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Hello fellow citizens of the internet! Andrew here. Welcome to today’s edition of Internet Insider.
Today’s top stories touch on Joe Biden conspiracy theories, criticism that actress Jane Lynch is facing online, a video about workplace culture that is getting a lot of attention, and a viral Airbnb fail.
Plus, our Politics Reporter Claire has got her weekly “Dirty Delete” column for you.
That’s a lot to get through. See you tomorrow!
— A.W.
CONSPIRACY: President Joe Biden delivered an address on Tuesday criticizing people who support the Capitol Riot as anti-American and anti-police. But Biden’s speech has spawned conspiracies about drug use and deepfakes, as our Politics Reporter Claire notes. The biggest thing that’s getting latched onto? Biden doesn’t appear to blink in the video.
AIRBNB FAIL: A TikToker took photos and videos of a “nightmare” Airbnb and contacted the host… as it turns out, she was in the wrong apartment. Her mishap went viral, with commenters wondering how she got into the wrong apartment in the first place and sharing what they would have done in the same situation.
CULTURE: Actress Jane Lynch is facing criticism from people online after she tweeted that women should lower the pitch of their voices on podcasts. Our Culture Reporter Michelle breaks down the criticism and discourse online in her full report here.
WORK DYSTOPIA: A TikToker’s video joking about being “volun-told” to complete tasks by a manager has stuck a chord online and prompted people to share their own workplace experiences of being “voluntold” by bosses, or being told to do something by a supervisor in a roundabout way.
Meet the man inspiring conspiracy theorists to seek offices in charge of running elections
Jim Marchant is the ringleader of the movement to remake elections in former President Donald Trump’s image.
Marchant, the Republican nominee for Nevada Secretary of State, created the America First Secretary of State Coalition. The group’s tenets are rooted in former President Donald Trump’s lies about widespread election fraud.
Marchant used such lies in an unsuccessful lawsuit to overturn the results of his failed 2020 congressional run.
It seems Nevadans weren’t wooed by his promises to “stop socialism” and “save the police.”
Someone should tell Marchant that the types of socialism he presumably fears (Cuba, Venezuela, China) tend to lean pretty heavily on the police to control the population.
Now Marchant hopes to run Nevada’s elections. If he wins, he might bring back a mainstay of the Jim Crow era by wiping the state’s voter roll and making everyone re-register, Media Matters reports. Marchant has repeatedly floated this idea.
He pretends he doesn’t know what QAnon is but frequently refers to the “cabal.” QAnon conspiracy theorists refer to the elite Satanic, cannibalistic pedophiles as a “cabal.”
Marchant says the cabal has rigged every election in Nevada since 2008. It’s lost on Marchant that, if true (it’s not), this means that the cabal rigged his successful run for state legislature in 2016, a term whose high-water mark was probably when he proposed legalizing fish pedicures.
Marchant reportedly spoke at a QAnon conference last fall. He’s also said that he’s running for Secretary of State because QAnon influencer Juan O. Savin told him to.
Unsurprisingly, Marchant supported Trump from the jump in 2015, when other Republicans were still backing literally anybody else—even Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
Marchant’s far-right and conspiracist proclivities have only increased since then. He’s called on Ronna Romney McDaniel, the chairperson of the GOP, to resign. His Twitter likes include a tweet that says McDaniel, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) should “be removed” for being “deep state RINOs.”
As fringe as his views are, Marchant is an internet traditionalist. You can find him on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Marchant is a serious candidate. In addition to winning the Republican primary for Secretary of State, he claims he raised more money than any Nevada candidate in history in 2020.
Eric Hananoki, an investigative reporter with Media Matters who’s covered Marchant extensively, told the Daily Dot: “He’s someone who’s using his platform to sow doubts about the election system.”
“He’s been given a platform by people like Steve Bannon and he’s using other QAnon influencers to push that message to the conservative base.”
That message is simple: lying about election fraud.
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👀 TODAY ONLINE
Here are some key dispatches from across the ‘net.
🎓 A TikToker has gone viral after claiming that his college sent him emails asking about unpaid fees that totaled less than two dollars.
👕 A woman says that a 7-Eleven worker repeatedly refused to sell her yogurt because she was wearing a tank top.
⏱️ Viewers are outraged after a former trampoline park employee detailed in a video how she was once almost forced to work a 7-hour shift with no breaks.
🍴 An Olive Garden employee is sharing little-known secret menu items in a very popular video.
💼 In a now-viral video, a user said she finds herself keeping up with the drama of her old company because her new job “is not dysfunctional enough to get the best work out of me.”
💍 These bridesmaid proposal boxes are the perfect way to pop the question your besties are dying to hear: will you hold my wedding dress when I have to pee? *
🍕 A woman on TikTok claimed Domino’s Pizza canceled her order after she was .76 cents short, and many viewers are now criticizing her.
🍼 The many lives of the Dancing Baby, cyberspace’s first cringe meme.
🥝 Twitch streamer Loeya shares the key to diversifying your income stream. If you want more stories like this, subscribe to the Passionfruit newsletter.
*The Daily Dot may receive a commission in connection with purchases of products or services featured here.
👋 BEFORE YOU GO
A video showing an Amazon delivery truck driving through a cemetery is blowing up on TikTok, with more than 2.6 million people watching it. The caption of the video? “POV: You died and get Amazon primed to your grave.”
Now Playing: 🎶“Sweet Dreams” by Puppetmaster🎶