This movie is not a spin off of the Subsequent Borat film as the first episode suggests. Sasha Cohen Baron does something beneficial to the growing polarization in America by educating the two characters by supplying FACTS and not conjectures.
Jim and Jerry, the two conspiracy theorists, take on an active role engaging with the mythbusters and it becomes clear they are not complete dumba$$ but rather fed one information from one side. When the topic of BLM was mentioned, the two say something that both sides of the media is guilty of....."they need to show both sides of it."
I'm a Journalism student so I know how much misinformation hurts democracy. And when the media buys into the emotions of conspiracy theorists and crowd the air waves with misleading opinions, they are hurting democracy. They are taking people for tools.
For instance, on the left, the Black Lives Matter was a highly publicized story which lead to defending the massive riots across major cities in America, ironically, destroying Black owned businesses. It also lead to major cities cutting police funding. One year later, Biden has proposed to place federal money back into solving gun violence as EVERY major city saw a rise in crime. Cities like Los Angeles and Oakland are also putting local funding back into Police to restore public safety. The moral is how an exaggerated hype of hostility can cause major damage across America, yet due to media bias, everyone looked away and allowed this to happen. It's mentioned in the film 97% of BLM protests were non violent. I was in SF watching from a parking lot as downtown businesses were destroyed and looted by a crowd of hundreds. A protest requires a city permit so it's my belief these riots are not considered an actual protest.
Although much of the rally cry was in defense specifically of Black Criminals and reformation, the violence was real. Democratic leadership today blame both the pandemic and the criminal reformation as the reason why crime has shot up. Ideas are dangerous. When you plant the idea that doing the wrong thing is justified, especially into the minds of violent individuals....that's a recipe for disaster.
I was working with homeless people for a school project when the stay at home order hit. Tenderloins of SF is a majority Black neighborhood, very high in crime, drugs and homeless. This was early February when I met Henry, a convicted felon. We would talk for hours during my shift about the news. First, he tried to tell me the Virus was a weapon created for genocide in China. He admitted this was some b.s. They tell each other in the hood. But in truth, this rumor turned fake news spread like wildflower. It's exactly why misleading information is dangerous. Today, there is an investigation open to see if Covid was actually created in a lab. But if you know politics, you also know how much Republicans control Capital Hill. So this Investigation is highly politicized. The origin of the virus is mentioned in this film. But to further explain, scientists found out the original host was a bat. The Chinese scientists said they brought a bat to their lab to study it, but they didn't know how deadly it was. And while they were investigating, some were infected with the virus and died. This story was spun by the right wing media to make it sound like the scientists got infected while creating the virus in a lab. Every credible scientists have said the structure of the virus cells have organically evolved, but the conspiracy prevails when the public is eager to trust someone who holds no accountability for his actions. As they say, beware of false prophets.
As we were discussing the news, back in Tenderloins, another information he leaked was that Asian immigrants were being targeted. They would look for Asian Immigrants to extort for money often getting $20 payouts per Immigrant. Poor Immigrants who live in near by ghettos like Chinatown. They would run up on Asian Immigrants in groups and threaten to beat them until they pay money for the Covid virus. Than the news clips began showing Black men in Tenderloins beating a Chinese senior with a metal stick going viral on YouTube. A 98 year old Chinese woman was beaten to death and then robbed. On and on...
This documentary centers on how misinformation hurts the public perception. Antisemitism. Sinophobia. It's all used as a way to stir the public. Get them angry. Unaccountable media who will absolve themselves of culpability. The Right thinks they can lie as long as they have high ratings. The Left thinks they can mislead the public as long as they support Black people (but in truth they don't). Ironic. Paradox. Crazy world.
