(Headline USA) Pushing back against the gaslighting deflections of the Biden administration, some social media users argue that soaring fuel prices in the U.S. aren’t the result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, increased consumption or supply chain issues as daily life resumes after two years of stagnation brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
Instead, the flurry of Facebook and Twitter posts point to a nefarious scheme that is underway: President Joe Biden’s administration is intentionally driving up the price of gas to get more American drivers behind the wheel of an electric car.
“$6.00 a gallon gas is how you get people to buy electric cars,” claims one popular meme, shared thousands of times across Facebook and Instagram since Tuesday.
While propagandist outlets, including the Associated Press, supported the Democrat talking points, ample evidence from top policymakers—including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm—have hinted at some approval on the Left over the unprecedented surge.
Former President Barack Obama supported similar increases to the cost of gas and energy during his term in office.
It aligns with key priorities of the controversial Green New Deal agenda—portions of which Biden has long endorsed.
Twitter posts and videos began swirling as the average price of regular gas broke $4 a gallon for the first time in nearly 14 years.
The output of posts increased Tuesday after Biden announced a ban on Russian oil imports, a move he warned would almost certainly drive up U.S. gas prices further but would deal a “blow” to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offensive in Ukraine.
The claims about electric vehicles echo the core themes at the center of several theories centered around a globalist New World Order—including those that the government may try to microchip people with a vaccine or that a coin shortage during the pandemic was a plot to push Americans into a cashless society that would be easier for the federal government to control.
Considerable evidence supports elements of both, such as recent overtures by the leftist governments in the US and Canada to weaponize banks against political dissidents and to impose regulations on cryptocurrencies.
In many cases, the catalyst for this social-engineering scheme—the Great Reset—is triggered by a series of crisis that allow the authorities to assume greater control and oversight of people’s lives, as they have done since the start of the pandemic.
Some social media posts have suggested that the government wants to push people to use electric vehicles so they can shut down a driver’s car at will—a theory also validated by provisions of last year’s infrastructure package that would mandate the installation of such “kill switch” software in all vehicles.
“I don’t know who needs to hear this, but high gas prices will push more people to electric cars that can be frozen just like your bank account,” one post circulating across social media platforms alleged.
Mentions of “electric cars” and the “government” have increased by 400% over the last four days across public social media accounts, news websites and television news, according to an analysis social media intelligence firm Zignal Labs conducted for the Associated Press.
The spike in conversation also was driven by comments made Monday by Buttigieg during an event with Vice President Kamala Harris. The pair promoted the federal government’s funding for public transportation and electric vehicles under Biden’s infrastructure law passed last year.
“Last month, we announced $5 billion to build out a nationwide electric vehicle charging network so the people from rural to suburban to urban communities can all benefit from the gas savings from driving an EV,” Buttigieg said.
Posts across social media claimed Buttigieg’s answer to rising gas prices was for Americans to buy a “$50,000 electric car.”
“Pete Buttigieg says if we don’t like gas prices, we should change vehicles,” said one post, shared thousands of times across Facebook and Instagram.
Buttigieg, appearing to respond the posts, shared a website link that lists electric car prices that range from $27,400 to $181,450 on Twitter.
“Seeing some strange claims about EV prices out there,” Buttigieg wrote in the tweet.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
