Hang on to your seatbelt, 2020, because 2021 might have one-upped you. Just when you think you’ve seen pretty much everything that life can throw at you, you learn that some of the protestors and activists standing against Covid-19 vaccinations might actually be paid actors. That’s the bombshell that Californian Chad Loder dropped in his Twitter feed.
Chad shared evidence indicating that some of the anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers you may have seen on the news and at rallies are actors with their very own IMDb pages. It’s truly mindboggling and opens up a door into the shady realm of behind-the-scenes dealing when it comes to politics and (at least partly) manufactured outrage. We’d rather that door didn’t exist at all, but now that it’s open, we might as well take a peek inside.
Have a look through what Chad found about the desperate actors and let us know what you think about the entire situation, dear Pandas. Did this shock you as much as it did me? Call me naive, but I never thought any actor, ever, would pretend to care about a cause alien to them.
Hollywood's Ultimate Insider, Mike Sington from LA, told Bored Panda about the current Covid situation in California, how actors have no excuse to harm society by spreading misinformation, and what media sources he personally finds to be the most trustworthy.
"For an actor to play a role that could harm society, especially with sickness or death, is completely morally wrong. Even if desperate for work now, if it gets out that an actor played such a role, it would ruin future employment opportunities. Playing such a role could destroy your career as an actor," the entertainment, pop culture, and lifestyle expert told me. Read on for the rest of Bored Panda's interview with Mike.
Some people noticed that part of the anti-vaxxer and anti-mask movement is made up of paid actors who are desperate for any kind of work
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Chad, from California, dug deep and found evidence indicating that some actors truly are pretending to be anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers
The man also posted the links to each actor's IMDb profile so that everyone can see the proof for themselves and make up their own minds
Image credits: chadloder, IMDB
According to Chad, some Capitol rioters are actors who attend rallies and pretend to believe in conspiracy theories
Many of the actors that the Californian researched appear to have no or little visible means of income
It's not just Los Angeles actors who sign up to go to anti-vaxxer rallies, either
Image credits: chadloder
Chad explained that actors get hired to push various agendas, including ones that former President Donald Trump cared about
Image credits: chadloder
Image credits: chadloder
Image credits: chadloder
Image credits: chadloder
Image credits: chadloder
Image credits: chadloder
Chad stated that tax-payer money may have been wasted to fund extremist rallies
Image credits: chadloder
Some influencers spilled the beans about being contacted to misinform the public about vaccines
Image credits: chadloder
Image credits: chadloder
Some actors are hired to fan the flames and create outrage against minorities, immigrants, and the LBGTQ+ community
Image credits: chadloder
Image credits: chadloder
Los Angeles-based Chad explained that he's seen these fake activists/actors with his own eyes
Image credits: chadloder
Entertainment expert Mike revealed to Bored Panda what living in California is currently like as the pandemic progresses and the vaccination programs continue. "The Covid transmission rate with the Delta variant is high right now in California, but not nearly as high in the Southern states, especially Texas and Florida," he said.
"In most places in California, it’s mandatory to wear masks in indoor public settings, and Californians are cooperating with that. The mandate, combined with a relatively high vaccination rate in the state, seems to be working. Transmission rates are just now starting to come down," Mike noted that the situation is currently improving thanks to a host of measures aimed at reducing Covid transmission.
Mike said that it's "vital in these times" to find news sources that you can trust. "These are generally institutions that have stood the test of time with journalistic integrity, standards, editors, and fact checkers. Also, if they make a mistake, they immediately correct it. Two that I rely on are the Associated Press, and the New York Times," he said.
This isn’t the first time that Chad, from Los Angeles in California, has broken a story like this. Bored Panda has covered his video about a police dog biting a cop who brutalized a protestor in Bristol. You’ll find that story right here.
For a previous article, I spoke about propaganda and media literacy with Lee McIntyre, a Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University.
"Repetition is important in making us believe things, whether they are true or not. There is a cognitive bias called the 'illusory truth effect' which is when we are repeatedly exposed to false information over and over and, over time, it begins to seem more plausible," Lee explained to Bored Panda the power of repetition. This means that people repeating something (even if they’re paid to say it) can have wider effects on society.
"Social psychologists have known since the 1960s that repetition works, for truth or falsity. In fact, this idea goes back to Plato who said that it didn't hurt to repeat a true thing. And of course, for falsehood, this was one of the main propaganda tactics in Nazi Germany, where Hitler's propaganda minister understood the 'repetition effect.'"
Here's how people reacted to the news. Some weren't surprised and had the same suspicions as Chad for a while now
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The illusory truth effect works even if we’re well-educated and aware of it. Lee told me that it’s a humbling experience. “I understand cognitive bias, yet last election season I kept seeing signs for the same candidate running for local office around my town. I thought, 'Wow, I guess everyone is voting for her.' It turns out I was just walking my dog in the neighborhood where she lived, and her friends and neighbors had up lots of signs! So I fooled myself."
Lee noted that we should focus on finding accurate sources of information instead of fact-checking every tiny bit of information.
"It would be exhausting to fact check every single news item we hear. In fact, insisting on this degree of skepticism is something that demagogues use to get us to be cynical, because when we doubt that it is possible to know the truth—even when it is staring us in the face—we are riper to their manipulation. So I'd say the best thing with news is to do a little investigation into finding a reliable source," he said.