Originally published at: Naomi Wolf suspended from Twitter over Covid conspiracy theories | Boing Boing
…
10 Likes
She also claimed that Apple has literal time travel using vaccine nanoparticles, and that Belfast without 5g was peaceful like the 1970s: Author and anti-vaxxer Naomi Wolf just got banned from Twitter – here’s some of her wildest tweets | indy100
(The latter might have just been very poorly worded, intended to mean that modern day Belfast reminded her of the peaceful 70s she remembered from somewhere else. Belfast did in fact already have 5g at the time she said it. It did result in this interesting elephant story though: https://twitter.com/shockproofbeats/status/1247520505789210625)
18 Likes
Whatever the reason (not going to speculate), the toxic environment of Twitter cannot have been helpful. I hope that this will turn out to be a blessing in disguise for her.
11 Likes
This was her too, can’t imagine learning that the thesis of my already finished book was wrong live on national radio Naomi Wolf’s Book Corrected by Host in BBC Interview
9 Likes
While one might say she’s exhibiting behaviours that might indicate a mental illness, no-one here can or should do a remote diagnosis. If someone in her life who cares about her does not want her derided or mocked for those behaviours, they’re in a better position to advocate for her on the basis that she has a mental illness (as you admirably did with your own mother, including in that beautiful and memorable eulogy).
That Wolf is spreading anti-vaaxer misinformation and bizarre and ridiculous conspiracy theories is sufficient to have her banned from Twitter, whatever her past accomplishments. If the platform had started doing that years ago when a certain other user (who also regularly displayed the behaviours of a pathological narcissist) pushed similar dangerous and baseless theories we might be living in a very different world today.
34 Likes
Peaceful Belfast of the 70’s
9 Likes
There have been a couple areas of my life where I noticed people, including myself, seemed to be particularly being targeted by some of the ideas that have now consolidated around Q and white supremacy. Those areas were: feminine spirituality and metal.
When people join cults those around sometimes are not surprised, but just as often they are. Whatever made her vulnerable is, to me, beside the point because the real issue to me is that people seeking any kind of non-conformist interests have become the target of dangerous cults and antisocial reactionaries which has effectively destroyed those social groups at a time when people feel more isolated than ever.
I don’t have a solution. I’m just sad about it.
17 Likes
To be fair on Naomi Wolf Belfast was a certain kind of peaceful, certainly in the 80s, I dont know about the 70s. It was dead.
I mean there were checkpoints and walls and soldiers and people didn’t go out much.
8 Likes
It’s also worth pointing out everything she seems to be pushing is current and rather common in anti-vax and conspiracy circles.
This could be nothing more than lack of critical thinking and good old fashioned confirmation bias.
8 Likes
“a software platform that can receive uploads.”
Huh. Not to defend her, but that would be a kind of poetic metaphor for how the immune system works, with booster shots or each years new flu vaccine being like software patches, etc.
I have a feeling that’s not what she meant though.
12 Likes
I am saddened, because I really appreciated a couple of her books back in the day.
3 Likes
Perhaps Wolf read such a metaphor and misunderstood it. After all, she managed to get confused between judges handing down death sentences (“death recorded”) and executions being carried out.
5 Likes
Never forget that, by advising Al Gore in his 2000 campaign for president, Wolf gave us the gift of George W Bush.
2 Likes
Someone who loved her books as a teen and found them affirming went back recently and re-read The Beauty Myth. And while there’s still a lot they agree with, apparently in hindsight you could see some of her troubling views already cropping up. She also relied on bad (made up) statistics and flawed historical analysis, which Camille Paglia and others pointed out at the time.
But yes, as someone said, it’s clear she had an editor back then. Unfiltered social media access allows these people to out their real views, and some of them are toxic to society. Her views on “natural” went WAY further than what was revealed in the Beauty Myth, and are deeply antivax and pseudo-science in nature.
5 Likes
I remember years ago watching a presentation that she did regarding the authoritarian nature of the Bush administration, and how it aligned with some of the infamous political movements in history. I actually thought it was spot-on and sort of foreshadowed the MAGA world by almost a decade. I’m kind of surprised now how far off deep end she’s gone. I wonder if it’s just part of the struggle on staying relevant. Perhaps someone starts off as legitimate and thoughtful, but then they will say any crazy thing to keep the attention of the audience.
2 Likes
I’m saddened.
2 Likes
Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but are you sure that it was Naomi Wolf and not Naomi Klein?
4 Likes
Yes, the riots and the bombings and the murder and the terrorism and the bloodshed and the military occupation and the IRA definitely made Belfast a certain kind of peaceful.
3 Likes
All those women look alike, you see… /s
3 Likes
