How Dr Karl went from conspiracy theorist to debunker

Words: Kirk Owers Producer: Bianca Farmakis

He’s a trusted science communicator and debunker of conspiracy theories. So how did Dr Karl Kruszelnicki become a doomsday prepper who believed Sydney was about to be swamped by a massive tidal wave?

Dr Karl, as he is known, has been talking to Australians for more than four decades about all things scientific. He’s authored 47 books and has degrees in physics, mathematics, biomedical engineering, medicine and surgery. Video: Instagram | Dr Karl

In the early ’70s there was hippie Karl the doomsday prepper, who believed Sydney was about to be swamped by a massive tidal wave and fled to the Blue Mountains with a sack of rice, some ­kerosene and 20 litres of water. But there are other sides to him that are less well known.

The tidal wave, of course, didn’t arrive. Karl and his hippie friends celebrated their good fortune, then returned to Sydney and eventually to reality. Looking back, Kruszelnicki says he did not become a ­paranoid prepper because he fell for pseudo-science.

I believed simply because my friends told me about it. That was enough; because my friends were so convinced, I took that as a very high authority.

“ Karl Kruszelnicki Video: Instagram | Dr Karl

Debunking the conspiracy theorist myth

The dismissive idea that only “crazies” fall for fantastical untruths doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. Far-fetched lies spread faster than hard truths. The internet has supercharged this: In two million tweets* about Covid-19, 45 per cent of the accounts they came from were managed by bots, not people. *Carnegie Mellon University study, 2020

“Nothing new”

Conspiracy theories and disinformation are nothing new. Kruszelnicki was smacked in the face by the real world shortly after he started out as a physicist aged 19 and was asked to fake some results on the steel going into Melbourne’s West Gate Bridge. Disgusted, he dropped out of science and became a filmmaker.

Genetically we’re wired to pay more attention to bad and dangerous things. So bad news – scary news – spreads six times faster than good news. And it makes sense; it’s a survival thing.

“ Karl Kruszelnicki

An uptick in the fringe

Over the years he’s noticed an uptick in fringe ideas, putting it down to the introduction of the smartphone in 2010. The decade onwards has also seen the rise of alternative media sources and fake news. Whatever your opinion, you could find an online group and “science” to prove it.

Fixing the misinformation mess

Misinformation experts say we need to start treating junk information as if it’s as bad for you as junk food, and Karl eats his greens. “Data is the foundation,” he says. “If you input the wrong data you’ll end up with bad information and corrupted knowledge.”

Over the past 40 years Kruszelnicki has become a trusted expert at debunking false ideas, but more importantly his career has been devoted to “prebunking” or getting the most authorative science into the ­public arena before it’s tarnished by punditry and propaganda. Video: TikTok | Dr Karl

Have your say but own the results.

There are absolute rights and absolute wrongs in the world of Karl Kruszelnicki. And while there is freedom of speech, it comes with the crucial caveat that every individual is responsible for the ideas they put out into the world: Video: TikTok | Dr Karl