Disinfo Skills Test
Can you spot the tricks being used to manipulate you?

Case study based on Paul Pelosi attack, an 82 year old man is attacked by a radicalized MAGA supporter. Can you spot the disinfo tactics Republicans and GOP operatives use to hide their guilt and distract the public from the crime?
  • What About-ism: Compare the attack with sometime else as a false equivalency
  • Distract: Make up a false story to distract the public from the facts of the attack
  • False flag: Say the incident was staged by the victim to hurt you
  • Mockery: Make fun on the victim 
  • Straw man: Develop a bogus argument and attack that instead
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1. The House speaker’s husband was brutally attacked in his home by a hammer-wielding lunatic who was shouting “Where is Nancy?”. Elon Musk tweeted unfounded rumors with a link to an extremely thinly sourced story from a fringe news outlet with a tarnished past, a story that suggested the attack resulted from “a dispute with a male prostitute.”
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2. "Democrats failed to condemn the violence that followed the murder of George Floyd, they say, so they have unclean hands". 

Kevin McCarthy, the man who would like to be the next speaker spoke against violence a few days after the attack but listed only Republican victims.
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3. Donald Trump Jr. posted ugly memes about the attack. One, apparently lifted from a Twitter user, featured a hammer on top of a pair of white underwear and said, “Got my Paul Pelosi Halloween costume ready.” Another featured two male “South Park” characters fornicating with one holding a phone while telling the police, “I’m being attacked!”
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4. Ted Cruz appears to push GOP conspiracy theories about Paul Pelosi attack. The Texas senator shared a tweet that called into question the suspected attacker’s affiliation with right-wing conspiracy theories tied to Covid-19 and QAnon. - The Independent. "Was it staged by Democrats?"
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5. FOX News Host, Jesse Watters gestured in the direction of some of the above conspiracy theories, suggestively asking how DePape could “even get inside the house.” - Washington Post. "Was it an inside job?"
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6. Kari Lake joked about the attack on Paul Pelosi,  an 82-year-old man lay in intensive care.  He was attacked with a hammer by a right-wing nutjob who broke into his home in the dead of night. David DePape, 42, who posted conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, COVID and the Jan. 6 insurrection, is accused of breaking into the Pelosi home, hoping to kidnap House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and possibly break her kneecaps as a lesson to Democrats. - AZ Central
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7. “Vega’s gonna hand Pelosi a plane ticket with her and send her right back to be with her husband in California", said Youngkin at his rally with Yesli Vega and Ted Cruz. 
Ted Cruz struck a harsher tone, saying that Pelosi would ride her broom back to California. - Washington Post
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8. Devin Nunes, CEO of Truth Social and former GOP Congressman finds the home invasion hammer attack by a Donald Trump supporter suspect on the husband of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hilarious. He posted a photo of a man in a monster costume wielding a giant mallet. - Rocket News
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9. Rubio sees parallels between canvasser injured in Hialeah, assault at Pelosi home. The canvasser Monzon, was then a member of the white supremacist League of the South, used a Confederate flag to attack protesters in 2017 in Hollywood. - Local 10 News
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10. Fox host justifies Paul Pelosi conspiracy theories: “All the misinformation is out there because they have not told the facts” - Media Matters
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GOP Response to the Paul Pelosi Attack
David DePape, the 42-year-old man accused of breaking into the Pelosi home with zip ties and attacking Paul Pelosi with a hammer, was federally charged on Monday with assault and attempted kidnapping. DePape allegedly broke into the Pelosi home prepared to “detain and injure” Nancy Pelosi, and break “her kneecaps” if she “lied,” to him, according to a sworn affidavit submitted by an FBI special agent. - Time
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