So What is Your (Conspiracy) Theory? Title image: Stock image / Freepik.
This week has seen the tightening of restrictions to slow the spread of the coronavirus. First they came for our right to be in public without a facemask, then they came for our stores and services.
The statistics are frightening. The international news is dispiriting. It is scary time. And, I suspect, it is even worse if you have drunk the Kool-Aid and believe that this is all an elaborate hoax.
“To drink the Kool-Aid” is an evocative idiom. Kool-Aid is a powder-based sugary drink that was popular among kids. The phrase, however, is connected to the tragic Peoples Temple cult of the 1970s. Jim Jones, the charismatic leader, convinced 918 members of his Jonestown commune (including 304 children) to commit mass suicide by consuming a sugary drink that was laced with cyanide. They were true believers.
Have you, metaphorically, drunk the Kool-Aid? Do you believe what the government is telling you? Or, do you believe that “drinking the Kool-Aid” refers to subscribing to a conspiracy theory?
I, for one, want to know your opinion about this coronavirus. I have my own point of view, but I am open-minded. Make your case. Give me facts to prove me wrong.
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Lately, I have heard many conspiracy theories:
• The Czech government is going to put kids into Školy v přírodě (i.e., summer camp-type programs that give children experience out in nature) in order to separate them from COVID-19-prone parents and grandparents and society.
• All coronavirus statistics are inflated by hospitals to make the situation seem worse in order to reinforce the State of Emergency and empower the government.
• The eventual vaccine will implant a device that will be used for manipulation, similar to the biblical prophecy about being branded with “666” and becoming subservient to the devil.
• Pharmaceutical companies are simply creating a profitable demand-based market for their products.
• Most facemasks have an antenna that taps into the 5G network, which is the real cause of COVID-19.
My take is that, of all of the education that I have had, of all of the books that I have read, of all of the newspaper and magazine articles that I have read, of all of the people that I have met and of all of the experiences that I have had, none of those conspiracy theories make logical sense to me.
Perhaps I am naïve and I will regret these words when the Czech government comes to forcibly take my kids to a school in the woods.
But I don’t think so.
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Let’s have a discussion in the comments section below or on Facebook.
Here is the starting point. My opinion is that this coronavirus is natural and that this pandemic is going to get worse before it gets better. We’ve had recent close calls with other viruses, exponential population growth is unsustainable and nature wants an equilibrium. People really are sick. Hospitals really are filling up.
Do you agree? What parts are wrong?
Use this space to tell us your theory about what is happening in Brno and the country and the world. Does your understanding follow what the government tells you? Or do you believe that there is something nefarious at play?
Please share.
Let’s let this public forum produce explanations so that we can all decide upon our own personal definitions for how to understand this collective experience. Please, let’s all be courteous and let’s use facts; I am confident that we will all learn something from each other.
At the very least, we will maintain a connection to other people within the society that we share.
