You can't blame conspiracy believers for believing conspiracies.

You can't blame conspiracy believers for believing conspiracies. We are wired to see connections. 

35,000 Years ago that was a survival skill: 'Hey, that berry looks like the berry my mate Urhm died from, so perhaps I shouldn't eat it.' 'And 'It walks on two legs, just like me but the shape of his nose and the colour of his skin make me think he doesn't belong to my tribe and therefore is a potential threat because he looks a bit like the ape that hurt my grandma.' 

So, when people saw that Bill Gates had a patent out with '666' in it, conspiracy believers (aka 'truth seekers, aka 'people who do their own research' by which they mean they blindly share anything their 'tribe-members' state) saw the proof they needed: Bill Gates is the devil! 

In actual reality (the world outside Facebook, Parler, Gab and the minds of conspiracy believers) the patent is numbered WO2020060606A1. Yes, it has three sixes in it. But probably so does your street and the phonenumber of one of your friends or neighbours. 

Go through your friends or Parler-contacts: I bet one of them is or knows an Iron Maiden fan. That band had a number out: '666, The Number of the Beast'. What does that proof? Absolutely nothing. Except perhaps that friend has a good taste in music. 

'Yeah, but how about Violet Jessop!? The lady who survived three ship disasters, including the downfall of the Titanic? Too much of a coincidence so she must be protected by a higher power. That, or she was the evil genius behind all three disasters. Right?' 

At first glance you may think she either had a guardian angel or was a devil in disguise, sent by the devil to sink ships. With a bit more research (typing her name in Google will do. But that's something the real crazy conspiracy believers strangely enough have no time for as all their time is consumed by 'doing their own research'. Like stated before: sharing anything posted by their tribe members) you'll quickly discover she was a ship stewardess. Just like modern day air stewardesses she served on more than one ship. Yes, three of them sank and a lot of people were killed when the Titanic hit an iceberg. But hardly any people died in the other disaster and in her third ship disaster no one died.

Just imagine being a train conductor: one train derails and leaves a lot of people dead; one train hits a car on an overpass and kills the passengers of that car and two of the train passengers suffer mild injures by the sudden stop of the train. A third train you are on hits a cow. And even the cow survives. Are you an extremely lucky person because your survived three train accidents?

Why people don't believe scientists and governments but have no problem believing their friend Jack who they have a weekly drink with at the local bar or Karen on Facebook who they don't know 'but a dozen friends of mine like her page so she must be okay'? Simple: The Science Guy and the CDC are not part of their tribe; Jack and Karen are.

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Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon

How to deal with people who gain too much wealth and power?

The Chinese and Russian governments have a way of dealing with individuals who are getting more power than the sitting president: they get incarcerated or 'disappear'.

Alexei Navalny had just recovered from an attack on his life via poisoning when upon his return to Russia to reclaim his position opposite of president Putin, he was arrested. Authorities plan to hold him in custody, at least until after the coming elections. As he is the man with the highest chance of overthrowing the current administration, the sitting president has not much to fear anymore.

Jack Ma, actually Ma Yun or 马云 suddenly disappeared of stage, right after the Chinese government stated he was getting too rich, powerful and influntial as the chairman of Ali Baba.. He later returned to the world stage but seemed a changed man.

It's a neat trick, making your opponents disappear and some wonder if this could be the way to prevent others from getting too much in control of things.

Although it may work, making people like Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg disappear is, in my humble opinion, not the right way to go about it. Maybe it's better to take away a bit of power from the leading men on social media and online shopping by legally making them divide their gargantuan companies into smaller ones, thus allowing a bit of competition.

That way, civilians will have a bit to choose. Because that's what we like, the freedom of choice. If there is no choice, people get frustrated.

Are you in favour of more social media outlets and more all-in-one webshops or are you fine with almost all we do (on- and offline) being controlled by just a handful of people?

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Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon

She did (a short story)

He came in, put his bag on the table and pulled something out. A rabbit. A white one. Plush.

He waited.

She entered, put her bag on the table and pulled something out. A diary. A red one. Leather.

The rabbit caught her eye and she looked at him with wonder and a smile.

'Is that yours?' she asked.

'It was, but it's yours now. If you want it, that is.'

She did.

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Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon