I see no design here. Conspiracy theories do not represent an ideology per se, in that there have always been, and continue to be, devotees to various fringe beliefs from across the political spectrum; case in point the anti-vax movement. What we are witnessing presently is a full-blown epistemological crisis, as conspiracy theory has been brought to the mainstream though social media that monetizes clicks and views, in a terrifying feedback loop where lies and outrage sell. Fascists and other illiberal enemies of democracy have indeed capitalized on this crisis however, to devastating effect. I highly recommend viewing the documentary I linked above.
I think those are all really good points that describe the current state of things. There still was a point before the response was politicized that the idiot in chief had the option to go one way or another. Not that I ever expect him to do the right thing but I do expect him to look out for himself. Going into the election having beat COVID would have been a stronger play than just shitting the bed and sitting in it as he has chosen to do. But I guess here we are… so mission accomplished for Frump?
It doesn’t have to be conspiratorial to believe that there is an elite class that wants us to behave in a particular way… We know it to be the case, as they’ve told us so… For example:
And of course, Chomsky’s classic, Manufacturing of Consent.
They are. From the start of the modern era, the classic conspiracy theory of Jewish “conspiracy to control the world” was an attempt to displace blame onto a vulnerable and already marginalized group. Same with white supremacy. We know this, because there are historians who have studied this and confirmed it to be true:
Yes. They conspired to do so, in fact.
But once again, you are talking down to me as if I’m a child. If you have no interest in speaking to me as an equal, kindly refrain from responding to me.
If that isn’t sarcasm you fail the irony test. Conspiracy theories are in fact the opposite of a coherent ideology. Authoritarians capitalize on them to the extent that they can sow distrust in verifiable facts and the truth as a whole however, as that serves their interests.
Conspiracy theories have been authored specifically for propaganda purposes throughout history. One could probably find examples in every major conflict, ever.
It’s true that they can happen organically, but what we are seeing with Q, for instance, or the Antifa Invasion narrative, etc., is not matter of a naturally occurring belief that is being capitalized upon. It is authored specifically by political interests for political impact, both from inside and outside the US. It is planted online and it grows, and it is steered and tended carefully.
If your worldview somehow makes it more comforting to believe otherwise, then please do so, but it is isn’t so.
My guess is that Google’s Knowledge Graph pulls this kind of information from a lot of different sources on the semantic web. In this case the BBC was probably the only entity that provided any information on this particular person in an LOD format and only because she was mentioned in a BBC pidgin article and thus ingested into the BBC’s linked data ecosystem. Hence the Pidgin article is the only one accessible to Google Knowledge Panels and the one it will choose to serve you rather than not serving up anything.
