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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsConservative activist family behind 'grassroots' anti-quarantine Facebook events
Protests against state stay-at-home orders have attracted a wide range of fringe activists and ardent Trump supporters. They have also attracted a family of political activists whom some Republican lawmakers have called "scam artists." A family-run network of pro-gun groups is behind five of the largest Facebook groups dedicated to protesting the shelter-in-place restrictions, according to an NBC News analysis of Facebook groups and website registration information.
The groups were set up by four brothers Chris, Ben, Aaron and Matthew Dorr and have amassed more than 200,000 members collectively, according to an NBC News analysis based on public records searches and Facebook group registrations. The Dorr brothers are known among mainstream conservative activists for inflammatory campaigns that harvest data. The brothers are the founders or directors of or advisers to a string of nonprofit organizations across 12 states that have raised millions of dollars
The pages are just part of the more than 100 state-specific Facebook groups that have been created in the last two weeks to protest the stay-at-home orders, according to an unpublished analysis by First Draft, an organization that researches disinformation. The pages have organized at least 49 different events. Most of the groups are similarly named, and they have attracted more than 900,000 members in total.
"The Dorr brothers are established scam artists," according to an article on Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life's website. "Nothing they say can be believed, and giving them your money will not advance your cause in any way."
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/conservative-activist-family-behind-grassroots-anti-quarantine-facebook-events-n1188021
DanieRains
(4,619 posts)Funneling outrage into one's bank account.
tanyev
(42,636 posts)mopinko
(70,268 posts)humans are, in fact, irrational.
lostnfound
(16,193 posts)JHB
(37,163 posts)...one that the Russians merely tapped into.
They punch peoples' hot buttons just to gather responses. They can get some of the people to send them money, but the real benefit is the data. This sort of scam has been going on since the data involved was just mailing addresses so the scammers could sell the mailing list to various vendors.
And by "scammers" I include "respectable" conservative activists like Richard Viguerie.
superpatriotman
(6,253 posts)Phonies gonna phone.
meow2u3
(24,774 posts)When will America catch onto the fact that the entire conservative movement is nothing but a racket?
Jake Stern
(3,145 posts)While HL Mencken may or may not have said it, it is the raw truth.
Even the GOP and Anti-choice groups call them out as grifters. That alone should give anyone pause.
KS Toronado
(17,369 posts)are we going to see our politicians insist on everyone wear a mask in public? Countries with the lowest infection rates per population require this. Want to get back to work and see all businesses open back up, then call/email all your politicians....city/state/national.
Ford_Prefect
(7,925 posts)mathematic
(1,440 posts)It is a grassroots campaign so it seems strange to put quotes around something that isn't disputed or inaccurate.
Closest I can tell is that they put it in quotes because they have a actual quote in the story from an unaffiliated outside expert that calls it grassroots.
Of course the effect when this is done and people don't read the story is that they end up thinking that there might be a reason to think that this grassroots campaign could be characterized as something other than grassroots.