Out of all the horrifying things in the world, I think the most scary is how the American right-wing uses and believes propaganda to spread lies. The stupidity of the right-wing has manifested itself in Las Vegas with the RePlatform event from March 8-10.
According to NPR, “The crowd was a hybrid of anti-vaccine activists, supporters of former President Donald Trump and Christian conservatives.”
The whole event was meant to “uncancel” people holding controversial opinions. By controversial opinions I mean things that are wrong and can be proven wrong. Among the controversial opinions, those opposing vaccines and who held beliefs in “unwelcome election results” were common.
Honestly, I find the anti-vaccination movement to be the stupidest and most worrying conspiracy theory. There are plenty of things to criticize medical establishments for, but instead of focusing on any serious problems some people want to demonize vaccines. Vaccines are one of the most helpful medical advancements perhaps ever and are responsible for curbing countless diseases and are nothing to criticize medical establishments for.
I feel it is good to question medical establishments and even vaccines. If genuine questions are given, genuine answers will be given to show just how safe vaccines are with informed consent. The anti-vaccination movement is worrying because it makes genuine questions and criticisms of medical establishments seem as if there is no trust in science at all. It is vital to separate genuine questions and criticism of medical establishments from the fringe conspiracy theorists. This is the only way to make actual progress and benefit the most people.
The discussions even among attendees at RePlatform are concerning to me. According to Rolling Stone, “Walking from the casino floor into the conference as it began, the first thing I overheard was a woman falsely proclaiming that the COVID-19 vaccine has the same effect on the body as HIV. He readily agreed.”
I also want to make clear that while it is mostly conservatives at this event, people of alternative political beliefs were also present such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. This goes to show it is not only conservatives who are susceptible to conspiracy theories and misinformation. It also shows while it is mostly conservatives weaponizing conspiracy theories, they are not the only ones to believe in them.
According to the Nature-Nurture-Nietzsche Newsletter, conservatives are more likely to fall in line with the conspiracy theories of 9/11 being an inside job and global warming being a hoax while liberals are more likely to believe the conspiracy theories of AIDS being intentionally spread and the moon landing being faked. The study by Adam Enders and colleagues, also showed people in the center fell in line with the conspiracy theories of the Rothschilds and water fluoridation being awful.
These are all clearly ridiculous things to believe in but they still persist. I feel it is very important to show everyone is prone to propaganda and conspiracy theories. I beg of everyone reading this to please apply critical thinking to anything you hear and demand evidence for claims. Blindly believing in anything will only cause harm and I recommend people to look into the claims people make, even and especially my own.
Nico Brazill can be contacted at
nbrazill@kscequinox.com
