Conspiracy theories have been running rampant for centuries. And yet, their prevalence, visibility, and potential effects on our well-being have increased with the emergence of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, affecting virtually all countries across the globe and bringing life in cities to a complete halt on an unprecedented scale.
Speculations around the origins have circulated not on the fringes of the social media but found support even at the top of administrations. Many of us have heard these questions more than once: Has the ongoing pandemic been caused by “the planned 5G technology” or was it simply a “bioweapon” to rule the world through medico-bureaucratic measures? Was the pandemic being used as “a trojan horse by the powerful elite to dismantle democratic processes and oversight” at the expense of the masses? Or, “was there ever a ‘crisis’ to begin with?” Has “the invention of an epidemic”, as Giorgio Agamben speculated in February, been successfully used by “the media and authorities […] to spread a state of panic” and to instigate “an authentic militarization” of our everyday lives? If it were real, how are we to respond? Were widely-sanctioned social distancing measures merely a medico-scientific imperative or deep down they were actually a “pretext… [to normalize] the limitations of freedom” of movement or assembly, as we all witness today? Has all this been politically or economically motivated?
Amid the deafening clamour, researchers have urged us to develop epistemological strategies to better differentiate what is true from fake or adhere solely, and sometimes selectively, to the information provided by the authorities, bar Trump. And yet, given the growing mistrust toward establishments across the world—somehow correlated with the rise of populist figures who promise to dissect corrupt elites and institutions—how likely is it to be expected that various social groups will “believe” in the data released by these “corrupt” institutions? What are we to do – moreover – with competing narratives which seemingly explain the same phenomenon from two different angles that appear mutually exclusive and incompatible?
