Conspiracy Theories

From hard-to-believe stories about a faked moon landing to farfetched fabrications about John F. Kennedy’s assassination, conspiracy theories – and their believers – flourish and fester in the fever dreams of their believers. Conspiracy theories, akin to disinformation, are also not new. 

While Roman Emperor Nero committed suicide, rumours claimed the final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty faked his death, hoping to hide out until he could regain power. Other more outlandish stories contended Nero had died but would rise again to rule over the Roman Empire. 

Many conspiracy theories have a whacky and frivolous flavour to them. The bizarre Flat-Earth belief first took root in the 1950s but blossomed on the Internet, tended by a devoted group of like-minded gardeners torturing the laws of physics to explain away things like gravity and lunar eclipses. In July of 1947, a secret military surveillance device crashed on a remote ranch near Roswell, New Mexico. Yet, folklore about a flying saucer and little green men from outer space percolates in the popular imagination to this day.  While some conspiracy theories feel innocuous, hate, nativism, prejudice – and even violence – animate many conspiracy narratives, transporting mainstream online audiences directly to a potential “pipeline for radicalization,” warn those who study extremism and their connection to conspiracy theories.  Many modern-day conspiracy theories originate in centuries-old antisemitism, framing Jewish people as part of a nefarious cabal of elites orchestrating global events.  

A  2023 study by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate, a non-profit organization dedicated to curbing misinformation, found that teenagers tend to believe online conspiracy theories significantly more than older generations. Six in ten of 13–17-year-old Americans believed harmful conspiracy theories, including myths about white supremacy, antisemitism, vaccines and climate change.  The number was even higher among heavy social media users (nearly seven in ten).