‘Conspiralling’ Out of Control

Where do I begin with this post? I’m just an average and still amateur blogger. I’m an educated person, with smart, intelligent friends. I enjoy learning about new subjects and believe we never stop learning. I also enjoy staying up to date with current affairs. Keeping up with the news. Knowledge makes us grow and keeps the neurons ticking over.

But let me tell you folks, the state of current affairs is very troubling to me.

Where news was once informative, sane, and relatively inert in terms of its impact on my daily life (besides myself getting up to speed with the previous 24 hours), it now causes me an excruciating amount of head-shaking. And my neck hurts like hell.

It’s the onslaught of the ‘conspiracy theory’ culture that pains me.

What happened to everyone?

You know my best friend and I were talking about this yesterday. And it’s come to this: Some people are just going to get cut off from now on. I just don’t need this culture in my life. I’m not prepared to engage anymore. Life is too short.

Because honestly? I love a debate, a good argument (my husband will undoubtedly tell you a little too much, but I digress). I don’t have any problem with people having an opinion. Everyone is entitled to one. Their own side of the fence. I am happy to agree to disagree. I can engage with people in that way.

Sometimes when it’s a feisty disagreement on something fundamental you know when it’s best to avoid certain topics with certain people because you just know that conversation will go up in flames. And that is okay with me too. Many people I know just stay the hell away from any political discourse with their families because it isn’t going to end well. When you know, you know.

But what I cannot handle right now are arguments based on outright lies. I’m a scientific and fact based person. Evidence based facts. Researched facts. Facts. That’s the key word here.

Take for instance, Flat-Earthers. If someone I know is going to go down that road and argue with me that the Earth is flat, I’m not going to drink their Kool-Aid and participate in a heated argument about why they are wrong. There is no point. They are adamant on their position and no amount of my reasoning is likely to convince them otherwise.

You want to believe the Earth is flat and the Arctic Circle is at the centre of the circle, and there is an ice wall like on Game of Thrones stopping us from falling off the edge into oblivion? You do you.

It’s the blind acceptance of these theories and the unsupported evidence that these people buy into and believe that I struggle with. Sure, there are susceptible and even gullible people on this earth. Uneducated. Maybe a few tools short in the shed. And I get that. But when people I thought I knew are starting to fall for shit like this I find it terrifying.

If you think conspiracy theorists are primarily an American thing, you’re wrong. I’m seeing more and more of the same rhetoric here in the UK, and my friend in France now has friends and students that have shocked her as well. I think it’s safe to say it’s permeated more of the globe we ever thought possible. And sure, every culture has it’s own conspiracies, but I’m saying it’s more ‘out there’ in the open. And growing exponentially.

What’s become apparent in the Age of Trump is that more and more people are falling for the lies. It’s the blind leading the blind. Perpetuated by social media and people willing to buy into ANYTHING they read online as fact. And there are many things on social media that purport to have evidence supporting their wackjob point of view. But they don’t. They really and truly don’t. But followers of these theories don’t care.

The fact that the president has made a career and built a following fundamentally and foundationally based on a liars culture calling almost everything hoaxes, conspiracies, witch hunts, and fraud all while under the umbrella of a bullying culture says it all really.

He’s using the language of conspiracy and using inflammatory words that rally people to buy into his brand of batshit.

Then there are the COVID deniers. The people who believe the vaccines are part of a global conspiracy to ‘chip’ and control the population. The QAnon believers and that whole sideshow that could have it’s own column but alas, I don’t plan on giving any airtime to. The Flat Earth Society. Climate change deniers. Fake ballots. Fake this, fake that. Everything is so FAKE today apparently.

When did people I thought were rational, sensible even, buy into all of this?

Believing in science and following expert advice does not make me a ‘sheeple’. I really hate that term. The divisiveness and anxiety inducing ‘Conspiracy Era’ has made it almost normal for people to identify with the theories. And now they are pointing the finger at the rest of us as if we are the freaks for not following suit. The irony is that the people calling regular folk ‘sheeple’ are actually one themselves. Not that I would be able to tell them that.

If you want to believe all of the vitriol and conspiracies floating around, go ahead. Power to you. Just don’t expect me to be sympathetic when nothing horrific happens to people when they take the vaccine. When the people trying to prove that the earth is flat, fall….flat on their own faces trying. When Trump DOESN’T get his second term (I’m talking to you Kayleigh McEnany). When QAnon can’t prove a shred of evidence for their laughable claims.

Stay in your own Twilight Zone. You keep drinking the Kool-Aid.

I’ll have a refreshing pint of The Truth Hurts.