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What is Epoch Times?
Jan. 2nd, 2023 08:46 amSomehow I got on a mailing list a few months ago for an e-newsletter called "Epoch Times". Each issue is a list of headlines that you have to click on to see the content, and I've been reluctant to click on any of them for fear of getting onto even more such mailing lists, but from the headlines, "Epoch Times" seems to have the following core beliefs:
It's not news, of course, that the above beliefs are positively correlated with one another in the American political universe, but it's not obvious why. Yes, the current Chinese government is autocratic and fond of crushing the slightest dissent, but so are lots of other governments around the world, including Russia and some of its puppets that Epoch never mentions. And why is this correlated with anti-vax mania, or homo/trans-phobia, etc.?
One can understand how people might shy away from a message like "Jesus is Lord" when it's so closely associated with this kind of paranoid ranting.
On second thought, perhaps it doesn't matter whether the people at Epoch Times actually believe any of this; they simply believe (correctly) that they can sell clicks that promise to confirm other people's belief in this stuff.
- The Chinese Communist Party is the ultimate evil, and a plot to destroy America.
- Covid vaccines, if not vaccines in general, kill people and don't protect people; they're a plot to destroy America.
- Gender transition and homosexuality are plots to destroy America.
- Universal health care is a plot to destroy America.
- Environmental sustainability is a plot to destroy America.
- Democrats routinely steal elections from honest upstanding Republicans, in a plot to destroy America.
- Jesus is Lord.
- Sometimes people do kind, heartwarming things.
It's not news, of course, that the above beliefs are positively correlated with one another in the American political universe, but it's not obvious why. Yes, the current Chinese government is autocratic and fond of crushing the slightest dissent, but so are lots of other governments around the world, including Russia and some of its puppets that Epoch never mentions. And why is this correlated with anti-vax mania, or homo/trans-phobia, etc.?
One can understand how people might shy away from a message like "Jesus is Lord" when it's so closely associated with this kind of paranoid ranting.
On second thought, perhaps it doesn't matter whether the people at Epoch Times actually believe any of this; they simply believe (correctly) that they can sell clicks that promise to confirm other people's belief in this stuff.
