You know how for the past 3 years we’ve heard about how dangerous it is to share fake news on social media? Yeah, well, that danger ends when the fake news aligns perfectly with what you want it to say. THEN it’s OK to share without even bothering to check.
Case in point, here’s The Bulwark’s Charlie Sykes sharing a flyer he saw for an “End The Lockdown Rally” on Staten Island, NY for Sunday April 19. Note that Sykes shared this on Tuesday:
“No mask needed”
“Bring your children”
“If you’re sick still come”#MAGA pic.twitter.com/A5BwBsLG16— Charlie Sykes (@SykesCharlie) April 21, 2020
If Sykes had bothered to do even the most basic internet search before gleefully sharing that photo, he’d have learned that not a single person showed up for the rally in an area that pretty favorable to the president. From the local Staten Island Advance:
you know nobody showed up, right? that it was probably a hoax, right?https://t.co/7sxPzgGjyu
— Greg Pollowitz (@GPollowitz) April 21, 2020
This suggests the flyer was a giant troll or hoax aimed at getting people like Sykes to share it on social media, but he disputed that:
Nobody showed up…. but what evidence do you have it was a hoax… rather than just profoundly dumb?
— Charlie Sykes (@SykesCharlie) April 21, 2020
Well, we’ll call this official confirmation that it was a hoax. From New York City councilman Joe Borelli who suggested that the “people who posted pictures were likely the ones who put it up”:
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This was a hoax in my neighborhood. No one showed up. Nothing happened. Liberals were triggered tho, and told everyone something did happen. I imagine the people who posted pictures were likely the ones who put it up. https://t.co/rSWqhTtiaC
— Joe Borelli (@JoeBorelliNYC) April 22, 2020
Even if you don’t want to call it a “hoax,” it’s, at best, unverified. But that didn’t stop Kellyanne Conway’s husband and Alyssa Milano from sharing it as well:
The inalienable right to infect! https://t.co/9G72abZJ3z
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) April 21, 2020
At least she questioned if it was real or not, unlike Conway or Sikes:
Do better, people, who stop lecturing everyone else.
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