The spectrum between conspiracy and truth is as blurred as it’s ever been. Credit: Peter Summers/Getty Images
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Walking up Whitehall on a Saturday, by Downing Street I was passed by a couple of young women bearing placards. One said: ‘Save Our Children’.
The guessing game began. Their clothes didn’t scream Socialist Worker Party. So what were they protesting? Who were these children, and what did they need saving from? The Bedroom Tax? Black Lives Not Mattering? Turkey Twizzlers?
As we crowded into Trafalgar Square the answer became obvious: satanic paedophile cults.
There, a crowd of true believers were gathering for the grand jamboree of dissent that was the Unite For Freedom Rally. I had accidentally stumbled into the conspiracy theory motherlode. There were many more QAnon posters — the particular creed that these two were devoted to. But there were also posters that advertised Bill Gates’s largely unrelated attempts to depopulate the West. Then the vaguely related but far more established anti-vaxxers. Then the ultra-modern 5G types. A man in a cut-out face visor held a garish folk art poster with more orthodox anti-Semitic Rothschild tropes, even as more milquetoast libertarians used their posters to assert only that “masks are muzzles” and “new normal = new fascism”. Finally, there was a single placard, perhaps designed to unite these disparate sub-tribes under a single belief system. It said only: “SCAM”.
The Unite For Freedom Rally had been advertised online as aiming for ‘an end to Government lies and the restoration of all freedoms’, but its remit went far wider than that, because its organiser was Kate Shemirani.
In recent weeks, Shemirani has emerged as the leader of Britain’s anti-Covid conspiracists. The quickest way into her belief system is to note that she refused chemotherapy for breast cancer on the advice of a husband who thought 9/11 was an inside job, then embarked on: “a fat-free, salt-free, sugar-free vegan regime including high doses of vitamins as well as 13 juices a day, five coffee enemas and mistletoe injected into her stomach”. Anti-vax is her strong suit, but you name it and Shemirani will believe it.
So why was she teaming up with Dolores Cahill? Cahill is a doctor and a professor from University College Dublin. She’s a world expert in biomarker discovery and diagnostics; you can’t say that about people who squirt mistletoe into their tummies.
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Subscribe‘debatable’ in “and also that vaccines carry safety risks (debatable, but she has the scientific chops to make a case)” seriously undermines the credibility and value of this article. It should read “irrefutable, and she has the scientific chops to make a case.” Still looking for an honest, evidence-based, left-wing critique of the Covid phenomenon…
I appreciate Haynes’ attempt to walk the tightrope here, not merely creating caricatures that can be easily mocked, as the media normally does. Dan Hitchens’ article about Hiroshima and the way the US government managed the initial reports about the nuclear bombing in Japan makes it clear exactly why the media cannot be trusted and must constantly be questioned on every point. The media has acted as cheerleader for a long history of failed medicines (think Thalidomide, Vioxx, etc. etc.), immoral and illegal coups in foreign countries, and yes”government conspiracies. Journalism has not been in healthy fettle since 100 years ago with the so-called “muckraker” journalists such as Upton Sinclair and Ida Tarbell, who rightly saw their role as using their investigative skills to ferret out the truth, not toeing the line to ensure their pensions remained secure.
When it comes to so-called “conspiracy theories,” I ask people three simple questions: Was Watergate a conspiracy? Was Iran-Contra a conspiracy? Were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq a conspiracy? If you answered “yes” then you are on the side of history. Each conspiracy must be examined on its own merits and in the light of all available evidence. But most journalists today are either too lazy or too pressed for time to do that job properly.
Brilliant and balanced piece. Obvious those on the wider shores of scepticism will be annoyed that their assertions have not been affirmed. However, the majority of the growing group Lockdown and climate fear sceptics, as well as those who see the trans takeover of human rights, will see it as fair.
I think there is truth in some of the conspiracy theories. With regard to Covid there are plenty of eminent doctors who have spoken up but have been deleted by the big social media companies and have had to flee to websites which the social media cannot touch. It is true that one can go too far because of strong feelings but that doesn’t change what the true facts are.
I have read most of these convuluted comments. Wouldn’t it be easier to believe the ‘conspiracy theorists’ which means the doctors who signed the baltimore declaration. And anyone with half a brain who Knows its all rubbish. Elf And Safety Gone mad. Rescind The 1978 Elf and Safety at work Act which culturally marxy wraps us in cotton wool and pours tar on us. It benefits rich lawyers and cripples our industrial effectiveness. No doubt all you talking heads are employed by Government or in the Chattering classes unaffected??? By wealth creation. Just you wait when there’s no money to support your Chattering. You will be starving. Too late to say sorry. What makes you any more special than a starving Biafran. Nothing!!!!
You seem as mad as me….