It’s a mad world indeed
By: Elina Kyriakou
Tags: Conspiracy Theories, Antivaxx, Covid 19

It’s been almost three months since the whole world took a long vacation at home. While in that situation, I chose to not follow every single update on the matter in order to protect my sanity. I stayed away from socials, where everyone would claim to be an expert. Once a day or so, I was reading some headlines to get informed of what was happening. It was an unfortunate event, I accepted it, and tried to make the best out of it. Not everyone chose to do that, though.

Staying home all day with the local news on TV being people’s best company, has been a catastrophic combination. And the more people were getting involved in the events, the more curious they were becoming. Of course, there was not one simple, unanimous interpretation of the events. It always has to be more to the story. And people wanted to find the truth.

In the middle of that obsession, conspiracy theorists found breeding ground to get, once again, creative. What was this virus really about? Was it ever a virus to begin with? What if all this was an excuse so they, the almighty they, could vaccinate people with evil chemical substances which will monitor their lives? These are only a few questions that these theories address. Bill Gates has often the lead role in those stories. But here’s another conspiracy theory for you. What if he made up those theories himself for reasons I can’t even fathom because I am not good at this?

I am all about doubting things and not putting our trust in authorities without question. That’s what makes us human, that’s the magic of our brains. But there is a fine line between being a skeptic and being a lunatic. You don’t want to believe whatever the news is telling you? Fine. But do not go on believing blindly whatever other proclaimed authorities say either. Do your own research. Keep an open mind. This means that until you have all your facts straight you need to accept that all theories might be true. Even the one you are trying to disprove. There are two questions you need to examine: “what if this is a lie” and “what if this is the truth”. The importance of those two questions is equal. You can start exploring the first while being cautious about the second one. Also, you need to face that it is just a question and not a fact. Acting like it is a fact means that you put your own health and that of your loved ones at risk.

There is another problem with the theories that have been emerged. It is, indeed, possible that malicious intentions lie behind the whole thing. BUT the way that people think about it does not make any sense and is inconsistent with their actions. People are getting upset over a vaccine that intends to track their lives. The same people, though, volunteer in giving away their personal information. Every-single -day. Every-single-moment. Privacy no longer exists and is a pretty problematic issue for everyone. And for that, the government is not to blame, Mark Zuckerberg is not to blame, Bill Gates is not to blame. The blame is only on us. You creep out every time you see an advertisement that “reads your mind”. But the truth is, nothing about it is creepy. YOU give the information out and the algorithms go on to work their magic. And voila! The advertisement about the product you google searched 2 days ago, directly or indirectly, appears first on your homepage.

The second part of the theory involves the worry about the evil chemicals that the vaccine will inject inside our bodies. Fair worry, there is no objection to that. BUT let’s not forget that we choose to poison our bodies with substances like alcohol, nicotine, drugs, junk food, and whatnot. All by our own voluntary choice. We swallow painkillers and antibiotics like candies. Yet, we are afraid of a vaccine that would have the potential to keep us from getting infected from a deadly virus. The possible side effects of the vaccine could not be worse from those of the substances we already choose to use. You don’t trust doctors and medicine? Then you should stop taking drugs altogether or go live in a cave.

I feel sad and frightened when I watch the world still falling victim to occasional scaremongering at this high level. I am not an expert so I can make a valid argument for what is going to happen. Nor do I point a finger to those who choose to distrust the people that deal with our lives. On the contrary, I respect those people and I am thankful for their existence. The fact is that those people often act in silence. They observe and take notes of the events. They have patience and when they do go public they make sure that their arguments are based on facts, not on fears, biases, and anger.