A Longing For Trust and Truth

In the midst of any crisis, a plethora of conspiracy theories resonate to the surface of the mainstream, on twitter and social media at least. COVID is, sadly, no difference and no exception to the rule of misinformed lunacy. It seems even in the case of a virus and millions of people becoming infected, a chap in Florida will somehow manage to explain it away as some plot by the lizard headed illuminati to take away people’s guns.

Be it the obvious nonsense of 5G causing COVID (the basis for which grounded in the same logic as those claiming the earth to be flat) or the President chiming in with his mandatory batshit crazy comment of injecting disinfectant to cure the virus (with 3 total idiots already being admitted to just one US hospital), it seems the internet is never short of contrarian theories.

Now, this piece isn’t about debunking the obvious or, god forbid, attempting to give credence to such nonsensical ideas, but rather to explore the root of why conspiracy theories have become increasingly present in recent times with more and more attention and credibility being given to them.

There are two main reasons, I believe, for this divergence from the mainstream into the fanciful: the first being the increasing distrust of the mainstream press and perceived establishment figures, and the second being that some people will simply believe the sexier, more controversial story; i.e: the Florida man.

The former of which, however, is far more symptomatic of a wider issue within society as a whole: people simply do not trust establishment figures anymore. This is case and point why people will listen to Trumps ramblings about injecting disinfectant ahead of a medical professional on TV telling them that this will kill them.

Establishment media and politicians have told them how to think and how to feel for far too long, giving people nothing but platitudes and empty promises, thus perhaps we should not be so surprised when figures like Trump and Bolsanaro, who by all accounts are human scum, suddenly have people listening to their objectively crazy ideas: they touch all the right nerves in all the right places and, I know its been said on the blog before but it really does bear repeating, what do people have to lose?

Is it really any surprise, then, that this lunacy has spilled over and transcended into the realm of conspiracy theory? I think not. It is merely another wake up call to the neoliberal democrats and third way centrists that their way is finished: it’s a case of move left or move aside.