Warning Signs
- Interspersed use of all caps exceeding one or two words (excluding headings obviously), up to and including a complete all caps post.
- General bad spelling/grammar that can’t be reasonably pinned to being on a mobile device.
- Attempts at ownership of the infinitive verb “are” (EG “The president *is* evil”).
- Early and upfront attempts at labelling of something as a “lie” or “fact”. (Especially “FACT: [total lies]”).
- Use of the pronouns “they”/”them” with little to no definitive direction of application.
- Overly romanticised collectivist language (“The people”, “Our struggle”, “should be the goal of all women/men/Americans”)
- Gratuitous use of exclamation marks.
- Overestimating the reach and/or capabilities of powerful groups.
- “It’s time to WAKE UP!”/”The Truth”
- Seeing intent behind serendipity: “It’s no accident that…/This is by design”.
- Annoying me.
Yellow Flags
- Insistence that the thing being posited is not a conspiracy creating a personalised definition of a conspiracy so as to disqualify obviously conspiratorial tropes (EG “Conspiracies happen in the dark, they’re doing this in BROAD DAYLIGHT”).
- Answering valid refutations and counter-arguments with bad evidence.
- Asymmetric burdens of proof.
- Quoting of literature out of reasonable context and in such a way as to indicate lack of familiarity with literature (“1984”, “Brave New World”, and “Fahrenheit 451” are quite common for this purpose).
- Extreme credulity. (“A friend knew someone who worked at WTC, and HE said…”).
- Aspirational victimhood.
- Ignoring/anger at disagreement.
- Speculating at hidden connections between powerful groups.
- Labelling of nonbelievers/naysayers as belonging to some kind of “groupthink” demographic (EG “sheep”, “NPCs”).
- Laugh reacts to replies (either using reaction buttons or emojis).
- You know the person, and you think they’re an asshat.
- Annoying me.
Red Flags
- Blatant use of extremist political/religious rhetoric, dog whistles, or propaganda.
- Apocalypse/Prepper “lifestyle” tips.
- Hate speech.
- Answering valid refutations and counter-arguments with *no* evidence.
- Goalpost-moving and/or abandonment.
- Obvious indications of a highly malignant narcissistic outlook (EG mindset akin to “I am awake and everybody is asleep.”)
- Blatant mentions of known and well-document conspiracy theories (“Illuminati”, “Great reset”, “Q”, “9/11 was an inside job.”)
- Verifiable and intentional lying/deception (including editing/deleting posts and/or modifying another’s post in photoshop).
- Insistent clinging to verified misinformation. (Remember this old chestnut: “He who is convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.”)
- REALLY annoying me.
Hot Drinks and Darkness 