Conspiracy theories in a time of pandemic
Selma Carvalho
Ever wondered what sort of person believes in conspiracy theories, from here on referred to as CPs? What sort of person willingly disregards the evidence of data, statistics, and logic in favour of shadowy and sinister plots suggesting an alternative reality? Oddly enough, the Corona virus pandemic seems to have multiplied people’s need to believe in CPs. Given the number of Goans on social media who are spreading CPs, it seems Goans are particularly pre-disposed to believing them.
Perhaps it is the absolute loss of power one experiences in situations, such as a pandemic, which makes them believe that there is an explanation—not the obvious one, of course—but a more sinister one which an unnamed entity is trying to cover up. CPs are easy to spot. There is an underlying thread to them. The first criteria of all good CPs is the use of the word ‘they’. ‘They’ are out to get you, to cause you harm, to make a profit. If you ask who ‘they’ are, there is never a clear-cut answer. Sometimes, ‘they’ are the government, sometimes, ‘they’ are a shadow government controlling the actual government, sometimes ‘they’ are a group of men connected to a mysterious organisation such as the Masons or the Opus Dei, collectively known as the Illuminati. These mysterious men (and they are mostly assumed to be men) always possess vast amounts of power which they wield everywhere, either through the black arts or information technology, towards their eventual goal of world domination.
One of the most preposterous theories which totally defies all logic, and ironically enough is the most widely spread, is the Bill Gates micro-chip theory. Bear in mind, Bill Gates is the man who gave us Microsoft, which revolutionised the personal computer and changed the way we work. He and his wife started the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation whose sole purpose is to alleviate world poverty. He now stands accused of wanting to insert microchips into people’s bodies through a worldwide vaccination programme. Why would people believe that a humanitarian billionaire wants to inject microchips in us? There is absolutely no evidence to back this up and it has been debunked by numerous valid sources and yet the number of people wanting to believe it, boggles the mind.
CPs already floating in the ether of social media got a lot more fuel when the dubious video ‘Plandemic’, produced by Mikki Willis, made its debut on 4 May, 2020. The bizarre interview with the discredited scientist Judy Mikovits cast aspersions on just about everybody, including Dr Anthony Fauci, the most respected medical authority in America at the moment, and spread some grade A nonsense about how the virus was manufactured to cause chaos and profit from an eventual vaccine. This proved to be manna from heaven for conspiracy theorists, a moment of ‘I told you so.’ The only problem with the video was its total lack of evidence, fact checking, and use of multiple sources, to back up its claims. Those facts did not deter people from lapping it up as the truth.
So how and why do these bizarre theories spread? One reason is the speed at which information now travels. Millions of people across the world can be fed misinformation and fake news at the touch of a button. What should be even more worrying, is how attractively this information is packaged. Take for instance the ‘Plandemic’ video. It is professionally produced and has all the elements of authenticity, a scientist who sounds plausible spouting quasi-facts, making people think this has a ring of truth to it. Except of course, it does not. There is zero truth in it.
Another reason these theories get traction is because our politics has become so polarised. We are either right-wing or left-wing and nothing in-between. Political platforms give air to fake news to back up or excuse failures or agendas. A YouGov poll in May 2020, found that 44% of US Republican voters believe Bill Gates wants to implant microchips in people. America has been devastated by the corona virus, a situation made far worse by the policies of the Republican-led government headed by Donald Trump. It could be that Republican voters have taken to CPs to make sense of the chaos.
But the intriguing question remains; why do otherwise normal people believe in CPs? One of the more probable explanations is that conspiracy theorists want to belong to a community. There has been a staggering break-down of community in recent times—the family unit, the old neighbourhoods, the friends network—which used to provide for us a sense of belonging has dissolved, so, now we cling to just about anything that poses to replace them. We join WhatsApp groups for information, and we believe our friends on Facebook and Twitter are community. We even begin to carve our political identities based on the groups we associate with on social media. In a way, we are totally lost both in terms of personal beliefs and collective ones. Unfortunately for mankind, the future is going to be even isolating in our urban world, and more confusing as more disinformation gets circulated via social media without the filter of editorship, a role played by traditional media. How do we counter this? We will have to train ourselves and our children to be more discerning, to spot news which can’t possibly be true, we will have to equip them with evidence, science and the ability to reason, so that we hold on to some semblance of reality.
(The writer is the Author of Goan Pioneers of East Africa)
