When it comes to matters of the heart, we are all beginners. However, some of us at least speak with authority. Introducing Shon Faye, Trans Issues (60) and the forthcoming Love in Exile (2025), their proposals are adopted our eyes. Get in touch with her at [email protected] for your own initiation.
Dear Shon,
How do you untangle a web of tangled conspiracy theories?
My parents and I have always been close. I am blessed to have an affectionate, supportive family. But, since COVID hit, both my parents (in their 60) have turned conspiracy theorists.
Our once cozy family gathering turned into a lecture series on The Great Reset: a cashless society, completely controlled by the government. [ Editor’s Note: If you don’t know what this is, count yourself lucky, or google it. We won’t link it here. ] Their view of the world is an Orwellian nightmare society, worse than what George put on paper.
My sister and I are distraught and on the verge of breaking down. You write in your book how you don’t have to participate in every argument you’re invited to. How do you communicate across departments?
yours,
a lost child
Dear lost child,
I’m sorry this happened. Seeing your parents get lost in these outlandish beliefs sounds incredibly painful and painful. You are not alone in dealing with this situation. According to some studies, at least half of Americans hold the belief that powerful people conspire to bring about a particular situation or event in secret. The COVID- pandemic, with its unprecedented impact on society and the subsequent rollout of a global vaccine, has only provided more fertile ground for conspiracy theories that Already been incentivized to spread inaccurate, unsourced and intentionally misleading information on social media.
In my past writing about anti-LGBTQ moral panics in current US and European politics, I have spent a lot of time thinking and analyzing the development and spread of conspiracy theories online and their behavior of followers. What I think is often overlooked is that a commitment to these beliefs can give people a sense of purpose and identity. While conspiracy theories can tear apart families in the way you describe, they also create a strong sense of bond and connection among those who support them. There is camaraderie in the paranoid mentality of bunker mania. To understand conspiracy theories, we need to understand the answers they seem to provide to mental illness: uncertainty, powerlessness, loneliness and fear. While the beliefs themselves are often absurd, the symptoms they treat are not. We do live in uncertain times and we do have no control over our lives, our interests and priorities Disproportionately influenced by hidden elites, we are increasingly alienated and atomized, even as technological progress promises to More links.
202520252025
