=====

How ‘own nothing and be happy’ sparked a misinformation campaign that targeted the World Economic Forum[

Adrian Monck
Contributed to The Globe and Mail
Published August 5, 2022

Adrian Monck is the managing director of the World Economic Forum.

Own nothing, be happy. You may have heard the phrase. It started life as a screenshot, culled from the internet by an anonymous antisemitic account on the image board 4chan. “Own nothing, be happy – The Jew World Order 2030,″ said the post, which went viral among extremists.

How did a years-old headline turn into a meme for the far right and a slogan picked up by mainstream conservative politicians? And what’s the truth behind that headline?

The story begins in 2016 with the publication of an opinion piece on the World Economic Forum’s Agenda website by Danish MP Ida Auken under the headline “Welcome to 2030: I own nothing, have no privacy and life has never been better.”

It was part of an essay series intended to spark debate about socio-economic developments. This was the time of the booming “app” economy, and the commissioning editor had previously worked for conservative British newspaper The Telegraph. The piece gained a respectable readership and lived quietly on the website for a number of years.

Fast forward four years to 2020. The world looked very different. A pandemic was raging, and the World Economic Forum launched “The Great Reset,” promoting the idea of “building back better” so that economies could emerge greener and fairer out of the pandemic.

The pandemic magnified many societal ills. The mistrust in governments and leaders that had been building before the health crisis played into the hands of both fringe groups and state-sponsored actors looking to undermine and weaken rivals. Both came together on the anonymous dark web in places such as 4chan’s “politically incorrect” image board.

Continues:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-world-economic-forum-misinformation/

*************************************************************