It is pretty incredible how a right-wing conspiracy theory can continue to have legs even after it has been thoroughly debunked. Take the case of GOP congressmen and conservative activists crying foul over the Obama administration’s announcement of a sixteen year plan to transfer oversight of the Internet from the federal government to a nonprofit backed by the US Department of Commerce.
Critics warned the move would give control of the Internet to China, Russia and Islamic countries, but experts pointed out that the decision actually represented a setback for the Chinese and Russian governments, which wanted the Obama administration to instead transfer oversight to a United Nations-led panel.
Despite the fact the Obama administration actually rejected efforts to give more authority to a UN-backed group, right-wing pundits still insist that President Obama is empowering the UN panel.
On Understating The Times this weekend, hosts Jan Markell and Larry Kutzler were joined by Eric Barger, who thinks that Harry Potter and The Walking Dead are helping the Antichrist gain power, and all three agreed that the phony Internet scandal is a demonic plot that will bring about the End Times.
Barger attacked President Obama for the non-existent move to hand over oversight of the Internet to the UN, warning that it will lead to the arrival of the Antichrist and censorship of Christian radio outlets.
This will be a great tool for Antichrist to be able to shut off communications between people so that people won’t know what’s going on around the world and we’re seeing a microcosm of it right now just ahead of us if Obama gets his wishes to be able to turn the Internet over to an international body.
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If the UN or a body like that would get a hold of the Internet then could they theoretically make it illegal for us to put our podcast on so that others around the world would be able to hear what we had to say? Would it be illegal for you and I and many, many others to write their newsletters and put them on the Internet to warn people about what is happening around us and to preach the Gospel faithfully, including speaking out against Islam? So you think about those points and you understand that this is a very, very perilous thing that Obama is proposing to do.
Not content with pushing just one discredited conspiracy theory, Barger also promoted debunked claims about Obama allowing INTERPOL to “kidnap” US citizens.
Kutzler said that the phony Internet scandal will lead to the 666 mark of the beast and one world government, while Markell warned it will create an “Antichrist system.”
Barger: When we make statements that Obama is slowly but surely, line upon line, dismantling the country, that is not an overstatement folks. And for those of you who would say ‘wait a second, why don’t you guys just preach the Gospel, get out of politics?’ Take a look around and see what that got us when that thinking came in, we need to be plugged in and involved. How many people listening right now don’t even know that Obama in 2009 signed an executive order to give INTERPOL the right to come into our country and to literally kidnap people and take them outside our country and try them elsewhere? He took out all the restrictions that President Reagan put on INTERPOL and he took those things out and gave them carte blanche to roam around our country and to look for whomever they want to to take elsewhere, to try and then convict of crimes. That’s the kind of thing that is going on and without the Internet, we would never ever have known about it.
Markell: I think we are in a kumbaya world right now and some think we’re all going to get along. Folks, you saw Vladimir Putin move into Crimea, move into Ukraine, who knows where he’s going next. This is not a nice world right now, it is not a safe world right now.
Barger: By the way Jan, Putin called for the Internet to be controlled by the UN. This goes on and on, whose side is Obama on I’d like to know?
Kutzler: I think some of this will all come to past because they’re going to sell us a bill of goods to say if they control it, they’ll have security issues in place, no more security theft or identity theft, and I think that’s something we have to be very careful of. I don’t believe they’re going to control things just for the sake of control, they’re going to control things and move it more into what Revelation 13 has to say about that one world government, that 666, where you cannot buy or sell without the number. To me that spells Internet.
Markell: Absolutely. He’s absolutely right. This is Antichrist system.
