Information Disorder: Conspiracy Theories go Mainstream

What do Antifa and Q Anon have in common? This sounds like the set-up to a joke, but it has become a deadly serious question. What unites these extreme alignments of the right and left. Despite radical differences of ideology, these “organizations” are united in their hatred of the ruling class, a deep distrust of the official story, and a dependence on the platforms they use to organize.

Enter: Conspiracy Theories.

How do you know what to believe about the news? How can you trust what you read online? Do you choose your source then believe everything they say? Do you evaluate credibility on a case-by-case basis? Do you analyze each story for the same metrics of truth?

What are the metrics of truth? Do we need to weigh facts with gut feelings? I understand the importance of making rational decisions, but I know I often evaluate truth in the heat of passionate moments. When a story tugs at my heartstrings and earns my compassion or anger, reasonable Patrick takes a hike. And conspiracy Patrick digs into a web government and Wall Street criminals running global child sex trafficking ring conspiracy.

Can you blame me? Lying is the status quo with politicians. Reporters more often naively repeat what was heard instead of contextualizing information when there are contradicting facts. It’s even worse when the national news goes dark on something important. This omission and censorship has created a vacuum filled by any compelling voice allowed on the platforms and thrust into the algorithmic spotlight.

For 4 years, the news of the day was dictated by Twitter and the midnight Tweets of the President of the United States. For 4 years, traditional television news networks based the majority of their content on what Donald Trump shared on social media. CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC spent as much time reporting what was posted on social media as what was happening in real life.

Our information disorder continues to run rampant, leaving us scrolling in search of someone to trust. The Biden administration has begun, but his arrival has done nothing to alter the discourse landscape. It is former President Trump’s silence that carries the burden of change. In a single day, Twitter banished the Trump account permanently along with 70,000 other Q Anon-linked accounts. They have been silenced along with the users of Parlor, convicted in a private court by men who execute internet death by coordinating the powers of technology and business. Now the distrust of Washington D. C. has extended to Silicon Valley and Wall Street. I and many others are disengaging and looking for alternatives, but everyone’s opinions are entrenched.

The rigged election argument still has a strong appeal and believability factor in many communities throughout America. Everyone has good reasons to question the objectivity of the mainstream media. And question the fairness of the election process. Think back to the 19th century and the ballot stuffing of Tammany Hall. Not to mention our government’s actions abroad throughout history.

You may be quick to dismiss the radical ideas of Q Anon. And perhaps rightly so. But it is not so easy when you look at pictures of Jeffrey Epstein with two former Presidents. You don’t have to be part of a militia to question why certain stories simply disappear.

There are no true competitors to the largest, most dominant technology companies. They buy out the competition and other legacy news platforms, operating with little to no fear of regulation. Colluding with military intelligence services and serving a crucial role in many industries. There are no viable alternatives, and for the moment, these tech giants are in charge. Dictating what can and cannot be said on the internet.

Not only have the titans of the information industry abandoned notions of objectivity and equal access, they continue to traffic in conspiracy for profit. They created algorithms that push us further and further away from the centers of discourse into the fringes of the web’s most salacious user generated content.

There are reportedly 3.6 billion social media users worldwide. Facebook alone logs in 1.8 billion users every single day. Every. Single. Day. Such a concentration of influence and power is unimaginable. Yet, everyone’s feed is personalized. So we are all seeing different things…right?

Are we really seeing different content? I have several different friend groups, separated by geography and extreme ideological differences. But I see the same memes circulate across these disparate groups.

In 2020, our collective attention was concentrated on the coronavirus lockdown and the election. There were many perspectives, but it is hard to shake the feeling that we were all seeing the same things. Different content meant to elicit different reactions, but resulting in the same behavior: more time on social media.

Sure, there are different perspectives, yet we only seem to see extreme takes on the right and extreme takes on the left. And, yes, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter weren’t creating these stories. But they were peddling them. Can you blame them? They were making record profits. Are they going to show you bland, informative posts that keep you clicking for 15 minutes? Or are they going to send you down the conspiracy rabbit hole that keeps you scrolling for 150 minutes?

There is a profit incentive to spread conspiracy theories across industries. They are sticky stories that keep users wanting more. Especially when there is a grain of truth in a conspiracy. Democrats are politically correct, identity politic fascists coming for your guns. Every Trump voter is a racist who wants to lock up brown kids in cages to protect their own rights to skirt taxes and keep wages low for their employees. Either narrative steers us into a polar identity that vilifies the opponent to the point of evil.

Where does the truth end and conspiracy begin?

How can we trust a news source once it’s caught in a lie? How can you even trust video evidence now that deep fakes are so convincing?

Q Anon. Antifa. It doesn’t matter from which side you approach a conspiracy. They all lead to the same place. Distrust. Fear. Anger. And a righteous fervor where the ends justifies the means.

Trump is gone from the headlines for now, but the shift towards making conspiracies mainstream can’t be undone. We are living in a time of unprecedented information disorder. The global citizens of the internet are questioning everything. And we are increasingly upset about what we see.

The media has opted to address this distrust and discord through censorship. Censorship only serves to perpetuate the grand conspiracy of corruption. Until the news media can admit that they have failed in their duty to keep us informed, so that we can make up our own minds…until we create a new approach to information and it’s distribution, the only way to produce agreement will be through censorship.