A conspiracy theory that gained traction in America in recent years now threatens to tear families apart
Conspiracy theorist QAnon demonstrators protest child trafficking on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, in August this year. Pic//AFP File
Satan-worshipping paedophiles are trying to take over the world. They have been running a child-trafficking ring for years, their members hiding in plain sight, and some of the biggest celebrities in the West have long been active recruiters. They will destroy our way of life if we allow them to, so we should be on guard. There is only one man standing between this powerful group of evildoers and the rest of us. His name is Donald Trump.
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This premise doesn't sound convincing even if it were to appear on the back of a cheap paperback. And yet, the number of people in the West who bought into it in the months before the US elections now runs into millions. There are still closed Facebook groups where these people discuss this cabal, thousands of Twitter and Instagram accounts pushing more proof of the theory every hour, and at least two American congressional candidates, to date, who have expressed belief in its validity.
The theory is called QAnon, if you're interested, named after an individual called Q. Some believe the individual has long morphed into a group, but that is beside the point. What matters is the speed with which what was once a mere blog post slowly evolved into an online monster that continues to attract new believers, most of whom say they intend to do something about it.
What these intentions may mean in the real world is anybody's guess, but they have been serious enough to prompt America's FBI to consider the threat of domestic terrorism. Journalists have been attacked, there have been serious invasions of people's privacy, and crimes such as kidnapping and murder related to these conspiracy theorists have begun to crop up.
This isn't the first such outlandish theory to have gained a surprising amount of support in recent years. In 2016, for instance, came Pizzagate, proposing the existence of a similar human and child trafficking ring run by high-ranking politicians, and leading to a pizzeria getting death threats for its supposed involvement. Again, a cursory look at the theory and what it claimed ought to have been laughed out of any room, but social media helped it gain currency anyway. The result was harassment, serious intent to commit any number of offences, and a problem that doesn't seem like it will go away anytime soon.
A few days ago, media reports pointed out that QAnon had begun to tear families apart, pitting children against parents and husbands against wives. It prompted me to think about India, and how ripe we are as a country for any conspiracy. Gullibility has long been one of our defining traits, coupled with our propensity for melodrama.
We have also been blessed with propagandists masquerading as political leaders in recent years, all of whom have been funded by our taxes and control social media as well as mainstream media houses with impunity. The makings of a perfect storm are all in place. It is only a matter of time before conflagrations that have yielded minor communal riots in recent memory turn into full-blown infernos that may tear us apart.
So much of what millions of us do daily is already based in some way or another on the interference of myth, superstition, or ignorance. Look at our response to this year's pandemic for proof, when we relied on loud sounds and bright lights to save us. Think of our kneejerk reactions to the inane declarations from our leaders on public radio, their strong aversion to facts, and their belief that we can be easily diverted by the simple trick of claiming that our religions are under attack. A few weeks ago, a member of a political party threatened to break the locks of religious structures if worshipers weren't allowed in, despite knowing what this meant for large groups of people in those closed spaces.
Conspiracy theories will only grow stronger, and appear more often, because technology has made it easier than ever for them to spread within microseconds. We need to stop and think about the repercussions of these theories because they may not affect our personal lives just yet but will sooner than we think. India has already changed for the worse in the public domain, and it is only a question of when, not if, our families will pay the price.
If all of this sounds like a farfetched doomsday scenario that no one believes can ever happen, that's what they once said in America too.
When he isn't ranting about all things Mumbai, Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet. He tweets @lindsaypereira
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The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper
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