RationalWiki:To do list/archive2021

9

Roman Balmakov is a renowned American journalist who worked as senior account executive at Epoch Times a conservative newspaper owned by Chinese Falun Gong, after initially worked as newspaper delivery guy there. In 2020 banned by Facebook, and now he moved promoting his views at Youtube

17

William S. Lind, American conservative figure, chief proponent of the Cultural Marxism theory. He is directly quoted by mass shooters Breivik and Tarrant in their manifestos.

10

Draconian constitution was enforced by Draco in Athens. Basically, minor criminals were dealt with harshly, some even getting the death penalty. What other places have implemented it and how has it backfired?

35

Mark Rutte is Prime Minster of the Netherlands for over ten years and still running. While he and his conservative-liberal Party VVD have won the elections for four consecutive times, he himself, his Party and his cabinet have met several controversies, most notoriously the benefit scandal.

99

Yeonmi Park is a defector from North Korea aka the DPRK, running the channel Voice of North Korea who shot to fame thanks to her pretty outlandish claims of North Korean life and with regards to her escape. She made the rounds on UN panels and big podcasts warning against "woke culture", political correctness and the dangers they pose to freeze peach and, ultimately, to freedom in the west. Here's an article by the Diplomat covering the questionable veracity of her story, and and here's another article covering her more recent antics.

44

Alan Melikdjanian, aka, Captain Disillusion is a YouTuber who has made several videos debunking fake CGI viral videos, including some associated with scams, conspiracy theories/aliens, and the paranormal. He has an extensive knowledge of CGI, to the point where he can sometimes pinpoint the exact video effects used in a video (or at least the general library) and has also done a video on the differences between skepticism and denialism.

42

Éric Zemmour is the rising star of French Far-Right politics likely to displace Le Pen in the 2022 elections or push her to be even more far-right to survive, promising to be the extremist France needs in the clash of civilizations.

66

Volt Europa is a pro-European, progressive leaning political movement, founded in response to the growing populism and the Brexit.

31

Klaus Schwab is economist and founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum. He is also target of many conspiracy theorists and often linked to "the Great Reset".

50

Reiner FuellmichCreate draft, grifting lawyer at the center of hyped (e.g. [1]) "Nuremberg 2.0" plandemic trial.[2][3]

140

Pegasus (spyware), spyware from the Israeli firm NSO Pegasus that's reportedly being used by a lot of totalitarian/authoritarian governments to spy on dissidents and journalists. The Guardian did a big investigation.[4] A more general article about spyware might also be good, and could include Pegasus.

90

Smart home systems are commonly believed to be spying on their users

12

David French is a well known NeverTrump republican

41

Soka Gakkai International is an organization linked to the Soka Gakkai new religious movement. At first glance their teachings are harmless--they're an offshoot of Nichiren Buddhism, they campaign for nuclear disarmament and environmentalism, they conduct humanitarian aid after disasters, etc.--but they appear to be a cult, their financial practices are sketchy, and they encourage the use of chanting their central mantra as a thought-stopping technique. They've been disowned from mainstream Nichiren Buddhism since 1991, but they also claim to be the foremost authority on it.

40

WrathOfGnonCreate draft is a "traditionalist", meme-creating, far-right anonymous social media personality that uses discussions of architecture, community & nature to draw people in and then convert them to ideas like "feminism is destructive", "racism isn't a social construct, society is a racial construct," and "Hierarchies are celestial. In Hell, all are equal." Has 107K followers just on Twitter, and is on practically every other social media site too.

42

Magdalen Berns, controversial TERF martyr, transphobe, and SWERF.[5][6] She's also blamed by some for the Scottish Government suspending plans to liberalise rules on gender identity (but I can't find a cite beyond forum posts). But apparently a hero to JK Rowling and Graham Linehan and Mumsnet TERF-circles, and the National Review likes her.[7][8][9]

25

Tom MacDonald, a Canadian rapper, infamous for songs as 'Whiteboy', 'Straight White Male', among others. His catalogue attracts an audience in the libertarian/republican, anti-SJW corner. Also keen believer of conspiracy theories, like the illuminati.

107

Naomi Wolf, the once-regarded feminist intellectual who wrote The Beauty Myth and is now a conspiracy theorist (5G a speciality) and Twitter reject.

29

David Starkey‎ - British historian and TV personality best known for a long series of idiotic remarks on race that have flared up into major media scandals (from the 2011 riots to 2020 BLM protests), still writing for various contrarian publications.

37

First Class FatherhoodCreate draft is a conservative podcast hosted by Alec Lace that has featured the "fatherly wisdom" of an array of far-right Trump supporters, including Rudy Giuliani, Sean Hannity, Eric Trump, Jack Posobiec, Mike Pompeo, Mike Lindell, Sebastian Gorka, Dean Cain, Dinesh D'Souza and Jesse Lee Peterson.

140

The Phenomenon (2020 film): supposedly "The most credible documentary about UFOs". Cites loon Jacques Vallée

17

The Morning of the Magicians (French: Le Matin des magiciens) is a book published in 1960 that was influential in the counterculture's embrace of conspiracy theories and the occult. Neither of the authors, Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier, has an article on RationalWiki, though the latter is cited in the article on alchemy. Several of the book's more prominent critics at the French Rationalist Union published a rebuttal in 1965 called The Twilight of the Magicians (French: Le crépuscule des Magiciens), and one of the rebuttal's authores, Jean-Claude Pecker, is cited, though not in-line, in the article on alternative cosmology. It's possible that the general absence of articles on these figures is due to a general Anglophone bias on RationalWiki, and perhaps we could be more comprehensive in our coverage of non-Anglophone cranks and rationalists.

31

Timothy Ballard and/or Jim Caviezel: Timothy Ballard runs an organization that claims to help fight human trafficking, but he's apparently prone to self-aggrandizement and references to adrenochrome. Jim Caviezel is an actor best known for playing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is totally not antisemitic, who is also playing Timothy Ballard in an upcoming movie, and who thinks that Ballard is "saving victims of trafficking" who were victims of "adrenochroming". Caviezel is also a fan of abortion and prefers doing sex scenes fully clothed.

150

Black Hammer: an org run by one Gazi Kodzo, formerly a high-level officer in the African People's Socialist Party until they deemed him a public embarrassment. Known for anti-white supremacy and decolonial efforts taken to the VERY extreme, including anti-Semitism in the thinnest of trappings of anti-white supremacy, having a "Reparations Corps" for white allies to pay their way into (complete with steep payment tiers), and attempting to start a commune in the mountains of Colorado as of late, with no confirmed water rights and a harsh microclimate at the altitude of their potential settlement site. To quote @RabbitThoughts on Twitter: "I've no idea whether this is a cult, a grift, or just dreamers with no life experience. Either way, people could get hurt."

35

Making Karajou Funny Part ThreeCreate draft: Karajou has recently restarted making karatoons for Conservapedia's side bar. They are somehow worse than the ones from 10 years ago.

53

FreedomToonsCreate draft is a right-wing libertarian YouTube channel that is heavily biased against the Democratic Party and the progressive movement. Video titles include "Ben Shapiro REKS Ocasio Cortez", "How Socialism Killed Venezuela", and "The Debunkers VS Gun Control BS." The owner of the YouTube channel is Seamus Coughlin, who also happens to have connections with the Foundation for Economic Education.

21

I'm slightly surprised that there's no article on Jeremy Bentham.

42

George AlexopoulosCreate draft, a so-called "moderate" who's actually an alt-right grifter infamous for making comics involving dramatic strawmen of leftists and liberals while trying to paint conservatives as refined in the most blatantly false manner.

37

I know it's briefly discussed in censorship, freedom of speech and social media, but perhaps we should have a whole article focusing on Big Tech censorship free expression on social mediaCreate draft. People from various political positions argue that we should "break up" and "democratize" online monopolies, extend free speech rights to online corporations, we need a "Bill of Rights for the Internet", and so on so forth. And ever since Twitter (finally) banned Donald Trump from its platform, many worry that this sets a dangerous precedent, i.e., that a few people in Silicon Valley can silence the POTUS. I feel like we should address the misconceptions, argumentative flaws, and possibly legitimate concerns when this topic comes up in one article.

14

The anti-porn National Center on Sexual Exploitation probably deserves an article. They used to be known as Morality in Media, until they rebranded. Special notice to the way they've clumsily co-opted feminist language to support their bullshit ideas. They basically think there is no such thing as a sex worker that isn't being exploited. They make a lot of specious claims. However, they happen to be on the right side in the Pornhub controversy, though obviously because they want to get rid of all porn and any reason will do.

45

God’s Not Dead: We the PeopleCreate draft is an upcoming film and fourth installment of the God's Not Dead franchise. The film is currently in production so not much is known about the film except that it will loosely be inspired by the classic Frank Capra film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. The film is described as centering on "Reverend Dave (David A.R. White) who has to defend himself and a group of Christian homeschooling families after an inspection by a local government official" and "Reverend Dave finds himself at the defense of a group of Christian homeschooling families after they receive an impromptu inspection by a progressive, local-government official – who doesn’t like what she finds."

43

IM Mastery AcademyCreate draft (formerly known as IMarketsLive) is a multi-level marketing scheme founded by Christopher Terry that supposedly centers around foreign exchange(forex) trading.

41

Just FactsCreate draft, something I found when doing research on Kiribati. It disguises itself as a nonpartisan, completely objective source while promoting climate denial, opposing any kind of government interference on the free market, and other right-libertarian bullshit. It's essentially a more subtle version of PragerU. Here's its website and here's its entry on Media Bias/Fact Check in case anyone wants to get started.

16

Gina Carano is a former Star Wars actress who was recently fired after previously mocking the Black Lives Matter movement, making transphobic jokes, sharing misinformation online about COVID-19 mask mandates, spreading conspiracy theories about voter fraud in the 2020 United States presidential election, and comparing conservatives to victims of the Holocaust.

45

Brandon Straka is a self-proclaimed "former liberal" who founded the #WalkAway movement to convince liberals to leave the Democratic Party. Straka participated in the U.S. Capitol attack on January 6, 2021 and was later arrested by FBI agents for doing so on January 25, 2021.

39

Hipster ChristianityEdit draft is a style of Evangelical Christianity that attempts to appeal to younger generations by incorporating modern music into their sermons and constant use of social media platforms such as Twitter. The pastors at these churches are often young guys wearing modern casual clothing, horned rimmed glasses, and may even have tattoos and/or piercings to appear hip. However, beneath Hipster Christianity's modernized surface hides the same old far right social conservatism and religious fundamentalism as their evangelical predecessors.

20

Joshua P. WarrenCreate draft, a minor hollywood actor who eventually spun off into a Reality Show and "Documentary" Paranormal Investigator, attached to many dubious projects over the years.

24

CounterPunch is an apparently prominent left-ish online (and formerly print) magazine. They're apparently somewhat well-respected—recent contributors include Noam Chomsky and Richard D. Wolff—but they've been accused of publishing Russian propaganda, and they've published Gilad Atzmon. I'm not sure what to make of them, but judging by the references to them in existing RW articles, plenty of people have opinions on them.

11

I'm surprised there isn't a page on California governor Gavin Newsom

32

Demolition Man is a 1993 American science fiction action film directed by Marco Brambilla and stars Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes. The story makes allusions to classic science fiction stories including Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, and H.G. Wells' The Sleeper Awakes. Though it was initially viewed as a over the top big budget action film when it was released, in recent years (especially due to COVID-19) it has garnered a massive cult following with many seeing it as an eerie prediction of today's socio-political climate such as the rise of political correctness and government overreach.

18

Campus Reform is a conservative news website focused on higher education. It trains conservative students to monitor, surveil and report on the speech and actions of left-leaning professors, students and campus activist groups for the organization’s daily blog. It is operated by the Leadership Institute.

77

Water from airCreate draft, a recurring green tech scam based on bad science. A Water-from-air device is a dehumidifier that's marketed as a water source. These devices can't function in dry climates where they would be desirable, and are unnecessary in wet climates where they would sort of work at least some of the time. In many cases these devices are designed in such a way that makes them function worse than legit dehumidifiers, if they work at all. Regardless, any water they do produce is not fit for human consumption, at least not without a ton of filtering.

42

Christian WalkerCreate draft is an internet personality and the son of former NFL football player Herschel Walker. Like his father, Christian is an obnoxiously staunch Donald Trump supporter, and and has openly called the Black Lives Matter movement “a terrorist organization” and the “KKK in black face”. He is actively involved on TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram which he uses to spread bigotry and misinformation.

84

OneTaste (sometimes spelt One Taste), providers of orgasmic meditation services (apparently they make men pay large amounts of money to masturbate women members). Seems to be a scam or cult, and they've been in trouble with the law.[10][11] Orgasmic meditation is briefly mentioned in meditation but might be worth a more general article if there are other significant practitioners beyond OneTaste.

150

EnergiewendeCreate draft is Germany's transition away from nuclear power and towards renewables. Most of the nuclear reactors have been shut down. Unfortunately, this will inevitably delay the closure of coal-fired power plants. The project has faced difficulties in developing sufficient renewable infrastructure.

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