Just two years ago, Dominion Voting Systems' defamation lawsuit against Fox News demonstrated that many right-wing influencers simply don't believe what they're selling to their viewers. In text messages that emerged during the lawsuit, top Fox anchors and executives expressed disdain for the idea that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, even as the network amplified the conspiracy theory to viewers. "Our viewers are good people and they believe it," Tucker Carlson wrote in a message.
Yet today, some of the country’s most mainstream and influential conservatives are fanning the flames of paranoid conspiracy theories and seem to actually believe what they say.
Venture capitalist Peter Thiel, for example, is an authority figure: he was an early investor in Facebook, is now a mentor to Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, and has close ties to the U.S. defense industry through his companies connect. Palantir. But in a recent opinion column from the super-establishment financial timesThiel sounds like The X-Files” Fox Mulder after a long night at the Bigfoot Forum. “The future needs fresh and strange ideas,” he wrote.
Thiel suggested that after Donald Trump's second inauguration, we may finally know the truth about President John F. Kennedy's assassination and whether the coronavirus is a biological weapon. Thiel noted that questions have also been raised on the Internet about the death of well-connected sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. "Trump's return to the White House heralds 'the secrets of the old regime being revealed,'" he added. (Two pretentious expressions in one sentence? Sir, beware of hubris.) Thiel wants a massive declassification and a truth and reconciliation commission, along the lines of South Africa's approach to apartheid. "this Revelation It won’t solve our fight over 1619,” Thiel wrote, referring to the year the first enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia, “but it can solve our fight over Covid-19; it won’t Judge not the sins of our first rulers, but the sins of those who rule us today. "
Thiel describes Trump's resurgence as a failure of the "Distributed Idea Suppression Complex" (DISC) - a reference to legacy media and NGOs by his friend and employee Eric Weinstein term, these institutions allegedly prevent politically inconvenient truths from reaching the public. Thanks to the Internet, information is no longer suppressed.
Like most classic conspiracy theories, Thiel's argument has some merit. as naomi klein's clone Wisely points out that "the line between unsupported conspiracy theories and solid investigative research is not as firm and stable as many of us imagine." Thiel is right, some liberal commentators and the mainstream media are too quick to has dismissed questions about whether COVID-19 originated anywhere other than the Wuhan meat market. At some point, a new york times Journalists suggested on Twitter that racism was at the root of suspicions that the virus escaped from a research lab. However, none of this suggests that the coronavirus is a biological weapon or that Anthony Fauci should be prosecuted. (For that matter, era Published multiple articles taking an open view on the origins of the virus. ) Anyway, who is the president in 2020 when the origins of the coronavirus debate arises? If there is any classified evidence that could clarify the dispute, Donald Trump has the right to disclose it.
As for Epstein, his death in 2019 is undoubtedly very convenient for anyone who might be embarrassed by what they knew about him. However, the so-called mainstream media has not glossed over these lingering questions; clear answers are simply not available and may never be available. (An episode aired on CBS 60 minutes Attached are pictures from Epstein's autopsy in January 2020. ) Furthermore, if anyone is hiding the truth about Epstein, it's probably not a left-wing group. Who would benefit from killing a guy who hangs out with Trump, Prince Andrew, and various tech billionaires? Probably not the blue-haired vegan from Portland, Oregon; the racial justice activist; or the humanities scholar. At the same time, the idea that anyone would suppress doubts about the official explanation for JFK’s assassination on social media is laughable. This topic has fascinated Americans for more than sixty years. oliver stone's JFK AirportReleased in 1991, it highlighted glossy conspiracy theories surrounding the former president's death. The film starred Kevin Costner and won two Oscars.
Thiel’s efforts to seek an end to the pandemic are noteworthy. Something happened during that period that prompted influential, ostensibly rational people to turn to beliefs once associated with madness. Others suddenly lost trust in institutions and expertise. Podcaster Bryan Johnson is a successful tech entrepreneur now pursuing true immortality. He went from bragging about getting the Moderna vaccine in 2021 (because he invested in a company involved in its development) to complaining that "vaccines are a holy war." "And he regretted getting the COVID vaccine because there wasn't enough data to support its use. This guy took so many pills that if you shook him, he would rattle."
The biggest names in right-wing politics have revealed their love for "Courtship." Skepticism about conventional medicine has become a staple of unorthodox podcasts that simultaneously promote unproven, unregulated dietary supplements. My colleague Anne Applebaum describes this trend toward mysticism, fringe religiosity, and pseudo-spirituality as the “new obscurantism.”
Until recently, I thought the anti-establishment sentiment promoted by Thiel and others was merely opportunistic, a way for elites to foment some form of anti-elitism that would somehow exclude themselves from the outside the target of popular outrage. Thiel has always had a penchant for embracing provocative and heretical ideas, but he's also proven himself to be eloquent, analytical, and able to deliver entire paragraphs without sounding a little unhinged. but read his financial times Column, I want: Oh my God, he believes this stuff. The whole tone is reminiscent of a stranger sitting next to you on public transportation and whispering that the FBI is following him.
The correct response to uncertainty is humility, not conspiracy. But conspiracy is exactly what many influential people around Trump have succumbed to - everything must be the product of DISC, the deep state, the World Economic Forum, or some other sinister and shadowy controller. The cynical Tucker Carlson of the Dominion era has given way to a more testy version since being fired from Fox. When Carlson first went independent, he seemed to be hosting some weirdos for clicks. For example, during his live tour, he seemed a little embarrassed when Roseanne Barr told him that Democrats "love the taste of human flesh and they drink human blood." Maybe he doesn't really believe the former crack user who claimed to have had a gay relationship with Barack Obama, or the historian who asserted that Winston Churchill (and not Adolf Hitler) was the "prime villain" of World War II . But at some point, I started taking Carlson at his word. Most recently, he claimed he woke up covered in scars and claw marks after being attacked by a demon in his bedroom. Just days after he said America needed a "hard spanking" from Dad Trump, Carlson revealed that he believed the atomic bomb was invented by the devil. He's clearly dealing with something.
What can we learn from this gullibility? First, maintain a healthy dose of skepticism this The rest of the 2020s will require intellectual discipline. Yes, traditional media makes mistakes. But that doesn’t mean you should believe every alluring story floating around online, especially when it’s being peddled by someone trying to sell you something.
The second lesson is that no matter how smart one is in business dealings, humans are prone to lizard brain-like preference for narrative over fact. This makes careful selection of information sources even more important. If you listen all day long to people who believe there is an evil hand behind every unexplained event, you'll start to believe this too. It is a fact that this paranoia has consumed America’s most influential figures. Revelation its own.