CBS Joe Anglim on Survivor
Things are getting a little intense between some Survivor castaways because one of them is voicing his support for the “stop the steal” conspiracy theory. Here’s what’s going down.
Joe Anglim Wrote a Stop the Steal Post on Instagram
I told you we should vote him out.
As seen here screen-captured by Stephen Fishbach of Survivor: Tocantins and Survivor: Cambodia, three-time castaway Joe Anglim put a post on Instagram that says he’s sending a letter to the president and he’s asking his followers to do the same.
“Make your voices heard by sending President Trump a handwritten signed letter. In it demand a full audit of all 50 states. The sanctity of our electoral rights and freedom as Americans is at stake,” says the post, which also contains the hashtag #stopthesteal.
For the record, the “Stop the Steal” movement is a disinformation campaign that was banned from Facebook. A representative for the social media site said in a statement, “In line with the exceptional measures that we are taking during this period of heightened tension, we have removed the Group ‘Stop the Steal’ which was creating real-world events. The group was organized around the delegitimization of the election process, and we saw worrying calls for violence from members of the group.”
Several Survivor Alumni Are Dismayed at Anglim’s Support of the Conspiracy
@stephenfishbach Couldn’t agree more my friend. Had I known Joe’s heartfelt beliefs in Cambodia (which deeply disturbs me now) Joe and my relationship would have been dramatically different. You and I could and should have been joined at the hip had I known, my bad 😃!!
Fishbach posted the screenshot cheekily captioned, “I told you we should vote him out,” in reference to Fishbach trying very hard to get his tribe to move against Anglim in “Cambodia” but not ever being able to mobilize (plus Anglim won individual immunity several times).
But even though he made a joke out of the post, Fishbach followed that up with, “Seriously though, you can hardly blame credulous people for believing dumb things, the problem is when those people have a massive platform to promote their confused ideas. I hope Survivor/CBS will try not to give a platform to those who promote hate and conspiracies.”
In response, fellow “Cambodia” castaway Andrew Savage wrote, “Couldn’t agree more my friend. Had I known Joe’s heartfelt beliefs in Cambodia (which deeply disturbs me now) Joe and my relationship would have been dramatically different. You and I could and should have been joined at the hip had I known, my bad!!”
Fishbach responded, “If only!! The world missed out on the epic Savage-Fishbach alliance.”
Rick Devens from “Edge of Extinction” chimed in with, “I’m so bummed about this,” and Victoria Baamonde from the same season added, “I am pretty shocked at this. Not because I thought Joe was a good person after meeting him. But because he finally isn’t writing weird and confusing novels where he tries to mask his sentiment in word vomit. He actually straight up suppported Trump. Sad.”
Anglim Says He’s Heartbroken By These Posts
@survivorsavage @stephenfishbach 💔 truly heartbroken
Anglim saw the exchange on Twitter and wrote that he’s “truly heartbroken” by it, to which Vytas Baskauskas responded, “It’s OK to feel that. But try to see what’s behind this post. People are fed up with a leader who is continuing to cry foul when there is none. Seriously, Joe. No foul. Nowhere. The Trump appointed director of US Cybersecurity announced it. So the only chance DJT has is to try and rally his troops with falsehoods. You have fallen prey to a sophisticated disinformation machine. They are really good at making people think they have a case for fraud…”
And Fisbach added that this has “nothing to do with political beliefs,” it’s about “using your platform to promote disproven, groundless conspiracies that do harm. But you’re welcome to disagree with me/us, just as I’m free to disagree with Joe.”
Fishbach was also asked if politics came up during the game very much and he said, “Yes! First time I was there lots of talk about politics – mostly people being excited about Obama. Second talk it was more veiled, lots of people on Bayon talking about all the guns they owned … I kept my trap shut.”
Survivor hopes to film seasons 41 and 42 in the spring of 2021.
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