He who can be made to believe absurdities can be made to commit atrocities! – Voltaire
We stand on the precipice of an era where all of the world’s collective knowledge is in a small handheld device in our pocket, but not all information is created equally. Conspiracy theories abound, misinformation is rampant, and hate, distrust, and maleficence are just one click away. Propaganda sows the seeds of control over the minds of the masses, not unlike Nazism’s concept of “the big lie,” which Joseph Gobbels said;
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
The internet is a well of knowledge and information, but in its depths lies a well of misinformation and false narratives full of misleading and click-baiting nonsense. Everything from racism to antisemitism, to conspiracies about… well you name it, can be found en masse online. The internet went from a place of bright minds in a town square to a place where even the most idiotic and uneducated can spew forth their vitriol to a waiting audience.
Qanon is a prime example of this, as are the foolish conspiracies that are easily debunked by five minutes of actual research on the very same internet. Conspiracies are most often assumptions by those who don’t understand how something works, not unlike how humans once believed the sun circles the earth or that the earth is flat (which is making a comeback thanks to the internet lol). Just as easily as one can research almost anything online, one can find the absolute worst misinformation and for someone looking for confirmation bias, this is horribly powerful.
Despite actual statistics, facts, logic, and reasoning, these conspiracies and a plethora of misinformation flourish online, especially via social media. People searching for confirmation bias on just about anything, regardless of how silly or inane something is, can be found online in seconds.
Some might say, “so some gullible people can be easily misled online, it’s no big deal,” but it actually is a big deal, take it from someone who has been there and done that first-hand. If you can believe some idiotic conspiracy and meet others who do as well, it becomes all too easy to act alongside those people, against falsely perceived enemies. The conspiracies and misinformation online, on social media platforms and the like can easily turn a normal individual into a raving madman capable of nearly anything.
Human beings have quickly turned from the information age to the misinformation age, from a quest for truth to a search for validation of whatever imaginary conspiracies they can find. Did you know Tom Cruise is a reptilian alien, look it up online then search for as much proof as you can via the internet, I guarantee you’ll find a ton of stupid websites and images? You can find anything that you search hard enough for, look for enemies, you’ll find them, look for conspiracies, you’ll find them, look to be a victim of some horrific plot against you and those like you, you’ll find it.
Welcome to the misinformation age, conspiracies are to the left, people who want to kill off and or control humanity to the right, and just keep going forward until you feel like everything and everyone is out to get you!
Do you really want to push your conspiracies narrative, just say it’s harming children in some way, just like how the government can pass anything if it’s for the children, so can conspiracy theorists if the conspiracy affects children. Just look at how many conspiracies have come up in the last 10 years, all involving children… Children or race!
That’s right, if your conspiracy involves children, the Jewish people, or any semblance of racial division, it’ll gain traction and grow quickly. People love to fear for their children, antisemitism is the world’s oldest hate, and people love to act like their race are special angels who have never slighted anyone ever and are so oppressed. If you could combine all three, you could quit your day job and become a professional conspiracy theorist/activist and fight the good imaginary cause.