The Conspiracy Paradox
Conspiracy theories are often treated like weak explanations, easily debunked. This misconception only makes their webs stronger.
This the second post in a series on the pandemic and its impact on progress and problem solving. In the last post, we looked at ad hoc rationalizations and their most famous enthusiast, Donald Trump.
Conspiracy theories are easily refuted, and so they’re often underestimated as weak. Treating them this way invariably backfires.
Consider the most popular conspiracy theory of this pandemic. It claims that Bill Gates created the coronavirus and aims to profit from it. As reported by the New York Times, Gates warned us in 2015 that an infectious virus could threaten the lives of millions of people. By April of this year, The Gates Foundation committed over $250 million to fighting the disease. On its face, these are not villainous deeds. But anti-vaxxers, members of the conspiracy group QAnon and right-wing pundits like Laura Ingraham seized on his advocacy as evidence that Gates…
