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“”The Grayzone: Conspiracy theories and recycled Russian government disinformation on War and Empire

—Everything you need to know about the Grayzone[1]

The Grayzone is a webshite founded by Max Blumenthal, a contributor to RT. It purports itself to be "a news and politics website dedicated to original investigative journalism on war and empire"[2], but it mostly promotes Assadist, Russian, Venezuelan, and Chinese propaganda. It is known for using ad hominem attacks by calling critics neocon shills,[3] or Mccarthyites.[4]

The website was formerly carried by Alternet, a liberal website that sometimes promotes pseudoscience about GMOs. In February 2018, The Grayzone became an "independent"[note 1] news source.

## Contents

* 1 Views
* 1.1 Conspiracies/pseudoscience
* 1.2 China
* 1.3 Eastern Europe
* 1.4 COVID-19
* 1.5 US Politics
* 2 See also
* 3 In a nutshell
* 4 Notes
* 5 References

## Views[edit]

### Conspiracies/pseudoscience[edit]

* The Grayzone has spread nutty conspiracies about George Soros,[5] blaming him for regime changes and protests around the world. Blumenthal also blames Soros for supporting protests in Hong Kong, Latin America, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.[6]
* The Grayzone rejects Russiagate.[7]
* They believe in Big Pharma.[8] In the same article, they promote anti-vaxxer Del Bigtree.
* They are pissed that people don't like Michael Moore's propaganda Planet of the Humans.[9] They also complain about its supposed "censorship" by billionaires.
* They whine about how Wikipedia "censored" them.[10] They try to paint Wikipedia editors as neocon shills because the site was deprecated, along with Press TV and TeleSUR.[note 2] They attack Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's co-founder, for being a libertarian and admiring Ayn Rand.[11] Ironically, they are completely fine with Zero Hedge, a libertarian webshite, to promote them.

### China[edit]

* The Grayzone denies that up to 1 million Uyghurs are in re-education camps in Xinjiang.[12][13] They believe that there are only 2 studies that corroborate this number, but in reality there are many methods of obtaining similar results.[14] They misrepresent CHRD's investigation by claiming that they only interviewed 8 people. In reality, they interviewed 8 people from 8 different villages, which means that their conclusion is much more accurate.[15] Surprisingly, China's officials suggest that the interviewees' numbers are correct.[16] They also discredit CHRD's research by stating that they received funds from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Not only is this ironic and hypocritical, they did not bother criticizing his methodology. The only thing in the article that comes close to attacking his methodology is stating that the data comes from a separatist group in Xinjiang. However, Zenz cites other sources in his study, especially Chinese government documents.[17] The article also fails to mention that it was a Chinese government official who gave them the numbers.[18][19]
* They also opposed the Hong Kong protests, asserting that the CIA, NED, and George Soros funded the Hong Kong protesters, and exaggerated the amount of alt-right support of the protests [note 3]. They attempt to frame the protesters as literally Hitler by saying that the Neo-Nazi group Azov Battalion joined the protest. In reality, they only went for a tour in Hong Kong and went to places like Ocean Park (whose founder is Pro-Beijing). Also, the protestors have condemned the battalion as well.[20]
* They doxxed a Hong Kong activist named Brian Kern.[21] His pseudonym is Kong Tsung-Gan, a Tibetan sounding name.[22][note 4] They plagiarized The Standard's article about it (written 8 months before The Grayzone "exposed" him).[23] They blame the mainstream media for using him as a source, but it's not like The Grayzone does it as well right?[24] When someone talks about Brian, try talk about Charles Redvers.

### Eastern Europe[edit]

* They assert that the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies is funded by the NED, despite there being no evidence on their website.[25][26][note 5]
* They are extremely supportive of Alexander Lukashenko. They have spread fake news regarding the recent Belarusian Protests. For example, Ben Norton claimed that protestors were chanting "Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty"(US propaganda outlet), but they were chanting "Give us freedom".[27][28]
* Ben Norton claimed that the grenade was thrown by protestors. Since that was a lie, he deleted it. What a coward.[29]

### COVID-19[edit]

* In a surprisingly stopped clock moment, albeit one resulting from pro-PRC bias, The Grayzone called Trump out for normalizing the lab conspiracy, comparing it to Saddam's WMDs.[30]
* Unfortunately, this didn't last as they were still hoping that it came from the US instead.[31][note 6][note 7]
* They claim that Taiwan didn't warn anyone about COVID-19, which was misleading.[32][note 8]
* Blumenthal talked on RT about Bill Gates's COVID-19 simulation.[33] This is completely false.[34]

### US Politics[edit]

* Max Blumenthal spend an hour badgering members of The Squad[35] at a protest related to housing evictions, "questioning them" why they didn't force Medicare4All through to be voted onto the Senate ground. This is a view that's known as "Force the Vote", and is considered to be generally politically unviable. In spite of being faced with multiple explanations as to why they didn't do this (it made no strategic sense and would burn the Squads goodwill and their ability to enact further change within the Democrats, it's important to first gather votes, none of the members of The Squad have the ability to bring the M4A bill to the Senate anyway), Blumenthal kept repeatedly asking the same question, seemingly ignoring the explanation. In response, Ilhan Omar pulled up Blumenthal's Twitter feed where she discovered that he'd been retweeting offensive memes about the Squad. When questioned, Blumenthal dismissed it as "just memes" before being removed by staff of the Squad. Blumenthal then uploaded a video to his own Twitter account which only showed him being removed after a short discussion with a single member, removing all context of the previous badgering to paint the Squad as the people unwilling to advocate for change.[36]

## See also[edit]

* RT
* Alternet
* Globalresearch

## In a nutshell[edit]

## Notes[edit]

1. ↑ Since Max Blumenthal has ties to RT and the Kremlin, some believe that the Russian government funds it
2. ↑ Doesn't Press TV promote Holocaust denial? BTW They have shit ratings on Media Bias/Fact Check.
3. ↑ While indeed there are numerous alt-right opportunists hijacking a popular cause for their own ends, their support, mostly online only, is used invalidate and distract from the fact that millions of Hongkongers protested
4. ↑ The Grayzone thinks it's a Chinese sounding name.
5. ↑ They are not exactly wrong though. Wikileaks claims that CANVAS has US government funding.
6. ↑ Note that the top comment cites Globalresearch. A reminder of the average intelligence of Grayzone readers.
7. ↑ The reason why the Wuhan lab theory was stupid was because it had natural DNA. The US lab theory is just as stupid.
8. ↑ While the Taiwanese government technically didn't warn anyone from the onset, and rather asked WHO for confirmation of human to human transmission but was ignored, it is used in a way to dismiss Taiwan's successful containment of the virus.

## References[edit]

1. ↑ Before or after the head rub? by @axbIumenthal (parody account) (4:48 AM · Oct 6, 2019) Twitter (archived from October 6, 2019).
2. ↑ https://thegrayzone.com/about
3. ↑ https://www.codastory.com/disinformation/grayzone-xinjiang-denialism
4. ↑ https://www.axios.com/grayzone-max-blumenthal-china-xinjiang-d95789af-263c-4049-ba66-5baedd087df4.html
5. ↑ https://thegrayzone.com/tag/george-soros/
6. ↑ [1] by Matthew Dimitri (11:16 PM · May 17, 2020) Twitter (archived from April 9, 2021).
7. ↑ https://thegrayzone.com/tag/russiagate/
8. ↑ https://thegrayzone.com/tag/big-pharma/
9. ↑ https://thegrayzone.com/2020/09/07/green-billionaires-planet-of-the-humans/
10. ↑ https://thegrayzone.com/2020/06/10/wikipedia-formally-censors-the-grayzone-as-regime-change-advocates-monopolize-editing/
11. ↑ https://thegrayzone.com/2020/06/11/meet-wikipedias-ayn-rand-loving-founder-and-wikimedia-foundations-regime-change-operative-ceo/
12. ↑ https://thegrayzone.com/2018/08/23/un-did-not-report-china-internment-camps-uighur-muslims/
13. ↑ https://thegrayzone.com/china-detaining-millions-uyghurs-problems-claims-us-ngo-researcher
14. ↑ https://www.chinafile.com/reporting-opinion/features/where-did-one-million-figure-detentions-xinjiangs-camps-come
15. ↑ https://www.nchrd.org/2020/08/chrd-stands-firmly-by-estimate-of-one-million-uyghurs-detained/
16. ↑ P.P.S.: CGTN chides the @CHRDnet study for estimating 1 million detainees based on only 8 interviews. Indeed a tiny sample size. But ironically, the internment shares estimated by those 8 locals are not far off from the internment shares reported by 3 townships, also from Kashgar by Adrian Zenz (3:43 PM · Dec 30, 2019) Twitter (archived from January 1, 2020).
17. ↑ Zenz is quite forthcoming about how he comes to his conclusions. His writing is standard for peer-reviewed academic work, which it doesn't seem like either Grayzone author has read much of. Most of his (dozens or hundreds of) references are gov. reports and state journalism. by Ben Mauk (6:09 AM - 27 Jul 2020) Twitter (archived from July 27, 2020).
18. ↑ ウイグル絶望収容所の収監者数は89万人以上 by 水谷尚子 (Naoko Mizutani) (March 3, 2018) Newsweek Japan.
19. ↑ https://chinalawandpolicy.com/2020/01/05/when-journalism-is-not-journalism-the-grayzones-faulty-analysis-of-what-is-happening-in-xinjiang/
20. ↑ Actual swastika tattoos, just in case you were left in any doubt these are actual neo-nazis. by Hong Kong Hermit (6:31 AM · Dec 2, 2019) Twitter (archived from November 22, 2020).
21. ↑ https://thegrayzone.com/2020/08/08/hong-kong-western-media-yellowfacing-amnesty/
22. ↑ what is it with blumao and a general lack of knowledge? Kern's alias sounds Tibetan, not Chinese. by @OldChinaBland (6:46 AM - 13 Aug 2020) Twitter (archived from August 13, 2020).
23. ↑ https://www.thestandard.com.hk/section-news/section/21/214605/The-voice-of-Hong-Kong,-from-far-away
24. ↑ https://www.thedailybeast.com/in-nicaragua-torture-is-used-to-feed-fake-news
25. ↑ https://canvasopedia.org/about-us/
26. ↑ https://www.ned.org/region/central-and-eastern-europe/serbia-2019/
27. ↑ Anyone falling for this extremely stupid Belarus coup propaganda probably still thinks Saddam Hussein was hiding "WMDs" Because protesters often just "spontaneously" chant the name of CIA-backed US govt propaganda outlets. That's totally normal and organic. Nothing to see here! by Benjamin Norton (6:57 AM · Aug 16, 2020) Twitter (archived from August 16, 2020).
28. ↑ That’s not what they are chanting.. they are chanting “give us freedom!”.. you might want to ask someone who speaks Russian to translate by Igor Sshatz (7:34 AM - 16 Aug 2020) Twitter (archived from August 16, 2020).
29. ↑ https://thegrayzoneproject.wordpress.com
30. ↑ https://thegrayzone.com/2020/04/20/trump-media-chinese-lab-coronavirus-conspiracy/
31. ↑ The spokesperson from China's Foreign Ministry is publicly saying the US army might have brought coronavirus to Wuhan, which held the 2019 Military World Games in October, just before the outbreak began by Benjamin Norton (11:10 AM · Mar 12, 2020) Twitter (archived from March 12, 2020).
32. ↑ https://thegrayzone.com/2020/07/17/us-taiwan-lied-warning-world-health-organization-coronavirus/
33. ↑ On the Zero Hour with RJ Eskow, Max Blumenthal pushes conspiracy theory that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation predicted the novel coronavirus. by Matthew Dimitri (1:33 AM - 31 May 2020) Twitter (archived from May 31, 2020).
34. ↑ https://www.factcheck.org/2020/01/new-coronavirus-wasnt-predicted-in-simulation/
35. ↑ https://twitter.com/KristinMink_/status/1421712240558977025
36. ↑ https://twitter.com/maxblumenthal/status/1421668812659830786