Conspiracy theories were always a hot topic. The 9/11, flat earth, the vaccines… Since the beginning of the pandemic, we’re witnessing the golden age for conspiracy theories and theorists. The 2020s will be remembered as the covid years(so far). For the first time after the Spanish Flu, humanity has faced an effective pandemic. People as usual, against the unknown, had many different approaches. Paranoia, denial, and controversial opinions were in the air. The world we’ve known has changed and people became more polarized. So in other words, besides the medical part, the pandemic has changed society and polarized us further from each other. Let’s take a look at the first months.
The authorities are responsible for this shifting in society, not only the individuals. Conflicting statements from health organizations and political figures have polarized the population. As an example the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro called the pandemic “stuff created by the media” and he claimed that nothing would happen to the Brazilians, so there was nothing to worry about without giving any scientific explanation at the beginning of the pandemic.
Another example is the President of Turkey. Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He censored the health organizations for many months, the state hid statistics and put the “whistleblowers” in prison. Members of the state-controlled Turkish press group insisted that “Turkish genes have made most Turks immune”.
Donald Trump, previous President of the United States also said in February 2020: “I think the virus is going to be — it’s going to be fine”. And in addition, he said that the virus will disappear in April, “when it will be hot, miraculously”.
Without scientific evidence, their statements damaged the reputation of
healthcare organizations battling the pandemic, which has led to more
people without any medical training to act and believe in opposition of what the healthcare organizations declared. These are examples of authorities denying the pandemic or avoiding it and people listening to their authority figures. Therefore, in these cases, the authorities leave room for the emergence and spreading of conspiracy theories.
On the other hand, there are other types of theories that are totally against the authorities. You could say they are driven by fear and paranoia. Like the theories about Bill Gates; There are famous conspiracy theorists (example: Attila Hildmann and Xavier Naidoo, both have hundreds of thousands of followers on their telegram groups) who believe it was Bill Gates all along, who created the virus and wanted to vaccinate masses to put nanochips in our bodies. In this example, the role of the authority has changed. Authority is no longer the carefree optimist denying the problem but he is the target of the conspiracy theory, the enemy.
Ok but why do some people happen to believe these theories?
Some of these are;
- The feeling of being superior
- Denial of knowledge from another source of authority,
- Lack of empathy,
- Knowing what is truly “right” while the “inferior others” (sheeps) have been treated with what the authorities gave them.
- People who tend to believe in these theories do so to avoid doubt, the unknown. This is the remedy for their powerlessness in the face of the complexity of the world. Admitting their helplessness is not desired(unconsciously) or at least possible when there is an alternative.
- In some cases, it serves as a protective barrier against the ugly truth. To deny what happened was not the weakness of the country, its lack of preparation or a victory of the terrorists (9/11) or to deny the existence of a deadly disease and the necessary preventions against it which restrict freedom of the individual.
After understanding why some people are well suited to these theories, we
we have to ask ourselves about the environment, the history. What is the cause? Why are there so many events and complaints? Are they just individuals? Mass paranoia pumped up by institutions during the Cold War and the conspiracies that arose during that period could have contributed to arousing interest in such theories. After all, besides the individual level, society also plays an important role. The media and the space race have contributed to these theories, at least in terms of content for example.
Before going any further and risking being biased we must also admit that the starting point, the source of all these theories which is the element of doubt, is undeniably acceptable given the huge scandals of high authorities and leaks such as; The Watergate Scandal, The WikiLeaks, secret files revealed by Snowden...
In conclusion, there isn’t a simple explanation for the popularity of conspiracy theories, it is a complex process and feeds from multiple sources.
