds, and props up dangerous career politicians, bureaucrats, and special interests’. 7 In the selected Facebook posting, Ackinson promotes the Plandemic movie that spreads the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 is a planned epidemic. Ackinson commented in this posting: ‘If you watch ANYTHING on my page, it needs to be this’. Jim Corr is a musician and a member of the Irish folk rock band The Corrs. In the selected tweet, he linked to and promoted the article ‘Bill Gates Calls for a “Digital Certificate” to Identify Who Received COVID-19 Vaccine’ that was published on the conspiracy theory platform The Vigilant Citizen. The article reports that in a Reddit Q&A, Bill Gates wrote that as response to COVID-19, ‘we will have some digital certificates to show who has recovered or been tested recently or when we have a vaccine who has received it’. 8 The article speculates about Bill Gates wanting to use COVID-19 as state of exception for introducing a global surveillance system: This short (and unexpected answer) opened a gigantic pandora box of what could be in store in the near future: The inevitable mass vaccination campaign to eradicate COVID-19 would be the perfect opportunity to introduce a worldwide digital ID. This system would

store a wealth of information about each individual (including vaccination history) and would be used to grant access to rights and services. Although Gates did not go into specifics, “digital certificates” could be linked to biometrics or a quantum dot tattoo. 9 Laura Ingraham is a conservative radio and television show host. From 2001 until 2018, she hosted the conservative talk radio show The Laura Ingraham Show. Since 2017, she has hosted the television show The Ingraham Angle on Fox News. The show is broadcast weekdays at 10 p.m. eastern time. On average, Ingraham's Fox News show has more than three million viewers and is the most successful US television show hosted by a female presenter (Ellefson 2020). In December 2020, Ingraham was one of the 51 Twitter users who were followed by Donald Trump 10 . In the selected tweet, Ingraham retweeted Jim Corr's posting that was discussed in the preceding paragraph. She commented: ‘Digitally tracking Americans' every move has been a dream of the globalists for years. This health crisis is the perfect vehicle for them to push this’. In 2020, Ingraham had around four million Twitter followers. Posted on 7 April 2020, Ingraham's re-tweet and comment had received 5,300 likes and 2,500 re-tweets until 3 December 2020. 11 Patrick Bet-David is an entrepreneur, consultant, author and host of the YouTube channel Valuetainment that in early December 2020 had 2.7 million subscribers. 12 Valuetainment understands itself as a channel for entrepreneurs: ‘An entrepreneur channel created by Serial Entrepreneur, Patrick Bet-David. Valuetainment is referred to as the best channel for entrepreneurs with weekly How To's, Motivation and interviews with unique individuals’. 13 In April 2020, Valuetainment published a two-hour-long interview that Bet-David conducted with the conspiracy theorist Rashid Buttar. The video title ‘Dr Buttar Accuses Fauci, Gates & The Media For Using COVID-19 To Drive Hidden Agenda’ is telling: Buttar outlines COVID-19 conspiracy theories. In the interview, every possible conspiracy theory about COVID-19 that one can imagine is advanced, including conspiracy theories about Bill Gates. Because YouTube deleted the original video, we were referring to the version that Bet-David posted on his Facebook profile. Attila Hildmann is the author of vegan cookbooks and a vegan cooking blog. His videos about vegan cooking became popular on his YouTube channel. He was featured on numerous German television programmes where he talked about the vegan lifestyle. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Hildmann spread conspiracy theories on social media. He said, for example, that Hitler was harmless in comparison to the ‘communist Angela Merkel’ who would together with Bill Gates plan the genocide of seven billion individuals (Peter 2020). Hildmann wrote on his Telegram channel that if he were Reich Chancellor, he would reintroduce the death penalty and would use it against Green politician Volker Beck who, so said Hildmann on Telegram, should be killed by having his

testicles smashed in public (Peter 2020). The selected video is one that Hildmann posted on YouTube. The video spreads the QAnon conspiracy theory by claiming that a secret elite uses the COVID-19 pandemic to imprison children and extract their blood. The QAnon followers believe that this secret elite that involves Hollywood celebrities and politicians produces the drug adrenochrome that would make them live longer (Aliapoulios et al. 2021). Chef Pete Evans is an Australian chef. From 2011 until 2018, he was a jury member on the reality TV cooking show My Kitchen Rules. He hosted the show Moveable Feast with Fine Cooking on PBS. Evans has spread QAnon- and coronavirus-related conspiracy theories. The selected posting is from Evans' Facebook profile that in early December 2020 had 1.5 million followers.14 The specific posting is a 19-second long video ad for the film Plandemic. Plandemic, as discussed in the previous chapter, is a two-part conspiracy film produced by Mikki Willis that has been extremely popular in the anti-vaccination and COVID19 conspiracy theory communities. Its basic claim is that the COVID-19 pandemic is a planned epidemic. Evans commented: Has anyone watched this documentary that is screening now? It is called plandemic. Would love to know your thoughts as the person being interviewed has a fascinating story. What is the truth?

5.2.1 Data Analysis Export Comments is a data collection tool that supports automated collection of comments from postings made on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Vimeo and Discord. Export Comments was used for collecting data for

six of the seven postings. In one case (#1), the original YouTube video moved to a different website from which one cannot auto-collect data. This comment's data were, therefore, manually collected by copy-pasting it into an Excel sheet. The data collection took place on 17 November 2020. Export Comments allows exporting Excel sheets. The resulting seven Excel sheets were combined into one. The entries were given consecutive IDs. The resulting file was used for the coding of the data. As a next step, the data were coded as part of a content and critical discourse analysis. The coding categories are shown in Table 5.2. After the coding, the data were analysed with the help of content analysis (see Krippendorff 2019) and critical discourse analysis (Fairclough 2015, Reisigl and Wodak 2001, Wodak and Meyer 2001) in order to work out how users commented on the postings. Table 5.2. The Coding Scheme Utilised in the Conducted Research. Code Assessment Secret domination Concealment Personalisation Friend/enemy scheme Named enemy Verbal attacks Calls for violence, repression, state action Rational irrationality Determinism Call for political action Immanent critique of the logic of argumentation

Values Affirmation Critique Other Yes No Not applicable Yes No Not applicable Yes No Not applicable Yes No Not applicable In case of the use of the friend/enemy scheme, who is named as enemy? Yes No Not applicable Yes No Not applicable Yes No Not applicable Yes No Not applicable Yes No Not applicable Yes No

Code

Values Not applicable Yes Questioning of the underlying ideological motivation No Not applicable Yes Satire and humour No Not applicable Yes Use of empirical data and analytical reports for criticising false claims No Not applicable Yes Verbal attacks No Not applicable Demonstration of the moral–political problems of the voiced claims by Yes outlining the negative consequences the suggested actions have for No society Not applicable Field for comments the coder Comments leaves for informing the analysis

Conspiracy theories have several important features (see Butter and Knight 2020, Dean 1998, Fenster 2008, Jameson 1988, Hellinger 2019, Löwenthal and Guterman 1949, Neumann 1957/2017, Sunstein and Vermeule 2009, Uscinski 2020): Secret domination: There is a secret group's sinister plan for world domination. There is a secret master who pulls the strings behind the scene of those who are officially in power. Concealment: The secret group conceals its interests, plans and actions. Personalisation: Conspiracy theories do not conceive of domination as structure but as specific persons and groups of persons. Friend/enemy scheme: The secret group is opposed to the interests of ‘the people’. Violence, repression, state action: Not all conspiracy theories have fascist and violent implications, but they have fascist potentials that can result in the call for or execution of violence and terror against the perceived enemies. In a milder version, there is a call for the use of state power against enemies (prosecution, imprisonment). Rational irrationality:

Followers of conspiracy theories constantly search for indicators of conspiracies that they join together with suspicions, allegations, baseless arguments, prejudices, speculation, superstition and mysticism that are not open to rational questioning and debate. Their speculative character makes conspiracy theories impossible to prove or falsify. Determinism: Conspiracy theories rule out the existence of unintentionality and chance. For them, every action is motivated by a conscious, sinister plan. They assume that certain groups always and necessarily lie, conceal their true motivations and hide what is really going on. Followers of conspiracy theories often distrust science, intellectuals, experts and politicians, and assume that these institutions and groups always lie. Table 5.2 shows the coding scheme that was utilised in the analysis of the collected data. First, it was coded based on how a user in their comment assessed the posting – positively (affirmation) or negatively (critique). For all affirmative comments, I coded what kind of logic of argumentation was used by utilising the seven features of conspiracy theories that had been derived from theoretical literature. Each feature formed one code. For each affirmative comment, it was coded if a certain feature was or was not present. The comments were coded accordingly. In the case of the use of the friend/enemy scheme, also the named enemy was recorded. Another variable focused on whether or not verbal attacks were used. We also coded if there was a call for political action (e.g. demonstrations, petitions, the founding of political parties, etc.). Critical comments were coded according to how they voiced criticism. Common methods of ideology critique are the immanent critique of the logic of argumentation, questioning of the underlying ideological motivation (including the focus on tabloid-media style), satire and humour, use of empirical data and analytical reports for identifying false claims, verbal attacks, demonstration of the moral–political problems of the voiced claims by outlining the negative consequences the suggested actions have for society. For each posting, it was coded whether or not each of these five reactions was used by utilising six variables in the coding. It was assumed that each comment that is a critique can utilise more than one of these strategies of critique. The analysis focused on comments that either clearly supported the voiced conspiracy theories and indicated reasons or conclusions that they draw from this support, or voiced clearly identifiable criticisms of conspiracy theories. Other comments (e.g. comments that were off-topic, comments that did not indicate reasons for support or conclusion drawn from support) were coded as ‘other’. For example, a comment such as ‘That's a bad idea’ (the introduction of COVID19 vaccination certificates, #1270) is not a support of a conspiracy theory and

was, therefore, neither coded as ‘affirmation’ nor as ‘critique’ of conspiracy theories. Such postings were coded as ‘other’. After coding followed the analysis. Using quantitative analysis, quantitative results were calculated for the entire dataset. They give an idea of the distribution of code values in the dataset. Using critical discourse analysis, the codes were qualitatively analysed in order to show how users reacted and how they communicated their reactions. The findings are presented in the section that follows.

5.3 FINDINGS 5.3.1 Content Analysis Tables 5.3 and 5.4 present statistics about the analysed dataset. They were created based on the fully coded dataset. Table 5.3. descriptive Statistics of the Analysed Dataset. General Dimension Affirmation Critique Other Total Affirmation Affirmation Affirmation Affirmation Affirmation Affirmation Affirmation Affirmation Affirmation Critique Critique Critique Critique Critique Critique

Subdimension

Secret domination Concealment Personalisation Friend/enemy scheme Verbal attacks Violence, repression, state action Rational irrationality Determinism Call for political action Immanent logical critique Ideological motivation Satire, humour References to empirical data and reality Verbal attacks Problems and consequences

Absolute Number 861 340 1,646 2,847 200 17 323 452 108 54 169 128 126 46 47 119 61 24 61

Relative Share 30.2% 11.9% 57.8% 23.2% 2.0% 37.5% 52.5% 12.5% 6.3% 19.6% 14.9% 14.6% 13.5% 13.8% 35.0% 17.9% 7.1% 17.9%

Table 5.4. Named Enemies in the Use of the Friend/Enemy Scheme; Total Number of Postings Using the Friend Enemy Scheme: N = 452, Listed are all Persons and Groups That in Total had More Than Ten Mentions. Absolute Number of References

Enemy Bill Gates Media State, government

267 46 42

Relative Share (%) 59.1 10.2 9.3

Absolute Number of References 28 25 18

Relative Share (%) 6.2 5.5 4.0

11

2.4

Enemy Angela Merkel Anthony Fauci Jens Spahn (German Federal Minister of Health) Christian Drosten (the most well-known German virologist)

While the majority of postings did not justify or criticise conspiracy theories, 30.2% of the postings in the dataset contained support of and attempts to legitimise conspiracy theories and 11.9% formulated criticisms of such theories. On social media, conspiracy theories are contested. There are both supporters and critics of COVID-19 conspiracy theories active on social media. In the analysed dataset, legitimating positions were almost three times as frequent as critical ones. It should be noted that 192 out of 340 of the formulated criticisms (56.5%) were related to Attila Hildmann's video (#6). Out of 501 analysed comments made to Hildmann's video, 194 (38.7%) were critical and 48 (56.5%) affirmative. Hildamann's video is a manifestation of the QAnon conspiracy theory. It claims that SARS-CoV-2 was manufactured in order to isolate children from their parents, so that blood can be drawn from them on a regular basis. Followers of QAnon believe that a secret group consisting of politicians from the Democratic Party and Hollywood actors abducts children in order to create the drug adrenochrome out of their blood. They believe that this drug enhances longevity. An absolute majority of all comments questioning conspiracy theories was focused on Hildmann's video. This is an indication that highly absurd conspiracy theories at a certain point may become counterproductive and tend to call forth negative reactions because the claims are too ridiculous and hard to believe. In the analysed dataset, the use of the friend/enemy scheme was the most frequently encountered strategy used for supporting conspiracy theories (52.5% of all supportive postings). Also personalisation (37.5%), secret domination (23.2%), rational irrationality (19.6%), verbal attacks or calls for violence or repression (together 18.8%), the logic of determinism (14.9%) and calls for political action (14.6%) were used relatively frequently. A broad range of linguistic strategies were employed in the dataset for justifying COVID-19 conspiracy theories. The use of satire and humour was the strategy most frequently employed by users for criticising COVID-19 conspiracy theories. 35.0% of all critical postings used this strategy. Other strategies that users utilised relatively frequently in the analysed dataset for criticising COVID-19 conspiracy theories included references to how empirical reality looks like (17.9%), the outlining of problems and consequences of conspiracy theories (17.9%), the deconstruction of conspiracy theorists' ideological motivations (13.8%) and immanent logical

critique (13.5%). A variety of strategies were utilised for criticising COVID-19 conspiracy theories. 5.3.2 The Friend/Enemy Scheme Teun van Dijk (1998, 69) argues that ideologies are part of the construction of groups that define their identity in opposition to identified enemies, …those who [according to a specific ideology] oppose what we stand for, threaten our interests and prevent us from equal access to social resources and human rights (residence, citizenship, employment, housing, status and respect, and so on). In other words, an ideology is a self-serving schema for the representation of Us and Them as social groups. The friend/enemy scheme is an element frequently encountered in ideologies. We need to add to van Dijk's analysis that the construction of enemies is one of the ideological strategies often used for justifying domination and class power and distracting attention from the true causes of social problems in class societies. Ruth Wodak analyses the role of conspiracy theory and the construction of enemies in right-wing ideology: Right-wing ideology offers ‘simple and clear-cut answers to […] fears and challenges […] for example by constructing scapegoats and enemies – “Others” which are to blame for our current woes – by frequently tapping into traditional collective stereotypes and images of the enemy. The latter depend, I further claim, on the respective historical traditions in specific national, regional and even local contexts: sometimes, the scapegoats are Jews, sometimes Muslims, sometimes Roma or other minorities, sometimes capitalists, socialists, career women, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the EU, the United Nations, the US or Communists, the governing parties, the elites, the media and so forth. “They” are foreigners, defined by “race”, religion or language. “They” are elites not only within the respective country, but also on the European stage (“Brussels”) and global level (“Financial Capital”). Important fissures and divides within a society, such as class, caste, religion, gender and so forth, are neglected in focusing on such “Others” or are interpreted as the result of “elitist conspiracies”. The discursive strategies of the “victim-perpetrator reversal”, “scapegoating” and the “construction of conspiracy theories” therefore belong to the necessary “toolkit” of right-wing populist rhetoric’

(Wodak 2015, 4) Wodak argues that conspiracy theories are one of the ideological tools by which the friend/enemy scheme operates and attention is distracted from the true power relations that underpin society's problems. Not all usages of the friend/enemy scheme utilise conspiracy theories, but conspiracy theories require the ideological construction of an enemy. Let us have a look at examples of how the friend/enemy scheme was utilised in the dataset: It is dangerous to play down Bill Gates as a puppet. As an entrepreneur, this guy has stolen billions of people's precious time with his shitty software for decades, got paid a lot for it (because competitors were bitten off) and prevented innovations for decades with the market power he gained. Now the greedy sack wants to save the world as a philanthropist by forcing mass murder through genealtering vaccinations (mRNA). A satanic family with devilishly too much money and influence!15 (#15) Fauci is a criminal! Why on earth is President Trump listening to him?! (#559) Bill Gates wants everyone to be chipped so they can be controlled. Bill Gates wants to turn everyday people into sheep, literally. He disguises his evil plan with ‘helping heal the poor’. He's a fraudulent evil person (not man) (#863). Users of the friend/enemy scheme try to construct a negative picture of their enemy and a positive view of the in-group. In the Ideological Square Model, Teun van Dijk outlines four strategies of how ideologists can achieve this goal (see Table 5.5). Table 5.5. The Ideological Square Model, Own Visualisation Based on van Dijk (1998, 267). In-group

Out-group

Negativ Suppression of negative information about ‘us’ Emphasis of negative information about ‘Them’ e Positive Emphasis on positive information about ‘us’ Suppression of positive information about ‘Them’

The examples just mentioned and conspiracy theories in general particularly utilise one of the Ideological Square Model's strategies, namely the emphasis of negative information about ‘Them’, the out-group and enemy. In the analysed dataset, Bill Gates is the most frequently mentioned enemy, and Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the United States, is a frequently mentioned enemy. The voiced conspiracy theories

claim that Gates and Fauci are part of a secret group to which also governments, mainstream media, experts and medical doctors would belong, that engineered SARS-CoV-2 in order to establish world domination, a surveillance society and profits for the pharma industry. Gates and Fauci are described as ‘greedy sack’, ‘satanic’, ‘criminal’ and ‘evil person’. The construction of enemies is in conspiracy theories partly achieved by negative moral predications. These are expressions of the argumentum ad hominem, ‘a verbal attack on the antagonist's personality and character […] instead of argumentatively trying to refute the antagonist's arguments’ (Reisigl and Wodak 2001, 72). Conspiracy theories are not concerned with facts, but with speculation, suspicion and the scapegoating of an enemy. The users here use religionyms (Reisigl and Wodak 2001, 50) and moralonyms that construct Gates and Fauci as evil by using religious and moral language (‘satanic’, ‘evil’). Furthermore, a criminonym (‘criminal’) (52) and a reifying pathologisation (‘greedy sack’) are used. Crimionyms construct the enemy as being a criminal individual or group or as conducting criminal activities (Reisigl and Wodak 2001, 52). In COVID-19 conspiracy theories, we can frequently find the claims that members of an elite conduct crimes against humanities by allegedly planning to kill, poison, control or monitor humans via vaccines. A ‘greedy sack’ is a thing, so humans denoted this way are dehumanised by comparison to lifeless objects. To be ‘greedy’ is a negative psychologisation. In German, moneybag is ‘Geldsack’, so ‘gieriger Sack’ not just compares humans to things but to a sack full of money. The user wants to communicate the view that Bill Gates tries to fill his moneybag with whatever he does. That Bill Gates and others engineered the pandemic in order to make profit is a claim that can be frequently found in COVID-19 conspiracy theories, as explored in the previous chapter. A crude economism is used where every possible action of individual capitalists is reduced to the profit motive. It is disregarded that billionaires such as Bill Gates are so rich that they can afford philanthropy that reduces their wealth. They have no need to become richer than they already are but rather follow the strategy of reducing their wealth by a certain amount by donating money to certain causes. Philanthrocapitalism is not primarily a capital accumulation model but rather a way of how capitalists try to do something good by reducing part of their wealth in the form of donations to causes that they see as morally good. 5.3.3 Personalisation and Secret World Domination The strategy of personalisation was often employed in the analysed dataset. The mentioned example comments are also forms of personalisation, where power and capitalism are not presented as systems, structures, relations and totalities, but in the form of single individuals. Personalisation is evident in formulations such as ‘this guy has stolen billions of people's precious time’, ‘the greedy sack wants to save the world as a philanthropist by forcing mass

murder’, ‘Fauci is a criminal!’, ‘Gates wants everyone to be chipped so they can be controlled’, ‘He's a fraudulent evil person’, or ‘He disguises his evil plan with “helping heal the poor”’. Capitalism is based on a dialectic of abstract labour that produces value and commodities and concrete work that creates use-values. Value is ‘abstract, general, homogeneous’, whereas use-value is ‘concrete, particular, material’ (Postone 2003, 90). Commodity fetishism naturalises the observable, experiential reality of capitalism – money and commodities. It distracts from the abstract social relations that underpin capitalism such as value, class and exploitation. Particular ideologies, including anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories, build on the logic of commodity fetish and transpose the logic of fetishism into the realms of politics and culture. They declare certain forms of capital or certain capitalists (e.g. financial capital, international capital) as evil and glorify other forms of capital or particular capitalists (e.g. national capital, industrial capital, etc.). Right-wing conspiracy theories often declare certain capitalists, such as George Soros in the case of anti-Semitism or Bill Gates in the case of COVID-19, as the personification of evil. The splitting of capital into a good and an evil side that disregards capital as social totality introduces the friend/enemy scheme into the analysis of capital. It is a one-sided, reductive analysis of capitalism. Personalisation is the next step in a logical chain where the evil side of capital is presented as particular persons (Bill Gates, George Soros, etc.) or groups (Jews, Bilderberger, Illuminati, Freemasonry, etc.). A further development of this logic is the call for annihilation of the personalised ‘evil’ side of capital. The personalisation of capital is part of the ideological level and exterminatory logic of anti-Semitism and fascism. Personalisation not just focuses on single individuals but also focuses on the construction of certain groups as enemies. In conspiracy theories, such groups are said to operate secretly, aim for or exercise world domination. The friend/enemy scheme is combined with the strategies of personalisation, secret domination and the concealment of power. Let us have a look at the following examples from the analysed dataset: Bill Gates sits atop the head of the illuminati chair. That's why he had to step down from Microsoft and focus on the new world order battle (#968). The illuminati! There goal is to reduce the population in order to more easily control them & introduce the New World Order! (#1515) They're power mad lying leftist marxist globalist would be tyrants who would control American citizens every move and thought. They're dangerous to all American Patriotic citizens (#1125). Some versions of COVID-19 conspiracy theories claim that Bill Gates is part of a secret, powerful group that exercises or aims to obtain world domination. In

two of the examples, this group is referred to as the Illuminati, in the third example as ‘leftist marxist globalists’. In other comments in the dataset, this secret group is, for example, referred to as ‘the 13 families’ (#1843, #2741) or ‘the 1% who run the world are psychopaths and they have infiltrated our systems – government, education, media, medicine’ (#2490), ‘global cabal’ (#1048) or ‘Freemasonry’ (#2002). This secret group whose leader is presented as being Bill Gates is said to dominate the world or to be aiming world domination, which becomes evident in formulations such as ‘the new world order battle’, ‘the New World Order!’, or the control of ‘American citizens' every move and thought’. COVID-19 vaccines are presented as tools created by this secret group in order to control the world. The friend/enemy scheme not just identifies and scapegoats enemies but also constructs an in-group and its identity that is presented as being threatened by the enemy. In the third example, ‘power mad lying leftist Marxist globalist would be tyrant’ are said to endanger the in-group of ‘American patriotic citizens’. The nation and nationalism are opposed to socialism and globalisation. The claim that there is a secret plan of world domination is not new and not specific to COVID-19 conspiracy theories: The imaginary world of the sectarian anti-Semite is dominated by the notion of conspiracy. He believes in Jewish world domination; he swears by the Elders of Zion. On the other hand, he himself tends to favor conspiracies which have much in common, structurally, with the images he fears (Ku Klux Klan, etc.). He considers Freemasonry and other fraternal orders to be the greatest of world perils, but he himself founds lodge-like congregations whenever possible. He has the reverence of the semi-erudite for science and believes that nonintercourse with Jews is a sort of natural cure for rejuvenating man and world (Adorno 1994, 149) At various times throughout the modern period, the myth of a ‘Jewish world conspiracy’ has attracted adherents. Jews have been accused of plotting to take over the world by undermining the existing social and political order. The myth of the ‘Jewish world conspiracy’ springs from diverse sources. As one source of the myth, Yehuda Bauer has pointed to the medieval anti-Jewish Christian accusation that, as the people of the devil, Jews, like the devil, aim to control the world. Others have highlighted the charge that Jews aim to avenge their century-old oppression by Christians, or the idea that Jews inherently strive for national and/or world power (Brustein 2003, 265)

The modern, political notion of a ‘Jewish world conspiracy’ can be traced back to the attacks against the French Revolution and the Enlightenment. In 1797, the French Jesuit priest Abbé Barruel published a four-volume book wherein he described the French Revolution as planned and initiated by a conspiracy consisting of the Philosophes, the Freemasons and the Illuminati. […] It was particularly during the second half of the 1800s, when antisemitism rose as a modern political movement, that anti-Jewish conspiracy narratives were widely distributed. On a general level, antisemitic ideologues frequently represented the Jews as powerful, influential and threatening (Simonsen 2020, 360) Long before the Jews were blamed for the death of Jesus, parables, rumors, learned works, and popular writings had already congealed into a tradition of prejudice. No anti-Semitic work, however, ever had the impact of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Among the most popular works of the interwar period, this pamphlet, with its fictitious vision of a Jewish world conspiracy, has waned in legitimacy but its influence has survived Auschwitz. Neo-Nazis love it, the tract is embraced by the Nation of Islam, and Hamas refers to it in its charter. […] The popularity of the Protocols in the Middle East grew following the 1967 war and again in the aftermath of 9/11. Rumors still circulate on the web that ‘the Jews’ were responsible for the attack on the World Trade Center. Only Jewish control of the media apparently prevents the world from knowing that Jews stayed home and that not one Jew was killed in the attack (Bronner 2014, 74–75) A specific feature of COVID-19 conspiracy theories is the claim that a secret elite has manufactured SARS-CoV-2 in order to establish or deepen world domination. Such claims are also present on social media. Specific versions of this conspiracy theory mix COVID-19 conspiracy theory with anti-Semitism by presenting the secret group that manufactured SARS-CoV-2 in order to kill people, make profit, establish a surveillance society, etc., as Jewish, Freemasonic, etc. 5.3.4 Determinism and Rational Irrationality Irrational claims that neglect logic and reason and the logic of determinism are part of the logic of conspiracy theories. Rational irrationality and determinism were present in a significant share of affirmative comments in the analysed dataset. Let us have a look at examples:

Or we could tatoo[sic] a number on people's arm…or those not vaccinated must live[sic] alone and yell ‘unclean’ when approaching others…or we could sow a ‘v’ on their clothes (#950). I seem to remember[sic] another group of people was also forced to be registered back in the 1940s by a number system tattooed on their arm… so. No (#953). This would be like going to Nazi camp and getting a tattoo. No thanks. Bill Gates is only in it for money. (#963). Gates is the new Hitler! (#777). These comments were made as response to Jim Corr's tweet (#3) containing a link to an article that claims Bill Gates plans to inject digital IDs into humans as part of the COVID-19 crisis. Linking to a news article that makes unproven claims is a first form of rational irrationality. The platform vigilantcitizen.com is a blog focused on occultism and conspiracies. Some users in the dataset took links to articles on vigilantcitizen.com as a rational form of evidence without questioning the credibility of the source. Just like Jim Corr who posted the link on Twitter and Laura Ingraham who retweeted it, these users mistook fiction for reality and, therefore, believed that the claims about Bill Gates were true. Their next logical fallacy was the following form of reasoning underlying the four example comments: Bill Gates wants to inject microchips and digital IDs into humans via a COVID-19 vaccine. In their death camps, the Nazis created IDs for Jews in the form of tattooed numbers. The Nazis killed the Jews. Bill Gates and the Nazis are evil. Bill Gates wants to crate digital COVID-19 vaccine certificates. Because the Nazis created IDs for Jews, Gates says he wants to create vaccination IDs, and Gates and the Nazis are evil, Gates is Hitler and will use digital vaccination IDs for monitoring and killing humans. The problem of this logic is that the comparison between Gates and Hitler is derived from the reference to IDs. It is a bit like saying, ‘A passport is an ID. The tattoos of Jews in Auschwitz were IDs. Therefore passports are means of extermination’. There is no proof that Bill Gates wants to inject digital IDs into humans. A digital vaccination ID is not necessarily a means of monitoring. In this conspiracy theory, very different contexts and phenomena are equated. An irrational conclusion ‘Bill Gates is Hitler’ is drawn from an article

that is presented as a rational source of information. History is seen as being mechanically determined based on the logic that the past determines the future. If IDs were once used by an evil group as tool of extermination, an individual whom we consider evil today who suggests digital vaccination IDs must be the new Hitler and the digital IDs must be new tools of extermination. Another form of determinism can be found in a comment we already discussed earlier on: It is dangerous to play down Bill Gates as a puppet. As an entrepreneur, this guy has stolen billions of people's precious time with his shitty software for decades, got paid a lot for it (because competitors were bitten off) and prevented innovations for decades with the market power he gained. Now the greedy sack wants to save the world as a philanthropist by forcing mass murder through genealtering vaccinations (mRNA). A satanic family with devilishly too much money and influence! (#15).16 Here, it is presented as a rational argument that Bill Gates is planning ‘mass murder through gene-altering vaccinations’ because he is an ‘entrepreneur’ who produces ‘shitty software’ that monopolises markets. Because one activity is seen as being immoral and creating problems (monopolisation, capital concentration), it is assumed that whatever Gates does, greed, ‘money and influence’ are his driving motives. In this deterministic logic, the Gates Foundation's interest in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic must, therefore, with necessity be a project for making money and killing humans by vaccines. Such a logic overlooks that Bill Gates has no need for making more money and can, therefore, afford philanthropy and setting aside the profit motive. Philanthrocapitalism is based on a dialectic of profit and non-profit. The accumulation of lots of capital and profit allows certain billionaires to create organisations that set aside the profit motive. They may hope for improving their public image, but assuming that the profit motive drives every thought and action of rich people is a crude form of reductionism and determinism. In the case of COVID-19 conspiracy theories, this crude logic has resulted in logical fallacies that take on an ideological character by trying to convince individuals to oppose COVID-19 vaccines. 5.3.5 Verbal Attacks and Calls for Violence The friend/enemy scheme is a logical precondition of verbal attacks on the constructed enemies, calls for violence against these enemies and actual violence. In the analysed dataset, there was a significant number of verbal attacks on constructed enemies in the context of COVID-19. Let us consider some examples:

Fauci is a fraud. Gates is s MASS MURDERER. (#1574) Fauci is a deep state duck (#1644) Bill Gates and his kind ARE the virus. (#854) Stop that criminal !!! (#873) Bill Gates is evil (#1040) Bill gates is a garbage can (#1090). These examples are ad hominem attacks on Bill Gates that utilise curse words. Bill Gates and Anthony Fauci are cursed by the use of criminonyms (‘mass murderer’, ‘criminal’), religionyms/moralonyms (‘evil’), animalisation (‘deep state duck’) and biologisation (‘garbage’, ‘virus’). The main goal of these predications is to verbally dehumanise the named enemy, to decry the enemy's humanity. Ad hominem attacks are often one of the preconditions of calls for violence. The analysed dataset documents that calls for violence are also communicated on social media in the context of COVID-19 conspiracy theories. Here are some examples: Awesome…was hoping that president Trump was well aware of dr Falsely and his evil satanic cohorts…now, the only question that remains is this…When will the sealed federal indictments for mass homicidal genocide and crimes against humanity be issued, so that these satanists finally are put on trial, sentenced and justice gets served … (#668). Still lacking true patriots in this country as the almighty dollar and greed rules the day !! These people should be hung! (#705). Kill Gates (#929). We need to bring back the bounties on traitors (#954). Then a civil war will ensue. (#1246) Someone needs to **** Bill Gates! (#1281) We have a nation of Warriors (#1691) Calls to violence ranged from the demand to investigate and imprison Bill Gates and others to calls to start a war and kill Bill Gates. The analysed dataset shows that conspiracy theories and their use of the friend/enemy scheme have a violent potential and that conspiracy theorists use social media for spreading

calls to imprisoning enemies and using violence against them, including warfare and murder. 5.3.6 Calls to Political Action The dataset also contains a significant number of calls to political action directed against COVID-19 vaccinations, lockdowns and the imagined world conspiracy. Political actions called for included protests, the founding and support of a new political party, petitions that Gates should be investigated, campaigns to e-mail politicians, having conversations with family, friends and colleagues at work to try to convince them that a conspiracy is going on, writing letters to politicians, the creation of a new constitution, public announcements over loudspeakers, the duplication of conspiracy theory videos on the Internet, the sharing of links to conspiracy theory videos, boycotts of Microsoft and intervention by then-US President Donald Trump. Here are some examples: Boycott Microsoft (#998) Stand up! Protest! 17 (#414) VOTE TRUMP 2020 and all red (#942) Trump has a responsibility to vet anyone that is involved here (#219) President Trump must just focus now like NEVER before. He must do this for a better World, please God. (#273) COURAGEOUS @realDonaldTrump is to have taken a stand against these creeps at the UN…at DAVOS…etc… (#1204) The appeal to authoritarian leaders, especially Donald Trump, to do something against Bill Gates and others was an important political action called for by COVID-19 conspiracy theory supporters in the analysed dataset. Others called for setting up a new political party or organising and joining protest marches. Ken Jebsen has supported the creation of Widerstand 2020 (‘Resistance 2020’), a party created in Germany in 2020. Joining this party was also discussed among users who posted comments to Jebsen's anti-Gates video. The party's motto is ‘Thinking differently is not a mistake but rather freedom! Let us think differently so that finally something changes!’. 18 This motto is an invitation to COVID-19 deniers, anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists. 5.3.7 Criticism

There was a significant number of criticisms of conspiracy theories in the analysed dataset. Five strategies of critique were of particular importance: satire and humour, references to empirical data and reality for identifying false claims, demonstration of the moral–political problems of the voiced claims by outlining the negative consequences the suggested actions have for society, immanent critique of the logic of argumentation and the questioning of the underlying ideological motivation. What follows are examples for these strategies of critique. 5.3.7.1 Satire and humour ‘#Quatsch’ (#1957) (nonsense). Comment on the QAnon video that claims that COVID-19 is a manufactured crisis created by an elite in order to abduct children and harvest their blood: ‘Please send all blood deliveries to my address: Bran Castle, Transylvania – for the attention of Mr. Vlad Dracula alias Nosferatu (Prince AD) from 9:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m.’19 (#75). Another response to the QAnon video: ‘What about dried and then ground children? Our cat likes the cat litter with baby powder smell so much’20 (#2387). ‘I need your help … Does anyone know the guy in the tram and know which cell he escaped from? It's possible that there are patients here who were in the same therapy group https://www.facebook.com/deno.gainz.9/videos/1127050557652019/’ [link to a video to a man in an underground train who talks about being Christ: ‘I am Noel Christ. Never again will you sin. You have devoted yourselves to Lucifer’]21 (#2120). 5.3.7.2 References to Empirical Data and Reality ‘When, around mid-March, people started claiming that Sars-CoV 2 was no more dangerous than normal flu, the official death toll was 7,925. Now it stands officially at 252,425 and many countries have hardly any tests. So in 6 weeks 244,500 people have died and that although almost all of us are hiding. Nevertheless, exactly the same is being claimed here as in mid-March’22 (#269). ‘… Gates earns money from vaccinations…’ FALSE: he doesn't invest money, he DONATES money he has put into his foundation from Microsoft shares (for which he would otherwise have had to pay tax on) and donates money to companies etc to further charitable projects… This includes vaccinations (e.g. one third of all TB deaths come from India –

Gates was not banned from India) but also sanitary facilities – schools etc etc – and he has no shares in Monsanto anymore – everyone can see the Gates Foundation's projects on the Internet’23 (#400). ‘62,000 flu deaths in a full year is a lot less than 100,000 corona deaths in just a few months. Remember you said corona is just like a mild flu not the black plague? Sounds like hundreds of thousands of deaths mean nothing to you, another ignorant trumper heard from’ (#1156). ‘Once I went down the rabbit hole of the vaccine debate, I soon realised that the anti-vaccine movement was full of conspiracy nutters who subscribed to multiple theories, a lot of science denial and a whole lot of epistemic mistrust and half truths. I decided to purely look at the science to make my decision. Unfortunately, most anti-vaxxers, like most conspiracy theorists disregard facts’ (#2685). A user posted a link to a fact-checking video that checks the credibility of the claims Ken Jebsen made in his anti-Gates video: ‘Today I was sent a video link that explicitly deals with this video and I would like to post it here, for now without any evaluation. And in doing so, I don't really want to suggest anything other than pushing for maximum credibility at all times on this portal, which I hold in high esteem. Why? Quite simply because journalism must not be (just) opinion-making, but must offer verifiable information at the highest level and in the very highest comprehensibility, so that people like me, for example, can rely on something without being misled. This is the article: “Gates Hijacks Germany” dissected | WALULIS (https://youtu.be/0EmH7hHaVNQ)’24 (#1). 5.3.7.3 Demonstration of the Moral–Political Problems and Negative Consequences ‘Many of those who read and write here are surely also demonstrating in Berlin and elsewhere against the shutdown. This is like a big selfexperiment. We'll know more in four weeks. The nurses will certainly be happy to treat today's demonstrators. It would be best if you took the sign you carried at the demonstration to the hospital’ 25 (#41). ‘All three of my children are fully vaccinated. Vaccines work. And when fewer people decide to get them, we all become more vulnerable to disease. This #WorldImmunizationWeek, let's listen to science and act to protect our children. https://t.co/2CB4UZjkQ3’ (#1846). 5.3.7.4 Immanent Critique of the Logic of Argumentation

‘If you do a little research, you will find that media such as Der Spiegel and similar report quite critically about Gates. So it seems very unlikely to me that these media have been “bought” by Gates’ 26 (#71). Comment on the QAnon video that claims that SARS-CoV-2 was manufactured in order to create a crisis that allows an elite to abduct children and produce adrenochrome from their blood: ‘https://www.abcr.de/shop/de/Adrenochrome.html/. You can buy your stuff there, it's cheaper than your phantasies of child kidnapping’ 27 (#2170). 5.3.7.5 Questioning of the Underlying Ideological Motivation ‘I always ask myself about such comments, where is the evidence for such statements, it always reads like a hate tirade’ 28 (#20). ‘Man, hitting that fringe lunatic conspiracy theory circuits hard these days Patrick. Must be desperate for those clicks and ad revenue. I guess whatever's popular at the time, right?’ (#1623). ‘All that remains for me is the stale aftertaste of half-truths and dubious demagogy. Unfortunately, there are pseudo-serious press formats that have been working in a similar way for a long time and do the press landscape no good. If you want to convince, you don't use their means’ 29 (#400). Critics of COVID-19 conspiracy theories have used different strategies of response. Given that conspiracy theorists and their supporters often do not listen to rational arguments, the question arises if it makes sense to argue in a rational way with them. Some critics are choosing this strategy. They point out the logical contradictions of conspiracy theories and the consequences of these theories for society (e.g. many more individuals die if we do not wear masks and reject vaccines). And they refer to empirical evidence, academic studies or factchecking reports in order to point out the lack of proof for claims made in COVID-19 conspiracy theories. Some users who are prone to believe in conspiracy theories may by such arguments start reading other sources and be confronted with credible information. The problem is, however, that those who are convinced by an ideology that operates based on and with appeals to fears, prejudices, hatred, emotions, suspicion and superstition cannot easily be convinced by rational arguments. They often dismiss counter-arguments as fake news spread on behalf of the perceived conspiratorial elite. Some critics point out the ideological character of conspiracy theories, i.e. that there is an underlying ideological rationality and interest, i.e. a rationality of irrationality. The use of humour, jokes and satire was the most widely used strategy critics employed in the analysed dataset for questioning COVID-19 conspiracy theories.

Charlie Chaplin asked the question whether or not it is feasible to laugh about ideologues like he did about Hitler in his movie The Great Dictator (1940): Pessimists say I may fail – that dictators aren't funny any more, that the evil is too serious. That is wrong. If there is one thing I know it is that power can always be made ridiculous. The bigger that fellow gets the harder my laughter will hit him (Van Gelder 1940) Humour as critique of COVID-19 conspiracy theories manifests itself on the one hand online in the form of memes, the circulation of jokes, sarcastic comments, etc. On the other hand, the example of Attila Hildmann's QAnon video shows that conspiracy theories have internal contradictions. If they are taken too far, then they can reach a point and level of absurdity and tragic comedy that makes a certain share of individuals question them and laugh at them. This means that to a certain degree, conspiracy theories are also selfdefeating and have a potential to defeat themselves due to their internal contradictions.

5.4 CONCLUSION This chapter asked: How do Internet users react to COVID-19 conspiracy theories spread on social media? For providing an answer, the findings of a content and discourse analysis of 2,847 comments made to seven social media postings whose authors support COVID-19 conspiracy theories were presented. The analysis showed that COVID-19 conspiracy theories are contested on social media. There are anti-vaxxers, ideologues, opportunists, far-right demagogues and movements who use social media in order to spread COVID19 conspiracy theories. The friend/enemy scheme is the main ideological strategy their followers used in the analysis. It became evident that COVID-19 conspiracy theories operate with and are on social media and the Internet communicated based on what Ruth Wodak calls the politics of fear. The politics of fear constructs ‘the respective group as dangerous and a threat to us’ and operates as ‘arrogance of ignorance’ that ‘appeals to common-sense and antiintellectualism’, which marks ‘a return to pre-modernist or pre-Enlightenment thinking’ (Wodak 2015, 2). COVID-19 conspiracy theories construct enemies and scapegoats and want to make individuals believe that one has to be afraid of certain individuals and groups who are said to operate a secret plan of world domination. Virologists, doctors, scientists, experts, journalists, the media, politicians and philanthropists are among the main enemies that COVID-19 conspiracy theories identify. Much

of the social media communication of those believing in conspiracy theories is focused on reproducing the scapegoating of constructed enemies who are said to execute a vicious plan of world domination for which they have engineered SARS-CoV-2 and advanced vaccines in order to make money, poison or kill humans, install a totalitarian surveillance society or abduct children in order to harvest their blood. The communication of COVID-19 conspiracy theories is characterised by appeals to anti-intellectualism, the rationality of irrationality, deterministic logic, personalisation and the use of the friend/enemy scheme. Supporters of COVID-19 conspiracy theories express their anger online relatively frequently in the form of verbal attacks on their identified enemies. The use of the friend/enemy scheme is also one of the foundations of online calls for law and order politics and violence directed against the imagined enemy. In the analysed dataset, such calls for authoritarianism and violence not just included the expression of support for Donald Trump but also repeated calls for killing Bill Gates. Whereas the use of the friend/enemy scheme in the online communication of COVID-19 conspiracy theories in the last instance leads to calls for violence, critics of conspiracy theories employ different strategies. They point towards facts, fact-checks, scientific reports and negative consequences of conspiracy theories. They deconstruct ideology. And they make use of satire and humour in order to point out the contradictions and absurdities of COVID-19 conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories have their own, immanent tragic-comedic potentials; when conspiracy theories are taken beyond a certain point of absurdity, they evolve into tragic comedies, persiflage and parodies of themselves, so that such theories in a self-defeating manner can turn against themselves. Critics should build their own humorous challenges on these selfdefeating potentials of conspiracy theories, so that their jokes, memes, sketches, humorous comment, videos, illustrations, etc., intensify the internal contradictions of conspiracy theories and help turning these contradictions into breaking points that might make some of those who believe in conspiracy theories realise these theories' absurdities. The breaking point of a conspiracy theory is reached when its followers start laughing at its creators. If laughter up to now has been a sign of violence, an outbreak of blind, obdurate nature, it nevertheless contains the opposite element, in that through laughter blind nature becomes aware of itself as such and thus abjures its destructive violence (Horkheimer and Adorno 2002, 60) There is an ‘element of secrecy inherent in all kinds of fascist conspiracies’ (Adorno 2000, 68). Conspiracy theories' short-circuited, fetishistic, personalising ‘critique’ of capitalism as critique of single capitalists and politicians is not automatically fascist, but contain potentials that make conspiracy theories prone

to subsumption under authoritarian, right-wing and fascist ideology. Humour is one of the means of intellectual struggle against fascism. But, it is insufficient. Conspiracy theories will persist as long as capitalism and class societies exist. Such societies have fascist potentials. A classless society is a necessary foundation for a world without fascism and conspiracy theories. In 1967, Theodor W. Adorno gave a talk on right-wing extremism at the University of Salzburg. His conclusions also apply today to the question of how one should best challenge conspiracy theories in the age of COVID-19, fake news and post-truth culture: One should not operate primarily with ethical appeals, with appeals to humanity, for the word ‘humanity’ itself, and everything associated with it, sends the people in question into a rage […] the only thing that really strikes me as effective is to warn the potential followers of rightwing extremism of its own consequences, to convey to them that this politics will inevitably lead their own followers to their doom too, and that this doom was part of it from the outset […] aside from the political struggle by purely political means, one must confront it on its very own turf. But we must not fight lies with lies, we must not try to be just as clever as it is, but we must counteract it with the full force of reason, with the genuinely unideological truth (Adorno 2020) 1 https://covid19.who.int/table, accessed on 16 March 2021. 2 https://web.archive.org/web/20150704055615if_/https://twitter.com/jimcarrey. 3 https://twitter.com/jimcarrey/status/616049450243338240?lang=en. 4 https://web.archive.org/web/20140914151926if_/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/. 5

http://web.archive.org/web/20160216204433/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/507546 486553706497. 6

https://web.archive.org/web/20201004222745if_/https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr6VVXep3 Fs5EOtjMK3i2AQ, accessed on 3 December 2020. 7 https://patriotsforohio.com/, accessed on 3 December 2020. 8

https://www.reddit.com/r/Coronavirus/comments/fksnbf/im_bill_gates_cochair_of_the_bill_melind a_gates/fkupg49/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x, accessed on 3 December 2020. 9 https://vigilantcitizen.com/latestnews/bill-gates-calls-for-a-digital-certificate-to-identify-who-is-

vaccinated/, accessed on 3 December 2020. 10 http://web.archive.org/web/20201204085736/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/following,

accessed on 3 December 2020.

11 https://twitter.com/IngrahamAngle/status/1247528216434106369, accessed on 3 December

2020. 12 https://www.youtube.com/c/VALUETAINMENT/, accessed on 3 December 2020. 13 https://www.youtube.com/c/VALUETAINMENT/about, accessed on 3 December 2020. 14 https:// www.facebook.com/paleochefpeteevans/about/, accessed on 3 December 2020. 15Translation from German: „Bill Gates als Marionette zu verharmlosen ist gefährlich. Der Typ

hat als Unternehmer Milliarden von Menschen Jahrzehnte lang deren kostbare Lebenzeit mit seiner beschissenen Software gestohlen, sich das fett bezahlen lassen (denn Mitbewerber wurden weggebissen) und mit der dadurch gewonnenen Marktmacht Jahrzehnte lang Innovationen verhindert. Nun will der gierige Sack als Philanthrop die Welt retten, in dem er Massenmord durch Genverändernde Impfungen (mRNA) erzwingt. Eine sartanische Familie mit teuflisch zu viel Geld und Einfluss!“ 16Translation from German: „Bill Gates als Marionette zu verharmlosen ist gefährlich. Der Typ

hat als Unternehmer Milliarden von Menschen Jahrzehnte lang deren kostbare Lebenzeit mit seiner beschissenen Software gestohlen, sich das fett bezahlen lassen (denn Mitbewerber wurden weggebissen) und mit der dadurch gewonnenen Marktmacht Jahrzehnte lang Innovationen verhindert. Nun will der gierige Sack als Philanthrop die Welt retten, in dem er Massenmord durch Genverändernde Impfungen (mRNA) erzwingt. Eine sartanische Familie mit teuflisch zu viel Geld und Einfluss!“ 17Translated from German: „Aufstehen! Demonstrieren!“ 18Translated from German: „Anders denken ist kein Fehler, sondern Freiheit! Lass uns anders

sein, damit sich endlich etwas verändert!“ 19Translated from German: „Bitte sämtliche Blutlieferungen an meine Adresse: Schloss Bran,

Transsylvanien – zuhanden Herrn Vlad Dracula alias Nosferatu (Fürst AD) von 21:00 bis 5:00 Früh“. 20Translated from German: „Was ist mit getrockneten und anschließend gemahlenen

Kindern? Unsere Katze mag das Katzenstreu mit Babypudergeruch so gerne“.

21Translated from German: „Ich brauche mal eure Hilfe … kennt den Typ in der Strassenbahn

jemand und weiss aus welcher Zelle der ausgebrochen ist. Wäre ja möglich das es hier Patienten gibt die in der gleichen Therapiegruppe waren) https://www.facebook.com/deno.gainz.9/videos/1127050557652019/“ [Link zu einem Video, in der ein Mann in der U-Bahn davon spricht, Christus zu sein: „Ich bin Noel Christus. Nie wieder werdet Ihr sündigen. Ihr habt Euch Luzifer verschrieben“]. 22Translated from German: „Als ungefähr Mitte März hier angefangen wurde zu behaupten

das Sars-CoV two nicht gefährlicher als eine normale Grippe ist lag die Zahl der Toten offiziell bei 7,925. Jetzt liegt sie offiziell bei 252,425 wobei wie gesagt viele Länder kaum Tests haben. In six Wochen sind also 244,500 Menschen gestorben und das obwohl wir uns fast alle verstecken. Trotzdem wird hier genau dasselbe wie Mitte März behauptet“.

23Translated from German: „‘… Gates verdient an Impfung…’ FALSCH er investiert nicht er

SPENDET geld das er in seine gemeinsnuetztige Foundation von Microsoft aktien gegeben hat (die er sonst versteuert haette muessen) und Spendet geld and Firmen etc um gemeinnueztige Projekte voranzubringen … dazu gehoeren auch Impfungen (z.b ein drittel aller TB tote kommen aus Indien – Gates wurde nicht aus Indien verbannt) aber auch in Sanitaere Anlagen – Schulen etc etc – und er hat keine Aktien in Monanto mehr – jeder kann die Anlagen der Gates Stiftung einsehen im Internet“. 24Translated from German: „Heute wurde mir ein Videolink zugesandt, der sich explizit mit

diesem Video auseinandersetzt und ich möchte diesen jetzt erst mal ohne Wertung hier posten. Und damit möchte ich eigentlich nichts anderes anregen, als dass man sich zu jedem Zeitpunkt auf diesem von mir sehr geschätzten Portal auf maximale Glaubwürdigkeit forciert. Warum? Ganz einfach deshalb, weil Journalismus nicht (nur) Meinungsmache sein darf, sondern belegbare Informationen auf höchstem Niveau und in allerhöchster Verständlichkeit bieten muss, damit sich Menschen wie ich beispielsweise auf irgendetwas verlassen können, ohne in die Irre geleitet zu werden. Dieses ist der Beitrag: “Gates kapert Deutschland” zerlegt | WALULIS (https://youtu.be/0EmH7hHaVNQ)“ 25Translated

from German: „Viele von denen die hier mitlesen und mitschreiben demonstrieren doch bestimmt auch in Berlin und anderswo gegen den Shutdown. Das ist wie ein großer Selbstversuch. In vier Wochen wissen wir mehr. Die Krankenschwestern freuen sich dann bestimmt die Demonstranten von heute behandeln zu dürfen. Am besten ihr nehmt das Schild was ihr bei der Demo getragen habt dann auch mit ins Krankenhaus“. 26Translated from German: „wenn man ein wenig recherchiert, stellt man fest, dass Medien

wie der Spiegel und ähnliche durchaus kritisch über H. Gates berichten. Da erscheint es mir doch sehr unwahrscheinlich, dass diese Medien von Gates “gekauft” wurden“ 27Translated from German: „https://www.abcr.de/shop/de/Adrenochrome.html/Da kannste dein

Zeugs kaufen, ist billiger als dein Kinderkidnapper phantasie“. 28Translated from German: „Ich frage mich bei diesen Kommentaren eigentlich immer, wo

sind die Beweise für solche Aussagen, es liest sich immer wie eine Hasstirade“. 29Translated from German: „Mir bleibt so nur der schale Nachgeschmack von Halbwarheiten

und unseriöser Demagogie. Leider gibt es pseudoseriöse Presseformate die schon lange Retorisch ähnlich arbeiten und der Presselandschaft nicht gut tuen. Wenn man überzeugen will, greift man nicht zu deren Mitteln“.

6

DONALD TRUMP AND COVID-19 ON TWITTER ABSTRACT This chapter asks: How has Donald Trump communicated about COVID-19 on Twitter? How have conspiracy theories influenced his Twitter communication about COVID-19? Utilising critical discourse analysis, it analysed tweets in which Trump communicated about COVID-19 and showed that he used social media to spread conspiracy theories and fake news about COVID-19. The findings show that Donald Trump uses social media such as Twitter for spreading far-right ideology, conspiracy theories and fake news. He makes use of a variety of linguistic ideological devices. In the context of COVID-19, Trump has spread a variety of conspiracy theories to his millions of followers, which has contributed to the intensification of risks and harms at the time of the worst global health crisis in 100 years. Keywords Donald Trump; conspiracy theories; Twitter; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; coronavirus

6.1 INTRODUCTION Donald Trump was not just one of the most controversial US presidents ever, but possibly also the most right-wing president who has thus far ruled the country. He has been characterised as ‘a fake news factory’, ‘a curator of untruths’, ‘conspirator in chief’ (Holloway 2017) and a ‘conspiracy theory factory’ (Keilar 2020). This chapters asks: How has Donald Trump communicated about COVID-19 on Twitter? How have conspiracy theories influenced his Twitter communication about COVID-19? Factories feature means of production and means of communication. Twitter has been one of Donald Trump's major means used for the production and communication of fake news. Donald Trump is a digital demagogue (Fuchs 2018a) who spreads right-wing ideology using the twenty-first century's most advanced communication technologies. The difference between traditional populist leaders and those of today is nonetheless that today's leaders are like the Kim Kardashian of politics: we are fascinated by her because she is famous, but she is famous just for being famous, she doesn't do anything significant. In a similar way, Trump is famous not in spite of his obscenities but on account of them. In the old royal courts, kings often had a clown whose function was to destroy the noble appearance with sarcastic jokes and dirty remarks (thereby confirming by contrast the king's dignity). Trump doesn't need a clown, he is his own clown (Žižek 2021, 153)

Trump reaches and attracts support by workers because what he says promises them a better life and appeals to their feelings of alienation in and from neoliberal capitalism. It is tragic and paradoxical that a capitalist appeals to the working class and reaches support by a significant share of workers by promising alternatives that in reality deepen exploitation and alienation in society. When he became US president on 20 January 2017, Donald Trump had 20.8 million Twitter followers. 1 At the time of the end of his presidency, this number had increased to 88.6 million on 18 December 2020. 2 In December 2020, Trump had the world's sixth most followed Twitter account. 3 Only former US president Barack Obama (127 million), the singers Justin Bieber (113 million), Katy Perry (109 million) and Rihanna (100 million) as well as footballer Cristiano Ronaldo (90 million) had more followers. 4 Given Trump's big ego and dislike for his predecessor, one can imagine that he might be particularly unhappy about the fact that another former US president has more Twitter followers than him. After the coup attempt by Trump supporters who on 6 January 2021 stormed the Capitol, Twitter and other social media platforms banned Trump, which weakened his communicative power (see Fuchs 2021a). Trump is a manifestation of what Richard Hofstadter terms the paranoid style in American politics, a long ideological tradition characterised by conspiracy thinking, nationalism, antiintellectualism, anti-cosmopolitanism, anti-socialism and militancy that aims at the total destruction of the identified enemies (Hofstadter 1996, 3–40, Hofstadter 1963). For example, McCarthyism was based on this political-ideological form of paranoia. McCarthyism imagined and propagated the existence of a communist conspiracy that came close to overtaking the country's institutions. In reality, the communist movement was weak in the United States. McCarthyism was a witch hunt against the left, extending far beyond members of the Communist Party USA. McCarthyism also makes evident that American politics' paranoid style is an ideology in the Marxian sense, namely a project that tries to distract attention from the reality and problems of class society by constructing and attacking enemies that are blamed for the ills of society. The paranoid style is an ideology that accompanies American capitalism. Conspiracy thinking is an ideology that accompanies capitalism and class societies in general at the ideological level. Donald Trump's hatred of and aggression against the political left, socialists and intellectuals shares aspects of McCarthyism and stands in the tradition of the paranoid American political-ideological style (Hofstadter 1996, 3–40, Hofstadter 1963). The following example conspiracy theories and false news stories have been part of the Trump machine of ideology production and communication (Hellinger 2019, 26–30, Holloway 2017, McIntire et al. 2019): Barack Obama was not born in the United States, but in Kenya, is a Muslim and because of not being born in the United States became US president illegally; Barack Obama did not attend Columbia University; Hillary Clinton was too ill to become and serve as US president; Rafael Cruz, the father of Republican senator Ted Cruz who ran against Trump in the 2016 Republican primaries and caucuses, was involved in the conspiracy to kill president John F. Kennedy; In 1989, Trump claimed that African-American and Latino teenagers were guilty of raping and heavily injuring a white jogger in Central Park and attacking or robbing seven more individuals. Trump paid for a one-page advertisement in the New York Daily News that said in large letters ‘BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE’. In the ad text, Trump wrote: ‘I want to hate these muggers and murderers. They should be forced to suffer and, when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes. They must serve as examples so that others will think long and hard before committing a crime or an act of violence’. 5 The five youths were sentenced. In 2001, a white man confessed that he had attacked and raped the jogger, which was confirmed by DNA testing. The sentences of the youth of colour were reversed, but they had already served prison sentences; Trump claimed that thousands of Muslims celebrated the terrorist attacks of 9/11 in New Jersey;

In 2016, Trump said on the radio show of conspiracy theorist Michael Savage that the death of Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia might be due to someone suffocating him with a pillow; In 2016, Trump tweeted a link to a graphic with false data that indicated that the vast majority (81%) of killers of white Americans are black (see Fig. 6.1). According to crime statistics for the year 2015, 81.3% of whites were killed by whites, 15.8% by blacks (data source: FBI 2015 Crime in the United States, Expanded Homicide Data Table 6: Murder – Race, Ethnicity, and Sex of Victim by Race, Ethnicity, and Sex of Offender, 2015) 6 ; Trump claimed that tremendous voter fraud was going on in the 2016 US presidential election; Trump tweeted that the ‘concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive’, 7 that this ‘very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bullshit has got to stop’ 8 and spoke of ‘the GLOBAL WARMING HOAX’; 9 Trump claimed that there is a link between vaccinations and autism in children; Trump argued that Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, who both ran against him in the 2016 Republican primaries and caucuses, were not born in the United States and were, therefore, ineligible to run for US president; Before and especially after the 2020 US presidential election, Trump tweeted that mail-in ballots were fraudulent and that the election was rigged. Fig. 6.2 shows two examples. Twitter added warnings and fact-checks to many of these postings.

Fig. 6.1. A Tweet by Donald Trump Containing Fabricated. Source: https://twitter.com/haroldpollack/status/668551141807005696, accessed on 20 December 2020.

Fig. 6.2. Election Fraud Conspiracy Theory Tweets by Donald Trump. Sources: http://web.archive.org/web/20200601154907/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/126617257 0983940101; http://web.archive.org/web/20201118133211/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/132905468 3441278977, accessed on 21st April 2021. Section 6.2 discusses Trump's legacy. Section 6.3 introduces the conducted research's methodology. Section 6.4 presents the main findings. Section 6.5 draws some conclusions.

6.2 DONALD TRUMP'S LEGACY 6.2.1 Who Voted for Trump?

Table 6.1 provides an overview of some demographical characteristics of voters in the 2016 and 2020 US presidential elections. Table 6.1. Exit Polls in the 2016 and 2020 US Presidential Elections Showing the Share of Voters Who Fall Into a Specific Category. Group Men Women White Black Hispanic/Latino Asian Age 18–29 Age 30–44 Age 45–65 Age 65+ High school education or less College graduate Postgraduate study degree Income under $30,000 $30,000–$49,999 $50,000–$99,999 $100,000–$199,999 $200,000–$249,999 $200,000+ City over 50,000 Suburbs Small city, rural Those who think that immigration is the most important political issue Those who think that the US economy is in a poor condition Those whose financial situation has become worse in the past four years Those who are angry about the federal government Those who think that racial inequality mattered most for deciding how they voted Those who think that the COVID-19 pandemic mattered most for deciding how they voted Those who think that the economy mattered most for deciding how they voted Those who think that crime and safety mattered most for deciding how they voted Those who think that health-care policy mattered most for deciding how they voted

Trump 2016 53% 42% 58% 8% 29% 29% 37% 42% 53% 53% 51% 45% 37% 41% 42% 50% 48% 49% 48% 35% 50% 62% 64% 79% 78% 90%

Clinton 2016 41% 54% 37% 88% 65% 65% 55% 50% 44% 45% 45% 49% 58% 53% 51% 46% 47% 48% 46% 59% 45% 34% 32% 15% 19% 6%

Trump 2020 53% 42% 58% 12% 32% 34% 36% 46% 50% 52% 50% 43% 37% 46% 43% 42% 58%

Biden 2020 45% 57% 41% 87% 65% 61% 60% 52% 49% 47% 48% 55% 62% 54% 56% 57% 41%

44%

44%

38% 48% 57%

60% 50% 42%

10% 20% 24% 7% 15% 83% 71% 37%

87% 77% 74% 92% 81% 17% 27% 62%

Source: New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/08/us/politics/election-exitpolls.html, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/us/elections/exit-polls-president.html. According to these data, Biden was especially popular among women, black, Hispanics/Latino, Asian, younger and educated voters, low and medium earners, and those living in larger cities. Trump voters were predominantly male, white, high or very high earners and living in small cities or rural areas. A comparison of the 2020 to the 2016 post-election poll data shows that Trump increased his share of votes especially among blacks, Hispanics/Latinos, Asians, those aged 30–44, those earning between US$100,000 and US$199,999 and under US$30,000. Biden in comparison to Clinton increased the Democrat's share especially among men, whites, the age groups 18–29, 45– 65, university graduates, the income groups US$30,000–US$49,999 US$50,000–US$99,999, suburbanites and those living in small cities and rural areas 10 . 6.2.2 Trump's Policies During his Presidency, Trump ended the US's membership in the World Trade Organization and withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. He started a trade war with China. He reduced corporation tax to a flat rate of 21%. The income tax levels were lowered for almost all tax brackets. Trump's administration denied citizens of several majority Muslim countries entry to the United States, withdrew the US support of the Iran nuclear deal. He withdrew US troops from Northern Syria, which enabled Turkey to march into the territory and fight against Syrian Kurds who had been a major force in the war against the Islamic State.

After the police killing of the black man George Floyd in May 2020, anti-racist protests followed all over the United States. Trump portrayed protestors as criminals and used the police and the military against anti-racist protestors. Trump separated children of migrants who entered the United States over the border to Mexico from their families. He tried to end the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act that protected certain children of parents who came illegally to the United States from deportation. The Trump administration built around 700 km of the controversial border wall to Mexico. The total length of the border between Mexico and the United States is 3,145 km. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump favoured soft measures that increased the number of infections and deaths. Prior to 2020, Trump undertook lots of effort to repeal Obama's healthcare act, which resulted in an increase of uninsured Americans (Gee 2020). Trump's policies were pro-capitalist, racist, harmful to the environment and directed against the US workingclass. The Gini index that measures adjusted income increased from 0.35 in 2017 when Trump came to power to 0.38 in 2019. 11 The 80/20 household income ratio (ratio of the income of the upper 20% of households to the lower 80%) increased from 5.04 in 2016 to 5.07 in 2019. 12 While Trump portrayed himself as ‘helping the working class’, 13 in reality he implemented policies that benefited capital and harmed the US working class. He tried to appeal to the white working class via racism, nationalism, crude manners and language, but in fact betrayed and opposed working class interests. That is of course what one can expect from a capitalist and billionaire-turned politician who, with a net wealth of US$2.1 billion, was in 2020 the world's 1001st richest person. 14

6.3 METHODOLOGY For analysing how Trump communicates about COVID-19, a search for relevant postings was conducted on his Twitter profile by using the platform's advanced search function. The following search query was used: (covid OR corona OR virus OR coronavirus OR SARS OR CoV OR ‘World Health Organization’ OR ‘W.H.O.’) AND (from: RealDonaldTrump) All keywords were related to the pandemic. World Health Organization (WHO)–related keywords were included because in July 2020 Trump notified the United Nations (UN) and US Congress that he intended to withdraw the United States from that organisation. He suspected the existence of a Chinese conspiracy that led to China controlling the WHO and determining the latter's actions in respect to COVID-19. 15 The search resulted in 202 tweets. Using a random number generator, 19 tweets were selected for analysis in this chapter. Table 6.2 presents an overview of these tweets. Two of these tweets had two parts each. They were treated as one combined tweet. Table 6.2 also shows for all tweets the number of likes, re-tweets and comments. Two of the tweets do not have such data because they violated Twitter's policies. Twitter in the case of politicians in such cases adds information about violation of its rules and disables liking, re-tweeting and commenting, but leaves the tweet visible as ‘it may be in the public's interest for the Tweet to remain accessible’. 16 The average number of re-tweets was 45,600, the average number of comments 17,040, and the average number of likes 192,470. These are very high numbers for tweets, which shows that Trump's tweets reach a relatively large online public. The tweets were organised based on topics, which resulted in 11 clusters. These clusters are presented in Table 6.2's column ‘Topic’ and informs the presentations of findings in Section 6.4. Table 6.2. Sample of 19 Trump Tweets About COVID-19, Accessed on 19 December 2020, Numbers Are Given in Thousands.

Ran k

URL

1 2

http://web.archive.org/web/20200805032138/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1290252674777133057 http://web.archive.org/web/20201001032055/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1311117425597792256

3

http://web.archive.org/web/20201028123608/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1321430459050381313

4

http://web.archive.org/web/20201027113145/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1321051933654863872

5

http://web.archive.org/web/20201026232910/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1320711322284281862

6

http://web.archive.org/web/20201027063739/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1320690788628598784

7

http://web.archive.org/web/20200706202050/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1280234504985157637

8

http://web.archive.org/web/20201006012857/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1313186529058136070

10 11 12

http://web.archive.org/web/20200718165550/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1280209143127773184, http://web.archive.org/web/20200706184802/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1280209143975084032 http://web.archive.org/web/20200824061733/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1297495295266357248 http://web.archive.org/web/20200624205135/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1275062328971497472 http://web.archive.org/web/20200530164446/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1264558926021959680

13

http://web.archive.org/web/20200617112746/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1272529858501976065

14 15 16

http://web.archive.org/web/20201008122605/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1313449844413992961 http://web.archive.org/web/20201012214300/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1315769883318124544 http://web.archive.org/web/20200709130501/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1278897430378041344

17

http://web.archive.org/web/20200527131942/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1265633761024188417

9

18 19

http://web.archive.org/web/20200417223411/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1251138462968922119,http://web.archive.org/ 4 http://web.archive.org/web/20200519025530/https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1262577580718395393

In order to analyse how Trump communicates about the COVID-19 pandemic and what role ideology plays in this communication, a critical discourse analysis (CDA, see Fairclough 2015, Reisigl and Wodak 2001, Wodak and Meyer 2001) of the 11 topical clusters was conducted. The findings are presented in the next section.

6.4 FINDINGS 6.4.1 Vaccines and Autism Trump not only has a history of spreading conspiracy theories but has also previously spread conspiracy theories about vaccinations. Let us have a look at the following two tweets: Healthy young child goes to doctor, gets pumped with massive shot of many vaccines, doesn't feel good and changes – AUTISM. Many such cases!28 March 2014, http://web.archive.org/web/20141017205213/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/stat us/449525268529815552,23.3K re-tweets, 32.6K comments, 33.2K likes (accessed on 19 December 2020)Look what happened to the autism rate from 1983-2008 since one-time massive shots were given to children-on.fb.me/U6As0k

27 August 2012, http://web.archive.org/web/20170715110054/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/statu s/240191842665259009,358 re-tweets, 58 comments, 412 likes (accessed on 19 December 2020) The second tweet constructs a causal link between the autism rate and the number of vaccinations children are undergoing. If there is an increase of both, then one cannot assume an automatic causal link and that the one phenomenon is the cause of the other one. In the first tweet, Trump claims that the combination of several vaccines into one injection is the cause of autism. The MMRV vaccine is a combined vaccine that immunises children against measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox. In the United States, the MMRV vaccine ProQuad was approved for use in2005.17 Pediarix is a vaccine that combines vaccines against DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough [pertussis]), hepatitis B and inactivated polio vaccines. It was licenced in the United States in 2002. It is likely that Trump referred to these kinds of vaccines when talking about ‘one-time massive shots’. In CDA, such a logical false conclusion that Trump draws here is also known as post hoc, ergo propter hoc (Latin for ‘after this, therefore because of this’). It is assumed that because an increase

of the autism rate has occurred after the increase of the regular number of vaccinations that children receive, there must be a causal link. This logical fallacy ‘relies on mixing up a temporally chronological relationship with a causally consequential one’ (Reisigl and Wodak 2001, 73). It …considers events occurring earlier in time as the causes of events happening later. One can find an example of such a fallacious reasoning in the populist and very often racist or ethnicist argumentation that the increase in unemployment rates within a specific nation-state is the consequence of the growing number of immigrants. This monocausal ‘post hoc’ fallacy, which is without any empirical proof, completely ignores all the complex economic relationships and relevant economic, political and social factors responsible for unemployment (Reisigl and Wodak 2001, 73) Medical progress has resulted in better diagnosis of autism. In the early 1980s, many cases may not have been diagnosed or may have been wrongly diagnosed as severe intellectual disabilities. Changes in practices for diagnosing autism have had an effect on autism caseloads, accounting for one-quarter of the observed increase in prevalence in California between 1992 and 2005. In the past, the number of children diagnosed was lower. The change is mostly likely due to an improved definition and a better understanding of autism; greater access to resources for parent of autistic children, leading more to seek diagnosis; and wider access to medical care (Berman 2020, 63) In 1998, Wakefield et al. (1998) published an article in The Lancet that suggested there might be a link between measles, mumps and rubella vaccination and autism. The paper was retracted because it became evident that its data had been fraudulent. Wakefield lost his UK licence to practice as a physician and became an anti-vaccination activist making claims such as the one that vaccines cause autism.18 Hviid et al. (2019) conducted a cohort study of all 663,236 children born between 1999 and 2010 in Denmark. MMR vaccination status and autistic disorders were among the available data. Their result of statistical analysis of these data was that they …found no support for the hypothesis of increased risk for autism after MMR vaccination in a nationwide unselected population of Danish children; no support for the hypothesis of MMR vaccination triggering autism in susceptible subgroups characterized by environmental and familial risk factors; and no support for a clustering of autism cases in specific time periods after MMR vaccination (Hviid et al. 2019, 518) King and Bearman (2009, 1233) analysed medical data for the years from 1992 until 2005. They found that 26.4% (95% CI 16.25–36.48) of the increased autism caseload in California can be attributed to the effects of changing diagnostic practices and diagnostic accretion and substitution, which we refer to as diagnostic change. […] We have estimated that one in four children who are diagnosed with autism today would not have been diagnosed with autism in 1993. This finding does not rule out the possible contributions of other etiological factors, including environmental toxins, genetics or their interaction to the increased prevalence of autism. Hodges et al. (2020, S58) report that other factors that have influenced an increased prevalence of autism include ‘[i]nsurance mandates requiring commercial plans to cover services for ASD along with improved awareness’.

Medical studies have shown that there are no grounds for assuming that vaccines cause autism. Trump has believed in the false stories about vaccination and the conspiracy theory that vaccines are the cause of serious illnesses. Trump has also speculated about treatment options for COVID-19, saying that the injection or drinking disinfectants and light might cure COVID-19: I see disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute, and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it'd be interesting to check that. So you're going to have to use medical doctors, but it sounds interesting to me. So, we'll see. But the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute, that's pretty powerful (Riechmann et al. 2020) 6.4.2 The ‘China Virus’ Trump has frequently spoken of SARS-CoV-2 as the ‘China virus’ or the ‘Chinese virus’, including on Twitter. Here is an example: With the exception of New York & a few other locations, we've done MUCH better than most other Countries in dealing with the China Virus. Many of these countries are now having a major second wave. The Fake News is working overtime to make the USA (& me) look as bad as possible! (#1). A virus is an infectious organism that is made of nucleic acid coated in protein. To assign a nationality to a virus is a nationalisation of biological entities. The word ‘China virus’ is a combination of nationym (Reisigl and Wodak 2001, 50) and biologism. Not just in nature nationalised but also a particular group of people, the Chinese, are biologised. Trump expresses the ideological and racist view that the Chinese are like a virus. A virus naturally spreads and thereby overcomes geographical borders. Therefore, a virus associated with a particular group or nation-state does not exist. Trump plays with the racist stereotype that people of colour, including Asians, are dangerous like a disease as well as parasitic and increasing in numbers like a virus. Encouraged ‘by Trumpian rhetoric, Asian and Asian-Americans are being attacked by xenophobes, as if they themselves were the virus’ (Valencia-García 2020, 70). Blaming immigrants and ethnic minorities for the spread of diseases is nothing new but a common aspect of racist ideology. Irish immigrants [to the USA] were blamed for cholera in the 1830’s […] In the 1890s, tuberculosis was known as ‘the Jewish disease’. […] In 1918, a deadly flu pandemic came to be known as the ‘Spanish flu’, leading to attacks on those seen as ‘Spanish’. […] It actually originated in Kansas. […] Blame was laid on Haitians for the AIDS epidemic of the 1980's, on Navajos for the hanta-virus scare in 1993, on Mexicans for swine flu in 2009, on Africans for Ebola in 2014 (Potok 2020, 141) Epidemics and pandemics are such profound crises that they pose the risk for an intensification of hatred, racism and fascism. At the same time, they are an opportunity for the strengthening of international solidarity and socialism. Pandemic crises sharply radicalise the polarisation between socialism and barbarism as options for the future development of society. Already at the time of the plague, epidemics were part of conspiracy theories and ideology that featured scapegoating and violence: Another distinguishing feature of plague is the terror it generated. Communities afflicted with plague responded with mass hysteria, violence, and religious revivals as people sought to assuage an angry god. They also looked anxiously within their midst to find the guilty parties responsible for so terrible a disaster. For people who regarded

the disease as divine retribution, those responsible were sinners. Plague thus repeatedly gave rise to scapegoating and witch-hunting. Alternatively, for those inclined to the demonic interpretation of disease, those responsible were the agents of a homicidal human conspiracy. Frequently, vigilantes hunted down foreigners and Jews and sought out witches and poisoners (Snowden 2019, 29) Trump has expressed and shared the conspiracy theory that SARS-CoV-2 originated in a Chinese laboratory: Trump: But then we noticed a virus. And it is not acceptable what happened. It came out of China. That's not acceptable what happened. And now what we are doing […] is that we are finding out how it came out. […] Question: My question is: Have you seen anything at this point that gives you a high degree of confidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the origin of that virus? Trump: Yes, I have. Yes, I have. And I think that the World Health Organization should be ashamed of themselves. Because they are like the public relations agency for China. And this country pays them almost US$500 million a year. […] They shouldn't be making excuses when people make horrible mistakes, especially mistakes that are causing hundreds of thousands of people around the world to die (Mangan and Lovelace 2020) It has been confirmed by the scientific community that there is a natural origin of SARS-CoV-2 (Calisher et al. 2020, e42) and the WHO has begun an investigation to identify the zoonotic source of the virus. COVID-19 conspiracy theorists claim the virus was manufactured. That the Chinese manufactured it is one of the conspiracy theories related to the virus' origins. Trump here shares this theory. This already becomes evident when he says it is not ‘acceptable what happened’, which implies that something evil was undertaken based on a plan. That the virus ‘came out’ means that it was locked into an enclosed space such as a laboratory. And Trump speaks of a ‘mistake’ China made and that the WHO allegedly has known of. Trump advances the conspiracy theory that the Chinese manufactured SARS-CoV-2. 6.4.3 China and Joe Biden In another tweet, Trump writes: If we listened to Joe Biden on coronavirus, millions of people would have died! (#2). The tweet is accompanied by an excerpt from the first Biden/Trump television debate, in which Trump claims: If we would've listened to you, the country would have been left wide open, millions of people would have died, not 200,000. And one person is too much. It's China's fault. It should have never happened. They stopped it from going in, but it was China's fault. […] But if you look at what we've done, I closed it and you said, ‘He's xenophobic. He's a racist and he's xenophobic’, because you didn't think I should have closed our country. […] You didn't think we should have closed our country because you thought it was terrible. You wouldn't have closed it for another two months A PolitiFact fact-check investigated these claims. Biden's campaign told PolitiFact that Biden's tweets were not specific to the restrictions on people coming from China. […] The White House press office said Trump's claim is supported by a tweet Biden posted Feb. 1, the day after the Trump administration announced travel restrictions on people who were in China 14 days prior to their attempted entry into the United States

(Valverde 2020) Biden tweeted on 1 February 2020: We are in the midst of a crisis with the coronavirus. We need to lead the way with science – not Donald Trump's record of hysteria, xenophobia, and fear-mongering. He is the worst possible person to lead our country through a global health emergency (https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1223727977361338370) The PolitiFact report continues: Biden did not explicitly tie xenophobia to the travel restriction. His tweet reflects coronavirus remarks he made during a campaign stop in Iowa Jan. 31, the day the travel restrictions were announced. […] Biden again used the word ‘xenophobic’ in March – once at a press conference and once in response to a Trump tweet. In the first, Biden was criticizing Trump for labeling coronavirus a ‘foreign’ virus. […] During a March 12 press conference Biden said, the United States should not be overly dismissive of the outbreak, ‘but neither should we panic or fall back on xenophobia, labeling COVID-19 a foreign virus does not displace accountability for the misjudgments that have been taken thus far by the Trump administration’. […] Biden has not directly said that the restrictions were xenophobic. Around the time the Trump administration announced the travel restriction, Biden said that Trump had a ‘record of hysteria, xenophobia, and fear-mongering’. Biden used the phrase ‘xenophobic’ in reply to a Trump tweet about limiting entry to travelers from China and in which he described the coronavirus as the ‘Chinese virus’. Biden did not spell out which part of Trump's tweet was xenophobic. Trump's statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate it Mostly False (Valverde 2020) In the second Trump/Biden television debate, Trump repeated the allegation against Biden, saying: When I closed and banned China from coming in heavily infected and then ultimately Europe, but China was in January. Months later, he was saying I was xenophobic. I did it too soon (Trump and Biden 2020) Biden clarified: ‘My response is he is xenophobic, but not because he shutdown access from China. And he did it late after 40 countries had already done that’ (Trump and Biden 2020). 6.4.4 COVID-19 Is Not So Bad, the Media Exaggerate as Part of an Anti-Trump Conspiracy Trump addresses the question of how serious COVID-19 is in a number of tweets in the analysed sample: Covid, Covid, Covid is the unified chant of the Fake News Lamestream Media. They will talk about nothing else until November 4th., when the Election will be (hopefully!) over. Then the talk will be how low the death rate is, plenty of hospital rooms, & many tests of young people. (#3). ALL THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA WANTS TO TALK ABOUT IS COVID, COVID, COVID. ON NOVEMBER 4th, YOU WON’T BE HEARING SO MUCH ABOUT IT ANYMORE. WE ARE ROUNDING THE TURN!!! (#4). The Fake News Media is riding COVID, COVID, COVID, all the way to the Election. Losers! (#5).

We have made tremendous progress with the China Virus, but the Fake News refuses to talk about it this close to the Election. COVID, COVID, COVID is being used by them, in total coordination, in order to change our great early election numbers. Should be an election law violation! (#6). Why does the Lamestream Fake News Media REFUSE to say that China Virus deaths are down 39%, and that we now have the lowest Fatality (Mortality) Rate in the World. They just can't stand that we are doing so well for our Country! (#7). In these tweets, Trump formulates and communicates a COVID-19 conspiracy theory that says: The liberal media are talking so much about and are exaggerating the seriousness of COVID-19 in order to make Donald Trump look bad and make him loose the 2020 US presidential election. He implies that the terrible effects of COVID-19 such as high death rates are made up by the media as part of an anti-Trump conspiracy. Trump refers to the liberal media as ‘fake news lamestream media’, ‘fake news media’, ‘fake news’ and ‘lamestream fake news media’. Fake news is a term that has been used for misinformation and false information that ‘is factually false, circulated online predominantly on social media, lacks journalistic professional norms, and tries to systematically and deliberately mislead and misinform’ (Fuchs 2021b, 156). Tabloid media are a typical home of fake news. Donald Trump has used the term for characterising how liberal media such as CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, ABC, CBS, NBC and MSNBC report about him. These and other media have been asking critical questions about Trump, which is part of the work definition and ethos of reporters working for news media that are not controlled by those about whom they report. My own analysis of Trump's tweets has shown that the media are his most frequently mentioned enemy in his tweets (Fuchs 2018a, 215–220). Trump's ideal-type media seem to be media that adore political leaders, do not ask critical questions and allow politicians to give long monologues without scrutiny. Such media typically exist in dictatorships. How much Trump hates the likes of CNN and The New York Times becomes evident in his interactions with journalists working for such organisations. Here are two excerpts, where Trump screams at CNN’S Jim Acosta, that are characteristic for the aggression of Trump towards journalists: CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them. You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn't be working for CNN. […] When you report fake news, which CNN does a lot, you are the enemy of the people (November 2018)19 Your organisation is terrible. Quiet. Quiet. […] I'm not gonna give you a question. You are fake news (January 2017)20. The term ‘mainstream’ media refers to the most popular news media that reach a large audience and are, therefore, influential. It is sometimes opposed to the term ‘alternative media’. Trump combines and mixes the notion of ‘mainstream media’ with the adjective ‘lame’ in order to create the somatonym ‘lamestream media’, a ‘reference in terms of permanent or temporary bodily dysfunctionalities or handicaps’ (Reisigl and Wodak 2001, 49). The term communicates the claim that referenced media are dysfunctional, crazy and sick. It was not coined by Trump but by Sarah Palin (Barr 2009), a former governor of Alaska, Tea Party campaigner and 2008 Republican vicepresidential candidate. 6.4.5 COVID-19 Is Not so Dangerous After he had caught COVID-19 and had stayed in a military hospital to undergo treatment, Trump tweeted: I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 p.m. Feeling really good! Don't be afraid of Covid. Don't let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago! (#8)

By saying he is feeling ‘really good’, ‘better than I did 20 years ago’ and that one should not ‘be afraid of COVID-19’, Trump implies that the virus is not that dangerous. Given such statements, some individuals will feel encouraged to ignore social distancing and wearing mask because they think when Trump survived it and says it was not that bad, it cannot be a terrible disease. Trump's claims go into the direction of the widely spread myth that COVID-19 is not worse than a mild seasonal flu. With a death rate of 2.2% until December 2020, COVID-19 is not comparable to a mild flu (see Table 1.1 in Chapter 1 of this book). Using global data for the years from 2002 until 2011, Paget et al. (2019) calculated that there was an average of 389,213 annual deaths from seasonal influenza. The World Health Organization (2019) estimates that each year around 1 billion individuals worldwide catch the flu. Based on these data, the average mortality rate of seasonal influenza is 0.04%, which means that as an approximation one can say that COVID-19 is at least 55 times deadlier than seasonal influenza. On 9 March 2020, Trump tweeted: So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that! (http://web.archive.org/web/20200309145720/ https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1237027356314869761) He here expresses his opposition to the shutdown of public life as a countermeasure to the spread of pandemics and compares COVID-19 to ‘the common flu’. A little more than nine month after Trump had posted this tweet, 230,000 US Americans had died from COVID-19,21 which confirms that COVID-19 is not just another common flu but an extremely dangerous and deadly disease. Trump received an antibody treatment that is in short supply (Stolberg 2020). Trump is not the average COVID-19 hospital patient. The treatment and care he received was exceptional, which made it much less likely that he died than the average patient. His statements not only downplay the actual threat posed by COVID-19 to humans. In a class society with class structured healthcare systems where there are different classes of patients, not everyone can get the ‘really great drugs and knowledge’ that Trump enjoyed. Trump is not a member of the working class but a man who comes from a capitalist family and has enjoyed a privileged status his whole life. 6.4.6 Hydroxychloroquine Donald Trump became obsessed with hydroxychloroquine and the idea that this drug can treat COVID-19: Treatment with hydroxychloroquine cut the death rate significantly in sick patients hospitalized with COVID-19 – and without heart-related side-effects, according to a new study published by Henry Ford Health System. In a large-scale retrospective analysis…of 2,541 patients hospitalized between March 10 and May 2, 2020 across the system's six hospitals, the study found 13% of those treated with hydroxychloroquine alone died compared to 26.4% not treated with hydroxychloroquine. @HenryFordNews (#9). HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE & AZITHROMYCIN, taken together, have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine. The FDA has moved mountains – Thank You! Hopefully they will BOTH (H works better with A, International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents)…be put in use IMMEDIATELY. PEOPLE ARE DYING, MOVE FAST, AND GOD BLESS EVERYONE! @US_FDA @SteveFDA @CDCgov @DHSgov (http://web.archive.org/web/20200322041543/ https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1241367239900778501, http://web.archive.org/web/20200321145715/ https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1241367245143642113)

Many doctors and studies disagree with this!@Twitter Moments. June 15 The FDA is revoking its emergency use authorization of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for treating COVID-19 amid growing evidence that the drugs are ‘unlikely to be effective’ in treating the coronavirus. (http://web.archive.org/web/20200825080958/ https://mobile.twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1297148038385991680) In the first tweet quoted here, Trump quotes from a press release dated 2 July 2020, in which Henry Ford Health System reports about the publication of a paper in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases on the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of COVID-19 (Arshad et al. 2020). 22 The study Trump cited was criticised for not having used a randomised sample of patients in its clinical trial of whether or not hydroxychloroquine can treat COVID-19 (Cohen 2020). In a random trial, it is randomly decided what patients take the drug that shall be tested and what patients take a placebo. This method is chosen in order to avoid biases. A multisite, international, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial conducted in the United States and Canada investigated the same question as the study conducted by the Henry Ford Health System that Trump cited in his tweets. It concluded: In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of symptomatic outpatient adults with probable or confirmed early COVID-19, a 5-day course of hydroxychloroquine failed to show a substantial clinical benefit in improving the rate of resolution of COVID-19 symptoms in the enrolled clinical trial participants (Skipper et al. 2020, 628–629) Between April and June 2020, hydroxychloroquine could, based on an emergency authorisation, be used for experimental treatment of COVID-19 in the United States. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revoked this licence in June 2020 because hydroxychloroquine is ‘unlikely to be effective in treating COVID-19 […] Additionally, in light of ongoing serious cardiac adverse events and other potential serious side effects, the known and potential benefits of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine no longer outweigh the known and potential risks for the authorized use’ 23 (for an overview of studies on cardiac toxicity in COVID-19, see Kashour and Tleyjeh 2020). Although the FDA has revoked the emergency licence for hydroxychloroquine and there are studies warning against its use in the treatment of COVID-19, Trump continues to believe what he wants to believe and claims that many doctors and studies disagree with the FDA's decision as if there were no strong evidence against the use of hydroxychloroquine in cases of COVID-19. Trump cites studies that have been criticised for bias but does not take seriously the FDA's medical decisions that were taken based on scientific insights. But how did Trump become so convinced of hydroxychloroquine? The answer is that he trusts certain right-wing commentators and TV shows. In March 2020, cryptocurrency investors Gregory Rigano and James Todaro wrote and circulated a Google document that made claims about hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 cure. The Google doc, with its grand claims and the help of its false affiliation with Stanford and other institutions, quickly went viral and was tweeted out to millions by prominent venture capitalists and Tesla CEO Musk – none of whom appeared to vet its methods or sources. Fox News and other right-wing media jumped on the paper and touted the drug as a potential quick fix for the virus. Fox News host and informal Trump adviser Tucker Carlson had Rigano on his prime-time show, with Rigano falsely identified as an adviser to Stanford and claiming ‘what we're here to announce is the second cure to a virus of all time’. Rigano made a similar appearance on right-wing radio host Glenn Beck's program and with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who then privately met with Trump in early April to promote the drug. The day after Rigano appeared on Carlson's show, Trump mentioned the drug during a briefing for the first time and in the following days heavily promoted it (Robins-Early 2020)

Trump trusts right-wing media hosts who are driven by ideology more than science. He believes what certain right-wing ideologues such as Tucker Carlson, Glenn Beck or Laura Ingraham pronounce to be true. As a consequence, Trump promoted the drug hydroxychloroquine as COVID19 treatment that is in the best case ineffective and in the worst case can lead to cardiac arrest. 6.4.7 Mail-In Votes Trump has again and again claimed that there was a voting fraud conspiracy. COVID-19 also played a role in this conspiracy theory: So now the Democrats are using Mail Drop Boxes, which are a voter security disaster. Among other things, they make it possible for a person to vote multiple times. Also, who controls them, are they placed in Republican or Democrat areas? They are not Covid sanitized. A big fraud! (#10) [This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about civic and election integrity. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public's interest for the Tweet to remain accessible] Because of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, 2020 will be the most RIGGED Election in our nations history – unless this stupidity is ended. We voted during World War One & World War Two with no problem, but now they are using Covid in order to cheat by using MailIns! (#11) The United States cannot have all Mail In Ballots. It will be the greatest Rigged Election in history. People grab them from mailboxes, print thousands of forgeries and ‘force’ people to sign. Also, forge names. Some absentee OK, when necessary. Trying to use Covid for this Scam! (#12) In the three tweets from the analysed sample that focused on mail-in votes, Trump claims that COVID-19 played a role in his election fraud conspiracy theory. He argues the ballots are ‘not COVID-19 sanitized’ and that ‘they’ are using the pandemic as an opportunity ‘to cheat by using Mail-Ins!’ and organising ‘this Scam!’. Trump declares COVID-19 part of a conspiracy that he claims was organised to rig the election results. He does not see the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic as a crisis that requires voting from a distance in order to keep humans safe but rather sees COVID-19 as an instrument by conspirators who wanted to cheat him out of office by manipulating postal votes. Trump has used drastic language to characterise his election fraud conspiracy. The end of Donald Trump's presidency was dominated by his constant repetition and communication of the conspiracy theory that the US presidential election was fraudulent, that mailin ballots were illegal and rigged and that he won the election. The Democratic Party encouraged its voters to make use of mail-in voting in order to avoid spreading and catching COVID-19 on election day. Biden made multiple calls that voters should vote by mail, for example: Folks, if you plan to vote by mail and haven't requested your ballot yet, it's important that you do so as soon as possible. Deadlines are quickly approaching in states across the country. Head to iwillvote.com to find all the information you need. (22 October 2020, https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1319073483943407617) Vote early. Vote by mail. Vote on Election Day. Just make sure you vote. (22 October 2020, https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1319063416787619844) The increase of mail-in ballots was an effect of the pandemic where many individuals are afraid of visiting a polling station. Whereas Biden called citizens to vote early and by mail-in vote, Trump constantly spoke of fraudulent mail-in votes. The logical consequence was that more supporters of the Democrats voted by mail and more supporters of the Republicans by attending a polling station. The number of total voters in the US presidential election increased from 136,669,276 in 2016 to

159,690,457 in 2020, which meant the highest voter turnout in 120 years.24 Counting ballots, therefore, took longer than normal. And given that postal votes were in many parts of the United States counted later than ballots cast in polling stations, Biden's vote increased especially in the later stage of the counting process. There was no ‘VOTER FRAUD ALL OVER THE COUNTRY!’ (http://web.archive.org/web/20201118133211/ https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1329054683441278977), as claimed by Trump in his election conspiracy theory. The results reporting and the counting followed the rules of logic. Multiple fact-checks debunked Trump's election fraud conspiracy theory (see e.g. AP 2020, FactCheck 2020b, PolitiFact 2020) and concluded: Donald Trump repeated a litany of baseless assertions: […] ‘It's about poll watchers who were not allowed to watch. So illegal. It's about ballots that poured in and nobody but a few knew where they came from … It's about machinery that was defective, machinery that was stopped’. None of those assertions are true. […] Indeed, news organizations and officials had warned in the days and weeks leading up to the election that the results would likely come in just as they did: In-person votes, which tend to be counted more quickly, would likely favor the president, who had spent months warning his supporters to avoid mail-in voting and to vote in person either early or on Election Day. And mail-in ballots, which take longer to count since they must be removed from envelopes and verified before they are counted, would favor Biden. That pattern was exacerbated by the fact that many states prohibited early counting of mail-in votes that arrived before Election Day. In addition, big cities are often slower to report their numbers, and those votes tend to skew Democratic. Likewise, many states tend to count mail-in ballots at the end of the process. […] ‘There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised’ in the 2020 election, according to a joint statement released by the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. […] Trump's allegations of massive voting fraud have been refuted by a variety of judges, state election officials and an arm of his own administration's Homeland Security Department. Many of his campaign's lawsuits across the country have been thrown out of court. (AP 2020) Metaphors of natural disasters (‘a voter security disaster’), intensifications (‘a big fraud’, ‘the most RIGGED election in our nation's history’, ‘the greatest rigged election in history’), pathologonyms (‘stupidity’) and criminonyms (‘fraud!’, ‘RIGGED’, ‘cheat’, ‘Scam!’, ‘thousands of forgeries’) (see Reisigl and Wodak 2001, 26 and 74 [metaphors of natural disasters], 81–85 [intensification], 49 [pathologonyms], 52 [criminonyms]). The use of drastic language does not make lies truer because a lie is a lie. Trump claims that mail-in ballots ‘are not COVID-19 sanitized’, which implies that COVID-19 is not spread by queues at polling stations but is transmitted by the touching of vote-in ballots. Mail-in ballots are made of paper. Studies of SARS-CoV-2 found that ‘[t]hree hours after being laid on paper, no virus can be detected. In contrast, the virus can still infect cells seven days after being laid on plastic’ (Corpet 2020, 1). According to such studies, the virus has long stability on surfaces such as polypropylene masks, plastic, glass and stainless steel, and short stability on materials such as paper, tissue and copper. ‘Pragmatically, these differences suggest that, in order to reduce the spread of virus via fomites, paper sheets and bags should be used instead of plastic to wrap, cover and carry objects (books, food, furniture)’ (Corpet 2020, 1). The risk of COVID-19 being spread via mail-in ballots is low, especially in comparison to queues lining up in front of and in polling stations where aerosol transmission is possible. It is false to claim that mail-in ballots are a COVID-19 risk. Trump instrumentalised this claim in order to advance his election fraud conspiracy theory. Trump has constructed and over a long time repeated an election fraud conspiracy theory on social media, in interview, press conferences, speeches, etc. This conspiracy theory claims that the COVID-19 pandemic was used as opportunity for organising rigged mail-in ballots.

6.4.8 The Media and Trump Rallies Trump tweeted: The Far Left Fake News Media, which had no Covid problem with the Rioters & Looters destroying Democrat run cities, is trying to Covid Shame us on our big Rallies. Won't work! (#13). Trump here uses the notion of ‘COVID-19 shaming’, by which he means that liberal media would exaggerate the danger of COVID-19 being spread at his election rallies and would only do so in the case of Trump gatherings. The liberal media indeed reported critically about security measures at large Trump rallies. Here are some example headlines from some of this perceived ‘COVID-19 shaming’: Trump Defends Indoor Rally, but Aides Express Concern: ‘I'm on a stage, and it's very far away’, Mr. Trump said of the gathering on Sunday. His own campaign aides privately called the move a game of political Russian roulette. New York Times, 14 September 2020 Trump's Decision to go Maskless at a North Carolina Rally Concerns Dr.Fauci. New York Times, 9 September 2020 A GOP County Chair Asked Trump to Wear a Mask to his Rally. Instead, Trump Mocked Pandemic Restrictions. The Washington Post, 9 September 2020 Trump Campaign Flouted Agreement to Follow Health Guidelines at Rally, Documents Show The Washington Post, 24 October 2020 No Social Distancing and Few Masks as Crowd Waits for Trump Rally in Nevada. CNN, 13 September 2020 Trump Supporter on Not Wearing A Mask: It's a Fake Pandemic.CNN, 11 September 2020 Trump Supporters Explain Why They Won't Wear Masks.CNN, 14 September 2020 The media reported on the lack of protective measures at Trump rallies because gatherings where individuals come together at close distance without wearing masks pose a danger not just to those individuals taking this risk but also for others whom they may infect and, therefore, for the public, society and humanity at large. Leana S. Wen, an emergency physician and visiting professor of health policy and management at the George Washington University's Milken School of Public Health, commented that there: …is one key difference between social justice protests and Trump rallies: Those attending BLM protests by and large grasp the danger and are motivated to reduce their risk, while a large share of those attending Trump rallies deny that there is a danger at all. […] Where are the harm-reduction practices at Trump's rallies? The most recent events, in Nevada and Arizona, have been held indoors. Compared with those outdoors, indoor gatherings could increase the risk of transmission by 18 to 19 times. Many attendees appeared to not wear masks. Some rallygoers in Michigan called covid-19 a ‘fake pandemic’ and spoke about mask-wearing as an infringement on their rights. Trump himself was not wearing a mask at the rallies. He used his platform to mock public health practices. It seems reasonable, then, to worry that many attendees engage in other risky behaviors, such as hugging and shaking hands. […] And that's the key difference between social justice protests and Trump's political rallies. […] To be clear, from an epidemiological perspective, there shouldn't be any mass gatherings during a pandemic. But let's not engage in false equivalencies. The

reason Trump's rallies are more dangerous than social justice protests has nothing to do with the purpose of the gatherings and everything to do with the behavior of organizers and participants. The distinction is this: Are attendees going in spite of the risk or in defiance of it? (Wen 2020) Economists from Stanford University conducted a statistical analysis of Trump rallies held between 20 June and 22 September 2020 whose results …suggest that the rallies resulted in more than 30,000 incremental cases and likely led to more than 700 deaths. […] Our analysis strongly supports the warnings and recommendations of public health officials concerning the risk of COVID-19 transmission at large group gatherings, particularly when the degree of compliance with guidelines concerning the use of masks and social distancing is low. The communities in which Trump rallies took place paid a high price in terms of disease and death (Bernheim et al. 2020, 11, 13) Trump held indoor rallies where protective measures such as wearing masks were ignored. He dismissed criticism of and reports on these practices as being part of a left-wing media conspiracy directed against him. 6.4.9 Trump's Opposition to Lockdowns Trump also tweeted about lockdowns: Flu season is coming up! Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu. Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!![Twitter warning: ‘This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public's interest for the Tweet to remain accessible’.] (#14) The World Health Organization just admitted that I was right. Lockdowns are killing countries all over the world. The cure cannot be worse than the problem itself. Open up your states, Democrat governors. Open up New York. A long battle, but they finally did the right thing! (#15) In the first tweet, Trump compares COVID-19 to the seasonal flu and argues against closing down public life because ‘we are learning to live with COVID-19’. In the second tweet, he calls for opening up public life because ‘lockdowns are killing countries all over the world’. It is, of course, true that lockdowns have harmed economies. In October 2020, the International Monetary Fund's (IMF's) World Economic Outlook calculated that in 2020 the world economy's gross domestic product (GDP) would shrink by 4.4% and the advanced economies' combined GDP by 5.8%.25 If life continues relatively normally during a pandemic, the virus will spread and result in exponential growth. Higher infection and death rates will be the consequence. In such crises, the political question arises if economic growth and the continuation of commodity sales are more important than the protection of human lives. Neoliberals and social Darwinists have taken the position that it is better to do nothing or little. They are putting economic interests over human survival. Humanists in contrasts want to protect human lives and, therefore, argue for locking down public life and implementing social distancing during pandemic waves. Trump has taken an antihumanist position that favours continuing public and economic life in pandemics as if nothing happened over the protection of human lives. He puts individual freedom of citizens to do what they please over the social freedom of human beings having the right to life and survival. In the COVID-

19 pandemic, the major moral-political question has been if one should understand and practice freedom in an individualistic or a social manner. The problem is that in a pandemic, individual behaviour has large effects on others. If those infected with COVID-19 practice the freedom to go around as they please, others are infected, fall ill and die. At the same time, one must recognise that social distancing is difficult and has increased mental health problems and feelings of isolation and loneliness. In the COVID-19 pandemic, right-wing politicians, activists, groups, parties and movements have suddenly discovered individual freedom, a right that they are often willing to limit in other cases, in order to mobilise against lockdowns, wearing masks and social distancing. Researchers from the National Bureau of Economic Research conducted a statistical analysis of how the adoption of protective measures influenced COVID-19 mortality and infections in the United States at the county level. They concluded that a lack of implementing protective measure increases COVID-19 mortality and infections: Epidemiologists contend that NPIs [non-pharmaceutical interventions] – such as safer-at-home orders, closures of non-essential businesses and schools, or bans on large gatherings – combined with testing, tracing, and isolating, are the only options to fight the pandemic until a vaccine is identified and made widely available or societies achieve herd immunity. […] In the United States, where COVID-19 has taken a high toll in terms of infections and mortality, skepticism toward NPIs reigns high among the public and legislators […]. Early in the pandemic, President Trump famously criticized NPIs by remarking that ‘the cure cannot be worse than the problem itself’. […] Using county-level data on COVID-19 mortality and infections, along with county-level information on the adoption of stay-at-home orders and business closures, we examine how the adoption speed of NPIs has affected COVID-19 mortality. We find that moving up the implementation date of NPIs by one day lowers the COVID-19 death rate by 2.4%. The effectiveness of acting early is similar for both stay-at-home orders and business closures. […] we confirm how the relevance of responding early stems from the ability to slow contagion, which likely prevented the overburdening of the healthcare system. […] While we await anxiously a vaccine or cure, NPIs remain the main mechanism to curtail COVID-19 deaths (Amuedo-Dorantes et al. 2020, 1 & 20) In the pandemic crisis, Donald Trump has favoured individual over social freedom, economic activities and uninterrupted public life over the protection of human lives, death over life and risks over protective measures. He has advanced reckless COVID-19 politics that have resulted in the highest number of absolute COVID-19 deaths worldwide. From the start of the pandemic until midMarch 2021, 530,114 individuals had died from COVID-19 in the United States.26 Accounting for 4.25% of the world population,27 the United States in March 2021 accounted for 19.95% of the world's COVID-19 deaths.28 6.4.10 COVID-19 Testing Donald Trump tweeted about COVID-19 testing: There is a rise in Coronavirus cases because our testing is so massive and so good, far bigger and better than any other country. This is great news, but even better news is that death, and the death rate, is DOWN. Also, younger people, who get better much easier and faster! (#16). Trump's argumentation is here based on an epistemological idealism, relativism and radical constructivism. Such positions consider only as real what humans think and recognise. In this logic, a coronavirus case is not an actual human being suffering from COVID-19 but a statistical datum that has been identified by a COVID-19 test. The implication is that if 100% of the population suffers from a virus but there is no testing going on, the virus does not exist. Such a form of reasoning denies reality.

Table 6.3 presents data on the share of weekly deaths in the United States that were due to COVID-19, pneumonia and influenza. When Trump wrote the above-mentioned tweet on 3 July 2020 (week 27), the death share was indeed lower than at the height of the first wave when this rate had reached 27.7% in week 16. Trump seems, however, to have expected that by week 27 the pandemic had come to an end. He propagated opening up US society, avoiding lockdowns and predicted that after the 2020 US presidential election, ‘the talk will be how low the death rate is’ (#3). Table 6.3. Share of Weekly Deaths due to COVID-19, Pneumonia and Influenza in the United States, 2020. Week Number Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 15 Week 16 Week 17 Week 18 Week 19 Week 20 Week 21 Week 22 Week 23 Week 24 Week 25 Week 26 Week 27 Week 28 Week 29 Week 30 Week 31 Week 32 Week 33 Week 34 Week 35 Week 36 Week 37 Week 38 Week 39 Week 40 Week 41 Week 42 Week 43 Week 44 Week 45 Week 46 Week 47 Week 48 Week 49 Week 50

Start Date 2 March 2020 9 March 2020 16 March 2020 23 March 2020 30 March 2020 6 April 2020 13 April 2020 20 April 2020 27 April 2020 4 May 2020 11 May 2020 18 May 2020 25 May 2020 1 June 2020 8 June 2020 15 June 2020 22 June 2020 29 June 2020 6 July 2020 13 July 2020 20 July 2020 27 July 2020 3 August 2020 10 August 2020 17 August 2020 24 August 2020 31 August 2020 7 September 2020 14 September 2020 21 September 2020 28 September 2020 5 October 2020 12 October 2020 19 October 2020 26 October 2020 2 November 2020 9 November 2020 16 November 2020 23 November 2020 30 November 2020 7 December 2020

Percentage of Deaths due to Pneumonia, Influenza or COVID-19 7.8 7.9 9.2 13.2 21.4 26.7 27.7 26.1 24.0 21.5 18.9 16.5 15.0 13.2 11.9 11.4 11.2 11.8 13.9 15.7 17.1 17.2 16.7 15.8 14.6 13.7 12.7 12.1 11.6 11.6 11.6 12.2 13.0 14.1 15.3 17.2 19.5 22.4 23.1 20.8 13.3

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html, accessed on 21 December 2020. In the week of the US election (week 45), the share of deaths in the United States due to COVID-19, pneumonia and influenza stood at 17.2%. It increased to 22.4% in week 47 and 23.1% in week 48. Trump's prediction was wrong; this new COVID-19 wave hit the United States and caused lots of deaths and suffering. Trump advanced an epistemological idealism, relativism and radical constructivism that assumes that COVID-19 cases only exist when there is testing. He claimed that the pandemic was over by July 2020 and that it was safe to open up US society. In reality, a new wave hit the United States in autumn and winter 2020 that caused lots of death and suffering.

6.4.11 Trump's Reaction to and Management of the COVID-19 Pandemic Donald Trump tweeted about his management of the pandemic: The Radical Left Lamestream Media, together with their partner, the Do Nothing Democrats, are trying to spread a new narrative that President Trump was slow in reacting to Covid 19. Wrong, I was very fast, even doing the Ban on China long before anybody thought necessary!(#17) In this tweet, Trump again uses Sarah Palin's somatisation of media that question the far-right as ‘lamestream media’ and combines it with the claim that media questioning Trump are ‘radical left’. In Trump's worldview, far-right ideology is normal and decent and everything that is not farright is part of the ‘radical left’. He presents politics based on a Manichean dualism in order to try to polarise society and scapegoat progressive politicians and organisations. He claims that his government's management of the COVID-19 pandemic reacted ‘very fast’ and that there is a conspiracy created by the liberal media together with the Democratic Party to present him as having reacted slowly. He also repeats the claim that Joe Biden would have reacted much slower (‘Do Nothing Democrats’). Trump prides himself on a fast reaction to COVID-19 because he restricted travel from China to the United States on 2 February 2020 and introduced a travel ban from Europe to the United States on March 11. Research found that travel bans are far less effective than internal lockdowns, which the United States implemented late and half-heartedly. At the earliest, states such as California and New York implemented a lockdown on 19 and 22 March. The latest US states followed not before early April. Bonardi et al. (2020) used statistical modelling for analysing the relationship between 184 countries' COVID-19 responses and measures to COVID-19 infections. They showed that the internal lockdown measures were effective when implemented early while the external measure of closing borders was, contrary to Trump's claims, not effective: In the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, two alternative public health strategies, termed Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPI), emerged. The first strategy, the socalled herd immunity strategy, is to allow natural immunity to develop among the population by allowing the infection to spread, while asking those suspected of being infected to isolate by staying at home and quarantining those at higher risk of severe illness, complications and death. The second strategy is the lockdown approach, which would restrict the movements of most of the country's population by requiring them to stay at home. […] On average, after 25 days, countries that took internal measures experienced a reduction of the growth rate of infection compared to other countries. After fifty-days the growth rate was lowered by 7.5%. On the other hand, external measures taken together do not have a statistically significant effect after fifty-days. […] the countries adopting the internal measures later reached the baseline growth after 36.3 days, while early movers reached the baseline growth rate in 23.4 days. […] Another striking result of our analysis is that internal measures matter much more than external ones. In particular, closing borders is the least effective policy at containing the spread of the pandemic, unless if it follows effective internal measures. Even in a globalized world, local policies are the name of the game. This result is in sharp contrast to current political discussions in the US and elsewhere, which often focus on border closures instead of emphasizing within-country lockdowns. […] Finally, our empirical results suggest that there is a speed premium for policymaking in the context of a pandemic, especially in attaining the objective of flattening of curve and preventing hospital facilities from becoming overwhelmed (Bonardi et al. 2020, 2, 13, 17, 22, 23) Pei et al. (2020) used mathematical modelling for analysing the effects of the timing of COVID19 interventions in the United States. They found that if intervention measures had been taken two

weeks earlier, 89.3% of the COVID-19 deaths during the first pandemic wave would have been avoided in the United States: had observed control measures been adopted one week earlier, the US would have avoided 645,660 (95% CI: 550,123–753,230) [56.5% (48.1%–65.9%)] confirmed cases and 35,287 (28,473–41,689) [54.0% (43.6%–63.8%)] deaths nationwide as of May 3, 2020. […] In the New York metropolitan area, the epicenter of COVID-19 in the US, 218,397 (195,179–229,394) [83.3% (74.4%–87.4%)] confirmed cases and 18,543 (16,607–19,682) [85.6% (76.2%–90.3%)] deaths would have been avoided if the same sequence of interventions had been applied one week earlier. A more pronounced control effect would have been achieved had the sequence of control measures occurred two weeks earlier: a reduction of 1,017,544 (956,594–1,066,772) [89.0% (83.6%-93.3%)] cases and 58,332 (54,802–61,297) [89.3% (83.9%–93.9%)] deaths in the US (Fig. 2e–f), and 255,721 (249,316–258,817) [97.5% (95.0%–98.7%)] cases and 21,319 (20,683–21,663) [97.8% (94.8%–99.4%)] deaths in the New York metropolitan area (Fig. 2g–h). These dramatic reductions of morbidity and mortality due to more timely deployment of control measures highlights the critical need for aggressive, early response to the COVID-19 pandemic (Pei et al. 2020, 3) Trump claimed there was a conspiracy of liberal media and politicians to present him as having reacted slowly to the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump argues that he saved lives and acted quickly by introducing travel restrictions. Studies have shown such claims are incorrect; while lockdown measures taken early reduce the number of infections and death, travel bans did not show significant effects. According to research, if social distancing had begun two weeks earlier in the United States, almost 90% of COVID-19 deaths could have been avoided in the pandemic's first wave. 6.4.12 The World Health Organization Donald Trump tweeted about the World Health Organization: Why did the W.H.O. Ignore an email from Taiwanese health officials in late December alerting them to the possibility that CoronaVirus could be transmitted between humans? Why did the W.H.O. make several claims about the CoronaVirus that are either inaccurate or misleading…in January and February, as the Virus spread globally? Why did the W.H.O. wait as long as it did to take decisive action? Lanhee Chen, Hoover Institution Fellow @FoxNews (#18) This is the letter sent to Dr. Tedros of the World Health Organization. It is selfexplanatory! (#19)

Trump tries to present the WHO as being manipulated by China and as enemy of the United States that is opposed to the latter's interests. In July 2020, the United States notified the UN formally of its withdrawal from the WHO. Trump writes in the letter to the WHO attached to the second tweet that in December 2019, Chinese doctors and the Taiwanese government reported about the virus outbreak in Wuhan and that the WHO ignored these reports. The World Health Organization consistently ignored credible reports of the virus spreading in Wuhan in early December 2019 or even earlier, including reports from the Lancet medical journal. The World Health Organization failed to independently investigate credible reports that conflicted directly with the Chinese government's official accounts, even those that came from sources within Wuhan itself. […] the World Health Organization chose not to share any of this critical information with the rest of the world, probably for political reasons. […] On January 21, 2020, President Xi Jinping of China reportedly pressured you not to declare the coronavirus outbreak an emergency. You gave in to this pressure the next day and told the world that the coronavirus did not pose a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Just over one week later, on January 30, 2020, overwhelming evidence to the contrary

forced you to reverse course. […] The World Health Organization has failed to publicly call on China to allow for an independent investigation into the origins of the virus […] It is clear the repeated missteps by you and your organization in responding to the pandemic have been extremely costly for the world. The only way forward for the World Health Organization is if it can actually demonstrate independence from China. […] But action is needed quickly. We do not have time to waste. That is why it is my duty, as President of the United States, to inform you that, if the World Health Organization does not commit to major substantive improvements within the next 30 days, I will make my temporary freeze of United States funding to the World Health Organization permanent and reconsider our membership in the organization. I cannot allow American taxpayer dollars to continue to finance an organization that, in its present state, is so clearly not serving America's interest (Letter from Donald Trump to the WHO, dated 18 May 2020) Trump sees China as an economic and political competitor, which is why he uses opportunities for presenting China as threat to the world. He does not see the COVID-19 pandemic as a global problem but a national problem. He thinks China has deliberately engineered the virus to obtain world domination, which results in him arguing in his letter to the WHO that the WHO ‘has failed to publicly call on China to allow for an independent investigation into the origins of the virus’. Trump uses the pandemic for trying to divide the world by nationalism with the help of the friend/enemy scheme. In such Manichean thought, there are just two sides. Trump sees China as the evil perpetrator and the WHO as supporting China's interest and ‘not serving America's interests’. Nationalism is not an adequate political strategy. It also fails as a response to a pandemic. Overcoming a global public health crisis requires international cooperation and solidarity. Fact-checking organisations questioned the truth of Trump's claims made in the letter to the WHO (FactCheck 2020a, National Public Radio 2020, Washington Post 2020). One fact-check questioned that the WHO knew of the virus spreading in Wuhan in December 2019: In a note shared on Twitter, the journal said it published its first papers on the novel coronavirus on Jan. 24. In two papers published that day, researchers from China and Hong Kong described the first 41 patients in Wuhan and provided scientific evidence for human-to-human transmission. WHO also disagrees with the charge that information relevant to the coronavirus was reported in early December. WHO said its representatives first learned of a cluster of pneumonia cases of unknown cause in Wuhan on Dec. 31 through the agency's epidemic surveillance system, which gathers reports and rumors of outbreaks. […] Taiwan's health authorities also said they did not officially report to WHO that human-to-human transmission was happening by Dec. 31 (National Public Radio 2020) Trump: ‘On 21 January 2020, President Xi Jinping of China reportedly pressured you not to declare the coronavirus outbreak an emergency’. […] Note the use of the word ‘reportedly’. Trump appears to be citing a German news report that was based on a German intelligence finding. The WHO has denied the report as ‘unfounded and untrue’, noting: ‘Dr. Tedros [Director General of the WHO] and President Xi did not speak on 21 January and they have never spoken by telephone’. […] Tedros certainly lavished praise on China at the time, even as evidence mounted that Chinese officials had silenced whistleblowers and undercounted cases. But the same could be said about Trump in this period, who repeatedly praised China's ‘transparency’ and handling of the outbreak (Washington Post 2020) In respect to Trump's demand and threat that the WHO must show it is independent from China, otherwise he will withdraw the US's membership, it is ‘not clear what “action” the U.S. is asking for,

or how WHO could demonstrate “independence from China”, because no solutions are outlined in the letter’ (National Public Radio 2020). The president also claimed there was ‘credible information’ to suspect human-tohuman transmission in December 2019. The WHO wasn't notified of an outbreak in Wuhan until Dec. 31. […] Trump is not alone in criticizing the WHO for simply accepting information coming from Chinese officials, and it's true that WHO DirectorGeneral Tedros complimented China for its response to the outbreak in remarks on Jan. 30. But Trump originally praised China for its supposed transparency as well. […] Trump sent a tweet expressing appreciation to China for its ‘efforts and transparency’ (FactCheck 2020a) Donald Trump presented the WHO as having in the interest of China withheld information about the spread of COVID-19 in China and as refusing because of Chinese pressure to react early to the outbreak. Trump presented an international organisation that is built on the principle of global solidarity and cooperation as the enemy of the United States. He used the friend/enemy scheme in order to undermine international responses to the crisis and declaring it a national issue.

6.5 CONCLUSION This chapter asked: How has Donald Trump communicated about COVID-19 on Twitter? How have conspiracy theories influenced his Twitter communication about COVID-19? It analysed tweets in which Trump communicated about COVID-19 and showed that he used social media to spread conspiracy theories and fake news about COVID-19. We can summarise the main findings: Trump spread the myth that combined vaccines cause autism in children; Trump suggested that drinking or injecting disinfectants might cure COVID-19; Trump has advanced the conspiracy theory that the Chinese manufactured SARS-CoV-2; Trump formulated and communicated a COVID-19 conspiracy theory that stated that the liberal media were talking so much about and were exaggerating the seriousness of COVID19 in order to make Donald Trump look bad and make him loose the 2020 US presidential election; Trump has downplayed the dangers of COVID-19; Trump trusts right-wing media hosts who are driven by ideology more than science. He believes what certain right-wing ideologues such as Tucker Carlson, Glenn Beck or Laura Ingraham pronounce to be true. As a consequence, Trump promoted the drug hydroxychloroquine as COVID-19 treatment that is in the best case ineffective and in the worst case can lead to cardiac arrest; Trump has constructed and over a long time repeated an election fraud conspiracy theory on social media, in interview, press conferences, speeches, etc. This conspiracy theory claims that the COVID-19 pandemic was used as opportunity for organising rigged mail-in ballots; Trump held indoor rallies where protective measures such as wearing masks were ignored. He dismissed criticism of and reports on these practices as being part of a left-wing media conspiracy directed against him; Trump has favoured individual over social freedom, economic activities and uninterrupted public life over the protection of human lives, death over life and risks over protective measures. He has promoted reckless COVID-19 politics that have resulted in the highest number of absolute COVID-19 deaths worldwide;

Trump advanced an epistemological idealism, relativism and radical constructivism that assumes that COVID-19 cases only exist when there is testing. He claimed that the pandemic was over by July 2020 and that it was safe to open up US society. In reality, a new wave hit the United States in autumn and winter 2020 that cause lots of death and suffering; Trump claimed there was a conspiracy of liberal media and politicians to present him as having reacted slowly to the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump argues that he saved lives and acted quickly by introducing travel restrictions. Studies have shown such claims are incorrect: while lockdown measures taken early reduce the number of infections and death, travel bans did not show significant effects. According to research, if social distancing had begun two weeks earlier in the United States, almost 90% of COVID-19 deaths could have been avoided in the pandemic's first wave; Donald Trump presented the WHO as having in the interest of China withheld information about the spread of COVID-19 in China and as refusing because of Chinese pressure to react early to the outbreak. Trump presented an international organisation that is built in the principle of global solidarity and cooperation as the enemy of the United States. He used the friend/enemy scheme in order to undermine international responses to the crisis and declaring it a national issue. Donald Trump not just believes in conspiracy theories, he is an active conspiracy theory and fake news factory. Social media, especially Twitter, are his main means of communication for spreading right-wing ideology, conspiracy theories, hatred and fake news. In his public communication on (and beyond) social media, Trump uses linguistic ideological strategies such as the friend/enemy scheme, logical fallacies, lies, nationalism, biologism, pathologisation, somatisation, dramatisation, intensification and criminonyms in order to spread false information and conspiracy theories about COVID-19. He sees, presents and communicates the pandemic in a nationalist manner as a ‘Chinese virus’, advances nationalism as his perceived adequate response and opposes the internationalism of the WHO. Trump's advancement of conspiracy theories in the context of COVID-19 is part of his far-right ideology that is built on an authoritarian, Manichean, militarist, dualist and polarised worldview that opposes friends to enemies and ascribes the world's problems to the constructed enemies. Given that threats, violence and war instead of diplomacy, solidarity and cooperation are right-wing authoritarians' preferred means of solving problems and conflicts, they need to constantly reproduce the construction of enemies. Conspiracy theories are one of the means utilised for the construction of enemies and the demand for militant measures against the identified enemies. Trump's politics are what Erich Fromm calls necrophilous, which means they embrace death. Trump has downplayed the severity of COVID-19 and the need for adequate protective measures. He has preferred the opening up of the economy and society instead of advancing social distancing, which has resulted the United States being the country with the highest amount of COVID-19 deaths. Trump's aggression, hatred and belief in the friend/enemy scheme is an expression of these necrophilous politics, ‘the passion to destroy life and the attraction to all that is dead, decaying, and purely mechanical’ (Fromm 1973, 6). Necrophilia in the characterological sense can be described as the passionate attraction to all that is dead, decayed, putrid, sickly; it is the passion to transform that which is alive into something unalive; to destroy for the sake of destruction; the exclusive interest in all that is purely mechanical. It is the passion ‘to tear apart living structures’ (Fromm 1973, 332) Trump's niece Mary L. Trump wrote a book about her uncle in which she characterises him along the lines of Erich Fromm's analysis: Why did it take so long for Donald to act? Why didn't he take the novel coronavirus seriously? […] managing the crisis in every moment doesn't help him promote his

preferred narrative that no one has ever done a better job than he has. […] Donald is fundamentally incapable of acknowledging the suffering of others. Telling the stories of those we've lost would bore him. […]Perhaps most crucially, for Donald there is no value in empathy, no tangible upside to caring for other people. […]my uncle does not understand that he or anybody else has intrinsic worth. […] I can only imagine the envy with which Donald watched Derek Chauvin's casual cruelty and monstrous indifference as he murdered George Floyd; hands in his pockets, his insouciant gaze aimed at the camera. I can only imagine that Donald wishes it had been his knee on Floyd's neck. […] Instead, Donald withdraws to his comfort zones – Twitter, Fox News – casting blame from afar, protected by a figurative or literal bunker. He rants about the weakness of others even as he demonstrates his own. But he can never escape the fact that he is and always will be a terrified little boy. Donald's monstrosity is the manifestation of the very weakness within him that he's been running from his entire life. For him, there has never been any option but to be positive, to project strength, no matter how illusory, because doing anything else carries a death sentence (Trump 2020, 209–211) The election of Joe Biden as US president has brought an end to a phase of US politics where the most powerful person in the world was a far-right, authoritarian billionaire. Trump contested the result by all possible means, including the constant false claim there was an election fraud conspiracy and the consideration ‘of invoking martial law to negate Biden's victory’ (Reston 2020). With Trump's loss, US and world politics has the opportunity to replace the politics of division and hatred with a politics of communication that tries to heal the wounds Trump created and deepened. First and foremost, Trump's presidency has shown his contempt for democracy and what a danger he is to democracy. It cannot be ruled out that Trump will try to again run in the 2024 US presidential election. On 6 January 2021, supporters of Donald Trump after a Trump rally stormed the Capitol. In the two months between the day after the US presidential election and the coup attempt, the US President unleashed a constant stream of tweets, claiming the election was rigged and fraudulent. Trump built up a high level of aggression among his followers step by step using social media, speeches, interviews, press conferences, etc (Fuchs 2021a). First Twitter and then also other Internet platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Reddit or Twitch banned Trump's account because of the spread of calls for violence. His communication power has thereby certainly been weakened. Some politically progressive observers argue against this ban because they fear also left-wing activists might be banned in a similar manner. They overlook that Trump is anti-democratic whereas true left-wing activists struggle for democratic socialism and socialist democracy. Even though such bans are based on the capitalist power of Internet platforms, they should be welcomed because they have weakened Trump's visibility. It is very likely that he will make a media comeback by, for example, creating new right-wing media channels. Trump will certainly continue to try to spread division, hatred, conspiracy theories and far-right ideology. 1https://web.archive.org/web/20170120235946/https:/twitter.com/realDonaldTrump, accessed on 18 December 2020. 2http://web.archive.org/web/20201218045149/http://twitter.com/RealDonaldTrump, accessed on 18 December 2020. 3https://www.socialbakers.com/statistics/twitter/profiles, accessed on 18 December 2020. 4See footnote 3. 5http://apps.frontline.org/clinton-trump-keys-to-their-characters/pdf/trump-newspaper.pdf, accessed on 18 December 2020. 6https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2015/crime-in-theu.s.-2015/tables/expanded_homicide_data_table_6_murder_race_and_sex_of_vicitm_by_race_and_sex_of_offender_ 2015.xls, accessed on 19 December 2020. 7http://web.archive.org/web/20140210124725/https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/265895292191248385, accessed on 18 December 2020. 8http://web.archive.org/web/20151028081629/https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/418542137899491328, accessed on 18 December 2020.

9http://web.archive.org/web/20140331112338/https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/427226424987385856, accessed on 18 December 2020. 10http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/08/us/politics/election-exit-polls.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/us/elections/exit-polls-president.html.

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11United

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accessed on 20 December 2020. 16http://web.archive.org/web/20200824061733/https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1297495295266357248, accessed on 19 December 2020. 17https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/vaccines/mmrvaccine.html#:∼:text=There%20is%20one%20MMR%20vaccine,also%20protects%20against%20these%20diseases, accessed on 21 April 2021. 18https://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/may/24/andrew-wakefield-struck-off-gmc. 19https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDQPPBRW2ik&list=LLnH5j1SrObNOTuMWb0gl6YA&index=2269, accessed on 21 December 2020. 20https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqpzkqGxMU&list=PLKPqJcw8D5OH0qQCEfjAXW7zDiGbYiDmC&index=10&t=0s, accessed on 21 December 2020. 21https://covid19.who.int/table, accessed on 20 December 2020. 22https://www.henryford.com/news/2020/07/hydro-treatment-study, accessed on 20 December 2020. 23FDA: Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: FDA Revokes Emergency Use Authorization for Chloroquine and

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2020, on 21

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CONCLUSION: DIGITAL COMMUNICATION IN PANDEMIC TIMES AND COMMONTOPIA AS THE POTENTIAL FUTURE OF COMMUNICATION AND SOCIETY ABSTRACT This chapter draws conclusion from the analyses presented in the preceding chapters. Everyday life and everyday communication have undergone large changes in the pandemic crisis. The conclusion asks in what kind of society we want to live and how we want to communicate in the future. It poses the question of what kind of Internet we want and need in the future in post-pandemic times. Commontopia is presented as the potential future of communication and society.

7.1 EVERYDAY LIFE AND EVERYDAY COMMUNICATION IN PANDEMIC TIMES This book focused on one major question: How have society and the ways we communicate changed in the COVID-19 pandemic crisis? SARS-CoV-2 is a natural disaster that has not been caused but conditioned by global capitalism and agricultural capitalism that have turned land into commodities and capitalist means of production so that a loss of biodiversity and animal habitat has brought wild animals such as bats that transmit diseases to humans into closer contact with humans. The desire in some cultures to eat wild animals has created a capitalist food industry that sells wild animals as foods and thereby advances the risk of zoonotic spillover, the transmission of a pathogen such as a new virus from animals to humans. SARSCoV-2 was transmitted from bats to humans via the pangolin. 1 The pandemic hit world society at a time of the expansion and intensification of authoritarian capitalism whose was a response to deep economic crisis, decades of neoliberal politics that increased social inequalities and the diffusion of far-right ideology. World society had thereby become more fragile and prone to violence, war and fascism. It was ill-prepared for facing a global pandemic. The consequence was that at the end of the first year of the pandemic, 2020, the number of people worldwide who had died from COVID-19 was nearing two million. 2 Epidemics and pandemics pose profound crises of society that pose the risk for an intensification of hatred, racism and fascism. At the same time, such crises are an opportunity for the strengthening of international solidarity and socialism. Pandemic crises sharply radicalise the polarisation between socialism and barbarism as options for the future development of society. The global COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly transformed societies. It is no surprise ‘coronavirus’ was the most searched for term on Google in 2020. 3 Social distancing, lockdown and shutdown have been the most pervasive words of everyday life in 2020. In the pandemic, social Darwinist politics has advanced the logic of the survival of the fittest and has been unwilling or reluctant to

implement social distancing measures. Such priorities have often been presented with arguments about individual freedom and economic growth. Humanist politics have in contrast been willing to shut down public life for certain periods in order to protect humans. Such a priority is based on the logic of saving human lives and social freedom. It has been hard, difficult and frustrating for many individuals at times to reduce their social contacts and to not see their families and friends and reduce their everyday activities. Love and freedom became in the time of shutdown matters of spatiotemporal distanciation in order to protect the lives of those you love and care for and the other members of world society. The philosopher Norberto Bobbio (1996) argues that we do not live beyond left and right and that this distinction continues to matter. The key distinction between the left and the right is that we find …on the one hand, people who believe that human beings are more equal than unequal, and on the other, people who believe that we are more unequal than equal. This distinction between fundamental choices also relates to a different assessment of the relationship between natural equality/inequality and social equality/inequality (Bobbio 1996, 67) Egalitarians think that inequalities are socially produced and can and should be undone. Inegalitarians believe that inequalities are natural and should be affirmed. The ‘egalitarian condemns social inequality in the name of natural equality, and the anti-egalitarian condemns social equality in the name of natural inequality’ (68–69). ‘The egalitarian tends to play down the differences, the inegalitarian to overstate them’ (70). Egalitarians tend to assume that all humans have equal rights, including social rights such as the right to life, health, education and the right to lead a good life. Inegalitarians in contrast tend to assume that humans are by nature unequal and that not everyone has the same rights. So, for example, racism and many forms of nationalism are based on the ideology of inegalitarianism that ascribes different rights and qualities to specific groups of humans. Egalitarianism can

have many political sources, including socialism, humanism, religion and social liberalism. In the COVID-19 pandemic, those more influenced by egalitarianism tend to stress that need for protective measures because they believe in everyone's right to life and focus on social rights. Those more influenced by inegalitarianism in contrast stress the individual freedom to do what one pleases and oppose protective measures, which implies they are willing to tolerate that individual freedom of action undermines the social right to life when individual carelessness leads to the infection and death of others. The opposition to wearing masks, social distancing and lockdowns is an expression of an inegalitarianism that denies and disrespects social rights. It might not be an accident that the far-right finds a breeding ground in the movement of COVID-19 deniers, COVID-19 conspiracy theorists and anti-COVID-19 vaxxers. Social distancing does not mean the end of social relations but the reorganisation of social relations in space-time so that during lockdown phases, more social relations have been organised at a distance with the help of communication technologies. Given we live in capitalist societies where the means of communication are predominantly controlled by transnational for-profit corporations, information communication platform providers such as Zoom, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Google or Facebook significantly increased their profits. The main actors of digital capitalism benefited from the pandemic crisis. In lockdown phases, the home has become the supra-locale of everyday life and everyday communication. Given the division of labour characteristic of class societies, some workers were facing higher risks of becoming infected by and dying from COVID-19. In such profound crises, class society's inequalities are reflected in the patterns of death and suffering. A conspiracy theory is an explanation of aspects of society that claims that there is a secret group that executes a conscious, sinister plan for obtaining or exercising (world) domination, pulls the strings of power behind the back of ordinary citizens, acts 100% in a planned and interest-driven manner so that there are no coincidences and all official interpretations of events must

necessarily be manipulated and deceptive, and conceals its interests, plans and actions. 4 The networked character, speed, global character, relative anonymity of social media and the Internet and the large amount of people one can reach on Internet platforms have not caused but supported the spread of conspiracy theories online. Phases of crisis are phases of uncertainty, risks, fears and openness of the future. The fear of illness, loss and death is an existential experience that many individuals make in phases in deep crises. Class societies are inherently prone to the creation of economic, political, cultural and personal crises. Conspiracy theories are ideological reactions to deep crises of class societies, by which humans try to manage their fears, shocks, traumas and the experience of individual, social and societal crises. Conspiracy theories are nothing new and are not specific to the digital age. Given that conspiracy theories always require the identification of an enemy that conspires, such theories have parallels to right-wing authoritarian ideology that operate based on the friend/enemy scheme. Not all conspiracy theories have fascist and violent implications, but they have fascist potentials that can result in the call for or execution of violence and terror against the perceived enemies. It is, therefore, also not a surprise that in the COVID-19 pandemic, especially far-right groups, politicians and parties have tried to appeal to protestors who oppose protective measure against COVID-19 and have together with anti-vaxxers created and communicated COVID-19 conspiracy theories. COVID-19 conspiracy theories form an ideology because they distract attention from the class conflict. They present members of both the working class and capital as members of ‘the people’ who are fooled and controlled by a secret vaccine elite that opposes the people's said interests. Soft forms of COVID-19 conspiracy theories say, for example, that vaccines have side effects and should, therefore, be avoided, or that children do not transmit the virus. More advanced forms claim that the virus is not more dangerous than the seasonal flu or oppose the wearing of masks and social distancing. Extreme forms claim that the virus does not exist, that it was manufactured by secret forces for some purpose such as world domination, erecting a

totalitarian surveillance society, killing or poisoning humans via vaccines. As explored in Chapter 4, a frequently encountered version of COVID-19 conspiracy theories gives prominence to Bill Gates by arguing that Bill Gates created the virus in order to make money from vaccines, implement eugenic population policies or inject microchips into humans via vaccines so that they can be tracked and Microsoft can make money from surveillance technologies. One of the craziest COVID-19 conspiracy theories is the QAnon conspiracy theory that claims there is a global ‘cabal’ of Satanists, paedophiles, liberals and Hollywood actors that abducts children in order to produce the drug adrenochrome from their blood that would create longevity. This conspiracy theory resonates with the anti-Semitic conspiracy of blood libel that claims that Jews have murdered Christian children in order to drink their blood. QAnon is a far-right conspiracy theory that sees Donald Trump as the political messiah who is able to save the world from the ‘cabal's’ world domination. QAnon supporters have seen the COVID-19 pandemic as a deliberately created crisis that allows the ‘cabal’ to abduct children. COVID-19 conspiracy theories make use of ideological tools such as false logical inferences, false, invented and unsubstantiated claims, personalisation, the topos of threat, the friend/enemy scheme, the rationalisation of irrationality, the logic of determinism, verbal attacks on the identified enemies and calls for violence and war. Social media have been important means of communication for COVID-19 conspiracy theorists and their supporters where they practice and use the mentioned ideological tools in order to try to spread their ideology and recruit supporters. The political supporters of COVID-19 denial and anti-lockdown can to a certain degree be found in the camp of right-wing and farright parties, politicians and activists. Supporters of right-wing parties are more likely to believe in COVID-19-related conspiracy theories than left-wing and liberal voters. While in the early face of the pandemic, it had looked like new forms of solidarity would dominate, the far-right later capitalised on the tiredness and unhappiness of many citizens brought about by repeated lockdowns, fears of death, social isolation and governments' mistakes in managing the

pandemic. Solidarity turned into vaccine nationalism, and pandemic socialism was more and more replaced by vaccine capitalism. The far-right, supported by anti-vaxxers, eco-spiritualists and conspiracy theorists, suddenly discovered democracy and argued that lockdowns endanger democracy and freedom. But what would happen if their version of freedom, to which a significant number of citizens prevailed, and all lockdown measures were given up in a pandemic? Ordinary citizens, workers, would die en masse because they cannot avoid social contact like the rich and privileged can. The main proponents of abolishing lockdowns are to be found in the populist new Right: its members see in all similar restrictive measures – from lockdowns to the obligatory wearing of masks – the erosion of our freedom and dignity. To this, we should respond by raising the key question: what does abolishing lockdowns and isolation effectively amount to for ordinary workers? That, in order to survive, they must go out into the unsafe world and risk contamination (Žižek 2021, 28) Donald Trump not just believes in conspiracy theories, he is an active conspiracy theory and fake news factory. He has used social media, especially Twitter, as his main means of production and communication of conspiracy theories. ‘Trumpian conspiracism traded not just on economic discontent but on racism, nativism, sexism, and jingoism’ (Hellinger 2019, 110). In the context of COVID19, he has spread a variety of conspiracy theories, such as the ones that China manufactured SARS-CoV-2 (‘China Virus’, ‘Chinese Virus’), that the liberal media and liberal politicians exaggerated the seriousness of the pandemic in order to harm Trump, that the drug hydroxychloroquine can heal COVID-19, that his opponents used the COVID-19 crisis in order to organise large-scale election fraud with the help of mail-in ballots that caused him to lose the 2020 US presidential election, that COVID-19 is not so dangerous and that lockdown measures should be avoided and society be kept on going as usual or that the World Health Organization conspired with China

in order to conceal the origins and prevent the spread of information about the virus. Trump's advancement of conspiracy theories in the context of COVID-19 is part of his far-right ideology that is built on an authoritarian, Manichean, militarist, dualist, polarised worldview that opposes friends to enemies and ascribes the world's problems to the constructed enemies. Conspiracy theories focused on the friend/enemy scheme fits into Trump's authoritarian character and ideology. An analysis of how social media users comment on COVID-19 conspiracy theories has shown that the most frequent discursive tool they use is the friend/enemy scheme. They engage in interpreting reality in irrational manners that they rationalise, which means that they see everything that happens in a particular realm of society as confirmation that there is a conspiracy going on that benefits the interests of a secret group. In the analysed dataset, the use of the friend/enemy scheme led relatively frequently to verbal attacks and in a certain share of cases also to calls for violence, murder or war. The analysis has also shown that there is a significant number of users on social media who oppose COVID-19 conspiracy theories. It is difficult and sometimes impossible to argue with those who believe in conspiracy theories. Just like racists, they often reject rational arguments and are not open to rational debate. The use of humour and satire was the most frequently encountered manner of how critics challenged COVID-19 conspiracy theories online. Conspiracy theories have their own, immanent tragic-comedic potentials: when conspiracy theories are taken beyond a certain point of absurdity, they evolve into tragic comedies, persiflage and parodies of themselves so that such theories in a self-defeating manner can turn against themselves. Conspiracy theories are deeply rooted in the structure of class society and domination. Therefore, there is no easy fix that gets rid of them on the Internet and in society. The overcoming of class society is a necessary precondition of a world without ideology and conspiracy theories. Capitalism features what Horkheimer and Adorno (2002) call the dialectic of the enlightenment, the potential of the ‘reversion of enlightened civilization to barbarism in reality’ (Horkheimer and Adorno 2002, xix). The rationality of capital

accumulation that has been extended from the logic of economic accumulation to the logic of the accumulation of decision power in politics and the logic of the accumulation of decision power in culture (see Fuchs 2020a, 2008) calls forth irrationalities, including ideology and conspiracy theories, and in the worst cases fascism and Auschwitz. This means that capitalism has ideological and fascist potentials because it is an inherently crisis-ridden society. In the short and medium term, only new social democratic policies that dampen the antagonisms of capitalism, drive back neoliberalism, and decrease the levels of inequalities can somewhat drive back the power of authoritarianism, ideology and conspiracy theories. It might very well be the case that humanism cannot prevail and that we go further down the fascist path, which will ultimately lead to terror, war, mass annihilation and barbarism. The contemporary lines of social struggle are those between humanism and fascism, socialism or barbarism, democracy and war. The liberal media and public service media (PSM) have played an important role in defending critical scrutiny of power against the attempts and desires of neo-fascists to repress experts, intellectual work, critical debate and critique. In barbarous times, the growth of fact-checking is a welcome development. It is a step in the right direction but can of course not bring an end to the prevalence of ideology, false news and post-truth culture. Internet platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have started to delete or limit profiles and postings that spread calls for violence or are operated by conspiracy theorists or right-wing demagogues. They also now more frequently add warnings to factually false postings as well as links to fact-checks. Given these platforms are for-profit businesses, there is a danger that their profit interests and capitalist character come into contradiction with the question of what postings should or should not be deleted, fact-checked, highlighted, etc. There is, for example, the danger that such platforms not just add warnings to or delete postings by white supremacists and those spreading harmful misinformation, but also postings by democratic socialists such as Bernie Sanders when they call for limiting the power of capital by increasing capital taxation, redistributing wealth, etc.

Is it likely that Twitter would flag a tweet by Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that calls for a tax on digital capital that affects Twitter, Google, Facebook and Amazon? If Twitter, YouTube or Facebook flagged socialist content that did not spread misinformation or promote violence, but simply presented policies the platforms disagree with or oppose, the platforms would themselves leave the grounds of democracy. If they flag Trumps' and other's tweets that reveal the mindset and admiration of military dictatorship and authoritarianism, then they help safeguard democracy. There is a difference: Democratic socialists such as Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez respect democracy and argue for socialist democracy and democratic socialism, whereas Trump posts content that announces the use of military violence against citizens. The key political battleground today is between the transition towards barbarism, dictatorship and fascism on the one side and the defence of democracy on the other hand. Communication power is an important aspect of this struggle. Social media attention and visibility is a key form of communication power in the contemporary ideological battle. The alternative to a capitalist Internet where for-profit organisations are in charge of content moderation is not state control of such activities but the inclusion of independent organisations, which does, however, also not abolish the antagonisms of news in class societies. The basic problem is that the mentioned measures are just reactive and do not establish alternatives to the production and spread of tabloid content, tabloid news, high speed superficial communication in a digital society of the spectacle, fake news, posttruth culture, hatred and fascism online, conspiracy theories on the Internet, etc. PSM constitute a non-capitalist form of media that is based on the public service remit to advance education, information, culture, entertainment and democratic communication. PSM are not public service, i.e. not serving the public interest, when they are controlled by capital and/or the state. They are only true to their essence when they can operate independently from capital and the state and are enabled by laws that regulate funding (by a licence fee) and public service remit but that do not allow government's control of such

media. The creation of a public service Internet is an important model for the future of the public sphere that is an alternative to the colonised public sphere we experience today. A public service Internet consists of Internet platforms run by and organised by PSM and the update of public service remits to the digital age (Fuchs 2018b, 2021b, Chapter 15). A digital public service remit should combine the participation and engagement of users with the remit of education, information and democratic communication. It should maintain standards of reason, controversial and civilised debate, and give roles to both experts and laypeople. Creating PSM is part of social, communicative and digital transformations that we require in order to advance democracy and humanism against barbarism. Science has not reached social media and its users to the same degree as entertainment, ideology, fake news and conspiracy theories have. Academics often prefer to be present on traditional, ‘serious’ media. Their papers are often hidden behind paywalls and are not available in jargon-free version understandable to nonexperts. There is a lack of public science and public academia that communicates with citizens. Public service Internet platforms could develop new formats that bring science, intellectual debates and academics closer to citizens and citizens into science. The question of how the future of society, the public sphere and the media will look is not determined and is the outcome of current and future social struggles and change processes. I will not undertake the common practice of formulating ‘policy recommendations’ or ‘political recommendations’ in the conclusion of an academic work. I will rather outline foundations of a possible future media and communication system in a future society that I consider as being capable to drive back fascism and barbarism. The history of society will show if we go further down the pathway of barbarism or if elements of a progressive society will be established.

7.2 COMMONTOPIA: THE (POTENTIAL) FUTURE OF COMMUNICATION, THE MEDIA, THE

INTERNET AND SOCIETY After Google had been nationalised in 2025 by the joint policy initiative of US President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the European Union (EU) Commission, and in 2026 Facebook had been communalised, i.e. taken over by its users as a user co-operative, online advertising disappeared. Google was renamed Public Search and is today run by a global network of public universities. Its algorithms are Creative Commons and transparent. Twice a year, there is a user forum deciding on how to further develop Public Search's algorithms as public service algorithms, i.e. algorithms by the public, for the public and of the public; it is a service of the public that finances it (either through taxes, licence fees or subscriptions). It is a service by the public because the concept of public open innovation encourages user participation in the development and update of technologies. And it is a service for the public because it advances the public interest. After the network of directors of PSM media in 100 countries had been established, the network in 2026 convinced the governments in these 100 countries to change legislation in such a way that: Public service value market tests were abolished; National and international media policies stopped imitating and admiring the Californian digital giants, but started taxing them and started to create policy initiatives that enabled the creation of a public service Internet and public service Internet platforms; A global digital services tax of 20% of the digital giants' profits was introduced and used to fund the development of new digital PSM platforms/services and public/common digital services partnerships; The media policy reforms turned PSM organisations into fully independent organisations. PSM's boards from then on have no longer been appointed or partly appointed by governments but are now elected by both licence-fee paying audiences and

PSM employees. Candidates for PSM directors are suggested by the board and elected by employees and audiences; A multitude of public/commons partnerships were started, where PSM, public service institutions (libraries, museums, post offices, universities, etc.) and not-for-profit civil society organisations/co-operatives cooperate and co-create new services; Anachronistic legal limits such as the limited temporal availability of PSM content and the limited spatial access to PSM were abolished. PSM started to be available for unlimited time and to be accessible from anywhere in the world. It was recognised that such spatial and temporal limits are out of sync with the affordances of digital media; The importance of PSM and their public value and purpose as institutions advancing the social, democratic and cultural needs of society were enshrined in constitutions as the constitutional principle of PSM, which is an expression of the human right to freedom of opinion, expression, education, participation in cultural life and political participation. It is 2030: PSM have experienced a remarkable development and a renaissance. A very successful, radically new media ecosystem has developed. After the legal changes described above had taken effect, a radically innovative PSM system emerged that transformed the Internet at the level of platforms and contents into a public service Internet. A network of 100 PSM organisations established PublicServiceTube, a public service alternative to YouTube. They digitised all audiovisual and audio material in their archives for which they held the copyright and put it on PublicServiceTube using the non-commercial Creative Commons Licence CC-BY-NC that allows remixing and reuse for non-commercial purposes. PSM's public purpose of advancing culture and education was redefined as the public purpose of digital creativity and digital participation. Users started remixing and producing their own videos that they share on PublicServiceTube. PSMs regularly invite users to

co-create videos on themes addressed in PSMs' broadcasts. There are four hours of television and radio airtime per week, where the best co-produced citizens-videos and citizens-podcasts are broadcast. Open channels, citizen media, community media and free radios have thereby become integrated with PSM. Anti-social media's individualism was replaced by the principle of social co-production. School classes, local communities, housing associations and other civil society communities meet regularly to co-develop and co-create online content. PublicServiceTube is also used in national and regional parliaments for the weekly Prime Minister's Question Time, where citizens send in collectively produced videos that describe current problems, suggest policy initiatives and ask questions to government and the opposition. The legendary debate format Club 2 of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ORF (in the United Kingdom known under the name of After Dark) restarted on ORF 2 as a weekly, open-ended debate programme Club 2.0 on Wednesdays at 21:30 right after the onehour long evening news ZIB2. Club 2.0 utilises PublicServiceTube for audience participation in the form of co-produced video debate contributions and audience discussion. Club 2.0 discusses the most controversial topics and has been so successful that its concept has also been implemented on thus far 97 other public service channels. In 2025, a network of 100 public service broadcasters started an international video streaming service under the title of PublicPlus. It is a non-profit subscription service competing with Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus and AppleTV. The newest and most sought after documentary films, TV series and movies produced by PSM are translated into multiple languages using subtitles and dubbing generated by advanced artificial intelligence software and algorithms. Within two years, PublicPlus proved to be so successful that it today has double as many users as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus and AppleTV combined. In 2030, PSMs are publicly funded, independent organisations enabled by public service legislation and the licence fee. They are organised as self-managed public companies, where audiences and

PSM workers together take key decisions independent from governments and for-profit corporations. Commontopia is a utopian society existing at some time in the future. After corporate media monopolies were communalised in 2027, PSM and citizen/community media started flourishing. In Commontopia, there is a vivid non-commercial media sphere consisting both of PSM services and platforms as well as community media organised as platform co-operatives. PSM runs services that require storage of vast amounts of audiovisual data such as video. Platform co-operatives run popular services such as the social network OurBook and the instant messaging app OurChat. These services store personal data in a decentralised manner on the portable servers of citizens that are built into their phones. Unnecessary data storage that is not needed in order to run the service is avoided. In the old times of digital capitalism, every click and every online move was stored on vast server farms and never deleted. Commontopia's media environment is privacy-friendly. Users choose with whom they share information. Along with the emergence privacy-friendliness, digital and other forms of political and economic surveillance ceased to exist a long time ago. In Commontopia, there is no need for online ads or any other ads attached to media because the idea of selling something does not occur in this non-profit society. Rather, humans are producing goods and services that are distributed in a gift economy and are available as gratis goods in gift shops. Advertising, advertising-funded media and the phenomenon of for-profit media owned by single rich people trying to influence public opinion have long ceased to exist. Corporate media monopolies no longer exist in Commontopia because the whole economy has a not-for-profit character. In 2038, the Internet was renamed Internetopia in order to celebrate the final demise of the asymmetric digital attention economy, tax avoidance of digital corporations, digital tabloids, individualistic and anti-social social media, online nationalism and online authoritarianism, online bullying, fake news, filter bubbles and automated algorithmic politics. Commonification replaced commodification on the Internet. Slow media substituted fast brain food media. Nowadays, humans engage in multiple forms with each

other via the Internet and face to face in the global public sphere. Commontopia has a vivid public sphere where humans meet in local, regional and global forums and interest groups to exchange ideas and organise themselves according to joint interests. These forums often take place face to face, which resulted in the weakening of alienation and isolation. In between forum meetings, participants continue to debate online and maintain their joint work on projects of digital co-production. After the general working time had been reduced globally to 5 hours per week in 2032, which became a possible reality due to technological progress and the collective political will, and a multitude of spaces of interaction and collaboration had been created, co-production, co-creation and a variety of new forms of co-operation emerged. Humans were no longer compelled to work to earn a living, but rather started to cooperate in order to create beauty. Commontopia is not just a fair, just and democratic world, it is also a beautiful world. It is more beautiful than William Morris could have ever imagined. After human life on Mars began in 2045, which had become possible after 15 years of terraformation, the first trans-planetary Internet connection was established in 2046. Nowadays, Commontopia is not just a society on Earth but extends into the universe to a number of planets. Quantum computers and quantum computer-powered quantum teleportation enable the transmission of information, things and humans over the transplanetary Internet in real time. Life on Earth is beautiful but a significant number of humans choose to spend time on Mars or other planets which are just as beautiful. Quantum computing combined with Shevek's General Temporal Theory enables transplanetary Internet communication in real time. 1https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/who-convened-global-study-of-origins-

of-sars-cov-2-china-part. 2https://covid19.who.int/table, accessed on 31 December 2020. 3https://trends.google.com/trends/yis/2020/GLOBAL/, accessed

December 2020. 4See Chapter 3 for further definition.

on

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INDEX

Academics, 275 Ad hominem attacks, 176–177 Agricultural capitalism, 8–10 Alternative media, 223 Amazon, 266–267 online shopping business, 46 Animalisation, 176 Anti-Semitism, 168–169 Anti-social media’s individualism, 278 Anti-vaccination movement, 93, 146 Apple (information communication platform providers), 266–267 AstraZeneca, 14 Authoritarian capitalism, 93 Autism, 146–147 vaccines and, 210–215 Avian influenza, 119–120 Barbarism, 38–39, 60–61 Bet-David, Patrick, 152–153 Betacoronavirus , 100 Bezos, Jeff, 46 Big pharma, 104–105 Bill Gates conspiracy theories COVID-19 conspiracy theories as ideology, 133–139 critique of philanthrocapitalism and critique of conspiracy ideology, 140–144 determinism, 116–130 findings, 98, 130, 133 friend/enemy scheme and violence, 103–108 Global Health, 92–94 methodology, 94–97 personalisation, 101–103 rational irrationality, 108–116 sampling of relevant artefacts, 95–96 secret domination and concealment, 98–101 Biologisation, 176 BioNTech, 14 Bird flu. See Avian influenza Blackboard Collaborate, 33

Bolsonaro, Jair, 4 Boris Johnson’s social Darwinism, 28–32 Breitbart, Rush Limbaugh and false COVID-19 news, 81–86 Buttar, Rashid A., 99, 101, 105, 108, 120, 122 Capital concentration, 175–176 Capitalism, 68–69, 145–146, 168–169, 272 agricultural, 8–10 class relations in pandemic times, 12–13 communication in pandemic times, 16 COVID-19 and, 7–15 global spread of SARS-COV-2, 10 globalisation and de-globalisation, 12 governance, 10–11 ideology, 11–12 places, 50–51 points of change, 10 vaccine capitalism and nationalism, 14–15 Capitalist deforestation, 8 entanglements, 143 globalization, 43–44 interests, 142 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 105 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 79 Chef Pete Evans, 154 Cheltenham festival, 28–29 Chief executive officers (CEOs), 12, 92 Children in coronavirus crisis, 53–56 China and Joe Biden, 218–221 virus, 215–218 Chloroquine, 227–228 Class relations in pandemic times, 12–13 Class society, 39, 56, 267 Clinton, Hillary, 194 Club 2, 278 Club 2.0, 278 COINTELPRO, 68 Commodification of health sector, 142 Commodity fetishism, 168–169 Commontopia, 275, 279, 281 Communication. See also Digital communication, 32, 275, 281 of conspiracy theories, 75–76 of coronavirus conspiracy stories and false news, 76–87 COVID-19, 1–2, 16 five types of means, 25 networks, 27

in pandemic times, 16 power, 273–274 technologies, 19–20, 59 Concealment, 155 Conspiracy ideology, critique of, 140–144 Conspiracy theories, 11–12, 63, 65, 76, 155, 158, 168–169, 194, 196, 217–218, 267–268, 271–272 Breitbart, Rush Limbaugh and false COVID-19 news, 81–86 communication of, 75–76 communication of coronavirus conspiracy stories and false news, 76–87 definitions, 65–68 determinism, 74–75 elements of, 68–76 friend/enemy scheme, 69–70 ideology, 63–65 nationalism, fascism, war, 86–87 personalisation, 68–69 rational irrationality, 72–73 secret domination and concealment, 68 types of false COVID-19 news, 78–81 violence, 70–71 Conspiracy thinking, 70 Content analysis, 160–163 Coronavirus capitalism Boris Johnson’s social Darwinism, 28–32 children, youth and (E-)learning in coronavirus crisis, 53–56 coronavirus, risk society, class society, 39–56 coronavirus crisis as deceleration of everyday life, 27–28 critical infrastructures, 42–45 global cities and rural areas in coronavirus crisis, 56–57 Lefebvre’s distinction between lived and living, 22 most vulnerable, 40 overburdening of individual, 36–38 radical transformation of space-time of everyday life in coronavirus crisis, 33–36 social distancing, 32–33 social distancing of old, weak and ill individuals, 52–53 social murder of workers in coronavirus crisis, 45–52 social space, everyday life and everyday communication in coronavirus crisis, 19–28 socialism or barbarism, 38–39, 60–61 working class in coronavirus crisis, 40–42 Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), 2, 17, 39, 56, 99, 203, 224–225 and capitalism, 7–15 and class structures, 59–60 communicating, 1–2 conspiracy theories, 63, 130, 146, 268–269 crisis, 34, 37–38, 91, 93 as ideology, 133–139 infection and death statistics, 3 pandemic, 145–146 SARS-COV-2 and, 2–5

testing, 241–244 vaccines, 93 Corr, Jim, 151 Countervailing measures, 5–6 Criminonyms, 113, 176, 233 Crisis, 93 of democracy, 5 Critical discourse analysis (CDA), 204 Critical infrastructures, 42–45 Criticism, 179–186 Crude economism, 167 Cruz, Rafael, 194 Cultural crisis, 5, 7 CureVac, 14 De-globalisation, 12 Deltacoronavirus , 100 Determinism, 74–75, 116, 130, 158, 172, 176 Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act), 202 Digital corporations, 45–46 creativity, 277–278 fascism, 104–105 participation, 277–278 public service, 274 technologies, 52–53 Digital communication commontopia, 275–281 everyday life and everyday communication in pandemic times, 263–275 Digitalisation, 32–33 Diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough [pertussis] (DTaP), 212–213 Discord, 33 Dry cough, 17 (E-)learning in coronavirus crisis, 53–56 Eating meat, 79 Ebola, 9–10 Economic crisis, 5, 7 Econonym, 113 Egalitarians, 265–266 Epidemics, 216, 264 Erdoğan, Recep, 4 European Union (EU), 109, 147, 275–276 Everyday communication in coronavirus crisis, 19, 23, 26, 28 in pandemic times, 263–275 Everyday life

in coronavirus crisis, 19, 23, 26, 28 coronavirus crisis as deceleration of, 27–28 in pandemic times, 263–275 radical transformation of space-time of, 33–36 Existential crises, 34 Export Comments, 154–155 Extreme tiredness, 17 Face-to-face communication, 24–27 Facebook, 94, 97, 266–267, 272–273 Fake news, 222–223 False COVID-19 news Breitbart, Rush Limbaugh and, 81–86 types, 78–81 False news, 77–78 stories, 194–196 Fascism, 71, 86–87 Fear of illness, 267 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), 68 Fever, 17 5G wireless networks, 79 Flexibilisation, 32–33 Frankfurt School critical theory, 63 Friend/enemy scheme, 69–70, 155, 163, 167, 176 and violence, 103–108 Gammacoronavirus , 100 Gates Foundations, 140 General Temporal Theory, 281 Gini index, 202–203 Global cities in coronavirus crisis, 56–57 Global crisis, 5 Global Health Watch, 140 Globalisation, 12, 32–33 Google, 266–267 Google doc, 228–229 Governance, 10–11 Government measures, 60 Greedy sack, 167 Harvey, David, 8–9, 19 Health crisis, 5, 7 Herd immunity, 30 Hidden sinister plan, 68 Hildmann, Attila, 153–154 Home, 35–36 Houseworkers, 37

Human capital, 123–124 Human Development Index (HDI), 6 Human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV), 101–102 Human papillomavirus (HPV), 110–111 Humanist politics, 264–265 Humanitarian refugee crisis, 5 Humans, 32 Humour, 186 Satire and, 179–180 Hydroxychloroquine, 225–229 Ideological Square Model’s strategies, 165–166 Ideological tools, 269 Ideologonym, 113 Ideology, 11–12, 63, 65 COVID-19 conspiracy theories as, 133–139 Illuminati, 169–170 Individual, overburdening of, 36–38 Individualisation, 32–33 Individualism, 278 Information communication platform providers, 266–267 InfoWars, 122–124 Ingraham Angle, The , 152 Internet, 27, 75–76, 272–273, 275, 281 Internetopia, 277–278 Irrational claims, 172–173 reactions, 87 Jebsen, Ken, 103, 105, 124, 130 Jewish disease, 216 Jitsi, 33 Joe Biden, China and, 218–221 Johnson & Johnson, 14 Johnson, Boris, 4 Killer vaccines, 103 Laissez-faire approach, 28–29 Laura Ingraham Show, The , 152 Lefebvre, Henri, 19 Liberal media, 222, 272–273 Locales, 35 Lockdown, 5–6, 91, 264–266 Trump’s opposition to, 237–241 Logical fallacy of hasty generalisation, 126–127

Mail-in votes, 229–234 Mainstream media, 223 Martin, David E., 118–119 Marxian theory, 68–69 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 115 McCarthyism, 193 Media, 275–281 exaggerate as part of anti-Trump conspiracy, 221–223 and Trump Rallies, 234–237 Mediation, 33 Medical progress, 213 MERS-CoV, 119–120 Metaphors of natural disasters, 233 Microsoft Office, 92, 266–267 Militarionym, 113 MMRV vaccine, 210–212 Mobile phone networks, 27 Moderna, 14 Modi, Narendra, 4 Moneyed aristocracy, 104–105 Monopolisation, 175–176 Moral crisis, 5, 7 Moral–political problems, 183 Mysticism, 70 Nationalism, 86–87 Natural disasters, metaphors of, 233 Negative consequences, 183 Neoliberal capitalism, 93 crisis, 37–38 political strategies, 34 privatisation, 141–142 strategies, 42 Neoliberalisation, 32–33 Neoliberalism, 60 9/11 attack, 5 Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), 163–164 Obama, Barack, 194 Overburdening individuals, danger of, 59 Pandemic times communicating COVID-19, 1–2 COVID-19 and capitalism, 7–15 everyday life and everyday communication in, 263–275 health crisis, economic crisis, political crisis, cultural crisis, moral crisis, 5–7

SARS-COV-2 and COVID-19, 2–5 Pandemics, 216, 264 Panopto, 33 Pathologonyms, 233 Pediarix, 210–212 Persecutory anxiety, 70–71 Personalisation, 68–69, 101, 103, 155, 167, 172 Pfizer, 14 Philanthrocapitalism, critique of, 140–144 Physical proximity, 37 Pizzagate, 94–97 Plandemic , 94, 97, 101, 103, 148, 151 Plandemic 2 (Indoctrination), 108, 114, 118, 120 Points of change, 10 Policy power, 142–143 Political action, calls to, 177–179 Political crisis, 5, 7 PolitiFact, 219 Politionym, 113 Post hoc, 212–213 Privatisation, 39–40 ProQuad, 210–212 Protective measures, 40 Public health measures, 18 Public service Internet platform, 275–276 Public service media (PSM), 272–274, 276–277 PublicServiceTube, 277–278 Putin, Vladimir, 4 QAnon conspiracy theory, 79, 268–269 movement, 93–94, 97 Quantum computing, 281 Radical transformation of space-time of everyday life, 33–36 Radically neoliberal society, 30–31 Rational irrationality, 72–73, 108, 113–114, 116, 158, 172, 176 Patrick Bet-David’s interview with Rashid Buttar, 114–116 Plandemic 2 (Indoctrination), 108, 114, 118, 120 Rationality of capital accumulation, 272 of irrationality, 113 Religionyms/moralonyms, 176 Repression, 155–158 Ribonucleic acid (RNA), 100 Right-wing conspiracy theories, 168–169 Right-wing ideology, 163–164, 229

Right-wing leaders, 4 Risk society, 39–56 Rosa, Hartmut, 27 Rural areas in coronavirus crisis, 56–57 SARS, 119–120 SARS-CoV-2, 17–18, 87, 101–102, 104–105, 146, 217–218, 263–264, 270–271 and COVID-19, 2–5 global spread of, 10 Sather, Jordan, 98, 116, 118 Satire and humour, 179–180 Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), 31–32 Secret domination, 68, 155 Secret world domination, 167–172 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), 99 Shortness of breath, 17 Shutdown, 264–265 Skype, 33 Social Darwinism, 18–19, 28, 32 Social distancing. See also Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), 5–6, 32–33, 37, 58, 91, 264– 266 of old, weak and ill individuals, 52–53 Social media, 75–76 attention and visibility, 273–274 Social murder, 50 of workers in coronavirus crisis, 45–52 Social space, 34–35 in coronavirus crisis, 19, 21, 28 Socialism, 38–39, 60–61 Socialist crisis, 37 Society, 275–281 Solidarity, 269–270 Space-time, 35 Spanish flu, 216 State action, 155–158 Swine flu, 119–120 Tabloid media, 222–223 Technocracy and instrumental reason, 143 Telegram, 33 Thatcherism, 30–31 Theory of space, 19 TikTok, 94–97 Tönnies Holding, 48 Trump, Donald, 4, 270–271 China and Joe Biden, 218–221 China virus, 215–218

COVID-19 testing, 241–244 and COVID-19, 191, 224–225 election fraud conspiracy theory tweets, 197 hydroxychloroquine, 225–229 legacy, 198–203 mail-in votes, 229–234 media and Trump Rallies, 234–237 media exaggerate as part of anti-Trump conspiracy, 221–223 methodology, 203–204 sample of 19 Trump Tweets, 205–209 Trump’s opposition to lockdowns, 237–241 Trump’s policies, 201–203 Trump’s reaction to and management of COVID-19 pandemic, 244–248 tweet by Donald Trump containing fabricated, 195 on Twitter, 192–193 vaccines and autism, 210–215 voted for Trump, 198 World Health Organization, 248–256 Twitter, 94, 97, 272–273 China and Joe Biden, 218–221 China virus, 215–218 COVID-19 testing, 241–244 and COVID-19, 191, 224–225 Donald Trump on, 192–193 election fraud conspiracy theory tweets, 197 hydroxychloroquine, 225–229 legacy, 198–203 mail-in votes, 229–234 media and Trump Rallies, 234–237 media exaggerate as part of anti-Trump conspiracy, 221–223 methodology, 203–204 sample of 19 Trump Tweets, 205–209 Trump’s opposition to lockdowns, 237–241 Trump’s policies, 201–203 Trump’s reaction to and management of COVID-19 pandemic, 244–248 tweet by Donald Trump containing fabricated, 195 vaccines and autism, 210–215 voted for Trump, 198 World Health Organization, 248–256 Typology of social space, 19–20 United Nations (UN), 203–204 United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 54–55 Universal commodification, 39–40 Urbanisation, 8 US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 227–228 Users’ reactions to Covid-19 conspiracy calls to political action, 177–179 coding scheme utilised in conducted, 156–157 content analysis, 160–163

criticism, 179–186 data analysis, 154–159 demonstration of moral–political problems and negative consequences, 183 determinism and rational irrationality, 172–176 findings, 160–186 friend/enemy scheme, 163–167 immanent critique of logic of argumentation, 183–184 methodology, 148–159 personalisation and secret world domination, 167–172 questioning of underlying ideological motivation, 184–186 references to empirical data and reality, 180–182 Satire and humour, 179–180 verbal attacks and calls for violence, 176–177 Vaccine and autism, 210–215 capitalism, 14–15 nationalism, 14–15 Value, 168–169 Valuetainment, 152–153 Verbal attacks and calls for violence, 176–177 Video communication software, 33 Vimeo, 94–97 Violence, 70–71, 155, 158 friend/enemy scheme and, 103–108 verbal attacks and calls for, 176–177 Virus, 78, 87, 215–216 War, 86–87 Wearing masks, 5–6, 266 WhatsApp, 33 Work from home, 45 Working class in coronavirus crisis, 40–42 Workplace, 32–33 World Economic Crisis, 5, 93 World Health Organization (WHO), 2, 4, 18, 98, 203–204, 248, 256, 270–271 World society, 264 World Trade Organization, 201 Xenophobia, 219–220 Youth in coronavirus crisis, 53–56 YouTube, 94, 97, 272–273 Zoom, 33, 45–46, 266–267