Australia is in the midst of a conspiracy outbreak. The treatment looks bleak.
On the 26th of August, Reddit user thebloodypen posted her story, “I’ve lost my best friends during the most important time of my life” on the subreddit r/QAnonCasualties. The Melburnian writes that, in the midst of a pandemic, as well as her pregnancy, she turned to her two best friends, a couple with shared liberal politics. “We’ve supported each other through deaths, birth, depressions and major health battles.”
That changed when the lockdown took effect. “They’ve become consumed by Plandemic misinformation, anti-mask and COVID denial stuff,” she writes. When she tried to confront her friends, trying to debunk their friends through a “heartfelt” email, the couple cut her off. “Four days later and no reply… I want this to be a happy time but instead I’m utterly consumed with trying to work out what happened to my two best friends.”
Her story is sadly not unique. The subreddit, with over 25,000 members, is a space for people to share tales of family and friends who’ve been sucked into the QAnon conspiracy, a sprawling theory centering on a global cabal of child sex traffickers.
These stories have come into sharper focus during Melbourne’s second lockdown, as believers take to the streets in weekly protests. With signs reading “Make Australia Great Again” and “Pedos in prison not politics”, it’s clear that the conspiratorial wing of the Australian populace is suddenly finding popular support.
These photos from today’s riot in Melbourne, Australia over the lockdown tell you everything you need to know about what’s really driving this opposition: Whackadoo QAnon bullshit and Trump media.
Mike ‘The Abomination’ Stuchbery ?? (@MikeStuchbery_) September 13, 2020
Once considered outsiders and loons, the COVID lockdowns have inspired many to join those wanting to ‘liberate’ Australia through whatever means necessary. A Gizmodo investigation found dozens of Australian Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts related to the sovereign citizen movement, QAnon and other conspiratorial groups, totalling more than 70,000 followers.
There are several key groups responsible for this outbreak. The sovereign citizen movement argues the government is illegitimate and using the virus as an excuse for more power; anti-vaxxers nervous about a future vaccine; and Luddites who are afraid of 5G spreading the disease.
Dr Kaz Ross, a social scientist from the University of Tasmania, says many of these groups existed before COVID, but the pandemic “really activated a whole lot of bubbling conspiracies that have been festering for years, such as the anti-vaccination movement”.
Now, these groups have blended together in the modern conspiracy outbreak. According to Dr Ross, these groups are united by an underlying theme of anti-authoritarianism, whether that be distrust of the government, of the media, or even mainstream religion. Spend any time on these forums, message boards, or social media accounts, and you’ll see an anti-vaxxer comment next to someone who believes 5G is part of Bill Gates’ plan to kill off the human race.
In the past these were always distinct entities, it seems as though they’ve joined together like a fringe Mighty Morphin Power Ranger. The centerpiece of this misinformation mecha is QAnon Australia, an offshoot of the far-right US conspiracy that Donald Trump is trying to expunge a global cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles that secretly run the government. The group is labelled as a domestic terrorist group, with several murders committed in the name of QAnon.
“There’s just a huge volume of [conspiracy] material coming out of America at the moment, and because we’re connected by them through the internet, we get a flow on effect here,” Dr Ross said.
Once coronavirus hit Australian and American shores, “straight away, there’s a whole conspiracy framework [Qanon]’s provided to explain this.”
In QAnon world, coronavirus was started by China as part of a biological warfare — either that, or something just as vague and nefarious. This fits in snuggly for many suspicions Australians have about the Chinese Communist Party, making the rest of the theory more palatable.
“What happens in a pandemic is that people are trying to make sense of these disparate things that are happening apparently at random.” says Dr Ross, “And the QAnon framework works best because any old shit can be put in there.”
Conspiracy theories like QAnon spawn when the status quo changes quickly, leading to confusion and unanswered questions. A vacuum of authority and information leads to conspiracies bubbling up. So instead of trusting their government officials, they’ve turned to sketchy online forums, Facebook pages and ‘alternative news sources’ to find out what’s going on.
Fanos Panayides, a former contestant on Family Food Fight, has amassed almost 30,000 followers on Facebook through his declarations that “the true virus of this world is the media.” Panayides has taken to Facebook Live to complain about people “accosting” him for not wearing a mask, and to question the lethality of the virus.
https://www.instagram.com/chefpeteevans/?utm_source=ig_embed
Even some mainstream celebrities have come on board the faux freight. Celebrity chef Pete Evans has used his 275,000 strong social media following to spread lies and mistruths about the pandemic.
Figures like Panayides and Evans highlight how COVID conspiracy groups are highly decentralised, operating without traditional ‘leaders’ or members. Without someone to conduct, people taken in by these conspiracies don’t feel the need to be consistent or ‘toe the party line’. Some think COVID is a myth, others think it’s real but a government plot, others yet think it’s overblown. You may even hear all three arguments in the same breath.
Without leaders or specific texts to follow, these conspiracy groups can give a veneer of ‘rationalism’ and ‘doing your own research’, since they come to these ‘resources’ on their own.
“Hey, we’re not going to tell you what to think, you look it up yourself ,” says Dr Ross, “even though that means looking at a few crackpot YouTube videos. They feel like they’re empowered, they’re not being told, they’re making up their own minds, which is very seductive.”
While there are certainly many people who hold these beliefs passionately, the wide nets of these groups have caught many people with no firm ideology besides a desire to go back. Before social isolation stopped them from going to the pub; before the lockdown forced them to close their small businesses; before COVID meant wearing a mask whenever you leave the house. Maybe they lost a loved one to the virus, or a business. Perhaps they’re just sick and tired of not seeing their friends or colleagues, if they still have a job.
Conspiracy groups exploit people’s fear and frustration, giving them easy reasons for what’s gone wrong. Daniel Andrews is villain number one for many of these conspiracy groups, who many believe is trying to ‘destroy the state’. And once you believe their rhetoric, conspiracy groups can act as Trojan horses for their more nefarious aims.
Friends of Truth, a banal sounding Instagram page closing in on 10,000 followers, is one such conspiracy group. Describing themselves as ‘connecting friends of truth’, the page posts a litany of conspiracy memes, much of it targeted against Daniel Andrews and the state’s lockdown. Yet in between the memes, the page also finds time to post 9/11 conspiracy theories.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFW7CZSjCSr/?utm_source=ig_embed
For others, COVID is a market opportunity for charlatans and snake oil salesmen. Conscious Truth Network is one such effort to squeeze some extra cash. Started by bodybuilder James Bartolo earlier this year, the ‘news’ outlet promotes a bevy of conspiracies ranging from how vaccines and 5G are “weapons”, to the “world being controlled by secret societies.” Bartolo has tried to use his over 5,000 Facebook followers to raise money through a Merch store (which ironically sells facemasks), as well as through donations.
As with any modern conspiracy, much of the spread is due to the lax rules and spotty enforcement of social platforms like Facebook. While the social media giant has taken straps recently to stamp out these groups years of neglectful monitoring has led to irreversible effects.
“Social media platforms have absolutely benefitted” from the spread of conspiracy theories,” Dr Ross says. “It’s an attention economy. Attention is the coin of the realm. And they benefit from it, clicks, clicks, clicks. They’re finally being forced to do something about it, but it’s too bloody late.”
Even if their Facebook page was taken down, many organisers took the community they coaxed to private messaging services like Telegram, with nothing to stop them from spreading lies and mistruths to their members.
While it’s unlikely these conspiracies will grip the public discourse as has happened in the US, it’s possible that post-COVID these disinformation networks could wreak havoc on the truth. Our political parties are ill-equipped to deal with these lies and slander, so some may decide to use it to their advantage.
“It’s pretty unlikely that someone explicitly QAnon would get elected,” Dr Ross says. “But I think that there’s more corrosive factors such as the undermining of authority, the undermining of law and order.”
Since March there have been numerous cases of civil unrest, as people refuse public safety orders and police instruction. Victorian Police commissioner Shane Patton called out the movement, saying “We’ve seen an emergence of small groups, but nonetheless concerning groups, who classify themselves as sovereign citizens, whatever that might mean. People who don’t think the law applies to them.”
Some people at these rallies have no idea what QAnon is, let alone any of these other groups. Yet the message has been so persuasive and proliferated so far, that many will chant QAnon’s messages without knowing its origins. And that’s the biggest fear: it’s not that millions will suddenly find accusations of secret pedophile rings believable. It’s that their ideas will filter down into the mainstream, like gutter water down a drainage pipe, without people realising.
One survey from May found a fifth of all 18 to 34-year olds believed Bill Gates was involved in the creation and spread of coronavirus. The same amount said 5G networks are being used to spread COVID-19. These are both debunked theories which originated in conspiracy forums.
If they can shape how people think about COVID, the follow-up is: what could this do to Australian politics?
Influential Sky News personality Alan Jones has broadcast his COVID skepticism, drawing from the dark well of Australia’s conspiracy movement. A Guardian investigation from last year found a close friend of Scott Morisson is a major proponent of the QAnon conspiracy, and claims to have the ear of the Prime Minister. And several politicians like Federal Liberal backbencher Craig Kelly have tried to push the use of a controversial COVID treatment which originated from an online conspiracy theory.
Originally published at https://www.lanewaydispatch.com on October 8, 2020.
