Down the rabbit hole

Hello, lovelies. 

      What are your thoughts on Big foot, the Illuminati, deep state, the New world order, the Chinese virus hoax, Trump really winning the 2020 elections, 9/11, Roswell, a flat Earth– the list of well-known and documented conspiracy theories just goes on and on. But is there really any truth to any of them? Or are they just the delusions of scared and ever so slightly paranoid individuals? Without any actual proof, how would we ever really know if any of these theories are true? With no tangible evidence, why do these outlandish and downright dangerous beliefs refuse to go away? And what of the people who truly believe everything that can be dreamed up? Is believing in these theories harmless? Or is there a very high price to pay? 

       Typical for our British summer time, I have decided to slim down the contents of my house, load it all into the boot of my car, wake up at an ungodly hour on a Sunday morning, all so I could join the throng of my fellow car booters and try to sell all my old treasures for a little extra cash. There is always an eclectic mix of people at a car boot sale. Some chatty, some single mindedly searching for that elusive bargain and the rest are out for the fun of routing around other people’s things. I just love a car boot sale, both as a seller and a buyer. Okay, so I’m not a fan of talking to people before I’ve had at least two cups of coffee in the morning, but apart from that, and the unexpected shower of rain, car boot sales are a great place to go, have a chat with a total stranger and pick up one or two goodies along the way. 

        But this morning, there was a different mood in the air. It wasn’t obvious at first. I had asked my youngest daughter to come with me and help me set up, and to say that she was unimpressed by the 6.30am wakeup call would be an understatement, but she was great at helping me to set up all my stuff. We worked in silence, as I’d only had one cup of coffee at that point. And as we unloaded the car, we could both hear the chap in the car next to us telling everyone who would listen about the great Chinese hoax. But he didn’t stop there. He told one passer-by about the government trying to out price us normal folk, so that only the mega rich would be able to afford to own and drive a car and the rest of us sheep would be carless. Another person passed by, and this chap spouted about Trump winning the last US election. That Biden (he pronounced it Beedeen) was about to be taken out by the government of a foreign country, and Trump is about to jump behind the desk of the White house once more. His rambling, which started off as quite amusing, steadily became more and more outlandish and then scary. 

      How scary can a conspiracy theory be? Surely as it’s nothing more that an idea it shouldn’t hold any weight and therefore can be brushed off into the world of fantasy. Ha! If only it was that easy. The guy in the car next to us droned on and on about how the Left and the woke were destroying the world. My daughter stopped what she was doing and gave me that look that clearly said under no circumstances was I allowed to join in the conversation. But that wasn’t a problem, as I was still only on my first coffee. As the morning went on, he told me and everyone else why we shouldn’t have the Vaccine. No, he wasn’t an anti-vaxer, he assured us all. But he knew full well that the jab was a slow release drug that would kill off the entire population of over 65s. But why would that be the plan? The over 65’s usually vote, have sizable savings and politically lean to the right. So why bump them off? But quick as a flash, he had the answer. And that is, so that the New World order can start again and have us all as slaves. I must admit, after hearing that I went to my secret stash of chocolate that I always have hidden somewhere in my car. Was this guy for real? Is any of what he is saying true? And the biggest question of all, why oh why did I have to park right next to me?? 

      So what is a conspiracy theory, and where did they come from? It is a belief that some covert but influential organization is responsible for an unexplained event. The term was first made popular by the philosopher Sir Karl Popper in the 1950s. And ever since then conspiracy theories have had a very bad reputation. As to call anything a conspiracy theory suggests that it is false, and the truth is being covered up by those in power for nefarious reasons. And believing that we are being lied to and persecuted by those in the deep state, causes fear and resentment. And if it’s not handled correctly can lead to political uprising and riots. 

      I was watching YouTube this week, and I fell down a very large rabbit hole in the shape of the earth being flat. Yep. I watched video after video on the ‘truth’ as to why the earth is most definitely flat. People on the internet really believe that we have been lied to for centuries about the ice wall that surrounds us and the firmament that covers us like a snow globe. And no matter how much evidence was presented, no matter how many people have seen the curvature of the earth for themselves, these flat earthers just won’t believe it. They have closed themselves off to any tangible evidence. And that is why I think that believing in so called conspiracy theories is dangerous. People shut themselves away, only listening to others who think just like they do. They never question why they have to believe what flies in the face of proof. Okay, so the guy this morning may well have been harmless. But what wasn’t harmless was him telling everyone not to have the jab. That is dangerous and goes against all the known facts. To tell people not to listen to the science just wrong. 

   So I refused to go down his rabbit hole. And as interesting it may be to listen to these wild tales, some rabbit holes are just too dangerous to fall down.