User:Dinaagudelo/sandbox

In loving memory of my great friend Andres Felipe Guzman

September 4, 1993 - June 17, 2021

His love, smile and generosity will be remembered forever.

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The Great Awakening: "QAnon the Mother of All Conspiracy Theories"

"Very few people know how to protect themselves from the corrosive influences that surround them.

Fortunate is the person that during their adolescence years doesn't give up on education"

- Orison Swett Marden.

How Are Conspiracy Theories Interfering With Our Commonsense Reasoning?

One of the most controversial conspiracy theories of all times is known as QAnon an active conspiracy theory that impacted millions of Americans specially during the Trump presidency. The spread of QAnon not only caused division but created chaos by misinforming the public.

The QAnon conspiracy theory began as a game, and soon that game started turning into a more serious matter: a political movement. This gaming aspect became clear when the filmmakers tried to investigate who “Q” was with a series of interviews of people involved with the movement and one of its followers described QAnon as a psychological operation, that is, a military-led strategy to influence a population’s emotions, motives, and objective reasoning. In other words, QAnon is designed to play with people’s minds.

Conspiracy theories have been evolving for decades. However, in the past recent years, we have seen a dramatic political involvement. That creates not only an unstable society but also a dangerous one. Technological advances such as social media in their most basic form helps us express liberally and instantly globally. However, the repetition of forms such as  "likes" and "re-posts" gives power to irrational and harmful beliefs that only end up destroying commonsense reasoning in society.

"Conspiracy theories arise in the context of fear, anxiety, mistrust, uncertainty, and feeling of powerless." People who present anxiety, stress, a need for control over the environment, and other personality traits, are more susceptible, because these individuals are frequently suspicious and distrustful, believing that others are conspiring against them. They find relief in theories that explain their feelings and concerns, which offers them a safe environment. Furthermore, conspiracy theories go beyond personality traits. They fill psychological and ideological needs as we are more likely to pay attention to and believe information that validates our existing beliefs. This is referred to as “confirmation bias” by psychologists. Because of the algorithms that social platforms have built, we may get our biases confirmed as “facts” when we interact with others who share our opinions through social media .

People who believe in the false assertions that are often flooding our social networks are more likely to take matters into their own hands, that is when they interfere with our commonsense reasoning.

Division and Chaos by QAnon

"Q Shaman" January 6, 2021

The majority of those who believe in QAnon conspiracy theory are Trump supporters, convinced that there is a “deep state,” that is, a shadow government by the elite that secretly plots how to manipulate the public, democratically-elected state. When Donald Trump was President, they alleged that this group of people was trying everything to remove the President from office.

On January 6, 2021, the United States suffered an attack on the Capitol, where members of Congress were meeting to confirm the victory of President Joe Biden. Supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory believed in the affirmation that ex-President Donald Trump repeated on different occasions about the 2020 presidential election being stolen from him because he could not accept his loss. That day QAnon supporters were expecting to get more instructions from Trump, thinking he was going to greet them, and rule for the next four years, where they were finally bringing the Satan worship pedophiles to justice. Inflamed by the president’s rhetoric, they forced their way into the capitol to “stop the steal,” threatening our democracy and causing the death of five people.

This was not the first time that individuals who believed in the “deep state” have taken matters into their own hands. In 2016, Edgar Welch, a man from North Carolina armed himself and went to self-investigate conspiracy theory allegations that Hillary Clinton was running a child sex ring out of Comet Pong, a pizza restaurant located in Washington D.C. After finding that no children were being held in the pizza place, he surrendered to the police . A second example happened in in 2019, when Anthony Comello, a Staten Island man, fatally shot the Mafia boss Frank Cali because he believed he was a member of the deep state. That was when the FBI classified QAnon as a domestic terror threat.

QAnon New False Assertions

Even after President's Joe Biden victory was confirmed the QAnon movement did not stop with the the spread of false assertions, the latest of which concerns the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines. Believers in the QAnon conspiracy theory refuse to get vaccinated because they think that the government’s “elite” wants to control humanity and that the COVID-19 virus was developed to reduce the population. The fact that some of those vaccinated have suffered complications has given more credibility to these false assertions, creating fear between American communities, preventing people from getting the vaccine, and slowing the process to put an end to this pandemic.

Americans and News Consumption

Social Media

The frightful way Americans are consuming their news nowadays is one of the main reasons they are often falling for the misinformation shared on the Web, as shown on a survey analysis by the Pew Research Center. About 18% of adults confirmed getting their political and election news from social platforms, and about 25% from news websites and apps. According to the survey, only 8% of these adults followed the 2020 election “very closely.” The lack of attention leads to insufficient knowledge for which users who rely on social media to get their news are less likely to get the facts and more likely to hear unproven claims.

Based on the Pew Research Center Survey

Source	Percentage %	Source	Percentage %	Source	Percentage %
News Websites/ Apps	25%	Cable Tv	16%	Print	3%
Social Media	18%	Network	13%	No Answer	1%
Local Tv	16%	Radio	8%

Conclusion

Americans should become more cautious about how they consume their news. Because we are living in the era of misinformation where the internet is a great tool for the unscrupulous people attempting to manipulate the United States population minds threaten the national security, democracy, and daily lives of Americans.

Comprehension Questions

• Why are conspiracy theories more likely to be believed, and who are more susceptible to believe in them?
• What difference does it make which source you use to get your daily news?
• What impact did QAnon had in the United States?

Further Readings

Aaron Blake, "Tucker Carlson's wild, baseless theory blaming the FBI for organizing the Jan.6 Capitol riot" The Washington Post. June 16, 2021. This article demonstrates how new conspiracy theories can surge from claims made by the QAnon movement.

Claire Wardle, "Can you outsmart a troll (by thinking like one) ?" TED-Ed. October, 2020. This video illustrates how quick and easy it is to spread false information with the purpose of manipulating people's beliefs.

Eli Pariser, Beware online "filter bubbles" TED. March, 2011. In this TED conference the activist and entrepreneur Eli Pariser emphasizes on the algorithms that social media had created and how it can be shaping our lives.

United States, Department of Homeland Security "Combatting Targeted Disinformation Campaigns: A Whole-Of-Society Issue" Homeland Security Digital Library. October, 2019. In this article a group of researches explain how disinformation campaigns became popular, how they work and what we can do to combat this threat.

Game: Do You Believe In Conspiracy Theories?

You have one minute and thirty seconds to answer as many questions as you can! Trivia Game; Are you a conspiracy theory believer ?

The goal of this game is to create awareness of how easily we may believe in conspiracy theories. 

If you like the game and want to learn more about each topic, go to this link click on the ? as you play the game.