CONSPRACY THEORIES

Both the White House and international conspiracy theorists claim that the coronavirus was developed by Chinese scientists has not been rejected by Western intelligence agencies.

However, according to The Guardian, intelligence sources say all reports are not supported by information provided by Five Eyes, a secret exchange of information between the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

So why is speculation about the origins of the global pandemic still spreading? Are conspiracy theories popular and why?

Conspiracy theories are not new phenomena and most people agree with them even if they do not realize it, according to experts.

"Everyone believes in at least one and maybe a few," said, professor Joe Uscinski, a political scientist and author of American Conspiracy Theories, told BBC  "And the reason is simple, there is an infinite number of conspiracy theories out there", he added.

In 2018, an international study by researchers at the University of Cambridge found that 60% if the British people believed at least one conspiracy theory about how the country is run or the accuracy of the information they have been given.

Why do people believe in conspiracy theories?  For example, the 2018 study showed that 47% of British supporters believed that the government had deliberately lied about how many immigrants lived in the UK, versus just 14% of Remain voters, and 31% of Leave voters believed that Muslim immigration was part of a wider plot to make Muslims the majority in Britain, compared with 6% of the Remain voters.

A study conducted over six years in nine countries that in the USA 47% of Donald Trump voters believed that man-made global warming was a hoax, compared with 23%  of people who had voted for Hilary Clinton in the 2012 presidential elections.  "People feel they belong to their group but it also means that people feel a certain sense of antagonism towards people in the other group", professor Sara Hobalt, a political scientist at the London School of Economics told the BBC.


Experts point out that while humanity's ability to recognise trends and notice things that "don't look right" was a crucial evolution of our species, it can also be our loss and disbenefit
.

Fake theories become exceptionally popular when the world is in a crisis like the unprecedented global pandemic.  "Conspiracy theories become more prominent in times of crisis and this has a lot to do with uncertainty," Karen Douglas, a professor of social psychology told the press.


Conspiracies may not be based on reality but they can have an influence on the real world.  "Conspiracy theories are, as far as we can tell, always have been a pretty important part of life in many societies and most of the time that has gone beneath the radar of the establishment media" sid John Naughton, a Cambridge University professor who led the 2018 research.


Speaking to The Guardian after publishing their findings, Naughton added: "Insofar as people thought of conspiracy theories at all we thought of all those crazy things that crazy people believe and that didn't seem to have much impact on democracy".
 

But events have proved, in recent years, that disregarding facts in favour of wild (crazy) theories can have a significant impact on national and international government policy.

"Whatever you think of Trump, he is born a conspiracy theorist.  Trump was the kind of catalyst in, that somehow, his election had the effect of mainstream conspiracy theories" Naughton continued.


Indeed the FBI has identified fringe conspiracy theories as a domestic terrorist threat, according to pre-coronavirus intelligence seen by Yahoo News.  The document, dated May 2019,  warned that such theories "very likely would emerge, spread and evolve in the modern information market place occasionally driving both groups and individual extremists to carry out criminal or violent acts".


"The 2020 presidential elections would likely further fuel the dangerous trend" the bulletin added. 




In Greece, we are living in the midst of a hygienic miracle and an economic drama.  All over the world, besides the fear about the coronavirus disease, there is profound concern about the faltering economy.




Please visit Greece after the lockdown!

Santorini by an Unknown Artist

Corfu by John Singer Sargent