The pull of the conspiracist

 

 

Unlike many other things I tend to write, which are theoretical or based in research. This one is about a big topic, conspiracy theories and how we should address them in schools. I’ll be drawing on examples found online and the thinking that I’ve worked through as to how they might impact on our students and if schools can be doing more to address it.

 

I don’t feel the need to elucidate the reason why students graduating from their formal primary and secondary levels of education as conspiracy theorists is problematic. Though the recent example of the Melbourne protests is a neat recent example of conspiracy theorists being activated to wreck real havoc upon their fellow citizens. No longer bound to message boards and 4chan, these netizens influence elections, protest violently and collect more believers as they go.

 

I’ve seen many dismiss these people and their ideas (including the most extreme examples perhaps, such as Qanon) as illogical and therefore inert and non-threatening. But I have a real sense that these ideas are influencing many young people who are our students.

 

As outlined, rather than theory, of which i am aware of very little in this space, I’ll outline some examples I’ve stumbled across online that I’ll use as exemplars to explore how these ideas might influence young people, and contrast the kind of learning that these belief practices involve.

 

These examples are drawn from YouTube and Tik Tok videos, which I consume out of personal interest. I’ve always enjoyed YouTube videos and now increasingly Tik Tok also, this is partly to stay abreast of the world that my students inhabit online and also because it’s fun. TikTok especially has proven incredibly useful for teaching English Language, both for directly linguistic focussed content, but also for keeping track of modem examples to match to the content of the course that students are aware of; and can relate to.

 

True Geordie is a YouTube creator from the UK, who currently produces content around soccer, combat sports, YouTube related drama and longer form podcast conversations. As an example his most recent podcast was with documentary filmmaker Louis Theroux.

 

The content that we will explore here is an interview with former Mr Olympian Dorian Yates that took, to me, a surprising turn, when it moved to discussions of vaccination, among a number of other conspiracy theories. If you’d like to watch it, it’s an interesting interview with a former body builder discussing his career for the first hour, before the strange turn that follows:

 

https://youtu.be/P3oIBhBGQpg

 

The hesitancy to speak about Vaccines is especially interesting, here, as elsewhere, you can see Dorian slowly pop his toe into the water of the topic to make sure they’re receptive to the idea - before going full theorist from there.

 

Another excellent example is the same duo, True Geordie and Laurence, interviewing David Icke, to my knowledge, someone among the most influential conspiracy theorists.

 

https://youtu.be/_zrYeyW2iGM

 

Again, in a similar toe poke, he begins with the most familiar of the conspiracies, and indeed the most ‘famous’, meaning those that involve famous people, before becoming increasingly famous obtuse and bizarre.

 

But then he moves on to run across the whole panoply of bizarre theories. This mirrors the way that conspiracies pull people into their web, a small crack of doubt, a big dose of glittery personal interest, often closely connected to celebrities. Then they’re in, in the tunnel, down the rabbit hole, towards radicalisation, and many more places beside.

 

They have crested the tip of the iceberg, a metaphor used across the internet to describe a range of interests and how they function. Gaining in complexity as they move down. An example of these can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/7I2KJL-gJPU

 

The biggest issue facing teachers is the curse of knowledge, once you have knowledge, you find it harder to consider not having it. Indeed, many teachers would find those who hold conspiracy theories to be true derisible, silly and embarrassing. Without also realising that these beliefs are very likely within the class they teach and the colleagues they share meals with, in the staff room.

 

The struggle of logic versus the appeal of simple answers is something that we all face, and often have to fight against also. But overall, teachers are ill equipped to be cool, or understand the pull of these ideas, being so disconnected from them.

 

I’m excited to consider this topic further and how we as teachers may do a better job of challenging these beliefs whilst also embracing those who hold them. Whilst working towards alternatives.

 

For those looking to pursue these ideas further the Nobel Prize Teacher Summit 2021, which featured fellow Global Teacher Prize, top 50 finalist, Phillipe Longchamps, can be viewed here:

https://youtu.be/fYUHqOqh7YY - It provides a range of ideas for this massive topic and is well worth the viewing time.

 

If anyone has ideas of how to do this better, or how they’ve reached students or colleagues with views of this type, I’d be excited to explore them further!

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