Conspiracy theories are the new pandemic infecting public life
WHEN we think about a conspiracy theory – assuming it is one we don’t ourselves believe – it is easy to be dismissive. Why should we care if a few misguided people think the world is flat or the government is covering up evidence of aliens? Conspiracy theories feel like a niche problem, affecting the ignorant, that could be fixed with a fact check here and an algorithm tweak there.
The reality is very different. Millions of people worldwide have come to believe aspects of QAnon – a conspiracy theory that, when it began in 2017, claimed that then US president …
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This article has been archived for your research. The original version from New Scientist can be found here.
This article has been archived for your research. The original version from New Scientist can be found here.