Do us (and democracy) a favor. Don’t share conspiracy theories, even if our leaders do

Twice last month adherents of a widely debunked conspiracy called QAnon rallied in Phoenix and promoted their belief that a shadowy group of Satan-worshiping pedophiles are kidnapping children to harvest their organs, and that this conspiracy was originally run by allies of Hillary Clinton out of a pizza parlor in Washington, D.C.

In fact, one devoted adherent from North Carolina drove to D.C. in 2016 to shoot the place up.

The group is named for a secret government insider called “Q” who reveals bits of information through coded online messages. The assertions have been repeatedly proven fanciful and the FBI believes they are inciting acts of domestic terrorism. But it hasn’t stopped congressional candidates from endorsing the movement or a remarkable number of Americans from believing it.

Both political sides traffic in the game. Many conservatives believe that wealthy liberal financier George Soros is paying and organizing BLM protesters, and many Democrats believe that Donald Trump and Tulsi Gabbard are Russian assets. Each side has competing theories of whether Russia or Ukraine hacked the DNC emails in 2016.

U.S. has long loved a good conspiracy

Both sides believe the FBI is a working conspiracy for the other side. To the right, by “spying” on the Trump campaign. To the left, by FBI Director James Comey’s last minute reopening of an investigation of Hillary’s emails that proved nothing new.

More recently, popular conspiracies have included matters with objective proof such as the “fake” moon landing, Obama’s Kenyan birth, and the Alex Jones assertion that the shooting of children at Sandy Hook Elementary School was a hoax. Are we really to disregard what we see with our own eyes, or the honest pain of grieving parents?

While now more pronounced, this isn’t anything new. In the bitter presidential election of 1800, supporters of Alexander Hamilton accused Thomas Jefferson of being an agent of the Illuminati, while Jefferson accused Hamilton of a conspiracy to recreate the Monarchy.

Government distrust made things worse

Why do people buy into it?

When people feel betrayed by politics and the economy, placing blame helps explain an unfair world.

Instability is oxygen for conspiracy theories. There must be dark forces in play.

When conspiracy theories started at the bottom they were more easily marginalized. But now they often start at the top.

Distrust of government has steadily grown since the Reagan era. (Ironically at the same speed of our reliance on it.)

And when the election choices are so stark and important — as this year’s presidential election is — the gloves come off and all tactics are fair game. When they go low … we go lower.

Please, fact check before you share

When we delegitimize the referees of our civil society, the guardrails come down. When blogs are assumed as true but the news is fake, when cable TV hosts are trusted but judges are biased, when law enforcement is politicized and when expertise is ridiculed, where do we find truth?

From the internet? Search algorithms take us deeper and deeper into our own opinion biases, and take the conspiracy-oriented to the darkest recesses of the conspiratorial world. And then also gives us the networking tools to find and organize the like-minded.

This election will leave America more bitterly divided than at any time since the Civil War. There is much we need to do in our society and politics to heal and again become one nation. But step one is self-restraint.

When you hear or read something fishy, do some research. Use fact-checker sites. Get multiple reliable sources. And most importantly use the common sense smell test: If it sounds unbelievable, it probably is. So do your country a favor. Don’t pass it on.

Fred DuVal is an Arizona civic leader, member of the Board of Regents, a former gubernatorial candidate and former senior White House staff member. He is a regular contributor to The Arizona Republic. On Twitter: @FredDuVal.