Conspiracy theories undermine our sanities
The opinions stated in this article are solely those of the author and not of The Davis Clipper.
A 50-year-old woman in Utah County told reporters last week that she was œa huge conspiracy theory person.” Thanks to the Internet and suspicious social media messages, she is not alone.
Conspiracy theories are certainly not new. People have a difficult time rationalizing how isolated incidents can lead to life-changing events. Throw in a distrust of government or the uber-wealthy or the prominence of a certain ethnic group and you get a buffet of bogus.
Current favorites are the QAnon claims that liberal elites are involved in sex trafficking and sipping children™s blood (although God has appointed Donald Trump to stop the carnage), and that Black Lives Matter protestors are responsible for the summer wildfires. Eight years ago we had the Clintons murdering their opponents; four years ago we had Hillary torturing children in the Pizzagate conspiracy; 80 years ago we had Pres. Dwight Eisenhower belonging to the Soviet Communist conspiracy.
Conspiracy theories are easier to believe when they are connected to politics, not our personal lives. For instance, if one of us were involved in several car crashes while we were wearing a white shirt, I doubt that we would connect our attire with the collisions. It is much easier to believe the Internet message of an unemployed electrician who œknows” Muslims are sneaking over the Mexican border to slay Christians.
To show how conspiracy theories gain traction, I recall one of the most popular allegations: Paul (McCartney) is dead!
It started in 1969 when a teenager telephoned a Detroit radio disc jockey and told him the Beatles were providing hints that Paul was deceased. If the DJ would play the song œRevolution Number 1” from the White Album backwards, he would hear a man growling œTurn me on, dead man.”
The DJ then called a friend, musician Eric Clapton in London and mentioned the report. Clapton first said the idea was ridiculous, but, when prodded by the DJ, admitted œYou know, come to think of it, I haven™t seen Paul in about a month and a half.”
Then for added œproof,” the Beatles released the famous Abbey Road cover photo portraying the four Beatles walking across a street near their music studio in St. John™s Wood. They walked across a handful of times so the photographer could sequence their steps, and in three of the shots McCartney nonchalantly kicked off his sandals and walked across barefoot.
The clues “ the out-of-sync barefoot stride, a VW license plate in the background showcasing McCartney™s age (which was incorrect), a crack running through the name Beatles on the flip side of the album, and McCartney™s silence during a long vacation to the Scottish coast “ created the biggest conspiracy stir since the Kennedy assassination.
Four Beatles walking across the road appeared to millions of people to be a funeral procession.
In the case of the Paul is Dead theory, little harm was done to our great Republic. But in today™s steady diet of Internet nonsense where anybody with a heartbeat can be a gatekeeper of so-called facts, conspiracy theories undermine the civility of citizens and understanding of societal norms and principles. When you have a large number of people questioning whether or not the Holocaust actually happened or convinced that Barack Obama toasted marshmallows over the burning flesh of murdered children, you don™t have a country. You have an insane asylum.
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