Chapter 3
Wake up Sheeple!
This is all a conspiracy!
From false COVID-19 cures to people burning down 5G masts to contested election results, why are conspiracy theories such a pervasive form of misinformation and disinformation?
Beyond the individual theories themselves, it's probably because ultimately, disinformation is often rooted in the structures of power. Filling in the gaps feels good.
The thing is that power, and particularly that of capital, frequently is conspiratorial against the interests of the public, just not in the outlandish ways that people imagine. And so this structurally conspiratorial power combines with the bullshit society detailed in the previous chapter to produce a huge range of persistant and highly destructive conspiracy theories that only serve to distract further from the true exercise of power.
Next chapter: When Liberals Aren’t Actually That Liberal