My Gentle, Intelligent Brother Is Now A Conspiracy Theorist: Part II

Lessons learned after my story went viral in the Huffington Post

The moment I steadied my shaking hand, took a deep breath and pushed “send” on the 4th re-write of “My Gentle, Intelligent Brother Is Now A Conspiracy Theorist, and His Beliefs Are Shocking,” I had to accept there was no going back. My story, heart, and family were flayed open for others to inspect. Under the insightful eye of the Huffington Post’s Personal Editorial Director, Noah Michelson, we scrutinized the story for slander and reworked it for clarity. Noah gently pushed me to share my feelings rather than just the analytical research. Having never “gone viral,” I was unprepared for what happened next. 

I didn’t expect the sheer number of people going through the same thing.  What spoke to them (or so they said) was my approach to digging deep into all sides of this controversial and complex subject. Exploring these multifaceted “sides” with a genuine desire for understanding rather than proving I’m right appealed to a vast audience exhausted by division, hate, anger, and fear.

At last count, the story received 1.5 million reads on the Huffington Post, accompanied by 25 pages of comments with another 100K+ on Facebook alone (according to Meltwater, a media analysis tool). I have no idea what happened after syndication on Yahoo, Daily Magazine, and Democratic Underground. People found me on every social media and messaging app I ever used and sent five-paragraph emails sharing their family situations, psychiatric diagnosis, and books, articles, podcasts, and videos that have helped them on their journey. In the beginning, the comments were 95% encouraging, insightful, commiserate, and lengthy. As the story circulated in the mainstream, I noted that the comments got a lot shorter and meaner. 

I'm humbled to say this article resulted in:

• A podcast focused on How Isolation Affects The Growth Of Conspiracy Theories with psychiatrist Timothy Hayes. 

• A panel interview with a Canadian talk show called  Real Talk with Ryan Jesperson 

• A  Twitter Space conversation with Huff Post’s Noah Michelson.

So what did I learn? 

(This is part 1 of 2-3 posts … there was a LOT I learned!)

The Main Problem: 

We all think we know a lot more than we do. 

What qualifies as a conspiracy theory? 

We can all accept (I hope) that a “theory” is a plausible or scientifically acceptable general principle offered to explain phenomena. A “conspiracy theory” is when intentional action by sinister and powerful groups is attributed to phenomena when other explanations are more probable. 

According to Wikipedia, “The term has a negative connotation, implying that the appeal to a conspiracy is based on prejudice or insufficient evidence. Conspiracy theories resist falsification and are reinforced by circular reasoning: both evidence against the conspiracy and an absence of evidence for it are re-interpreted as evidence of its truth, whereby the conspiracy becomes a matter of faith rather than something that can be proven or disproven.” 

Democracy–with its central tenet of popular action versus dictated power–has been fertile soil for conspiratorial thinking from its inception. Endemic to being America and Canada are “open minds” and “free speech,” but people peddling lies and ½ truths have become prominent like never before. At no time in history are more politicians, corporations, religious leaders, foreign governments, and corrupt businessmen, even those who know conspiracy theories are absurd, harnessing via technology public anxiety for their own political and financial gain. Struggles for independence based on distrust in a government are responsible for all great democracies–could conspiracy theories be democracy’s eventual downfall? 

At no time in history are more politicians, corporations, religious leaders, foreign governments, and corrupt businessmen, even those who know conspiracy theories are absurd, harnessing via technology public anxiety for their own political and financial gain.

Many people suggested that my off-the-cuff mention of being a Libra in the article was absurd as my brother’s conspiracy theory about a bullet train between LA and Florida. Many more pointed to organized religion as the ultimate conspiracy theory.  I learned that faith and belief are two distinctly different concepts. People always have, and always will, constructed explanations for events and situations they have a hard time accepting. Research affirms that people have trusted their imagination for millennia more than what they see in front of them (more on this in my next post). 

In my opinion, keeping a curious mind and exploring anything we don’t (or can’t) know as long as it’s good and kind and doesn’t harm others (astrology, for example) is not the same as grasping onto theories, religions, or philosophies that promote fascism, racism, misogyny, paranoia, fear, and hate. 

How bad is it?

Conspiracy theories and unhinged ideas have gone mainstream and are tearing apart millions of relationships. They cut across political parties, race, class, and gender lines, and they cannot (as many argue) be blamed on intellectual capacity or religious fundamentalism. Historically conspiracy theories thrive in times of uncertainty (pandemic!) and rapid change. We know there’s a destabilized public perception of what’s true, what’s possible, and what can be blamed on people in power. Both sides of the political aisle are responsible for, and benefit from,  this chaotic storm of mis/disinformation and division in our families, communities, our country, and our world.

“Greed and lies are at war with love and science.” Richard Nevle

Research shows that both sides of the political divide overestimate the number of people “on the other side” whose “fringe beliefs are destroying America.” Read this if you don’t think you could be one of them. 

The viral conversation on social media and within the Huffington Post touched on just about every topic that could explain the “downtrodden” in our modern society.  There was a LOT of chatter about why people feel powerless (a key component of conspiracy acceptance) and much discussion about the unfulfilled promises of the “American Dream.” Conversations went down nearly every hot cultural rabbit hole, including privilege (or lack of), income inequality, education, technology addictions, Me Too, Black Lives Matter, and more abstract things like Chinese monetary policy. 

Some unfortunate terms I learned that contribute to conspiracy theories:

• Stochastic terrorism: the use of mass public communication, usually against a particular individual or group, that incites or inspires acts of terrorism that are statistically probable but seemingly random. 

• Schadenfreude: There’s an actual word for the pleasure or amusement some people take in the pain of others, like the people in power top spreading unhinged ideas to keep others at the boiling point. 

• Machiavellianism: a personality trait that denotes cunningness, the ability to be manipulative, and a drive to use whatever means necessary to gain power. Machiavellianism is one of the traits that form the Dark Triad, along with narcissism and psychopathy. 

What can we do about it? 

There’s nothing I’d rather do than stick my head in the sand, live my sweet life hiking in the mountains, and hope this issue goes away. But I can’t ignore deadly stories like family members refusing Covid treatments and Church-loving surf instructor Matthew Taylor Coleman. He murdered his children he believed possessed after following Q-Anon. Last week we had the Buffalo mass shooting motivated by “replacement theory. The American flag is flying at ½ mast, memorializing 1-million Covid 19 deaths. Meanwhile, Brown University’s School of Public Health announced that half of the 641,000 people who died after vaccines were available could have been averted – 318,981 – had every eligible adult gotten vaccinated. Meanwhile, my brother claims that everyone who got the vaccine will die in 3.5 years. Either way, I’m calling the prevalence of conspiracy theories a life-and-death issue. 

In future posts, I’ll share what I’ve learned about some possible solutions (spoiler alert: I’ll be challenging us to look inward to identify how all of our actions might be contributing to the rise of conspiracies). I’ll dig into how to RETHINK,  identify what we CAN control in conversations, and how to avoid a CULTURE OF CONTEMPT. Finally, I’ll explore what a “healthy commons” might look like, share my growing list of things we might teach kids in school, and suggest how to take responsibility for ourselves and manifest a more consciously kind world. 

IN THE MEANTIME … 

If you haven’t heard of “Gen Z’s attempt to upend the rabbit hole with absurdism,”  listen to The NYT Daily Show Birds Aren’t Real - fighting misinformation with misinformation. It’s a hilarious and terrifying exposé on people's gullibility with a hopeful resolution. 

Anna Merlan’s Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power (2019) digs much deeper than I did in my original article into the nuances of the people behind the theories and the social circumstances that helped them take hold of “American paranoia.” She walks readers through famous conspiracy theories in U.S. history, both true and false. Published before the Covid pandemic and the events of January 6, her findings are spot on today. 

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