‘Conspiracy theories can kill - put your faith in science and facts’
The Crow’s Nest, a column by Russ Litten
Current Affairs
Conspiracy theories are not a modern phenomena.
During AD 64 a rumour was circulated that the great fire of Rome was started by the Emperor Nero, who wanted to rebuild the city in his own design. Nero was so affronted he started his own counter-conspiracy theory, blaming the Christians, which led to the persecution and crucifixion of many innocents.
From JFK and the moon landings to Princess Diana and 9/11, it seems that any tumultuous global event must be viewed at least in part through the lens of potential subterfuge. In the past, these skewed perspectives resulted in little other than Sunday Sport headlines about Elvis on the Moon, and dodgy videos of alien autopsy. All good innocent fun. Now, we seem to have come full circle.
Because just like back in AD 64, believing conspiracy theories in the year 2020 can get you killed.
I first came across a widespread belief in these urban myths ten years ago when I worked in a prison as a writer in residence. The most borrowed books in the library were true crime, Game Of Thrones-style fantasy epics, and the books of David Icke.
Every other bloke I met on the wings or in the workshops believed in the Illuminati, the New World Order, that Beyonce was a blood thirsty shape-shifter who put satanic signals in her videos.
I sort of understood this, to a point. If you’re in prison, it’s perhaps easier, or more comforting, to convince yourself that everything is a big plot designed to keep you down. Besides, I’m a writer. I always enjoy a good story, however daft.
I thought a lot of it was just a critique of the modern world dressed up as mystic revelation. It seemed a self-contained world of illusion within another self-enclosed world.
‘FIERCELY BELIEVED’: Graffiti that appeared on a wall in Cave Street, Hull, during the first lockdown
I noticed an increasing credulity in wider society towards these sort of tales at the start of this summer. These were not just shared posts on the internet, passed on for interest. Instead they came out of the mouths of people I thought I knew, family members and friends of friends - the virus wasn’t real, vaccines were designed to control our minds, and all scientists were in cahoots with a shadowy cabal of supervillains who wanted to enslave the entire human race.
Oh, and mobile phone masts gave you cancer. These were unshakeable beliefs. And some people got very aggressive when questioned, especially if you brought up pesky details like science, or facts.
Now, I’m usually a live-and-let-live type of fellow who likes to pride himself on having at least a partially open mind. If you want to believe in David Icke, or Father Christmas, or the Loch Ness monster, fair play. Whatever gets you through the night.
But for me, the problem with all this antivax, anti-mask thinking is two-fold. One, it impinges upon the welfare of others. The Covid situation calls for something other than an adherence to a single belief. It’s about a shared, collective responsibility.
As we have already seen, Covid cares little for the opening hours of consumer capitalism, and even less for anyone’s personal beliefs. We will not resolve this thing by agreeing to differ. If I’m in the corner shop and you come barging through the door, ranting about not wearing a mask, spitting flecks of self-righteous rage over the fruit and veg, then I’m afraid it’s not just yourself you’re endangering.
‘This fierce belief in conspiracy theories indicates a spiritual chasm at the heart of our society’
Secondly, I believe that all this fierce belief in conspiracy theories indicates a spiritual chasm at the heart of our society. A fella in prison once tried to sell me the theory that any secular system attempting to shape or order society was doomed to failure. All the “isms” - communism, fascism, Neo-liberalism - had failed, and they had failed because they all deny the deep-seated need within us human beings to believe in something bigger and more powerful than ourselves.
It was an interesting argument, one that I didn’t lend much weight to at the time; but recent events have caused me to revisit these ideas. Do human beings need to believe in a higher power in order to function properly? Could this be especially true when we are frightened?
Another fella in prison once told me that everyone is an atheist until you point a gun at them. Has the threat of Covid caused us so much disquiet it has caused us to take flight into believing conspiracy theories? To seek solace in the idea that none of this is our fault or our responsibility; it’s all a plot by an unseen enemy?
Nature abhors a vacuum. People don’t believe in the traditional touchstones of truth anymore. Governments and newspaper owners have always lied; now they lie with seeming impunity and a smirk on their face.
People have become burnt out, instinctively mistrustful. Experts are mistrusted. Doctors are dismissed. They would rather believe Twitter than News at Ten. Facebook, for some people, has become the modern Bible, only this time it’s a story they can be a part of, share and pass on; take a starring role in, even.
‘Conspiracy theories have become a new form of religion’
This is fertile ground for stories that rely upon a lack of proof. Everything can be doctored, faked, photoshopped, nothing is real. It’s a belief system based on a disbelief in everything. Conspiracy theories have become a new form of religion.
There are interesting connections to be made with this train of thought when you consider QAnon, the latest conspiracy craze from the USA that’s sweeping the nation. A lot of these people who think Donald Trump is the saviour sent to rescue children from a bunch of lizards running a pizza shop also seem to belong to the evangelical Right.
God and Jesus come up in every other sentence. I’ve always found it astonishing that these people cannot see the contradictions surrounding their statements and purported beliefs. If Jesus did come back today, I’d doubt he’d be wearing a MAGA hat.
It’s almost as if even supposedly fervent religious folk don’t actually believe in religion anymore. They need new belief systems to cling to - preferably ones that are divorced from reality. Some stories say that Nero fiddled while Rome burnt. Others say he sang. When it’s time for our history to be written, I wonder what tales they will tell of us?