WHO ARE THE BELIEVERS?

The world is full of problems. As soon as one situation is cleared up, another one or three arise. One way to deal with life’s difficulties is to ascribe them to some sort of a conspiracy. Since most conspiracies are not backed by accurate information, using these theories to explain situations, rather than solving problems, usually create new ones.

Conspiracy theories fly at us every day. Some people latch onto these “explanations” of everything, while others see right away that these stories too ridiculous to believe. What makes some people accept these tales while others reject them out of hand? Psychological studies have shown that people who are open to accepting conspiracy theories have some things in common.

Conspiracy followers often have a need to feel unique. They’re likely to be narcissistic, feel alienated and socially isolated. They may feel powerless in relation to the problems they see in the world. Believers may feel that American values are eroding. They look for a scapegoat to blame for the problems. Theorists are suspicious, sometimes to the point of paranoia. They tend to see the world as a dangerous place.

The big problem of the present time is the coronavirus and its effects. Some people find it difficult to deal with the facts of the issue. If they adopt one of the conspiracy theories relating to it, they feel they have some power over it. If government agencies like the CDC are not telling the truth about the virus, the theory makes the virus seem less threatening to them. According to the CDC, over 180,000 Americans have died of the virus. Suppose most of those people died of something else. What if only six percent of those deaths were actually from the virus, and the rest died from other causes. That makes the virus seem less powerful. People who follow that theory can also get a sense of superiority since they know the “real” facts, and they are not taken in like the sheep who believe what they read in the newspapers and see on television news.

Why would the CDC lie about the numbers? Theorists just ignore questions like that, but they tend to disbelieve any authorities, so the CDC might have its own reasons for exaggerating the number of deaths from the virus. Maybe they need to scare people to get the funding they want from Congress.

The truth of the 6 percent story is actually a misreading of a CDC report. The report stated that 94 percent if those who died from the coronavirus had some other health condition. That is why the virus is especially dangerous to older people. Most older people already have some kind of health problems like disease of the heart or lungs. Once people with a health issue came down with the virus, it was likely to exacerbate the existing problem and cause their death. In other words, they would not have died if they had not contracted the virus.

Bill Gates has donated money to research on vaccines to counter the virus. Theorists tend to be skeptical about that too. To them, vaccines are questionable anyway. Further Gates might make a lot of money from the sale of the vaccine. And while they’re at it, theorists promote the idea that vaccines promoted by Gates might contain microchips that will allow “the authorities” to trace the movements of anyone who gets the vaccine.

Josh Hart, a psychology professor at Union College, stated that both Republicans and Democrats followed certain conspiracy theories. Republicans were more likely to believe that climate change is a hoax, whereas Democrats were more apt to be drawn toward the theory that that in the 2016 presidential campaign the Trump team colluded with the Russians.

Perhaps Hart’s examples were an attempt to be fair and see similarities in the mindset of both parties. But a quick look at the examples shows that the events are not equivalent at all. For decades scientists have known that greenhouse gases are creating a climate change. The physical evidence of the change is here for everyone to see: the melting icebergs and the increasingly hotter summers. To deny climate change is to deny obvious facts.

The Trump campaign’s collusions with the Russians is hardly a theory at all. The Mueller report detailed accounts of Russian help to the Trump campaign. More recently the Republican-controlled Senate released an account of even more

collusion between the campaign and the Russians. One of campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s contacts was a Russian intelligence officer. As we look at the existing conspiracy theories, we see that they belong mostly to conservatives. We will explore this further in a later post.