Bath Philosophy & Debate Group

The willingness of humans to believe a story, real or fictional, is as old as language itself. Whether a tale, and how it is told, is truth, fact, spin, propaganda, opinion, lies, deceit or fraud, we react somehow, usually emotionally and rarely rationally. A good story-teller will engage our emotions, early, and take them on a roller-coaster ride, that whether pure fun, or deeply disturbing, will leave us somehow different after the telling. The story teller may be naïve, sincere, or purposely deceptive; but if they’re good, then we get carried away regardless. The matter is as old as the Acropolis: here Socrates (in Phaedrus) explains the deceit of rhetoric and rhetoricians, in these examples spoken by Lysias:

he appears to have done just the reverse of what he ought;
for he has begun at the end, and is swimming on his back
through the flood to the place of starting

note how the transition was made from blame to praise

the speaker proceeded to divide the parts of the left side and did not desist until he found in them an evil or left-handed love which he justly reviled; and the other discourse leading us to the madness which lay on the right side, found another love, also having the same name, but (this time) divine, which the speaker held up before us and applauded and affirmed to be the author of the greatest benefits.

Perhaps we are not good at separating out and comparing the different principles of entertainment from those of information, and from propaganda, but perhaps we ought to be. Otherwise, we may act on untruths; we may be persuaded to commit crimes by dishonest agitators; we may find ourselves trapped in a network of rabbit holes, so deep, that without a thread from an Ariadne, we’ll never find our way out.
In today’s world, there is a labyrinthine web of conspiracies, that seem to drive politics, culture wars and even societal and family breakdown; and we are all part of, and in, that web. Innocently, we all hold unchallenged opinions and beliefs, and these may sit dormant until someone plucks the right string that resonates them into life, and we automatically agree or disagree with a policy, proposition or assertion; falling into this camp, or the opposite, as quick as you like.

We are all more vulnerable to capture and addiction at different times and conditions of our lives; and, in any case, more than we care to admit. The lonely, the isolated, the defeated, the angry, the disenfranchised etc. will also be more susceptible. These are warning signs to look out for in your loved ones.

There is a rich lineage of conspiracies running from the Garden of Eden, (against Eve and all women) through witch calling and burning, to the Jewish cabal, the industrial complex (war machine), New World Order, reds under the bed, JFK, Watergate, Q-Anon, Deep State, Pizzagate, Covid, Bill Gates-gate, cashless society, the Great Reset; and also many more specific and localised conspiracies such as the Orkney Satanic abuse scandal, Andrew Wakefield’s MMR-autism fraud, and the “15-minute city” planning conspiracy.

Many of these have been disproven, but elements still persist! ‘Yeah but, they would say that wouldn’t they, if they were trying to cover it up’. Also, in many of them, although the main premise is pure fantasy, the conspiracy draws upon some elements of truth and reality, which feeds doubt, and this sustains their popularity.