Items

• 
  2022-03-28T08:40

  Covid the Great Destabilizer

  My personal experience
• 
  2020-05-09

  "If Someone Shares the ‘Plandemic’ Video, How Should You Respond?" - The Atlantic Monthly

  The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated economic shock have created fertile conditions for the development and spread of conspiracy theories, especially about the nature of the pandemic. These conspiracy theories have begun to permeate the lives of many Americans, disrupting personal relationships through arguments and disgust. In an article for the Atlantic Monthly, journalist Joe Pinsker provides readers with advice on what to do if someone in their personal circle shares conspiracy theory videos, particularly the Plandemic documentary. Rather than be combative and insulting, Pinsker advises his readers to be emphatic and understanding. This allows readers to pivot the conversation toward addressing the conspiracy theorist's concerns, while also not causing them to be more entrenched in their positions. When these tactics do not work, however, Pinsker advises readers to give on them as a lost cause.
• 
  2020-10-28

  "Build Back Better": A Plandemic Narrative

  An image shared by the person linked describing an image that is the digital equivalent of putting photos on a tack board and connecting them with strings while saying "Pepe Silvia". Apparently people think "extreme radical democratic liberals" used a bioweapon to kickstart a "communist" revolution or something in some sort of crazy bio-Posadist horror fantasy laced with a bit of the anti-semitic fear of the elites. Truly strange.
• 
  2020-10-25

  Some people believe in the idea of the pandemic being staged

  This is an image from someone's Twitter recounting their ideologies surrounding the pandemic being planned by the government.
• 
  2020-07-07

  Conspiracy Theories can be Deadly

  Conspiracy theories can be interesting, scary, and even entertaining. But they have real life consequences for some. This story about Carsyn Leigh Davis illustrates how dangerous conspiracy theories can be. Davis’s mother took her to a COVID-19 church party to purposely expose her to the virus. She was immunocompromised and became seriously ill. She was treated with treatments like hydroxychloriquine which have not been proven to be safe or effective by the FDA. She ultimately died from the disease. Here’s an example of folks who buy into conspiracy theories like Plandemic and Q-Anon and how their lack of information literacy has real consequences on their own health and the health of others.
• 2020-05-20

  Seven traits of conspiratorial thinking that lead people to believe things like 'Plandemic'

  An "outline in our Conspiracy Theory Handbook and How to Spot COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories, there are seven distinctive traits of conspiratorial thinking. ..Learning these traits can help you spot the red flags of a baseless conspiracy theory and hopefully build up some resistance to being taken in by this kind of thinking. This is an important skill given the current surge of pandemic-fueled conspiracy theories."
• 
  2020-05-09

  Comment Section and Human Nature

  I'm a member of several community (some smaller, some wider) Facebook groups. I am not overly active, especially when discussion occur that get heated. In this screenshot, someone asked if anyone actually knew anyone with Covid-19, as opposed to just a friend of a friend. Within this particular group, there is a large contingent of people that refer to the pandemic as "plandemic" and sincerely believe that the government, or the left, or whatever, are using this pandemic to further control the public and ruin the economy. Many of the respondents to this question (over 200 at the time I took this screenshot) emphasized that they knew of no one, and it was being blown out of proportion. I found this particular interaction in the comments interesting, however, because the first person that, in all caps, stated that it was a sham, immediately offered condolences to the person who's friend almost died. It reminded me that people will say- or yell in caps- in social media and get all worked up, but they can be kind. I don't know if this person changed their mind about it being a sham after "hearing" about a near death, but it shows how crazy comment sections can be.