History shows why we need to pay attention to conspiracy theories
In the early half of the 20th century a widely circulated and toxically false conspiracy theory proposed that a cabal of elites, engaged in ritualistic child sacrifice, had plans to take over the world.
These elites were world Jewry and this conspiracy theory represented but one of many examples of extreme antiSemitism popular at the time. On a cold day in January of 1942, a group of 15 Nazi elites, including medical doctors, lawyers, academics, politicians and top military brass met in a posh mansion in Wannsee, a suburb of Berlin, and finalized the plans that resulted in the systemic genocide of 6 million European Jews. The Nazi conspirators did their very best to cover up their meeting as well as the deployment of their toxic plans. Allied forces at the end of the Second World War were shocked as they uncovered the immensity of the Nazi conspiracy.
As a consequence of the incessant pogroms and blatant discrimination, some European Jews found refuge in North America, only to find many antisemitic protestant-controlled businesses and professions were off limits. The nascent film industry in California was too new to have imposed such barriers, and a few of these immigrants, such as Sam Goldwyn and Louis B. Mayer helped build the remarkable American film industry.
As we wind the clock forward we witness the revival of the same stale, discredited toxic conspiracy theory via QAnon who posit a cabal of “Hollywood Satanists” (a thinly veiled reference to Jews), is involved in ritualistic child pedophilia forming part of a “deep state,” believed to be in control the Democrats in an attempt to take over the world. Sound familiar? It should be easy in this day and age for any rational person to laugh off these ideas, but in a frightening twist of reality, a group of at least 14 individuals organized a genuine conspiracy to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan. This group was rather less organized than the Nazis and so far, has not managed to gain control of the U.S., but who can predict what these nutty people will do in the coming weeks as the U.S.A. lurches toward the finale of a chaotic election?
It is good to see YouTube banned QAnon propaganda, but why is it the folks who believe these conspiracy theories are so quick to dismiss proven conspiracies — denying the Holocaust or suggesting that the American government was complicit in the destruction of the World Trade Center? Sadly, it is the misguided and often toxic people in our own societies, driven by irrational faith in long discredited conspiracy theories that systematically engage in real conspiracies, sometimes with truly tragic consequences. Recall the Oklahoma bombing perpetrated by homegrown terrorists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. It now appears that the perpetrators of the Michigan conspiracy may be linked to the far right “3%” militia movement that includes Canadian members and is considered by some experts to be the most dangerous extremist group in Canada. Extremism will not go away easily but in the end it is worth remembering the admonition of the second spirit of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”: “This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.”
Who can predict what these nutty people will do in the coming weeks as the U.S.A. lurches toward the finale of a chaotic election?