Those who have watched–and enjoyed–the X Files will especially appreciate this post. You may remember Episode 17 of Season 1, titled E.B.E. when Fox Mulder is having his conversation with Dana Scully. Mulder says to Scully: “The truth is out there.” The redacted response reads something like this:
Scully: “Mulder, the truth is out there, but so are lies.”
Today, there are a lot of Mulders running around, posting to social media, sending unsolicited e-mail to family and friends, warning people not to wear masks and not to get vaccinated. Personally, I depend on God to either (1) miraculously make this virus disappear, or (2) inspire and guide scientific researchers in their quest for a perfect vaccine. So, when someone tries to convince me of the efficacy of any of the false arguments about the current vaccines (e.g. that everyone who gets vaccinated will be dead in five to fifteen years, or that women who get vaccinated will never be able to get pregnant again, or that the government is using the vaccine to inject computer chips into you which will migrate to your brain, forehead or the palm of your hand), I cringe. As a former full-time C-19 contact tracer, I respond with information from the CDC, NIH, or Johns Hopkins. But I also ask the poster or tweeter for the source of their theory. Strangely, rather than saying: “I got it from my cousin” or “I read it in Field and Stream,” they coyishly respond “Oh, you can find the truth for yourself. It’s ‘out there.'” Out there? Out where? If you saw this individual in person, they would tend to whisper that assertion with furtive glances to ensure (I suppose) they weren’t being watched or secretly recorded.
Beam me up!
So, the perfect rejoiner if you find yourself in a similar situation is to say “Mulder, the truth is out there, but so are lies.” “Out there” on the Web you’ll learn that Elvis is alive, that the Earth is flat, that the Apollo moon landings were faked. You’ll learn that masks are a plot launched by the Illuminati to suffocate our children. And you won’t even need a TOR browser to find it.
Dr. Anne Simon
I’m not an X-Files fan. I just never got into it. I don’t know Chris Carter (the shows producer), but he and I have a mutual acquaintance in Anne Simon who was sort of the scientific adviser to the show. She wrote a very interesting and easy to read book that can be found here. She would help him come up with some of the creatures and things. Dr Simon runs an RNA lab at the University of Maryland. The newspaper at my college reviewed her book years ago, and then we spent an awesome hour chatting with her on the phone about her work, whether she loves horses and pasta, and so on.
The X-Files was immensly popular for a number of reasons. First of all, there was the on-screen magic between David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. Then, there was the exceptional script writing. But there were also deeper themes and strings that tugged on the viewer’s heart. When Mulder relates the time his sister just disappeared, for example. In his persona’s office, he had a poster that said “I want to believe.” He wants to believe in “stranger things,” but then there is the pesky stumbling block called fact.
Alternative facts
But there are also “alternative facts” which the last administration introduced to us. If the evidence (tickets printed and distributed), District of Columbia metro bus passengers, independent experts in estimating crowds all suggest that 250,000 people attended the Presidential Inaguration in 2017, that might be a rough fact if there is an across-the-board consensus. But if the President says that he’s convinced that there were a million people there (or fifty million people) who attended, that would be an “alternative fact” in terms of this Newspeak if (1) the President believes he knows more about counting crowds than anyone—and he probably does, and (2) no one in the administration wants to dispute that figure.
There have always been conspiracies and conspiracy theories when people are frightened or society is paranoid. They also occur when there is rapid change in society, as we’ve seen with groups in our country, most recently trangender groups, the election of the first black President, or caravans of migrants from Haiti (who speak French.) Researchers Van Prooijen and Douglas define this change as:
impactful and rapid societal change that calls existing power structures, norms of conduct, or even the existence of specific people or groups into question. Since people have a fundamental need to understand why events occurred, particularly in the case of negative or unexpected events (Brückmuller et al., this issue), crisis situations often elicit sense-making narratives among citizens that become part of their representations of history. Many of these narratives take the form of conspiracy theories, commonly defined as explanatory beliefs of how multiple actors meet in secret agreement in order to achieve a hidden goal that is widely considered to be unlawful or malevolent (Zonis and Joseph, 1994).
van Prooijen, Jan-Willem, and Karen M Douglas. “Conspiracy theories as part of history: The role of societal crisis situations.” Memory studies vol. 10,3 (2017): 323-333. doi:10.1177/1750698017701615
Note that conspiracy theories are as old as human history. Van Prooijen and Douglas use the Great Fire in Rome as an example.
“Even back in the Roman era, there are prominent examples of conspiracy theories, and these are typically connected to major crisis situations. During the year AD 64, the great fire of Rome erupted. Aided by the wind and the wooden construction of the houses, the fire lasted for almost a week, transforming Rome into an inferno. Once the fire stopped, most of Rome was destroyed. Many people died or were left homeless. Emperor Nero was out of town when the fire started, and he returned to Rome to organize help for the victims. Around the same time, however, conspiracy theories started to spread, which asserted that Nero and his associates deliberately started the fire in order to rebuild Rome according to his own vision. In addition, these conspiracy theories stated that Nero was singing while Rome was burning…
Apparently, Nero was not amused when hearing about the conspiracy theories. In response, he came up with his own conspiracy theory, blaming the Christian community for initiating the fire and spreading the rumors—leading many Christians to be crucified or burned alive.”
van Prooijen, Jan-Willem, and Karen M Douglas. “Conspiracy theories as part of history: The role of societal crisis situations.” Memory studies vol. 10,3 (2017): 323-333. doi:10.1177/1750698017701615
I don’t want to go too far afield with conspiracy theories because I’ve already accomplished a post on them available here. I do hope that the reader does not believe something (anything) just because someone tells them that it’s so. Paradoxically, the more fantastic a story is, the more believable it becomes. If I tell you that Senator X took his family on his boat off the east coast last summer and pushed them all into the sea where they perished, I would likely receive a good deal of healthy suspicion. But if I say that there are a dozen U.S. Senators running a pedaphile ring and trafficing in stolen body parts, people may be more apt to believe me absent any evidence.
You should trust and depend on proven credible sources, even if there is a bias which you can correct for. For example, the New York Times has been around since the U.S. Civil War. One America News Network hasn’t existed for even a single decade. I would therefore give the Times the benefit of the doubt if OANN differs in the facts of a story. A lot of my conservative friends are citing the Epoch Times more and more lately. It’s been around a whopping twenty one years, but it’s owned by a Chinese religious group. The Washinton Times is also run by a foreign (South Korean) religious group (the Unification Church, or Moonies.) Yet in some circles in the beltway, it’s considered more trustworthy that the Post. The Post has won 69 Pulitzers for excellence in journalism, incidentially, while the Times has not won a single Pulitzer as yet.
Even more important are impeccable sources, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Johns Hopkins, and so on. These institutions are authorities on health issues (including the Coronavirus.) Parler and Facebook and not, however. Let’s be reasonable and not incredible.
So, it’s time for a decision. Are you going to take the jab to keep you and your family safe from COVID-19, or are you going to stick with the tinfoil hat?
