By Ajmaanie Andre
On May 4th 2020, a 26-minute video was uploaded to YouTube and garnered millions of views, hitting mainstream media immediately.
This, of course, happens often in the platform: videos go viral all the time on YouTube. But this video was different. The video, a conspiracy film entitled “Plandemic,” was produced by Mikki Willis and promoted misinformation and many theories about COVID-19 and how the virus came to be. The video was quickly taken down multiple times, but as quickly as it went down, it would be posted again.
Eventually, however, the video was permanently banned for violating YouTube’s misinformation policies surrounding the coronavirus.
Similar to what we’ve seen with events such as 9/11 and even Ebola, people have always conspired on topics that they may not have the full picture for. After staying home for more than two months people have become confused and even desperate — so without full answers, people have started coming to their own conclusions.
“Lately, I’ve seen people spreading all kinds of theories on Instagram,” said Marie Jean Piere, a North Miami Resident.
“Some people even say the government purposely started the disease! I don’t usually believe in stuff like that, but people can be really persuasive. The way people talk about it makes me want to believe it,” Piere continued.
The reality is, we’ve seen from time and time again, what conclusions people can reach when there seem not be full answers. With all the confusion surrounding whether or not we’ll ever be able to go back to normal, the videomakers of “Plandemic” were able to profit on this fear and gain a lot of attention.
The truth is, many individuals (with out without conspiracy help) are already skeptical of gubernatorial authority, so even if the information has already been disproved by scientists, people still have a predilection to question the facts because of the strong biases that exist in their subconscious.
This, of course, has many negative implications. Since people continue to believe false information and conspiracies, it’ll be harder to reason with anyone since their judgement is clouded by false information. Once theories like these gain larger believers and followings, it will be harder to discern the truth from conspiracy theories.
This, with all its weight, is the hell created by today’s internet world.
