Driving through Regina on the way home from an appointment, my nephew and I spotted a group of picketers on Albert Street carrying bright green signs.
“What’s that about?” asked my nephew
I glanced as we passed by noticing signs that said “Unmask us” and “CBC Fake News.”
“Must be the anti-maskers, the Buffalo Party,” I replied.
My nephew said he couldn’t understand why people refused to wear masks to stop the spread of COVID-19 or why they would call the pandemic a hoax.
The incident brought back a memory of how people mislead themselves into believing conspiracy type theories.
The Times-Herald publisher came into the newsroom one morning all smiles.
“I think we’re going to get a Target store,” he said. “Can you check it out?”
“Sure, but why do you think Target is coming here?”
“We were at the Warriors game last night. There is an ad on the boards with a big Target bulls eye on it.”
“Okay, I'll call.” I picked up the phone, thinking it wasn’t logical that Target would advertise in the rink before announcing the location or before announcing other locations in the province.
That was just after American-based Target had announced plans to build a chain of stores across Canada.
One phone call to the Warriors office dispelled the Target store rumour. The Target bullseye on the Civic Centre boards was advertising for a farm chemical.
The publisher was crestfallen when he was told. He had been ready to spread the rumour.
The publisher’s mind was predisposed to see that bullseye as the coming of a Target store.
That store would have generated advertising and flyer revenue for the newspaper and encouraged other retailers to advertise to keep their share of the market.
And the store would have halted some of the consumer traffic leak to Regina stores.
His mind was prepared to accept any sign of Target as the truth.
That mindset leads people to believing conspiracy theories, preparing them to uncritically accept outlandish ideas as the truth.
It helps explain how some people hate Jews because they supposedly control world finances. Jewish people are clever at business because for centuries they weren’t allowed by Christian communities to practice ordinary occupations, so they became business owners and developed a knack for the work.
Similarly the Qanon conspiracy that the world is run by Satan worshipping pedophiles was sparked by online postings from an anonymous so-called high level military intelligence official.
People whose minds might have been open to such charges had their opinions bolstered by the likes of Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire whose parties included underage girls, or Canada’s Peter Nygard, charged with raping underage girls at parties on his yacht.
The Internet gives anonymous people an opportunity to rapidly spread false rumours to gullible followers and has allowed a faster spread of false information.
Forty years ago Procter & Gamble was the subject of a conspiracy theory that Satanists owned the company, which has no controlling shareholder. The company spent millions denying the accusation.
Conspiracy theories have long been around and will stay with the subjects changing. We can expect more of them with the social media communications spreading them so fast.
People just have to learn to be skeptical of information and choose reliable sources.
Ron Walter can be reached at [email protected]
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
