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For years, Facebook has been a cesspool of conspiracy theorists, political ragemonsters, and quacks pushing cures for decaying Boomers. But as dangerous as these creeps were, they were mostly contained to the social network.

Until the pandemic hit.

Now, all of us are locked down. And Facebook\\u2019s worst actors and brainwormiest thinking is bursting out into the real world\\u2014and threatening to take it over.  

\\u201cI see it a lot actually in local community pages,\\u201d The Daily Beast\\u2019s Kelly Weill explains on the latest episode of The New Abnormal. \\u201cTo give an example, I was looking at a page, a local news site, about my 5,000-population hometown. The main restaurant, they closed down for a COVID exposure or something. And people were saying, \\u2018Ah! This is tyranny. We don\'t have to do this.\\u2019 Someone was posting an image macro in the comments with the \\u2018where we go one, we go all\\u2019 Qanon thing. And I\'m like, \\u2018Oh my God, like, this is about the salad bar.\\u2019\\u201d 

\\u201cYou really see the conspiracy theories and the atomization, the disconnection from real people and how you would hopefully behave in a real life setting. That just vanishes on Facebook. And I think with so many people using that now as their main means of communicating, it\'s spreading,\\u201d Weill tells Molly Jong-Fast.

Take the icky phenomenon of online multi-level marketing. Those \\u201care those parasitic posts that you see all over your Facebook. It\'s your friend from home saying, \\u2018Hey, I just got a great deal on vitamin supplements. And, uh, if you, you know, give me $50, I\'ll send them to you. Or you can go into business with me and become my associate,\\u2019\\u201d Weill says. \\u201cIt\'s something that you\'re not legally allowed to call a financial cult, but golly, does it sound like one.\\u201d

One local politician in Kansas was in so deep, he had \\u201csomeone come and make a sales pitch for during a political meeting on preventing COVID,\\u201d Weill continues. \\u201cDuring a council meeting on COVID, he brought in someone from an essential oil company to make the pitch about how these products can help you and your family and empower you to live the healthy lifestyle.\\u201d

\\u201cI don\'t think there are official rules against doing that. We\'ve just been, uh, coasting on people not doing that. That\'s been kind of the unspoken expectation,\\u201d Weill says.

Speaking of expectations, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) stops by the show to talk about what he wants to see from Trump\\u2019s upcoming second impeachment. And Rick Wilson has a message for the Republican senators who want to let the ex-president off the hook: \\u201cThis is one of those votes, like the Iraq war or Obamacare, that you never escape. You never escape it. And if you think the tide isn\'t turning, you\'re not paying attention. Trumpism is still a threat and will be for a long time, so I know that\'s why those guys are afraid. But the rest of the country is done with this bullshit.\\u201d

If you haven\'t heard, every single week The New Abnormal does a special bonus episode for Beast Inside, the Daily Beast\\u2019s membership program. where Sometimes we interview Senators like Cory Booker or the folks who explain our world in media like Jim Acosta or Soledad O\\u2019Brien. Sometimes we just have fun and talk to our favorite comedians and actors like Busy Phillips or Billy Eichner and sometimes its just Rick & Molly discussing the fuckery. You can get all of our episodes in your favorite podcast app of choice by becoming a Beast Inside member where you\\u2019ll support The Beast\\u2019s fearless journalism. Plus! You\\u2019ll also get full access to podcasts and articles. To become a member head to newabnormal.thedailybeast.com

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