Conspiracy Theories — The plague of Social Media!
As every social media user, for sure you have encountered some form of conspiracies theories reposted by one of your friends on Facebook. Maybe you saw a video of an influencer complaining about 5G implants through the Covid 19 vaccine or a random Karen in the comment section on the latest news on Tom Hanks posted a link that leads to some crazy Qanon forums. They are everywhere.
Why do people believe in conspiracies theories?
As science developed, humanity has realized that we are not the centre of the universe. Life, universe and existence are not as simple as described in the Bible. The book that explained in simple terms why the world works a certain way, and what meaning in life people should have is not representing the truth anymore.
People started to doubt their religion, and even though most of them did not become atheists, the seed of doubt was present.
Nietzsche predicted the crisis of meaning back in his days with his saying “God is dead”. Now people have a void of meaning that should be filled.
But the reason why the God is dead as Nietzsche said is “- today one indicates how the belief that there is a god could arise and how this belief acquired its weight and importance: a counter-proof that there is no good becomes superfluous.”
The burden of creating their meaning and making the most out of this life is what people got when they lost God. Now people prefer to either become nihilists or derive meaning from conspiracies theories or become cult members.
If you analyze every conspiracy theory, everything would be divided into black and white terms, just like in religion. Always the average human is the one in danger and exploited by the reptiloid race, cabalistic elite, adrenochrome users, Russians, Americans, Jews and so on.
Conspiracies offer a scapegoat for all your problems and help people to avoid the painful realization that they are the reason they live a shitty life.
There is a clear “us vs them” dichotomy at work here.
The Disappearance of Truth and the rise of misunderstood postmodernist philosophy
The phrase “is all relative” can be heard at every corner. People started to doubt the existing truths because things that were considered right in the past proved wrong. Also, a misunderstood relativism became a popular philosophy of the many.
By misunderstood relativism, I mean the opinion that everything is relative and there is no truth. Thus, everything differs based on who is seeing the event. The assumption that all the opinions are equal in value arises, and you cannot be closer to the truth than the person next to you, even though that person is not vaccinating her children. Relativism is a part of postmodernist philosophy. The postmodernists are blamed by many for the post-truth world in which we live.
The problem is not the postmodernist philosophy, but the wide-scale misunderstanding of it. The view that since there is no right way, anyway is as good as any other is outward wrong. This is not what postmodernists say, no postmodernist agrees with this.
Of course, interpretation of the reality differs from person to person, but no interpretation can bring interpretation to an end.
Not every way to speak, read and act is as good as any other.
Conspiracy theories as a political tool
To say all conspiracy theories are made by smart and tricky propaganda experts will be a conspiracy theory in itself. Most of the conspiracies are created by simple people who genuinely believe in what they are saying and are in search of a meaning, but then this theory is getting exploited to promote a certain political agenda.
Let’s take the famous Qanon theory, which has its roots in; another conspiracy theory called PizzaGate. Yes, conspiracy theories love to refer to each other. :)
In this theory, Donald Trump is a hero who will save the world from an evil satanic ring of paedophiles infiltrated in the higher echelons of power and show-Bizz. The person who has posted the theory online was a user called Q Republicans fully capitalized on this theory, and used it as a political tool to further their interests. This theory offered republicans an opportunity to have a loyal supporter base, that will be willing to follow Trump’s orders, as though he is a sort of modern Jesus.
These are only one example out of hundreds when conspiracy theories are used for political gains. Fulfilling a void of meaning makes the people who believe in them susceptible to all sorts of con-man and manipulators, politicians just being one of the groups exploiting the conspiracy believers.
Conclusion
Believers in the conspiracy theories should not be seen as some crazy or dangerous people, instead, we should see them as the victims of a world that is devoid of a pre-established meaning. They need guidance in navigating the ever more complex world. Helping them to find a healthy and challenging path in life is the best thing we can do. The more antagonistic people will be towards the people who believe in conspiracy theories the more they will find confirmation of the theories they believe in and isolate themselves in echo chambers of fellow believers. Arguing is useless and the problem should be addressed at its core, which is the lack of meaning.
