Conspiracy season follows calamities
THE terrorist attack in Moscow and the Baltimore shipping incident in the US have resulted in a tsunami of conspiracy theories enveloping the world, from the bizarre to the mundane, from the outlandish to the plausible.
People gravitate toward conspiracy theories that affirm or validate their political views. The scope and massive widespread distribution of information on the Moscow attack blurs its origins, in a world enveloped by deception, disinformation, misinformation and strategic concealment.
Conspiracy theories reinforce a belief that nothing in the world happens through coincidence. This refusal to recognise the role of chance leads many to develop a global view in which sinister and top-secret conspiracies permeate all layers of society.
Deluged with mountains of information, it’s easy to become uncertain about what is true and what is false. Once you are inside a conspiracy theory hole, it’s difficult to come out. Conspiracy theories, both powerful and enduring, and some that are distinctly possible, can wreak havoc on society.
The problem with condemning conspiracy theories is that it plays into the conspiracy theorists’ minds. It is a proven historical fact that conspiracy theories thrive in polarising political climates – they do not emerge in a vacuum. The current political crisis and chaos in the US is a classical example.
Any outlandish conspiracy, and its toxic twin – fake news, challenges society’s trust in facts. These contagions pose a profound threat to many democracies by damaging their bedrock: a shared commitment to truth. Sadly, what we are witnessing is a form of social media warfare, where conspiracy theories spread faster than a pandemic.
Many governments have resorted to conspiracy theories to distract from their own failures and to preempt criticism. In an era of sonic communications, we are vulnerable to manipulation.
Manipulated and distorted news brings out the worst in us, inspiring unwarranted attacks and hurtful comments. In a violence-infested global society, conspiracy theories thrive on our fear of the unknown, or the uncertain, and on our tendency to demand absolute proof that something is not the case, and it is difficult to prove something as 100% false. Science and technology have been haunted by conspiracy theories throughout the ages. It is difficult to explain the appeal and global spread of conspiracy theories associated with events like the Moscow terror attack.
There are a litany of theories, some overlapping and reinforcing, some contradictory, all of them useful in understanding the shadowy power of the conspiracy theory in the 21st century, forcing us to live in a paranoid era. It is under certain circumstances a way for some to exert control over or within unstable, complex systems. The devastation caused by toxic news provides fertile ground for conspiracy theorists to spew their unconfirmed intellectual excrement to a gullible audience. FAROUK ARAIE | Joburg