Seth Rich, Conspiracy Theorists, and Russiagate ‘Truthers’

Say that you want to discredit the idea that Vladimir Putin’s Russian spies hacked the Democratic National Committee last year and weaponized the data via WikiLeaks. (Leave out, for a moment, whether or not Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with the Russians, though that’s precisely what special counsel Robert Mueller and the FBI are trying to find out.) You’d need a counter-theory, right?

Seth Rich’s family pleads to end conspiracy theories

Seth Rich was murdered in the early-morning hours of July 10, 2016 in Washington, D.C., on his way home from a local bar. He was found still conscious and breathing, but died of his gunshot wounds at a hospital. A year later, his death continues to fuel far-right conspiracy theories—so much so that Rich’s parents and brother are pleading with everyone to stop.

Tale of 2 hoaxes: The Seth Rich conspiracy theory and “Conceptual Penis” prank both expose a fear of women’s power

Last week the portion of the internet dedicated to a bipartisan male freakout over women’s gains in the professional sphere became caught up in not just one but two obnoxious hoaxes: a conspiracy theory accusing Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee of having a young staffer named Seth Rich murdered, and the false claim that the entire field of gender studies had been exposed as a fraud by two male scholars.