All riled-up. Credit: Win McNamee/Getty
A year ago, riled-up by claims of a stolen election, hundreds of pro-Trump protestors forced their way inside the Capitol in Washington DC, perpetrating a secular desecration that shocked the world.
In the aftermath, Donald Trump was impeached by House of Representatives, but acquitted by the Senate. The social media companies were not so lenient. The 45th President of the United States was de-platformed by Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
The chaotic end of Trump’s presidency provided a pretext, though, for a much wider purge of anything deemed to fall under the category of conspiracy theory or misinformation. This week the Republican congresswoman, Majorie Taylor Greene, had her Twitter account permanently suspended; and Joe Rogan who has had content removed by YouTube.
The attack on conspiracy theory — and the power of the elites to define it as such — is a dangerous one. And not just because of the threat it poses to free speech and the growing influence of big tech that it points out. It’s also because conspiracy theories are an understandable — and sometimes useful — response to a confusing world. To repress this very human instinct risks doing more harm than good.
That’s not to say that this mode of thought is never pathological. But if the conspiracy theorist is obsessive or hateful, the problem is the obsession and the hate — vices which can apply to any belief system.
The trouble is, many conspiracies and cover-ups do exist. And they’d never be uncovered if no one theorised about them.
So as well as de-pathologising conspiracy theories as a concept, we need to understand conspiracy theorists as a group of people. Most of them are quite ordinary. And, according to recent UK-based research from Ipsos, there are a lot of them. Asked about three conspiracy theories randomly assigned from a list of 11, half the people surveyed considered at least one theory to be “plausible”, with 20% endorsing two or three.
Therefore, if you want to drive conspiratorial thinking out of society, you’re up against millions of your fellow citizens— not just a few fanatics. Of course, one could argue that’s all the more cause for a crackdown. How can we tolerate a situation in which whole swathes of the population believe in crazy stuff? Except that most of them don’t believe it. Not really.
For a start, there’s a huge variation in the extent to which different conspiracy theories are accepted. The theory considered the most plausible — with 40% of those asked agreeing — was that “Princess Diana’s death in a car crash was not accidental”. In contrast, the notion that “the COVID-19 vaccine is a cover for implanting traceable microchips” got the thumbs up from just 4% of respondents and the allegation that “5G mobile phone towers are responsible for the spread of COVID-19” a mere 2%.
What do people mean when they say that they find a conspiracy theory plausible, though? What do the Diana conspiracy theorists truly believe? That she was literally assassinated? In some cases, yes. But for most of the 40% it’s probably something much less extreme — like blaming the media for hounding the princess at every turn.
The researchers found “a high overlap” between those who consider a conspiracy theory plausible and those who consider it “not strictly accurate but a reasonable challenge to the official explanation”, which is telling. It’s not so much that they believe the conspiracy, but that they’re using it to express their doubts about the institutions that tell us what we ought to believe.
Ipsos asked about trust in various kinds of institutional authority. While more than 40% of respondents considered media and political institutions to be “untrustworthy”, the corresponding figures for scientific and public health organisations were much lower — just 3% and 6%. It’s clearly no coincidence that the Covid conspiracy theories had the least public support.
The lesson here is that those in authority would do better to make themselves more worthy of trust than to wage epistemic war on the public. For most people who indulge in them, conspiracy theories are not about dogmatism, but uncertainty.
As human beings, doubt comes naturally to us. Rational analysis may persuade us to think a certain way about a situation, but inevitably we’ll have irrational thoughts about it too — including secret fears and sneaking suspicions. And why not? Until a situation becomes clear it pays to have multiple, perhaps contradictory, ideas about it. Even if our gut reactions prove unfounded, we’re bound to have them anyway. This isn’t to say that we should allow the emotional, instinctual side of our nature to dominate, but to repress it completely would be just as unhealthy.
I’d argue that the equivalent applies at a collective level. Though a society doesn’t have a mind like a person does, it does have what Emile Durkheim called a “collective consciousness” composed of a shared set of understandings. Not everyone thinks the same thoughts about everything, of course — a non-totalitarian society makes room for multiple interpretations of reality. Nevertheless, through mechanisms such as democratic elections or the price setting function of the market place, decisions can be collectively arrived at.
Conspiracies theories are part of this bubbling mix of interpretations. At the social level, they’re equivalent to the stray thoughts, nagging doubts, daydreams and nightmares that individuals experience. As such, they need to be talked about, not repressed — taken seriously, if not always literally.
They might, after all, turn out to be true. Consider the origin of the Covid pandemic. The idea that the virus escaped from a Chinese laboratory was once repudiated as delusional, not to say xenophobic. Fortunately, there were some investigators willing to question the established view. Though not yet proven, the lab leak hypothesis is now taken seriously. At the very least, it has focused much-needed attention on the perils posed by high-risk research.
Just because conspiracy theories aren’t true, that doesn’t mean they don’t serve a purpose. There’s no conspiracy theory — no matter how obscure — that doesn’t speak to some unmet need to make sense of the world.
A deliberately silly example is the bizarre claim that Paul McCartney died in 1966 and was replaced by a look-alike. What possible psychological need might that satisfy? Well, how about the desire to comprehend the astonishing pace of cultural change over the course of the Sixties? Like the Beatles themselves, the world looked completely different at end of the decade from how it did at the beginning. I don’t think that McCartney’s supposed death and substitution provides any sort of useful explanation, but it does reduce a question of unfathomable complexity to a human scale.
The same psychological forces are at work in Covid conspiracy theories. Take the notion that vaccinations are being used to inject us with tracking technology. On one level it’s obvious nonsense, but on another it’s symbolic of the vastly expanded capacity of the state to monitor and control our movements. Even if we believe that these measures were justified, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t also be horrified by what’s been done to us. A necessary evil is still an evil.
Our collective sense of horror needs an outlet. Conventional politics has done a poor job of providing one — as has the mainstream media. So, instead, the trauma bubbles to the surface in the form of conspiracy theories. Which is why I worry about the actions of the social media companies. Who are they to edit the collective consciousness?
They may imagine that they’re shutting down opportunities for charlatans and demagogues. But what I fear they’re really doing is closing off a safety valve.
Peter Franklin is Associate Editor of UnHerd. He was previously a policy advisor and speechwriter on environmental and social issues.
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SubscribeBrilliant insight, and certainly very true in other places I have visited recently, including heavily class-divided Dublin and cities and neighbourhoods in Brussels.
From the NYC/DC perspective, given that these predominantly white neighbourhoods are the ones with vaxx pass systems, and given the much lower rates of vaxx among African-Americans, I can’t help wonder how these policies are not being seen in the light of ‘effective segregation’. Two years of this garbage has the potential to undo a lifetime of civil rights activism.
it’ll be “enlighted/ ethical segregation” , they are not segregating from them because they are blacks, no no no, never that. They are segregating from them because as a group they are death spreading deplorables who happen to be black, but they will be allowed to have a safe space to roam and intermingle away from the correct thinking elites, who are almost exclusively white.
Similar thing is going on with Trans, under the guise of progressivism, mentally ill, depressed autistic females, and also depressed and porn addicted males are being sterilised, of course this is for their own good and they were literally asking for it, so the correct thinking elites are nothing like the elites of Bedlam,…… who sterilised the depressed and mentally unwell also for their own good.
the world has a surplus of elites, if only the Chinese could invent a plague that specifically targeted Guardian subscribers.
I am working on it
Maybe getting rid of these elites with their mimeographed diplomas and no-show jobs is the actual objective of these vaccines.
BLM beat them to it.
“given the much lower rates of vaxx among African-Americans, I can’t help wonder how these policies are not being seen in the light of ‘effective segregation’. ”
Easy. If you don’t agree with Biden and the Democrats, you ain’t black. Biden’s words, incidentally.
I live in a middle class market town in the north of England. My home town is a more working class market town in the north of England. Both places are predominantly white British so race does not apply.
Where I live is mainly populated by the laptop class, most of whom work in the public sector, have been working from home throughout and vote Labour, Lib Dem or Green. We have a Waitrose and a M&S. My home town is populated mainly by locals who work on the railways, in electricity generation, in distribution centres or as prison officers. It is a Red Wall new Tory seat and its supermarkets are Asda, Morrison’s and the Co op.
Where I live there are still very few people out and about, and everyone is masked, even outdoors and even little children. That won’t change with the end of Plan B. In my home town, you would hardly know that there had been a ‘pandemic’. I used to love where I live but I can’t stand it anymore. I am making plans to move back home.
Good for you!
I live near the border between a Red state and a very Blue state. When you cross over the border into Red territory, it is like a different world as well. Few wear masks and no silly signs at the entrances of stores. In the Blue state, the masks are ubiquitous and warning signs abound. Yet, there is no difference whatsoever in the infection rates or death rates between the two. In fact, the only difference that seems to exist is the condescension on the part of the Blue citizens, who think the Red citizens are either completely ill-informed, uninformed or just plain stupid.
What your observations clearly demonstrate are just how wussified the privileged elites have become. They are all about virtue signaling when it costs them nothing. And they are basically frightened of their own shadow. It’s as if the so-called privileged elites have lost any sense of proportion or common sense. Very tragic to realize that the so-called highly educated are really just credentialed but are incapable of any sort of critical thought.
The same privileged elites who are demanding action against Russia and drove the invasion of Iraq.
There should be someway of conscripting them and their children to go and do the fighting
How true your words are. I am privy to some of these elitists and it is downright hilarious to witness their daily “crises”, such as their hairdresser changing the appointment or, heaven forbid, the hot water temperature in the shower falling below 125 degrees Fahrenheit for a split second. And to top it off, the apoplexy of not being able to get a prime table at a favorite restaurant on a Saturday evening on a whim. Oh, the misery they have to endure!
It has been a class thing in many countries. In South Africa, Covidians are all middle class with a salary coming in, or independently wealthy. Lots of scorn heaped on people who are anti lockdown, anti masks, anti vaccine mandates. One and all they are sitting slack jawed in front of CNN, Sky etc, or reading things like NYT or The Guardian.
Indeed, it all started with the lockdowns: “My job allows me to work from home, hence, lockdowns are fine”. Those same peple went on and became the “if you are not vaccinated do not hang around me” people.
Have experienced exactly the same thing…. some old friends have become very off putting to me.
Why aren’t all the unmasked dead by now?
Racism, always and only racism. It’s the current masters of mankinds go to answer for everything, maybe the Guardian will discover evidence that white supremacy causes antibodies that give immunity to covid?
And who can forget the 1984 divisions where all normal people had to 100% comply – yet ghettos existed in all the cities where illicit booze and vice were available and they were left to their ways (and I expect would also in the countryside, if Orwell had talked of it)
The disenfranchised have always been let to behave ways the enfranchised may not. I think they are too much a bother to force, too hard headed – yet without real power. Orwell said the ghettos were allowed as a pressure relief valve on the oppressed society where they may go for their illegal and illicit pleasures – but as they are so rough and poor one does not wish to join them., and looks down on them.
Very true; I’ve often thought of that bit from 1984 about the relative freedom of the common people and wondered if that was going to be the only hope for the rest of us.
Of course, if you are going to reference 1984 I believe you should have added a trigger warning these days ….
Yes, people are triggered by reading Nineteen Eighty-Four and finding themselves actually in it.
“she replied, in heavily Polish-accented English, that we were all adults and could make our own decisions. “ – Are we truly adults ? Most of the “adult” citizens are still holding on to their childhood lesson of “Do as you are told”.
The class division and the following of covid “rules” is interesting. The lower classes are forced to actually grow up and faster too while the nanny panny are still fussing with the “which mask to wear today”.
Another marvellous article by Park.
Is he a new addition to the UnHerd flock? This is the second time I read his stuff and I most certainly look forward to the third!
Good article but the conclusions are very predictable; perhaps he should have mentioned religion. Red states, as per the stereotype, believe in god. Blue states, as per the stereotype, do not. But Blue states and blue sections need their religious rituals, which are BLM rallies, whites publicly washing the feet of blacks, I mean Blacks, wearing masks, submitting to Big Brother.
All of this can be seen as a reaction to the self-hatred they feel at being white, at buying expensive houses, gentrifying neighborhoods, and many other things. The more they mask, the more they check each other to prove vaccination–a meaningless ritual–the better they feel. Masking outside really takes the cake–a very PUBLIC “religious” ritual. How would the world know how virtuous they are if they are not masked outside?
Religion may be the opium of the masses, and this is the new religion.
“publicly washing the feet of blacks, I mean Blacks”
Haha!
I am upper-middle/lower-upper class and white. and have worn a mask for probably five minutes in the last nine months. A few days ago I was queuing to place my order in a hipsterish cafe in Bristol, when for the second time in five minutes a staff member questioned me about my masklessness. My response:-
“I’m exempt [untrue, actually]. Also, I looked this morning at the ONS website, according to which 97.5% of us have Covid antibodies. Moreover, Omicron is acknowledged as almost harmless, So what exactly does masking achieve?”
Answer came there none.
Of course not. Bristol is so woke they’re wired! Was thrown out of my choir and discussion group despite having clear natural immunity with an objective antibody test to boot. “Made people feel unsafe”
In British Columbia they dropped the mask mandate over the summer – it is back now. We were in Whistler at a very nice hotel the day the mask rule was terminated. Everyone (other than me) at the hotel kept wearing their masks voluntarily. However when we went to a local diner for breakfast the next day away from the tourist area – not one person was wearing a mask – employees or patrons. So there is most certainly is a class divide here as well.
Apologies for the digression. As if America isn’t screwed up enough, how did they get to the idea that blue is Left-wing and red is Right-wing? Whenever I see mention of this I have to do a doublethink: Left is Right, War is Peace, Love is Hate, etc.
I realise they are only colours, but no one associates the political colour red with anything other socialism, or at least diluted forms of it: Red Flag, Red Army, Reds under the bed, etc.
And it seems like it’s only a recent phenomenon to describe Democrats and Republicans this way. Certainly I’d never seen it referred to until a few years ago.
Rant over. As to masks clearly enthusiasm is on the wane. Even up to ‘Freedom Day’ last year it was quite rare to see maskless people in shops, and often I’d see the security guard demand non-mask wearers leave. But when they returned later in the year, I noticed no one has been challenged. Like a good citizen I’ve complied for the few minutes that I’m usually in the supermarket, but will ditch the mask later this week.
Thank you, finally someone addressed the real issue of the “pandemic” that is in fact not a pandemic but an exploitation circus, because the real pandemic is not being addressed at all: all measures are counter-effective, all treatment is blocked, banned and not even researched, medical attention is blocked (people are not able to get a doctor, unless they go to an emergency room), poor people, homeless, mentally disabled, drug-addicted people are being simply thrown away. So it is not a pandemic, but a bourgeois spectacle of “safety”. I live in Brooklyn, on the border between Park Slope and Gowanus. I can clearly see that Privilege in the society is in direct proportion to the level of obedience to “safety measures”. It is privileged well-off people (not necessarily white) or those who wish to be privileged and well-off, who are getting out of their skin to be “safe”. It is them who advocate for the removal of all suspicious and “unsafe” people from life (via “vaccine passports”) and removal of any “unsafe misinformation” from the reality. It is them, who are either rich or wanting to belong, that behave like the world police. Not only this disease is a class issue, but the whole show of “safety” is a class issue. The bourgeois class, the class of privileged “good citizens”, who are of course Democrat (in the US) and liberal, is responsible for terrorizing the rest of the population, and the rest of the population suffers from unemployment, homelessness, lack of public services, persecution for non-compliance, malnutrition (and junk nutrition), cancer, diabetes, metabolic and autoimmune diseases, compared to which, covid is just a nasty cold. No one counts how many have lost their lives due to “pandemic response”-generated diseases. Not the pandemic, but the terror of the upper class in the name of “care”. The difference between these two strata of the society is well expressed by this Polish woman in your article: the upper class sees the citizens as children and the State as a Father or a Guardian – and the rest of the population knows that the citizens are responsible adults. Cass Sunstein, the new Bernays, is falling on his face.
If this is a class issue, why does he harp on about skin colour?
Because there is still a divide iro race… but changing.
Because a lot of the same folks who are so in favor of mask and vax mandates like to claim they are doing it to protect minorities. He’s pointing out that many minorities don’t agree with that idea and in fact are often victims of these policies.
Spot on response.
It still smacks of identity politics to me. White person thinks and behaves one specific way; black/brown person behaves another specific way. It’s perpetuated by the types of generalised assumptions made in the article and your post. I don’t live in the US BTW, so just making the observation.
The neuroticism of US urban white elites (especially women) is rather amusing as well as astounding; They seemingly know no bounds. They think very highly of themselves, their virtues and lives in general. Masks are worn everywhere and vax cards mandatory. They are also the enablers and perpetuation of the Woke movement, to be avoided if one wants to feel sane. Pray God they stay in New York.
Here in the CT countryside, for the most part ‘normality reigns’. Only the grocery store requires masks, otherwise we’re ‘free’. That said, we’ve had too many urban New Yorkers decamp to our rural area over the past few years because of the pandemic. There’s indications their attitudes and expectations of what society should do for them are slowly creeping in.
Resist it Cathy. Persist as a group in your normal behaviour.
Another tiresome, woke Coronaphobe… who can take anyone who calls himself ” Park” seriously?
I suspect he was baptised as Park. He’s American, or didn’t you “get” that? Americans might well consider a few English names strange, though in my experience they would resist demonstrating bad manners by sniping about it in the way you have.
Additionally, I would not have called the gentleman woke. He sounds ultra normal to me. Perhaps you’d explain why he’s woke in your opinion, and what a “Coronaphobe” is. It’s a new one on me, but doubtless you’d consider me a deplorable for questioning your views.