A True Tale of Misinformation Run Amok
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When’s the right time to publish an epic piece of journalism that’s over a year in the making? That’s the question Long Lead has been wrestling with for months. The answer is clearly now, but it wasn’t always so obvious. Let me explain.
A fascinating dual-profile written by Darren Loucaides, Querdenken Everything chronicles the cause and effects of misinformation as told through the lens of Germany’s burgeoning COVID-skeptic movement. Wrapped in a wild 3-D interface designed to nearly overwhelm readers — just like conspiracy theories and fake news do — the story features haunting illustrations by Jun Cen that imbue the project with the pandemic’s hallmark feelings of isolation and frustration.
When Long Lead first contracted this story, we immediately saw its relevance to readers worldwide. Darren’s pitch described how in August 2020, hundreds of COVID-skeptics attending a protest in Berlin had stormed Germany’s parliament, a remarkably prescient event that took place four months before the January 6 insurgency. He proposed profiling Tamara Kirschbaum, a naturopath who led the charge up the Reichstag stairs, as her life spiraled into chaos in the storming’s aftermath.
Like many U.S. Capitol insurrectionists and arrested Canadian protesters, Kirschbaum has since found her life upended by a few hours of hysteria. But was it only that, or was it actually years of misinformation run amok?
A QAnon acolyte whose faith in conspiracy theories has cost her medical practice and much of her freedom, Kirschbaum is a prime example of how toxic online content warps the realities of those who traffic in it. This truism applies to many people, including Michael Ballweg, the founder of Querdenken, the COVID-skeptic group that organized the protest on the day of the Reichstag storming. Getting unprecedented access to Ballweg, Darren was also able to tell the definitive history Querdenken, which German intelligence warns may become an extremist group.
But Kirschbaum and Ballweg aren’t characters; they’re people. We all know folks who are hooked on conspiracy theories and fake news — there seems to be more of them every day. “If the events in Germany or Canada are anything to go by, the U.S.’s parallel movement is a cauldron of extremism just waiting to boil over,” Darren writes.
Indeed, this past weekend a copycat of the Canadian trucker convoys began doing laps around Washington D.C., hoping to make their dissatisfaction with mandates known. This was the moment our story had been waiting for — not the Omicron surge, Joe Rogan’s adventures in misinformation, or even the Ottawa protests. Seemingly disorganized and lacking in direction outside of a GPS, this American Querdenken has come from all corners of the country to protest at the steps — or the exit ramps — of the capital, and some truckers claim they’re willing to continue indefinitely.
As we supported Darren’s reporting over the past year, we at Long Lead saw this American COVID-skeptic movement coming. We poured tremendous resources into Querdenken Everything with the singular goal of helping readers to better understand the impact of misinformation in their lives by reading about how it impacted someone else’s.
And as silly as Twitter and late night TV may make it seem, what’s happening in Washington D.C. right now is reminiscent of how Germany’s COVID protests began. The key difference in this reboot, we hope, will be how the U.S. version ends… but that’s a whole other story.
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For more of our in-depth journalism, read The Depths She’ll Reach or listen to Long Shadow: 9/11’s Lingering Questions.
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More soon…
John Patrick Pullen
Founding Editor, Long Lead
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