How Firefighters Are Using TikTok to Fight Conspiracy Theories
You can’t debunk viral conspiracy theories with experts on TV.
We’re living in a time that Politico calls the Golden Age of conspiracy theories. Here in the States, we’re mistrustful of elected officials, journalists, scientists, and pretty much anyone who isn’t a random meme on Facebook telling you face masks have implanted devices to track your whereabouts by the US government. We’re terrified that we’re somehow being tricked, which makes us very easy bait for actual tricksters.
This isn’t accidental. “Entrepreneurial politicians have realized that they can tap into these conspiratorial, populist sentiments that can be activated: ‘I know you feel this way. Let me remind you that you feel this way. And then let me connect that to important things that are happening, like this upcoming vote, or this policy,’” Andrew Enders, a conspiracy theory researcher, told Politico.
The upshot of this is trickle-down conspiracy theories. Someone prominent (or at least with a lot of Twitter followers) makes an unverified but extravagant claim — say that the devastating and deadly fires in California are being set by “ANTIFA Black Lives Matter” (debunked, by the way). Not everyone will take this individual seriously, but enough people who are angry will. Or…
