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Ghouling, A Trend of Unspeakable Cruelty
The recent social media analysis from Hoaxlines Lab drove home how pervasive the #DiedSuddenly claims are. Worse still, they have become a potential threat to anyone who loses a loved one and discloses it publicly.
The recent social media analysis from Hoaxlines Lab drove home how pervasive the #DiedSuddenly claims are. Worse still, they have become a potential threat to anyone who loses a loved one and discloses it publicly.
When we examine the tactics used to target bereaved families, perhaps unsurprisingly, they resemble those used in the #DiedSuddenly mockumentary. In an interview with the BBC, Stew Peters, the driving force behind the film, stated that he did not intend for people to be targeted. While one cannot argue with intent, the effect is another aspect entirely.
Hoaxlines research shows that the activity of some of the biggest accounts claiming people died of vaccines without evidence began the same month Died Suddenly was released.
Ghouling, the Unthinkable Trend in Targeted Harassment
Ghouling is the practice of “targeting” — intentionally or not — bereaved people online and linking virtually any death or illness to vaccination, regardless of the cause of death and regardless of if the person was vaccinated. The families of deceased people can face a barrage of messages asserting their loved one died from the vaccine. The families’ wishes and distress appear to matter little.
In some cases, the person hasn’t died or was only injured, but images are circulated with stories and comments that attribute the injuries to vaccines. One person dies in the U.S. of a blood clot every six minutes, and that was the case before COVID. Simply counting the number of athletes who died shows there hasn’t been an increase in sudden athlete deaths. Totals are the same or less than in 2018 and 2019. Evidence supporting the claims is rarely provided, but that also makes it harder to debunk.
An example of this can be seen in the tweet below. The woman’s cause of death has…
