We do seem to be living in a dangerous “everything is a conspiracy” era… and it has spread from the US, and western societies, to encapsulate a large part of the world. Places which are far from each other ( both geographically and socially) are now suffering from the same problems caused by these stories which, are becoming more and more present in everyday life. Just look at the anti-vaccination movement, countries raging from Austria to Samoa have reported outbreaks of diseases which have thought to have been eradicated decades ago, and were forced to either close schools, or ban un-vaccinated children from attending classes in order to protect the kids whose parents do believe that vaccines are helpful.

And what is driving this trend??? The fact that politicians, fringe-media “stars” and all sorts of wannabe-s have figured out that a large part of the population ( everywhere) has lost confidence in everything coming from official sources so, the more outlandish and insane the claims are, the more likely it is that people will believe and support them ( trump is a great example) — and, the fact that every “theory” will nowadays find some supporters in various parts of the world- just gives more ammo to those who are pushing these theories for allowing them to claim that “you see- the same is happening here and there….” . what the people falling for these stories fail to see, is the fact that a lot of those who spread the theories, are, in fact, doing it for personal, political or financial gain ( Alex Jones and his peddling of all sorts of products comes to mind)

They are using the ages-old issue , the one that most people have a hard time grasping the fact that this planet, and human society s a whole, is much more chaotic and unpredictable than we would like to believe so convincing individuals that everything is a part of some “big plan” created by a group of “super-powerful” individuals , is, in fact, easy. Keeping in mind that a lot of the believers in these theories are also very religious ( meaning those who believe in God and his creation) it gives a picture of people already primed to believe that there “is a plan” or everything- switching that belief from a divine creature towards a mortal group of men ( or reptile aliens) is quite easy.

Now, the fact that the mainstream media in the west did have quite a few hiccups ( more often than not, not by their fault) has also been used to promote and sell all sorts of “alternative” media sources. some of them ( very few) do justice to what they say they stand for, but the rest are nothing more than click-bait outlets created to spread these theories while gathering support and funds for the conspiracy peddlers ( I know.. but I can not think of a better expression right now). but, what the ones who keep attacking the mainstream media fail to tell their supporters is that the vast majority of the MM , functions with a stem which makes it difficult to simply spread anything a reporter wants. There are editors, assistant editors, directors…. every piece of information is screened and checked ( at least that’s the way the media I worked for functions) — and that does not happen with “alternative” sources. They simply choose the most bombastic title and the most outlandish stories and throw them out there with a great understanding of the old propaganda principle that “No amount of denial could ever equate the effect of the initial lie”- meaning that they know very well that once the story is out- denying it ( even in cases when the stories are simply insane, or stupid) will not work , in fact denial might end up making the story even more believable to those who want to believe it.

And, in order to make their stories stick.. the conspiracy peddlers have used another trick- they have convinced their followers that anyone who believes anything coming from the mainstream media or official sources must be “brainwashed” … SO, they keep brainwashing hose who believe them while simultaneously keeping them convinced that it is the rest who are brainwashed.

I can not over-state the danger of this setup — — The fact that millions of children all over the world are now not getting the much-needed vaccines since their parents fell for one of the currently popular “theories” is only one of the aspects. only a decade ago, people claiming that the earth is flat were very rare, now, due to the inability of the “powers that be” to regain the trust of people there are more and more individuals who are, in fact, starting to believe that- despite all the evidence of the opposite. The rise of the populist movements ( which also end up pushing these theories, or at least some of them) is another part of the issue

We are coming to a point where no one will believe anything any more and there is a clear danger that all the advances we have made in science ( and social life in general) might be lost, or destroyed through the endless “ it is all a conspiracy” repetition coming from those who are gaining from the conspiracy theories… I can see a time when one, after another, political leader will stop spending money on space research because his voters are convinced that the earth is flat- or ban medical practices which save millions of lives every year because o a “conspiracy theory” that was pushed upon the voters…

The ironic part is the fact that the main victims of this setup are exactly the ones who were trying to avoid being dominated and influenced by someone else- and now thanks to the conspiracy peddlers, they have become pawns who are , at times, fully controlled by those who have a lot to gain by making us believe is their fairytales.