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In May 2018, an opinion piece arguing that the United States was in the midst of a modern Civil War went viral when it was shared as if it were written by Jack Minzey, a veteran and educator from Eastern Michigan University, who had passed away a few weeks previously. The Jackson Press, for instance, introduced the essay with the following paragraphs: Similar introductions could be found on The Chattanoogan and a multitude of Facebook posts and e-mail chains. Jack Minzey was truly an educator at Eastern Michigan University and he did pass away in April 2018. However, the essay attributed to Minzey is actually a shortened version of a speech delivered by Daniel Greenfield (a conservative author whose work can be found in publications such as FrontPageMag.com) at the South Carolina Tea Party Coalition Convention in January 2018: The piece can be read in its entirety here. A video of Greenfield's speech can be viewed below: It is unclear how Minzey's name was originally attached to this text. In similar instances, relatively unknown authors' names are replaced by those of celebrities or well-established political pundits in order to give an opinion piece more credence, or to increase the chances that it will get shared. In this case, it seems like there was renewed interest in Minzey's life and work following his passing, and someone took advantage of his death to bring attention to an unrelated piece.
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