A fool’s paradise

By Ben Olson
Reader Staff

It’s a wild time to be alive. 

In an age when information is so readily available, it takes seconds to answer a question with an online search that might have taken ancient thinkers a lifetime to deduce. 

Some might think our population would grow more intelligent as information becomes more easily attained. If any of the past few years are an indication, that’s not happening at all. Rather, we’re living in a fool’s paradise, where anyone can search long enough to find “facts” to support any number of wild assertions. Instead of an Age of Enlightenment, we’re living smack in the middle of Dumb Time.

We are watching our society grow more ignorant and fearful, clutching to outlandish conspiracy theories to find a hold on a world that seems to be spinning out of control.

The latest comes in the aftermath of devastating disasters and flooding in the U.S. South, which have led to severe losses of life. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., planted a facepalm heard ’round the world when she posted to X last week that, “Yes they can control the weather,” after postulating that wicked Democrats are somehow lassoing hurricanes and unleashing them on “red states.” 

Greene’s assertion is so dunderheaded I won’t even expend the paragraphs it takes to debunk it. Suffice to say, no, we can’t control hurricanes and slam them into specific states as we see fit.

What’s interesting about Greene’s post isn’t that it’s the usual bullshit you’d expect from someone who tweets like a recovering lobotomy patient. It’s that gullible, ignorant people read such statements and begin spreading them around their gullible, ignorant social circles. As the saying goes, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.” Or I suppose in the parlance of our time, “A lie travels to the edge of the flat Earth and falls over the side before the truth puts its beer helmet on.”

But why have so many of our friends and neighbors chosen the Dark Side and aligned with these conspiracy theories? Experts say that people are usually attracted to conspiratorial speculation in order to satisfy three psychological needs: they want more certainty, they want to feel in control, and they want to maintain a positive image of themselves and their group. 

During times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, we noticed an uptick in conspiracy theories because the desire to make sense of the mad, mad world becomes more urgent. 

Whether it’s believing that the government is controlling the weather or that Haitian immigrants are snacking on pets in Ohio, conspiracy theories are spread online in far-right circles, but there are many on the far-left who also drink their own flavor of Kool-Aid.

So how do you interact with someone who casually announces at the bar that the Earth is a pancake? Here are a few tips that might just help you maintain your sanity while all those about you are losing theirs:

Don’t try to change their mind

If you care about the conspiracy theorist, don’t immediately try to debunk their “facts” and change their mind. Ask questions like, “When did you first start believing in ___?”; “How has this impacted you psychologically?”; “What do these beliefs offer you?”

Critical thinking is… critical

Conspiracy theorists often believe they are part of a tiny group of select people who “really understand” or “know the truth.” Ask them questions that relate to the evaluation of evidence — all pieces of evidence — so that you can both develop a baseline of understanding.

What can be controlled

Encourage your friend to look forward and inspire them to put their energy into areas of their life where they can experience more control. Help them list examples where they have the power and independence they desire, and go from there.

It’s never easy talking to someone you love who has fallen down the rabbit hole of baseless conspiracy theories. If you care about them, try to find common ground, because gaining someone’s confidence is important to help prevent radicalization. But, if they’re a stranger or you don’t care about them, don’t apologize if you have to extricate yourself from the conversation. 

Life’s too short to waste time talking to someone who can’t even accept basic facts that we’ve known for millennia.