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Saturday, February 24, 2024

Lushington D Brady: It’s Not a Lie if They Believe


“Pandemic of Misinformation” Is a Lie

It’s an article of faith among the chattering classes that the nasty proles are simply too stupid to be allowed to think for ourselves. We’re witless sheep only fit to be herded hither and yon by “smarter” people. They even have a name for their snobbish delusion: “nudge theory”. Left to our own devices, we’re dangerous prey for “misinformation and disinformation”.

Not to mention conspiracy theories.

Oh, yes, the conspiracy theories. The elite classes love to sneer at the oiks for supposedly believing all manner of outlandish conspiracy theories (unlike the favoured conspiracy theories of the left, such as the BLM narrative, or the risible 1619 Project).

But do we, really? New Zealand researchers recently conducted a study looking into conspiracy beliefs. Keeping in mind the caveats one always should about so-called social “science”, the results are interesting. Especially regarding the so-called “rabbit hole”: the idea that, once someone believes in one conspiracy theory, they fall into an endlessly self-reinforcing pit of delusion.

There has been a great deal of research on conspiracy theories published in the past few years. We now know more about how many people believe them, as well as the psychological and political factors that correlate with that belief.

One of the biggest problems with such research is that it is invariably tainted, to an even higher degree than most science, by researchers’ own, often unexamined, biases and “psychological and political factors”. For instance, in this particular study, two to three of the ten (20-30%) “conspiracy theories” are in fact beliefs that are at the very least highly plausible, and in at least one case supported by a plethora of evidence.

“COVID-19 is a biological weapon intentionally created and released by China”

“Democrats stole the 2020 US Presidential election from Donald Trump by creating fraudulent ballots”

“A powerful and secretive group, known as the New World Order, are planning to rule the world”

That there was electoral fraud in 2020 is not a conspiracy theory, it’s a hard fact, as attested by numerous convictions. Further than that, it’s also indisputable that Democrat states changed electoral rules in a manner that favoured their party. This is what journalist Tim Poole describes as “legal, but grossly unfair”.

As for Covid-19 as a biological weapon, it’s not only plausible but well supported by evidence. It’s a fact that, in the years leading up to the pandemic, the Chinese military ordered research into weaponising coronaviruses. It’s also a fact that Chinese labs at the epicentre of the first outbreaks were conducting dangerously reckless gain-of-function experiments with coronaviruses closely related to what emerged as Covid-19. It’s also a fact that not just the Chinese government, but also Western researchers, engaged in a systematic conspiracy to cover up the origins of the virus.

This makes a mockery of the self-serving platitudes of the conspiracy theory researchers, sneering about “despite the theory being roundly rejected by the scientific community”.

In that case, they were referring to the specific theory of “chemtrails”, but the principle remains: we know that the “scientific community” engaged in a systematic conspiracy to cover up the origins of the Covid virus. Which begs the question of how much we can trust them about anything else.

Still, in a poke in the eye of the Kate Hannahs and Byron C. Clarks, the research found that conspiracy beliefs were nowhere near as widespread, nor proliferating as fast, as those whose funding on convincing governments otherwise would have it.

While there were definitely some believers in our sample, most participants disagreed with each of the theories.

The most popular theory was that “pharmaceutical companies (‘Big Pharma’) have suppressed a cure for cancer to protect their profits”. Some 18 per cent of the sample group agreed when first asked.

The least popular was the theory that “Covid-19 ‘vaccines’ contain microchips to monitor and control people”. Only 2 per cent agreed […]

Despite contemporary concerns about a “pandemic of misinformation” or “infodemic”, we found no evidence that individual beliefs in conspiracy theories increased on average over time […]

While we only tracked participants for six months, other studies over much longer time frames have also found little evidence that beliefs in conspiracy theories are increasing over time.

It’s particularly worth noting that this survey took place during the second year of the Covid pandemic, when lockdowns were still being imposed and anti-government protests were growing.

Despite contemporary concerns about a “pandemic of misinformation” or “infodemic”, we found no evidence that individual beliefs in conspiracy theories increased on average over time.

In other words, government-funded hacks like the Disinformation Project, and hysterical politicians like Jacinda Ardern, are in fact, conspiracy theorists.

This relative stability is interesting, because one criticism of conspiracy theories is that they may not be “falsifiable”: what seems like evidence against a conspiracy theory can just be written off by believers as part of the cover up.

Yet people clearly do sometimes decide to reject conspiracy theories they previously believed.

This means that “disinformation researchers” who claim otherwise are — drumroll, maestro — peddling a conspiracy theory.

(As I always advise readers, read the original study for yourself if you can.)

Lushington describes himself as Punk rock philosopher. Liberalist contrarian. Grumpy old bastard. This article was first published HERE

5 comments:

DeeM said...

One woke, biased researcher's conspiracy theory, is another open-minded person's distinct possibility.

The same can be said of mainstream media and all of our Left-wing political parties at the moment. That's why many people don't trust them.
It must be hard to take, especially when only the Left side of your brain works (sort of) and you're incapable of looking at all sides of an argument.

Rob Beechey said...

Questioning the official narrative automatically removes one from the club which is designed to ridicule those that believe that the Emperor is naked.

Anonymous said...

COVID-19 is a biological weapon is one of the conspiracy theories they want you to believe or it wouldn't be promoted in every mainstream publication from Vanity Fair to the Washington Post.

When you realise biological weapons are total fiction and the only thing that is real is the fear associated with them, they've lost control over you.

Erica said...

There used to be all sorts of terminologies for this phenomenon . Looking up a thesaurus I have listed some: counterculture.unconventional,underground,alternative,anti-establishment,innovative, radical,revolutionary,unorthodox,nontraditional and so on. These guys have always had a hard time with much of society but long term they so often found right and contributed greatly to society.

Qivola said...

Re: "This means that “disinformation researchers” who claim otherwise are — drumroll, maestro — peddling a conspiracy theory."

It's the natural expected reality of living in a gaslit psychopathic world --- study the free essay The 2 Married Pink Elephants In The Historical Room at https://www.rolf-hefti.com/covid-19-coronavirus.html

The official narrative is… “trust official science” and "trust the authorities" but as with these and all other "official narratives" they want you to trust and believe …

“We’ll know our Disinformation Program is complete when everything the American public [and global public]c believes is false.” —William Casey, a former CIA director=a leading psychopathic criminal of the genocidal US regime

"2 weeks to flatten the curve has turned into...3 shots to feed your family!" --- Unknown

"I just cannot understand why all these damn anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists don't trust a government that actively works against the public interest 100 percent of the time. I mean if you can't trust institutions that are deliberately constructed to subvert the common good for the benefit of the wealthy and powerful at every turn, who can you trust?" --- Caitlin Johnstone, Independent Journalist

"The REAL conspiracy theorists believe that the government cares about them, the media would never mislead or lie to them and the allopathic-pharmaceutical industry that takes makes billions off sickness wants to cure them." --- Unknown

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