Pandemic or plandemic? The conspiracy theories abound

Donald Trump attacks then Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in 2016 for saying half of his supporters belong in a ‘basket of deplorables’. Picture: AFP

Living in the time of COVID-19 is like being caught between a priggish schoolmarm, a piggish ­bureaucrat and an adolescent suffering oppositional defiance disorder. The nanny state has come to life as curtain-twitchers armed with sanitising gel and social distancing obsession scour the public square to punish folk who fall short of government rules.

Whether you question the wisdom of economic shutdowns, fear the growth of big government, or admit to confusion about the changeable advice on viral prevention, you stand accused. There is no middle ground. Everyone from the fools who breach quarantine to scholars who criticise government policy risks being accused of conspiracy, misanthropy, or murder. COVID-19 critics are the new deplorables.

Unlike his co-accused, the ­covidiot, the covideplorable is a political criminal. Where the covidiot breaches public health advice, the covideplorable is guilty of thought crime.

Consider the case of Adam Creighton, who was accused on social media of joining a death cult after questioning - on this page - the economic and social costs of economic shutdowns. Or observe BBC presenter Mishal Husain questioning whether British former supreme court judge Lord Sumption had “completely” observed the rules of lockdown after he proposed a ­rational choice approach to the pandemic that emphasises personal responsibility, not government intervention.

The new deplorable class features classical liberals and people who are generally wary of big ­government. The favoured term of derision for the latter is conspiracy theorist. While there are some twitchy folk who believe 5G technology transmits the virus, or a vaccine would be used for mind control, most sceptics are concerned about big government, big debt and the negligible effect of economic shutdowns if the coronavirus is here to stay.

In the media, the same characteristics used to smear Donald Trump’s deplorables are refashioned as tools of bigotry for a COVID-19 climate, namely being white and right of centre. In The Guardian, an article associated being white, female and leaving the left to become a Trump supporter to anti-vaxxer politics and conspiracy theory. In The Sydney Morning Herald, a COVID-19 conspiracy theorist arrested for violating border restrictions was described as an “avid Donald Trump supporter” with no analysis of its relevance to the case.

In the Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, researchers suggested a correlation between watching conservative media and belief in conspiracy theories about COVID-19. On the face of it, the findings are troubling. However, the authors did not demonstrate a causal relationship between such media consumption and the development of conspiratorial beliefs. Nor did they disprove a relationship between consuming left-wing media and believing in other conspiracies.

Most troubling was the fact that the researchers solicited donations for left-wing media in the body of the article: “Readers who appreciate this contribution to public health might respond by subscribing or, in the case of The Guardian, which does not have a paywall, by donating to that ­organisation.”

Just before Trump was elected president, the media was certain it would never happen. From left to right and straight down the middle, the political-media class ridiculed Trump and denigrated his base. People seeking an alternative to government by insular PC elites were smeared as white supremacists, far-right extremists, uneducated and stupid. To speak of the virtues of nationhood, the enlightening values of the West, the necessity of free speech and the need for secure state borders invited trial by media. So confident were Democrats of an easy victory over Trump that Hillary Clinton vilified his base: “You could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the ‘Basket of Deplorables’ … some of those folks, they are irredeemable.”

The word irredeemable is imbued with meaning. It is a term of condemnation once reserved for final judgment. It means hopeless, ineducable, beyond redemption. Those tarred with the label are held beneath contempt and severe social opprobrium is permitted to punish them.

In the time of COVID-19, the deplorable group has broadened to include people critical of government policy. But there is a disturbing degree of suspicion about the origins of the virus, which was made worse by the Chinese government’s refusal to accept an independent investigation.

A Pew Research Centre survey found about a quarter of respondents ­believed “powerful people intentionally planned the coronavirus outbreak”. Belief in a so-called plandemic differed by educational attainment. Americans with a high school diploma or less were most likely to believe in it (48 per cent), while those with a bachelor’s degree were less likely (24 per cent) and doctoral degree holders least likely of all (15 per cent).

The plandemic belief corresponds to other ideas about the emergence of COVID-19, including that it was engineered for the purpose of instituting a one world government, rolling out 5G technology or creating a vaccine that would harm people. The last idea is especially pernicious. A Gallup poll found that only 35 per cent of Americans would agree to taking a vaccine for COVID-19 if it were available. Among Republican respondents, 47 per cent said they would agree to it compared with 81 per cent of Democrat supporters surveyed. The question of why voting preference is related to a willingness to take a vaccine should be explored further and in an objective manner.

The media plays a significant role in disseminating accurate ­information about the pandemic, but research suggests it is losing the battle on social media. A Pew report showed people who relied on social media for news were less knowledgeable and less engaged than those who relied on other news platforms. The social media group scored lower on knowledge about politics and the economy, and they were more exposed to COVID-19 conspiracy theories. The research did not demonstrate whether the group was more likely to believe in conspiracies, but their knowledge about the pandemic was relatively poor.

The politicisation of the virus was inevitable. However, creating a class of covideplorables will do nothing to repair the trust deficit between the political-media class and the masses that existed well before the pandemic took hold.