Emily Atkin Of "Heated" Visits Parler, Dips Toe In Climate-Liar Water
Is Parler the most disinformation-laden social network on the internet? Only time will tell, but it won’t be mine. I spent three hours yesterday browsing the rapidly growing “free speech platform” for conservatives, trying to figure out if it was becoming a source for unhinged climate denial. It wasn’t a very long time, but it was enough to figure out I did not need to go back.
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Of the next five climate accounts, the most popular was @ClimateSkeptic, aka “RealWeather,” which has about 1,300 followers. That’s not many followers, but it was the most I could find for a climate account, so I decided to take a closer look to see what type of climate content is resonating with Parler users. According to his bio, RealWeather is a “retired meteorologist for NOAA and NASA” and “amateur radio operator and amateur astronomer” who lives in Pennsylvania. “I will challenge you if you employ logical fallacies,” his bio reads. “Real weather and no catastrophic anthropogenic global warming rubbish. There is no climate crisis!”
RealWeather does post things about climate change. Yesterday, for instance, he posted a picture of a piece of farm equipment with the caption: “Has anyone of the nitwits in favor of phasing out fossil fuels thought about how to power all of the farm machinery?! I strongly doubt it.” A few months ago, he also reposted a meme that read, “It's cold out because it's Autumn, you dumb motherfucking Leftist cunts.” And RealWeather re-posts everything Michael Shellenberger writes, because of course he does. But RealWeather’s posts are not exclusively climate-related. In May, he retweeted a racist meme about Congresswoman Maxine Waters, which called on users to “unseat Rubber Lips Waters.” He’s also been posting a lot lately about “blatant election fraud.” Last week he re-posted a meme from the Proud Boys, a male-only, neo-fascist hate group. And really, his climate posts aren’t his popular ones. The farm equipment one only got 6 echoes.
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Parler is not the primarily source of information for Americans, nor is it the primary source of disinformation. Those honors still belong to Facebook, Twitter, and Fox News. Parler only has 8 million users. Twitter has 330 million users; Facebook has over 2 billion users; and Fox News is the most-watched primetime news network in the country. All are allowing the president and his supporters to spread lies about the election, the climate, and everything else. Parler is a distraction. Let’s keep our eyes on the ball.
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https://heated.world/p/i-spent-3-hours-on-parler-heres-what
