Politics meets "religion"?
I rarely see any YouTube ads since I have a Red subscription and use Brave Browser but on the rare occasions I watch YouTube with my work account and browser I seem to see ads pushing "Epoch Times" quite a bit. When the latest one started plugging the tell-all on the Chinese COVID-19 coverup I became suspicious. It didn't take long at all to discover they appear to be associated with Chinese "religion" falun gong. According to the Wikipedia entry they are "primarily known for promoting far-right politicians across Europe and the United States, and in particular for its promotion of U.S. President Donald Trump; a 2019 report showed it to be the second-largest funder of pro-Trump Facebook advertising after the Trump campaign". Even better "The group's news sites and YouTube channels have spread conspiracy theories such as QAnon and anti-vaccination propaganda"
Okay then... I guess their claims to be independent and free of bias should be taken with a pinch of salt and Chlorox... Seems like Epoch Times and RT (Russia Today) would make a lovely couple at an alternative media dinner date.
Reading more about Falun Gong it's hard to figure out what is going on there - apparently the West often describes it as a religion but they themselves don't. However being labeled a religion makes it easier to fight for your right to practice some things under the guise of "religious freedom". Kind of reminds me of the recent story about the State that was trying (did they succeed?) to ban yoga from school because it was too religious - or rather too not Christian religious...
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Thanks for doing my homework… I plow past the Youtube ads by hand.. Many have been hardcore trump-supporting garbage. I ‘skip them,’ of course, but fear many in ‘America’ won’t.
If registered in the USA as a religion, with tax exempt status, that should be revoked immediately. But, as usual, when propaganda supports ‘the powers that be,’ little gets done to stop it..
Varn
Level 8
May 20, 2020
0
Isn't the Trump Crime Family and his Death Cult trying to get the laws changed about churches not being allowed to preach propaganda and retain their tax exempt status? Which will head straight to Trump controlled SCOTUS which will say "praise Jesus!" and there goes separation of church and state for good.
Varn:
@prometheus trump & friends have attempted to get rid of The Johnson Amendment.
“Under terms of the 1954 legislation (named for its principal sponsor, then-Sen. Lyndon Johnson), churches and other nonprofit organizations that are exempt from taxation "are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office”
Last I recall hearing.. trump attempted to eliminate the amendment with an executive order but that did not pass. But without pressure to enforce it, it will likely continue to be ignored by any/ every religious organization promoting trump & friends 
Yeah, I've been seeing a lot of advertising for The Epoch Times. They've even been sending out print promotional versions of their paper. The online ads smack of propaganda, from the "we're the real news, unlike everyone else" messages to the claims of victimization and physical attacks, but lately they're not even trying to sound unbiased, repeating Trump-administration talking points about blaming China for all things COVID-19 while defending the lukewarm U.S. response to the outbreak. The sad thing is that it will probably work on enough people to give Epoch Media significant political influence in the U.S.
resserts
Level 8
May 20, 2020
1
In the future they will probably team up with Trump controlled OANN and label Fox as "fake news".
@prometheus Yep. It's a sad day when Fox News is the more reasonable option — with the trifecta of propaganda and misinformation (Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and Laura Ingraham) still unable to beat the likes of OANN and InfoWars in terms of partisan conspiracy theories.
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