aren’t just theories. Coincidence and randomness and the unexpected, and actual conspiracies (or their kissing cousin, cover- ups), are real... Watergate (which brought down Richard Nixon) and VW’s emissions scandal (a cover-up of an effort to fool pollution regulators) and doubts surrounding Theranos (a bogus blood-testing company) all started as someone’s pet wacko idea – a conspiracy theory that was true. But there’s a big difference with those... In order to uncover real conspiracies, investigative journalists, lawyers, scientists, and others work hard. They develop a hypothesis, they cultivate sources, conduct research, and search for proof and evidence. If they don’t find sufficient proof of the hypothesis, they give it up and move on. Or it is real... And that’s how Pulitzer Prizes are won, investors lose money, Sean Hannity gets excited, people go to jail, and presidents wave goodbye for the last time as they helicopter off the White House lawn. There’s a big distinction between this kind of actual research... and the “research” that, say, my Facebook ex-friend claimed was behind his posts that Bill Gates is plotting to use a COVID-19 vaccine as a cover to inject Americans with microchips. (By the way, around a quarter of Americans believe this, according to a Yahoo News/YouGov poll from May.) He’d gotten sucked down the YouTube rabbit hole... Watching a few videos online, though, doesn’t make anyone an expert on anything other than watching videos on YouTube. So how can you prevent your brain from being hijacked by conspiracy theories – and
preserve and protect the essence of democracy and society – by insulating yourself and your loved ones from them? A few tips... Learn to identify them . A conspiracy theory has a compelling internal, circular logic that is airtight. As a psychologist writing in The Conversation explained...
Conspiracy theories are essentially irrefutable: logical contradictions,
evidence showing the opposite, even the complete absence of proof have no bearing on the conspiratorial explanation because they can always be accounted for in terms of the conspiracy. The lack of proof about a plot, or any positive proof against its existence, is turned around and taken as evidence of the craftiness of the secret cabal behind the conspiracy. It is seen as confirmation of the conspirators’ ability to conceal their machinations. If you find yourself on a logical merry-go- round when pondering a theory, it’s a warning sign. Just because a theory is tight as a drum doesn’t mean there’s anything inside... Apply a filter of personal experience and logic . Some things that make sense when a guy wearing scrubs who says he’s a doctor fast-talks on YouTube, or which might make for good Hollywood, don’t hold up to scrutiny. My Facebook ex-friend didn’t bother to figure that even someone as clever as Bill Gates can’t come up with a microchip so small that, when injected into the human body, it wouldn’t cause an embolism. And even if he could, such a chip wouldn’t have the battery power to last for long.
American Consequences
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