In a survey conducted by YouGov about if people believe the world is round or flat, 2 percent of Americans responded that they have always believed the world is flat, and 5 percent responded that they always thought the world is round, but are now skeptical or having doubts. Given the small size of their population, the flat Earth movement is amazingly influential. We can see that in the 5 percent of people who have doubts that the Earth is actually round, as well as the fact that the majority of people have heard about this movement. In recent years particularly, the movement has received even more attention. In November of 2018, a Netflix documentary called “Behind the Curve,” was released. This documentary focused on the ideology behind the Flat Earth movement and gave the perspective of the believers of the flat Earth theory, as well as the perspectives of various scientists. Instead of disproving the flat Earth theory, the scientists examined the deeper issue what causes people to reject information that is widely regarded as the truth. This rejection of the truth is a common issue in today’s world, and not just in terms of “flat earthers” or other conspiracy theorists, but in regards to our political climate and media. Examining the ideology behind conspiracy theories allows us to answer the bigger question of what causes people to reject widely held truths, as well as the issues that accompany this.
When looking at what draws people to conspiracy theories, examining the issue from their perspective provides useful insight. In “Behind the Curve,” a well-known flat-earther named Nathan Thompson is introduced. One of the first things he says in regards to the conspiracy is: “Then I realized why they’re hiding the truth. It’s because they don’t want anyone to know anything. They want people dumb, blind, deaf to the truth.” Mark Sargent, another well-known flat-earther, expresses a similar opinion when he says teachers or professors can’t be flat-earthers, because “once you get to a certain level of education, the education system more or less owns you. You’re not allowed to do certain things.” Both of these statements convey the distrustful attitude that many conspiracy theorists have in regards to powerful institutions. Explaining this distrust further, Dr. Joe Pierre states that most, if not all, conspiracy theories start with the idea that conventional wisdom isn’t to be trusted. Because these people do not trust what they are told, they turn to alternate explanations, and thus conspiracy theories are born. These theories are then promoted by social phenomena, such as confirmation bias. In the documentary, Dr. Per Espen Stoknes states that: “If one has a belief or an attitude, they will search for instances that confirm what they believe. And also, they’ll find themselves with a lot of other people who think the same way as they do” (Behind the Curve). With this, it can be said that a source of conspiracy theories is distrust that is propagated by people with similar views.
This distrust, or the rejecting of what is widely regarded as the truth, is referred to as denialism. Simply put, denialism is refusing to admit the truth of a concept that is supported by a large amount of evidence, often to avoid a psychologically uncomfortable truth. Similarly, researchers define conspiracy theories as “explanatory beliefs about a group of actors that collude in secret to reach malevolent goals” (Wolchover). With this, it is evident that conspiracy theories are simply a form of denialism. Conspiracy theories are how people rationalize their denial. This also explains one reason that people turn to conspiracy theories: psychological discomfort. Conspiracy theorists aren’t just people on the fringes of society though. In fact, research from the University of Chicago indicates that at least 50 percent of Americans believe in at least one conspiracy theory. This makes the harmful aspects of denialism even more prevalent. While most people use denial on a small scale in order to deal with challenges of living in a world where “people lie, make mistakes, and have desires that cannot be openly acknowledged” (Kahn-Harris), denialism is an issue when it becomes large scale. In the case of the flat Earth theory, or people who deny evolution, denialism can lead to a distrust in science and research. Overall, denialism has the potential to create an environment in which various academic and political efforts to draw attention to the truth are unsuccessful due to an overarching suspicion that nothing is what it seems.
All though conspiracy theories may seem harmless at first glance, they can have widespread consequences. This denial of the truth, over time, can alter society’s perception of fact and fiction. Lastly, conspiracy theories reveal an important aspect of human nature: Our tendency to avoid, and even deny, things that make us uncomfortable or things that we are unable to rationalize.
Bibliography
Behind the Curve. Directed by Daniel J. Clark. Los Angeles: Delta-V Productions, 2018.
Kahn-Harris, Keith. "Denialism: What Drives People to Reject the Truth." The Guardian. August 03, 2018. Accessed April 18, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/aug/03/denialism-what-drives-people-to-reject-the-truth.
Lorentz, Lina. "What Makes Conspiracy Theories Appealing?" Stockholm University. Accessed April 15, 2019. https://www.socant.su.se/english/about-us/news/what-makes-conspiracy-theories-appealing-1.349910.
"Most Flat Earthers Consider Themselves Very Religious." YouGov. Accessed April 18, 2019. https://today.yougov.com/topics/philosophy/articles-reports/2018/04/02/most-flat-earthers-consider-themselves-religious.
Natalie Wolchover and Live Science Staff. "Are Flat-Earthers Being Serious?" LiveScience. May 30, 2017. Accessed April 16, 2019. https://www.livescience.com/24310-flat-earth-belief.html.
"The Flat Earth Society." The Flat Earth Society. Accessed April 16, 2019. https://www.tfes.org/.
Vedantam, Shankar. "More Americans Than You Might Think Believe In Conspiracy Theories." NPR. June 04, 2014. Accessed April 18, 2019. https://www.npr.org/2014/06/04/318733298/more-americans-than-you-might-think-believe-in-conspiracy-theories.
Your blog post was really interesting to me especially the idea of professors and teachers not being able to be flat earth believers. The idea the higher your education is the more you are controlled by the government and, and how the education system owns you. After reading that I started to think about social institutions and how they effect me. I stared to think in circles, and second guessing everything that I believed in. Guess that goes to show that all of us at least believe in one conspiracy theory, and at the end of the day thats what makes us human I think.
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ReplyDeleteYou make a number of interesting points, but I think it's slightly dangerous to write off all conspiracy theories as denialism. In fact, doing so might be a form of denialism in itself. There's been a number of "conspiracy theories" in the past several decades that ended up being very true. The U.S. Government has been accused of a number of shocking crimes which they subsequently denied that were later proven as true by declassified government documents. For example, Project MK Ultra (which tested mind control via psychedelics on innocent civilians(, Operation Northwoods (a false flag operation designed to start a war with Cuba that was cancelled quite literally at the last second), and countless other offences that have all been confirmed as true by the government itself. If denialism is the tendency to avoid things that make us uncomfortable, it's the ultimate act of denialism to pretend that all conspiracy theories are just untrue products of humans wanting to make themselves more comfortable.
ReplyDeleteI think that the explanation that conspiracy theories rationalize psychological discomfort also explains how some conspiracy theories are rooted in antisemitic beliefs. For example, the theory that lizard people are secretly controlling the government originated as a way to accuse Jewish people of somehow infiltrating and exploiting positions of power. A more overt antisemetic conspiracy is Holocaust denial by white supremacist groups. There are also a number of conspiracy theories that arose from other prejudices. Your post does a good job at explaining why conspiracy theories often lead to anti-intellectualism, which I think applies to these examples as well.
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