Who Benefits, Who Believes, and Who Dies
How conspiracy theories grow, and the damage they cause
Introduction
Believing the Unbelievable
It’s a well-known fact that we didn’t land on the moon.
That’s what they tell us, but it’s all a lie. But President Kennedy had promised it would happen before the end of the sixties, and failing to do so would have been too embarrassing to the USA in the middle of the Cold War. So it was filmed on a soundstage. They even got famous auteur Stanley Kubrick to direct it.
And it wasn’t that getting to the moon was too difficult, but because, by 1969, it had been proved that the moon doesn’t actually exist.
Of course, the government will never allow this to come out. And when anyone gets too close to the truth, they use Barack Obama’s ability to control the weather to cause disasters that deflect our attention.
And if too many people manage to discover the truth? Well, that’s when they change all the evidence and claim the people who remember what things used to say are simply being affected by the Mandela Effect.
Some people say it’s not possible for any one government to manage all of these things. But when we’re dealing with a massive One-World government run by alien lizard people based in the underground bunkers beneath Denver International Airport, anything is possible.
But make sure you don’t listen to those crazies who go on about Hollow Earth Theory. That one’s a load of baloney.
Because everyone knows the world is flat.
Good, harmless fun
Everyone loves to laugh at a good conspiracy theory. They’re so wonderfully ridiculous; who couldn’t enjoy reading the absolute nonsense people have spent their lives coming up with?
They are even fun to take semi-seriously for a little while. Would shows like The X Files have been anywhere near so popular if it weren’t for our interest in the idea that “the truth is out there”? And it’s not alone. Not by a long shot. No television station or streaming service would dream of not having at least one ongoing series about aliens, UFOs, or government cover-ups.
Because that’s what conspiracy theories are, isn’t it? Fiction. Someone has come up with an entertaining story, with all the “evidence” required to make it believable, and presented it to the world. They are modern-day campfire ghost stories. Something to be told during a sleepover with a torch held under your face. It’s no longer vampires and witches that scare us. It’s the secrets that the ubiquitous “They” don’t want us to know.
No one could ever actually believe a conspiracy theory.
Could they?
When the fun goes too far
Here’s the thing. If you’ve read about a conspiracy theory, it means someone, somewhere, believes it to be true.
It doesn’t matter how ridiculous it might seem to you. It doesn’t matter how much evidence you have seen that proves it wrong. It doesn’t matter how many times it’s been denied or debunked. To someone, it’s the truth.
Why is this? Who can really say? There are people in the world with serious mental health issues, of course. Those prone to paranoia or schizotypy, for example. Or maybe these are people who’ve only seen certain pieces of evidence about something and have put together a plausible theory without all the facts.
And don’t forget, some things dismissed as conspiracy theory has been proven to have been true all along. When news about Watergate originally came out, President Richard Nixon dismissed it as nothing more than a smear campaign and that anyone who believed it was falling for conspiracy theories. Yet, just a couple of years later, that "conspiracy theory" forced him to resign from office.
If one conspiracy can be true, why not another?
And, of course, we don’t live in an open society. Whether it’s for national defense, trade negotiations, or simply because something is considered too boring for people to care about, there are a lot of things our governments keep from us.
And if they have lied in the past, why should we believe they are doing so now?
The consequences of conspiracy
Do you believe that Bill and Hilary Clinton head up a devil-worshiping pedophile ring in Washington DC that has been human-trafficking children for years?
The people who took it upon themselves to send death threats to various pizza restaurants in Washington DC, and in some cases turned up with assault weapons to “save the kids” believed it.
Do you believe that billionaire George Soros is the latest in a long line of Jewish businessmen who have used their wealth to control the media and, through it, all of Western Politics?
The man who, in 2018, walked into a Pittsburgh synagogue and murdered 18 people believed it.
Do you believe that the 2020 US Election was rigged, with fake voting ballots brought in once it became clear that incumbent President Donald Trump was going to win a second term?
The crowd of over 2,000 people who stormed the US Capitol Building, resulting in five deaths on the day and driving several police officers to suicide in the following months, believed it.
Of course, none of the above conspiracy theories are true. Each of them has been debunked multiple times. And yet people believe in them so strongly they are willing to inflict violence on, and even kill, innocent people.
Where’s the line?
It’s one thing to lose yourself in the stories of Agents Mulder and Scully attempting to discover the truth about who is really running the world. It’s another thing entirely to believe there is actually a secret cabal calling the shots and controlling your lives.
It’s one thing to believe in a specific conspiracy theory and laugh at those who don’t see the truth. It’s another thing entirely to arm yourself and murder anyone who doesn’t agree with you.
But where is the line? What is the difference between a “fun” conspiracy theory and a “real” one? How do people go from “That’s nonsense,” to “Well, if you put it like that,” to “You’re right, why can’t everyone see this?” and finally to “I have to go out and defend myself from these people,”?
What are conspiracy theories? How have they become so ingrained in our culture? And most importantly, how have they been so effectively weaponized by those who seek to benefit from untruth?
Chapter 1
The Search for Meaning: Why we Seek out Conspiracies
What is a Conspiracy Theory?
So, the first question we have to ask is, “what exactly is a conspiracy theory?”
There are a lot of ways to define a conspiracy theory. A “conspiracy” on its own is simple to explain. It’s a covert plan or operation between two or more people. But a “conspiracy theory” is something different. On its face, it could simply mean a conspiracy that has yet to be proven. Something somebody has uncovered or figured out but has yet to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. But in modern culture, the phrase has taken on a different, potentially more sinister, meaning.
A modern conspiracy theory is something that “They” don’t want us to know. Who are “They”? Well, we’ll come to that in more detail in Chapters 2 and 3. But essentially, “They” are whoever sits at the top of our society, calling the shots. Not the ones we think are in charge, of course. “They” are beyond any elected official and far outside of anything as simple as transparency or accountability. They are the ones with the power to not only rule over us but to use the tools available to them to do anything to protect themselves.
Essentially, if anything is wrong in your life, it’s because “They” are doing things that make it happen.
While conspiracy theories have no doubt existed for centuries, the term itself only started to become mainstream in the late 1800s. One of the earliest examples comes from American author Charles Astor Bristed. In an article for The New York Times, he discussed the preposterousness of the theory that the Civil War had been orchestrated by British agents looking to take down slavery in the name of British business interests.
England has had quite enough to do in Europe and Asia, without going out of her way to meddle with America. It was a physical and moral impossibility that she could be carrying on a gigantic conspiracy against us. But our masses, having only a rough general knowledge of foreign affairs, and not unnaturally somewhat exaggerating the space which we occupy in the world's eye, do not appreciate the complications which rendered such a conspiracy impossible. (Bristed, 1863)
As you can see, in this article, Bristed identifies how conspiracy theories spring from the gap between “rough general knowledge” and a lack of understanding of “the complications which rendered such a conspiracy impossible”. And this appears to be a common denominator in modern conspiracy theories. In most cases, there will always be a point where you can see how you might believe in it, assuming you only have a certain amount of evidence. We, however, know it’s nonsense because we are knowledgeable enough to see what the conspiracy theorist does not.
But, of course, that’s just what they want you to think.
Because however much you can lay out the evidence that a conspiracy theory cannot be real, the difficulty can be convincing the theorist. If “They” want to keep their secrets hidden, what better way than to seed the world with “alternative facts” that clearly only exist to discredit those who’ve stumbled onto the truth.
In fact, even the phrase “conspiracy theory” is itself a conspiracy theory. Some people believe that the CIA has worked to popularize many of them itself as a tool to discredit people who stumble upon events and programs that are actually true. (Brotherton, 2015, p. Chapter 4)
But why are conspiracy theories so popular? It’s understandable that people might believe in them when they don’t have all the facts, but why is it so hard to convince some people to accept those facts once they have become believers?
The Hunt for Meaning in Chaos
The world is a scary place. No one can deny that. We work hard to create lives with everything we need to live comfortably. To raise families and leave the world a better place than we found it. And yet all of that can be swept away in an instant.
Economies crash. Pandemics sweep across the world. Natural disasters fall upon us without warning. In a second, everything we have could be turned on its head, and there’s nothing we can do about it.
Isn’t it understandable to want to believe there’s someone to blame for all of this?
The Desire to Blame
Professor Michael Barkum describes a conspiracy theory as a “template imposed upon the world to give the appearance of order to events” (Barkun, 2016). We don’t like the idea of chaos running our lives. The thought that we don’t have control over the things happening to us.
We want someone to blame.
In truth, when something happens in the world, there are uncounted reasons behind them. Sociological factors. Economic factors. Political factors. And, of course, good old-fashioned chaos. But these are complicated, and they are often so big as to be impossible to process, let alone understand. And so we reach out for something simple. We want a story we can tell ourselves, hopefully where a clear “baddie” has worked against us, the “goodie”, in a way we can understand and rail against.
On December 7th, 1941, the Japanese launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Appearing out of the sky with almost no warning, killing over 2,000 people and destroying nearly 200 US ships.
Now, would you rather believe that the vaunted US military was so unprepared that it could be taken by surprise and almost defeated in a single blow? Or would you rather believe the President had known about the attack all along and allowed it to happen because he wanted an excuse to go to war?
In the early months of 2020, the Covid-19 coronavirus began to spread across the world, killing hundreds of thousands of people.
When looking at what happened, do you really want to have to think about all the sociological reasons behind the pandemic? The existence of wet markets The world’s reliance on open trade. The politicians who defunded programs designed to prevent or control such pandemics. Humanity’s vulnerability to viruses, despite all the wonders of modern medicine? Isn’t it simpler to believe Covid-19 was manufactured in a lab by the Chinese and released on purpose?
But it’s not merely a way to simplify a complex and terrifying world. Conspiracy theories are also a way of explaining why life is so hard.
The Desire to Have Been Right All Along
Humans use stories to interpret the world. And in those stories, we are always cast as the hero. But, unfortunately, life isn’t so simple. All of us have to face times when we are in the wrong. Or perhaps even the villain of someone else’s story. And when this happens, we encounter a condition known as Cognitive Dissonance. This happens when our personal view of the world, with us at the center, is shown to be wrong. (Wong, 2017).
But no one likes being proven wrong. And that’s not just hearsay. Studies have shown that refusing to admit when you are wrong actually has psychological benefits (Okimoto et al., 2012). This is why admitting fault can be so hard sometimes.
This is where confirmation bias comes in. This is the human trait of looking for evidence that will justify our beliefs as they are. In most cases, this leads to our finding a social group that shares our core beliefs. That way, we avoid being challenged on what we consider to be “the truth” more often than necessary. And at those times when it does happen, we will be with people less likely to judge us for it.
But when it goes too far, confirmation bias leads us into the realm of the conspiracy theory. Let’s take as an example, someone’s political beliefs. Let’s say the political candidate you backed at the last election has turned out not to be all they claimed to be. Now they have been voted out of office, and half the country are mocking you for falling for their obvious lies. Under that kind of pressure on your ego, isn’t it easier to allow yourself to believe that everything you believed is actually true, despite all the evidence, and the media have simply been lying to you? That the only reason you are so unhappy is not because of your own decisions but because the people at the top are secretly working behind the scenes to keep you down?
The Desire to not be so Powerless
As journalist and author Roger Cohen puts it, “captive minds; ... resort to conspiracy theory because it is the ultimate refuge of the powerless. If you cannot change your own life, it must be that some greater force controls the world.” (Cohen, 2010)
Society is unfair. Life is a lottery of birth. Will you be born into a family of wealth and status? Will you be in a part of the world where your race, religion, and culture are at the top of the social heap? Or will you be poor, oppressed, and powerless?
In times gone by, our set place in the social order was seen as simply the way of things. If your God, whoever it might be, has seen fit to place you at the bottom and someone else at the top, then there must be a reason.
But now, at least in theory, we no longer think that way. We are all created equal, and whoever we are and whatever our circumstances, we can be whoever we want to be.
Of course, that isn’t the case. Not in reality. Because, as we discussed above, the world is far more complex. We don’t have as much power or freedom as we would like to imagine is our inalienable human right.
So, where is all this vaulted freedom we are supposed to have? Well, we can look at the sociological or economic realities of a Capitalist system. Or we can look at the historical legacies of cultural oppression and racism. We can recognize the resilience of the class systems we, as a society, tell ourselves we’ve escaped.
Or, we can believe that things are bad because a secret group running the world is keeping it that way.
The Rise of the Internet
Conspiracy theories have been around for most of human civilization. Western culture, for example, has a long and embarrassing history of antisemitic conspiracy theories that continue to this day (Richard Simon Levy, 2006).
Modern conspiracy theories, however, are considered to have begun in the late 1800s. (One of the earliest modern conspiracy theories was that John Wilkes Booth escaped capture after he assassinated President Lincoln.) And it’s no coincidence that this corresponds to the birth of mass communication.
In the past, people lived in much smaller communities with far less information about the world. They might have believed in all sorts of things because they lacked the knowledge to determine the truth. But as mass communication began to spread, this way of life came to an end. With easy access to all the world’s knowledge, the truth was at the world’s fingertips.
But mass communication is a two-edged sword. And as knowledge spreads, so does disinformation. People with similar ideas could now congregate and create communities. Ideas and stories could be shared and elaborated on until conspiracy theories became more and more mainstream.
And then came the internet.
The spread of the worldwide web took what earlier mass communication had done and threw it into hyperspeed. Before, if you shared an out-there conspiracy theory with those around you, more likely than not, you would have people laugh you down. If you wanted to find people who shared your fringe views, you had to search for them. Join newsletters. Travel to meet at small conventions. But now, all you needed was a computer, a modem, and a phone line. However fridge your ideas might have been, somewhere online, there would be people who agreed with you.
The second problem the internet brought about is the “democratization of knowledge”. While losing the gatekeepers between humanity and knowledge meant everyone could learn anything, it also meant we lost any verification of facts. As Professor Joseph M. Pierre puts it:
Whereas we previously respected information published in books, academic journals, or in print newspapers, the internet has created a kind of false equivalence whereby all sources of information are treated on equal footing and opinions are regarded just as valid as facts (e.g. “alternative truths”). This has been described as a “democratization of knowledge” which has led to the “death of expertise.” While many people think of this as a kind of coup, it has left us vulnerable to believing strongly in things that aren’t true. (Pierre, 2019)
And so, not only were conspiracy theorists able to find each other, but it became infinitely easier to find “evidence” that proved them right. Or, at least, allowed them to question the established truth without feeling like they were completely off the rails.
Conspiracy Theories as Infotainment
Next came the charismatic online “infotainers”. Arguably the most famous of these has to be Alex Jones. Jones began his media career on local cable TV and radio before getting fired for the outlandish, offensive conspiracy theories and fringe views he promoted. But the internet gave him a platform that allowed him total freedom to say whatever he wanted, as well as a truly global audience.
And while his views were extreme, he was, to many people, very entertaining. Even people who didn’t believe a word he said tuned in to laugh at his red-faced, entirely off-the-wall rants about government conspiracies. But once you get enough of an audience, people start to pay attention. If he’s so popular, the train of thought goes, then surely there must be something behind what he’s saying. Then, all of a sudden, this conspiracy theorist who got fired from the traditional media is being treated the same as a genuine source of news.
There is some debate around whether Jones actually believes his own vitriol, is mentally ill and has no idea what he’s saying, or is just an entertainer playing a role. However, what can’t be denied is that in 2014 Jones’ platform was making $20 million a year (Williamson & Steel, 2018).
(We’ll discuss the people who benefit from conspiracy theories more in Chapter 2.)
Just Asking Questions
The combination of the democratization of knowledge and the spread of online infotainment has created a new phenomenon. Where before, experts had the last word, now people believe they need to question everything and that every argument should be treated equally.
During the height of the Covid Pandemic, comedian and presenter Joe Rogan claimed that young people shouldn’t have the vaccine on his wildly successful podcast. He claimed that if you were young and healthy, the vaccine was more likely to make you ill than save your life.
This stoked a huge amount of controversy, considering Rogan’s massive audience. And while Rogan later walked back his comments (Fischer, 2021), the amount of discussion around them led people toward long-established conspiracy theories about vaccinations. Anyone doing an internet search for the term “should I get the Covid vaccine” would not only find reputable sources of information. They would find everything from websites touting the long-debunked claim that all vaccines cause autism to the more outlandish claims that the vaccine contained a computer chip and that the entire pandemic was a ploy for Bill Gates to be able to track the world's population!
So while Rogan may not have directly spread baseless conspiracy theories - and even argues that “I’m not a doctor, I’m a f***-ing moron. “I’m not a respected source of information, even for me” (Fischer, 2021) - we have to face the fact that many people take what he says seriously. And whether or not he meant it, Rogan has driven people toward not only a world of conspiracy theories but a world where conspiracy theories are presented to be equal to actual news.
In the modern world, conspiracy theories are no longer on the fringes of society. For better or for worse, they are part of the mainstream.