Conspiracy theories are a group of wandering stories ideas that say a plot hidden from people is made by secret powerful elites.
In the conspiracy theory, these elites allegedly seek political and economic or other types of power without legitimacy and to the detriment of everyone else. The ones claimed to be affected by such “conspiracies” are often unsuspecting and, therefore defenceless. The “conspiracy” can go on because the broad masses are unaware.
The “black helicopter” conspiracy theory is the belief that unmarked black helicopters are used by the government for secret missions to take away people’s freedoms and create a global dictatorship, called the New World Order (NWO). This idea became popular in the U.S. during the 1990s, especially among far-right groups who didn’t trust the government. The helicopters are seen as a sign of secret spying and military control.
The NWO conspiracy theory suggests that a powerful, secret group of elites is trying to create a one-world government. People who believe in this think the group works behind the scenes through international organizations like the United Nations, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). They fear that this world government would take away freedoms and rights, making everyone controlled and monitored.
Such helicopters have strangely enough almost exclusively been seen in USA.
Illustration from ArtStation.com
“Pizza gate”
In the span of a few weeks, a false rumour that Hillary Clinton and her top aides were involved in various crimes snowballed into a wild conspiracy theory that they were running a child-trafficking ring out of a Washington pizza parlor, the New York Times reports.
The “Pizza gate” conspiracy theory claims that the United States and the world are run by a secret elite of paedophile power figures in the Democratic Party. In the story, these are said to hold children captive underground, sexually abuse them and drink their blood. This has led to demonstrations at which supporters carried posters such as “#Save the children” and “Stop child trafficking”.
Newsweek reported that American mothers were led to believe they were supporting the fight against child abuse by supporting Q-anon under the hashtag “#SaveTheChildren.”
This false story seems to have triggered a misplaced protection instinct. This wandering story has also directed attention away from the organisation Save the Children, and its important and tireless work against real abuse of children and for children’s rights, for over a hundred years.
This conspiracy theory also led to man, armed with an assault rifle, to enter a pizza restaurant firing shots, but he soon found out that there was no basement and no children in the restaurant.
He surrendered after the episode and almost immediately apologised, saying he had made an “incredibly ill-advised decision” to try to save endangered children. The attacker said in the court that “The intel on this wasn’t 100 percent”, reported the New York Times.
BBC describes how the story was spread from the social media platform 4chan to the alt-right Reddit and from there into the mainstream Internet.
As shown in chapter 5, a similar conspiracy theory with anti-Semitic content about Jews allegedly practicing ritual murder to secure the blood of christian children was launched in the Nazi-controlled weekly Der Stürmer in 1939.
Q-anon and “The deep state”
Conspiracy theories affect people that are unaware that they are exposed to manipulation, and therefore are easily misled. But the “Q-anon” conspiracy theory says predicts that the “truth” will be known. The Great Norwegian Encyclopaedia explains that the conspiracy theory Q-anon supposedly comes from an anonymous online profile, “Q”, which is claimed to have high security clearance. “Q” reveals a criminal conspiracy, mainly by Democrats, in the state apparatus: “the deep state”. This conspiracy will, it is suggested, be revealed through “The Storm”. “The Storm” is when Donald Trump will come forward with what he knew, arrest the guilty and overthrow “The deep state”.