227. Conspiracy theories

I don’t actually know whether conspiracy theories are a modern ailment or whether they’ve always existed but have found in social media a fertile ground in which to thrive. They are fascinating. Even when there is an easily experimentally proven, incontrovertible consensus on a subject, say for example the non-flatness of Earth, an alternative view, fuelled by nothing other than the mild sexiness its contrarian veneer imbues it with, arises and spreads, a highly contagious stupidity virus. The logic paraphrases that of one of my favourite heroes, Sherlock Holmes: ‘When all sensible looking explanations have been disproven, the remaining, however unlikely, must be true’. Just substitute disproven by wilfully ignored. Conspiracy theories serve two valuable purposes for their acolytes. They allow those who never stood out to do just that, feel special, more in the know than others. And they provide a sense of belonging, a community, to those who feel left out in our modern, isolated times 

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