A conspiracy theorist, John Conner, wrote under the pseudonym John Conner in 2005. He was the Resistance leader from “The Terminator”. Conner decided to warn the public about the dangers of a tourist attraction on the roadside in northeastern Georgia.
According to archival news reports, Conner wrote that the Guidestones should be broken into millions of pieces and then the rubble should be used for a construction project. “The Guidestones are of deep Satanic origin.”
He was referring the Georgia Guidestones, an 18-foot tall four-slab granite monument with a cryptic message in 10 languages. Although no one knows the exact origin of this monument, it has been there for over four decades.
Conner, now known as Mark Dice, a right-wing provocateur who is also a pro-Trump YouTuber, got his wish 17 years later.
After an explosion, authorities demolished the monument Wednesday.
Authorities have yet to identify a motive for the explosion. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation stated that the explosive was detonated by “unknown persons”. According to the agency, the monument was destroyed because of “safety concerns.”
Dice made false claims about 2020’s presidential election results and held bogus views about 9/11.
He sent an email to NBC News Friday in which he stated that he meant to take down the monuments in 2005 through legal channels. This was in line with many locals who opposed its construction in the first instance.
He isn’t the only one who has taken to their platform to protest the supposed evils caused by the Guidestones. They are apparently both troubled by their mysterious origins and inflamed with strange inscriptions that seem to support eugenics as well as population control.
The Guidestones have been a recurring symbol of the QAnon conspiracy movement in recent years. They were the subject of numerous videos and other digital content which baselessly linked them with the Covid pandemic as well as a fictional group of sex traffickers.
Alex Jones, an incendiary conspiracist, and Infowars host visited the attraction in 2020. He called it “the Birthplace of the Modern Depopulation Movement,” referring to an inscribed on granite that called for keeping Earth’s population below 500 million.
Kandiss Taylor (a conservative Republican) ran for Georgia’s gubernatorial nomination. She placed third in the May 24 primary. She claimed that the slabs made of granite were Satanic and made it a central pillar of her platform.
“God is God by Himself.” Taylor tweeted Wednesday that Taylor can do anything he wants. “That includes removing Satanic Guidestones.”
Katie McCarthy, an Anti-Defamation League researcher who studies conspiracy theories and extremism, stated in an interview that it was natural that the monument would attract the intense attention of people who believe that far-reaching government plots are possible.
She stated that the Guidestones principles advocate for things such as depopulation, genetics, a global government and these ideas fit into conspiracy theories about a New World Order. It’s evidence that the global elite plots to end humanity,
McCarthy stated that the Guidestones attracted attention since 1980 when they were built. However, the rise of the internet as well as the increasing influence of the Christian Right elevated them to conspiratorial circles.
It is believed that the monument was commissioned by an unknown entity or person working under the pseudonym R.C. Christian. (Dice claimed, for his part that the person was actually a member of the Order of the Rose, a 500-year-old sect.
Officials from Georgia embraced the mystery and posted information about the Guidestones on a website for tourists. Christopher Kubas, executive vice president of Elberton Granite Association said that it attracts more than 20,000 people annually, according to WYFF, NBC affiliate in Greenville, South Carolina.
The mystery was made worse when an explosive device was used to destroy a portion of the structure. This was what a Georgia prosecutor called “acts of domestic terrorism.”
Parks White, Northern Judicial Circuit district lawyer, stated in an email that “the destruction of a public structure by explosive is inherently intended for influence the actions of any governing authority that controls the structure.”
White said that terrorism is the use of violence to alter or influence behavior at any government agency.
McCarthy stated that the Guidestones attack was a stark example of the “real-world consequences,” of conspiratorial thinking that is rooted on the internet.
