A Fraction Too Much Fiction
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ|March 2021
Eccentricities or misinformation? After the storming of the US Capitol, Samantha Trenoweth asks, how dangerous are conspiracy theories?
Samantha Trenoweth
A Fraction Too Much Fiction

Jitarth Jadeja is a nice guy. He’s 33, he lives in a comfortable house in suburban Sydney with his family, who he loves and who emigrated from India when he was a tot. He cares about things like a fair go for all Australians, looking out for your neighbour, respecting your parents, being a good friend. But two years ago, Jitarth wanted to see a whole bunch of people, whom he’d never met, publicly hanged. Two years ago he believed that Hillary Clinton was at the centre of a satanic paedophile ring, and admits with deep regret that he’d have been happy if she’d been murdered.

“It’s a mass delusion that’s being passed from person to person,” Jitarth says now, looking back to the two-and-a-half years he spent obsessively following and genuinely believing the conspiracy theories he read online, including the now infamous QAnon, which fuelled the insurrection at the US Capitol in February. “It’s like a coronavirus of the mind,” he adds. “It’s highly infectious, has different strains and there’s a race to find a cure before it mutates into something much more lethal.”

That thousands of people, driven by disinformation and delusion, could attempt to overthrow a democratically elected government has certainly brought conspiracy theories into the political spotlight. But those who study them insist there’s nothing new here.

A brief history of lies

“Conspiracy theories have always been with us,” says Karen Douglas, Professor of Social Psychology, at the University of Kent in the UK. “There’s even evidence of conspiracy theorising in ancient Rome.”

この記事は Australian Women’s Weekly NZ の March 2021 版に掲載されています。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。

この記事は Australian Women’s Weekly NZ の March 2021 版に掲載されています。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。

AUSTRALIAN WOMEN’S WEEKLY NZのその他の記事すべて表示
PRETTY WOMAN
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

PRETTY WOMAN

Dial up the joy with a mood-boosting self-care session done in the privacy of your own home. It’s a blissful way to banish the winter blues.

time-read
3 分  |
July 2024
Hitting a nerve
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

Hitting a nerve

Regulating the vagus nerve with its links to depression, anxiety, arthritis and diabetes could aid physical and mental wellbeing.

time-read
5 分  |
July 2024
The unseen Rovals
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

The unseen Rovals

Candid, behind the scenes and neverbefore-seen images of the royal family have been released for a new exhibition.

time-read
2 分  |
July 2024
Great read
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

Great read

In novels and life - there's power in the words left unsaid.

time-read
2 分  |
July 2024
Winter dinner winners
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

Winter dinner winners

Looking for some thrifty inspiration for weeknight dinners? Try our tasty line-up of budget-concious recipes that are bound to please everyone at the table.

time-read
3 分  |
July 2024
Winter baking with apples and pears
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

Winter baking with apples and pears

Celebrate the season of apples and pears with these sweet bakes that will keep the cold weather blues away.

time-read
7 分  |
July 2024
The wines and lines mums
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

The wines and lines mums

Once only associated with glamorous A-listers, cocaine is now prevalent with the soccer-mum set - as likely to be imbibed at a school fundraiser as a nightclub. The Weekly looks inside this illegal, addictive, rising trend.

time-read
10+ 分  |
July 2024
Former ballerina'sBATTLE with BODY IMAGE
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

Former ballerina'sBATTLE with BODY IMAGE

Auckland author Sacha Jones reveals how dancing led her to develop an eating disorder and why she's now on a mission to educate other women.

time-read
7 分  |
July 2024
MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN

When Alexei Navalny died in a brutal Arctic prison, Vladimir Putin thought he had triumphed over his most formidable opponent. Until three courageous women - Alexei's mother, wife and daughter - took up his fight for freedom.

time-read
8 分  |
July 2024
IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO START
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO START

Responsible for keeping the likes of Jane Fonda and Jamie Lee Curtis in shape, Malin Svensson is on a mission to motivate those in midlife to move more.

time-read
5 分  |
July 2024