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