Why are conspiracy theories gaining traction worldwide?
Why are COVID-19 co nspiracy theories gaining tractio n wo rldwid e?
At the end of March, in the city of Birmingham, England, a 70- foot cellular tower belonging to the mobile network operator EE Limited was deliberately set on fire by unidentified arsonists. Over the following weeks, cell towers in Belfast, Liverpool and the village of Melling were set ablaze, too, seriously jeopardizing the infrastructure of a network that provides phone service to millions — including emergency services, which are indispensable during a health crisis.
The arsonists didn’t feel they were endangering their countrymen. Indeed, they believed they were liberating them: from the tyranny of 5G, whose noxious waves, they are sure, are behind the coronavirus. “Do you know that kills people?” an irate woman asked a 5G technician recently, in an obscene interrogation, the recording of which was obtained by NPR. For these believers, 5G suppresses the immune system or accelerates the spread of disease, and burning down the towers was a heroic act.
There is, of course, no merit to the argument that 5G is killing us, and certainly has nothing to do with a viral contagion of the kind the world is facing. Meanwhile, experts, politicians and spokesmen for the relevant industries have been obliged to dismiss these claims, often with justified impatience. Steve Powis, of the NHS, called them “absolute and utter rubbish.” Cabinet secretary Michael Gove called them “dangerous nonsense.”
The most pervasive 5G conspiracies — that COVID-19 is disseminated by cellular towers, or that COVID-19 is an elaborate government ruse devised to confine us to our homes so that they can install more 5G towers unopposed and unnoticed — have so little basis in reality that you wouldn’t expect them to be taken seriously by anyone but the already delusional.
But conspiracy theorists have migrated out from the Internet’s least credible recesses into the mainstream, and today even the wildest fantasies of nefarious intrigue may be embraced by millions as clandestine, sovereign truth. The cell-tower arsonists are not the United Kingdom’s lunatic fringe. A recent study by the University of Oxford found that one in five adults in England believe COVID-19 is a hoax.
Nor is this phenomenon confined to Great Britain. A recent poll conducted by Carleton University in Ottawa found that 11 per cent of Canadians believe COVID is a 5G coverup, and more than a quarter believe the claim that COVID was concocted as a weapon by the Chinese. A separate poll by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies found that 15 per cent of Canadians believe Bill Gates is responsible, while another 15 per cent believe COVID doesn’t actually exist.
Canadians haven’t been laying siege to the country’s mobile infrastructure, but we haven’t been immune to the delusional mania that breeds such dangerous action.
Across the United States and Canada, ordinary civilians are flaunting their exaggerated skepticism. Lurk in the comment sections beneath coronavirus articles for any length of time and you will encounter the hearty disbelievers: COVID was invented by Fauci and Bill Gates. The infected rates and death tolls are phoney.
These theories have a charmingly self- corroborating quality. No reputable newspaper, magazine or website will affirm any of these claims, because even a modicum of investigation or reporting would disprove them and because by nature they are impossible to substantiate. Skeptics get around this by simply insisting that reputable newspapers, magazines and websites are party to the same conspiracies, and have a vested interest in suppressing the truth. The news media, naturally, are fabricating stories on behalf of the state. You would have to be naive to believe what you read in the New York Times.
You see a lot of this rhetoric in another realm of conspiratorial lunacy: the “flat- earth” movement, whose proponents sincerely believe that our planet isn’t round but is actually a flat disc fixed in space. Flat- earthers, like COVID truthers, tend to advocate a sort of eye-opening intuition: there’s a lot of talk of “doing your own research” and looking into this or that subject on your own, meaning contrary to the advice of experts. “You want science? Open your eyes,” reads the introduction to a popular Flat Earth group on Facebook. “I see no curvature; I feel no spinning earth beneath my feet; I feel the warmth of the sun close, not 93-million miles away.”
These mysteries of perception can of course be explained, easily, by science. But science can be complicated. And such people want — crave — an answer they can readily comprehend. They don’t want to defer to others or accept that perhaps some things are too complex for the layman to grasp. Real research involves diligent, dedicated study and the assiduous scrutiny of peer review. How much easier, how intoxicatingly simple, to scroll through memes on Facebook, or delve into Youtube and click “play.”
There is no doubt that people are finding it increasingly difficult to trust the word of their government. The same Leger poll found that 50 per cent of Canadians feel the government is “deliberately withholding information about the pandemic.” Our faith in our leaders and institutions has been eroded. Mired in suspicion and mistrust, people seeking answers are looking elsewhere.
This kind of thing always produces in the conspiracy theorist a kind of defensive superiority. They know what they believe contradicts the status quo; that defiance frightens them but emboldens them, too. Those of us foolish enough to accept facts at face value — those of us who listen to medical professionals and leading experts in medicine and epidemiology and accept their wisdom — are mere sheep, passively receiving indoctrination like the proverbial lamb led to slaughter.
Never mind that men and women who have studied medical science for decades probably do know a lot more about infectious disease than us, and that a certain amount of deference to credible authorities is a hallmark of intelligence. The conspiracy theorist insulates himself against criticism with self- righteous hostility. Do your own research — by which means watch an hour- long rant on Youtube. Don’t trust experts. Make your own expertise.
Our faith in our leaders ... institutions has been eroded.