Liquifying Conspiracy Theories in the Age of Social Media (II)

Liquifying Conspiracy Theories in the Age of Social Media (II)

 Read:  Liquifying Conspiracy Theories inthe Age of Social Media (I)

For the purpose of safety, we cannot discard the possibility of the often-coined conspiracy theories, but in reality, the frequency of being true can be statistically placed at 1 out of 10. Therefore, the existence of these theories is not as frequent as the theorists do dish them out. It is therefore necessary to be mild in their handling and tactically probe all heard in resistance to giving it in to emotion and sentiment. To liquefy these theories, these are my outlined steps. This is not an exhaustive list; readers are also free to contribute to this open discourse.

1     Be informed, Conspiracy Theory exists:  

One rule of thumb is to be informed that conspiracy theory exists. That saying: ‘To every rumour, there is an iota of truth’ cannot be taken as a validated theory. It happens more than imagined that no iota of truth will be found in a viral rumour. It will be a completely fabricated story, a hoax per excellence exists, and unsuspecting audience will be caught in the wilderness of conspiracy theory. Knowing that conspiracy theory exists and always fierce in its penetration prepares your psyche that not all ‘BREAKING’; ‘UNVEILED’ is actually breaking truth or unveiling reality.

In most instances, conspiracy theories are cooked up for sympathy gathering for political manipulation. Remember the conspiracy theory that wrapped the Boston bombing as a stage-managed hoax? The killing of Lee Rigby in London is the feeblest attempt by conspiracy theorists.

2      De-emphasizing source credibility:

As I have observed, people often become victims of conspiracy theory when a substantial credibility is attached to the source of the news. These are cases when victims will want to inform you that the news is got from Wikileaks! and so what?  Recently, my Facebook post addressing Dr. Ahmad Gumi’s recent reckless utterances –which are outpour of conspiracy theories- invited anger from the blind followers of the respected cleric. In this situation, Gumi is their credible source, and anything that comes from him is classified information that not everybody can have access to. And because of this, it must be taken hook, line and sinker. A guy even went to the extent of publishing his (Gumi) resume to tell me why all his posts must be taken in the same faith as the passages of Qur’an or Bible. Just as I earlier highlighted, being a victim of conspiracy theory is not a symptom of weak intelligence, it has more to do with emotional intelligence. Ability to foster reason, logic and intense probe in the face of emotional appeal is the antidote. This explanation leads to the third and last on my list; Ask more questions.

3      Ask more questions:

Yeah! Because of the circumstance of our social reality, an unfortunate situation that has proved the existence of scam artists and spin doctors with their conspiratorial dishes. The onus lies on us; we have to be armed against the conspiracy of the conspiracy theorists. After being psychologically prepared that their existence and disabuse our mind from the infallibility of our source of news, we need to ask more questions to unravel the obscurity of conspiracy theories. This unfortunately can only be done by a mind that has the probing ability. Like the case of Adebolajo; the killer of Lee Rigby, questions that were asked to redirect the minds of the victims of the attached conspiracy theory is: Was his arrest in Kenya during his planned entry to Somalia stage-managed, was his involvement in series hate protests spearheaded by Anjem Choudary stage-managed? When several questions are posed as a result of wide consultation and information acquisition on the subject matter, the string of conspiracy theory is always revealed. This must be done with a fair share of emotional intelligence.