DefCon 3 Warning System Level, Race Wars, And More
The upcoming presidential election seems to be fueling some of the most interesting conspiracy theories around, especially concerning the DefCon (or defense readiness condition) level of the nation.
As reported by Story Tide, most viral news reports surround the hot topics being shared on social media regarding politics. One such report claims that the DefCon warning was raised to DefCon 3, but Snopes has marked those reports surrounding the DefCon 3 status as false.
A search through Google News reports about DefCon levels proves that not many mainstream news publications have published any reports about the DefCon level being raised to DefCon 3. Those reports even show confusion over how the DefCon warning system is being interpreted.
According to CNN, the most recent mentions of the DefCon level involves articles about when the Nixon administration raised the DefCon level to DefCon 3, which was the highest DefCon level around the world since the time of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Other CNN reports mention a DefCon 5 level when used anecdotally and incorrectly, seeing as how DefCon 5 is relative peace, whereas DefCon 1 is nuclear level.
The popular article that was discredited by Snopes, however, claimed that the DefCon level had been raised to DefCon 3 in June and that it meant something serious was going to happen.
“At 9:43 PM Eastern US last night (Sunday, June 19) the Armed Forces of the United States were reportedly ordered to set condition ‘DEFCON 3.’ This is an extraordinary development and signals serious trouble, LIKELY requiring an expedited military response. The defense readiness condition (DEFCON) is an alert state used by the United States Armed Forces. The DEFCON system was developed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) and unified and specified combatant commands. It prescribes five graduated levels of readiness (or states of alert) for the U.S. military. It increases in severity from DEFCON 5 (least severe) to DEFCON 1 (most severe) to match varying military situations.
“To understand the severity of DefCon 3, it would help to realize that on September 10, 2001, the US Military was at DefCon 5. When the attacks of September 11 took place, the US Military was upgraded only to DefCon 4. For the US to have implemented DefCon 3 at 9:43 PM EDT on a Sunday night, means something very big is taking place.”
It doesn’t help that sites like Defconwarningsystem.com appear with “condition code yellow” and “DefCon 3” warnings on them, claiming that tensions between the U.S. and Russia have raised the level.
Beyond false DefCon 3 reports, Facebook is rife with talk about race wars, so much so that social media site reports nearly 90,000 people currently talking about race wars on Facebook.
Other reports getting a lot of buzz surrounding the election include the fact that women are the majority of voters, reports The Hill — a fact that could increase from 53 percent of women being the total voters in 2012 to a higher percentage in 2016.
Meanwhile, Breitbart reports about something called “bird-dogging,” a tactic that involves trained agitators showing up at Trump rallies in order to prompt violence. The publication claims the aim is to give Trump bad press.
Also, as WikiLeaks releases more emails from Clinton’s campaign chair John Podesta, as reported by RT, folks continue to scour the emails for valid information.
As all of the other DefCon 3 false warnings are being spread and denied via social media, folks at the Atlantic ask, “How ‘Unprecedented’ Are Trump’s Claims of a Rigged Election?” The publication has taken an in-depth look at claims of voter fraud for years, including fraud claims that may have been raised by minority voters, and how voter fraud is once again in the spotlight as Trump continues to beat the “voter fraud” drum loudly.
[Featured Image by Feng Li/AP Images]
