A quarter of people in the UK believe Covid was or was probably a hoax (as well as believing other conspiracy theories)

[cakeorwine]

Quarter in UK believe Covid was a hoax, poll on conspiracy theories finds | Social trends | The Guardian

"The UK is home to millions more conspiracy theorists than most people realise, with almost a quarter of the population believing Covid-19 was probably or definitely a hoax, polling has revealed.
About a third of the population are convinced that the cost of living crisis is a government plot to control the public, and similar numbers think “15-minute cities” – an attempt to increase walking in neighbourhoods – are a government surveillance ruse, and that the “great replacement theory” – the idea that white people are being replaced by non-white immigrants – is happening."

I guess that there are people out there who believe in conspiracy theories - but I am very surprised by the numbers.

I wonder what the cross over is between theories - in other words, if you believe 1 conspiracy theory, you are more likely to believe another?

Why would they inflate the number t of deaths and paint themselves in an even worse.light
I would understand it if they massaged the figures so it seemed less people died of covid, but why inflate them?

If you get in a taxi in my area (West Country) within two minutes the driver will tell you Covid was a hoax.

It’s exhausting

I worked in a nursing home through two outbreaks and had it twice myself. It’s no joke.

I have to walk everywhere now…

I would understand it if they massaged the figures so it seemed less people died of covid, but why inflate them?

There was a narrative from I think SAGE that people were insufficiently personally threatened - essentially, that we needed to be frightened enough of covid to make us willing to observe the restrictions the govt wanted to impose. Inflating the number of deaths would be one way of doing that.

A conspiracy the whole world is in on? Or just the uk?

Some people are bonkers.
There has always been conspiracy theorists, there always will be.
Are they any different to those who believe in God really? I say no simply because no one has ever seen him, yet they believe he exists.
Was the Bible the work of a conspiracy theorist? Who knows.
Literally every event brings the theorists out in droves, they're convinced it's a conspiracy, usually between government agencies and the government themselves and they will tie themselves in knots trying to convince others to agree.
Look at the 9/11 event. They're still convinced it was a huge conspiracy where people didn't really die, the towers were empty of everything, including furnishings before the planes hit, that there weren't really any passengers on those planes, they were empty and flown by remote control. All organised by the white House of course.
COVID was and is very real, unfortunately the government's of the world initially handled it badly in the beginning due to it being something unknown at the start, so no one really knew what the best course of action would be to take.
That said, there was a lot of manipulation of figures as in stating that people had died of COVID, whereas in fact they had died of other causes, but COVID helped to bring about their deaths if they caught it etc.
The government's panicked and caused the general public to panic with them initially.
Then when it all started calming down and people began to think for themselves, that's when the theorists came out of the woodwork.
Do I believe that the vaccines are really microchips so Bill Gates can control us? Well no, but obviously some people do.
As I say, some people are bonkers.

Except they didn’t inflate the deaths. There were three different ways they counted them and the one on the dashboard invariably ended up with the lowest count.
I actually wouldn’t trust the government on covid. But that’s largely because the U.K. government had a tendency to believe covid conspiracy theories and that caused them to end up flip flopping advice when they hadn’t taken it seriously enough.
Would I trust the advice of my home government who followed the science and took it more seriously? Absolutely.

There are a lot of people who find it too terrifying to believe that these things just happen for no reason and we have no control over it. So they make shit up to make themselves feel better

I read the article earlier and thought about starting a thread. The numbers are shocking but the growth of these theories, spread by social media, has been written about for a while. It’s fuelled by the algorithms that Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc use. They show you more of what you’ve shown an interest in, so a few clicks can lead you down the rabbit hole.

Like the previous poster said, you end up in a bubble, so that most of us are vaguely aware that this stuff exists but those that have started watching videos or reading about it are flooded with links that confirm everything they suspect.

Part of the allure of these theories is that they’re all built on the belief that there’s this big con being perpetrated by shadowy, powerful forces and the majority of people are fooled, but not you! You’re part of those in the know, who are that are intelligent enough to see through the deception. You won’t be fooled! It’s an ego boost and it’s self reinforcing because the more the majority of people scorn it the more the minority believe they’re ‘sheep’. Any facts or ‘mainstream’ news articles that debunk the theory only reinforce the idea that there’s a conspiracy to keep ‘the truth’ hidden.

Covid didn’t help. People spent a lot of time feeling uncertain and the government didn’t know what to do because new information was constantly coming in. They were at home, not working (I know lots of people were still working but many weren’t) and had a lot of time on their hands. The restrictions meant they were stuck at home. They were frightened, frustrated and angry. The government hardly inspired confidence. A few clicks online looking for information, for reassurance, lead people down the conspiracy rabbit hole.

When you start to believe one conspiracy is possible, you’re much more open to believing in others.

*’Alice laughed. 'There's no use trying,' she said. 'One can't believe impossible things.'

I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 'When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast’*

I think that's the basis of most if not all conspiracy theories. The idea that bad things randomly happen and we can't stopt them is too much for people to deal with - there has to be some sort of sinister controlling hand behind it.

Diana's death was a classic example. Young, beautiful, beloved and rich? how can someone like that die in a senseless car crash? things like that don't HAPPEN to people like her (except, of course they do). It must have been a plot to kill her.

I'm surprised you're this surprised! Conspiracy theory lovers are all over the place. I just found out this weekend my neighbour firmly believes Princess Diana was murdered (possible, in my opinion) and also shapeshifters/lizard people (impossible imo).

In my area too, there was a lot of suspicion and a lot of people refused Covid vaccines. I would say I'm in the minority in having had all 3 in my street.

Conspiracy theories do offer certainty in a world that’s full of chaos.

I never was a disbeliever but there are certain things happening now which make me wonder how much the powers that be enjoyed the control, mostly the 15 minute places idea where you'll have everything you need so you won't need to leave that area, which means you won't need a car, which means you'll always be in a 15 minute vicinity of your home. Reminds me of not being able to travel more than 5 miles . Sorry, I did everything asked of me during covid but now I'm not so convinced it didn't go on longer than it should have. And yes I did lose loved ones during the time, both by care home and by suicide. Was covid real? Absolutely. Were the death figures massaged- absolutely. Did it eventually become not about covid but a human control experiment- sadly I'm beginning to question this.

Where and how was the survey circulated? It looks vaguely familiar, but I dont know if I've completed it.
20% people that responded to a survey about conspiracy theories, thought covid was a hoax...

Oh but I don't believe 911 was a hoax, akiens aren't real, there was no chip in the vaccines and most important god, I'm hedging my bets on - just in case!

I don't think it was a hoax but I wouldn't trust this government to organise a piss up in a brewery so could easily believe some of them

I don’t know if there are more stupid people or if the internet has just given them something to believe in. There was a tragic bus crash over the weekend in Australia and someone tweeted that it was staged by deep state operatives to divert attention from Trump’s indictment. A bus crash in a country town in Australia! WTF?

Every single time someone under 70 dies they attribute it to Covid vaccines. And these people seriously believe they are the smart ones and everyone else has been duped.

I don’t think it’s helpful to automatically label someone ‘stupid’ for falling prey to these beliefs. It just widens the gap. They think we are stupid for not ‘doing our own research’ which is funny because they all seem to read from the same wanttoknow type site.

There is huge money in this for the scammers who run such sites, people falling for this are vulnerable and probably suffering from some kind of mental or emotional distress.

What an insult to the people who died and those who fought to save them.

I agree that some of he handling of the pandemic was shambo!ic and that in hindsight lockdown went on far to long but I don't believe it was deliberate I think they are desperately trying and sometimes failing to control.an ever changing situation.

We have a ( male ) friend who believes the world leaders are plotting for the great human reset where we will be forced to have an implant in our brains to control us.
We are slowly backing away / being unavailable to him.

Well 52% of our population voted for Brexit so this doesn’t surprise me. There are a lot of rather stupid people about.

most important god, I'm hedging my bets on - just in case!

You're in very good company there

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_wager

On the whole, I worry about the gullibility of people. Let’s face it, there are plenty of people who believe in astrology.

Having read the survey, the questions are not always well phrased, some of them will encourage people to answer ‘yes’.

E.G. Question from survey: “So-called '15-minute cities', where all services are within a 15-minute walk of where people live, are an attempt by governments to restrict people's personal freedom and keep them under surveillance”

I don’t for a moment think that anyone behind the 15 minute cities sat down and thought ‘how can we come up with a way of restricting people’s freedom and keeping them under surveillance?’ and 15 minute cities were the answer.

But if you live in an area where the idea is being considered e.g. Oxford, the reality is that your freedom is literally restricted (there are places you can’t drive to more than x times in a period that you used to be able to drive to whenever you wanted) and cameras are used to enforce this (I.e. surveillance).

It becomes a subtle distinction when the question is asked. If you asked ‘is the primary purpose of 15 minute cities to restrict personal freedom and keep everyone under surveillance?’ I think more people would answer ‘no’. If you asked ‘is a side effect of introducing 15 minute cities that it restricts personal freedom and keeps people under surveillance?’ more people would answer yes.

🙄🙄just because people have different views from you about Brexit doesn't make them stupid
I think it's rather more stupid to Shoehorn Brexit,into everything.

Yes. I don't subscribe to the theory that people prefer conspiracy theories because it makes them feel more secure, or it makes them believe that random terrible things can't happen.

There's a definite thrill out of it, driven by social media where people have so much (mis) information that they believe they are experts in some way and become Internet 'experts' spreading even more bullshit.

It's not just about conspiracy theorists, it's also all the true-crime devotees and gossip forums which thrive on that attitude.

Nicola Bulley was a case in point. And I include MN in the toxic damaging social media furore that occurred. The Police had really good evidence that she was in the river for whatever reason she ended up there and many people in public were refusing to accept that as a possibility. Driven by all the social media gossip and Internet 'sleuths'. Add in an 'expert' on searching rivers who inserted himself and was completely unprofessional and unethical in his statements via media and you had thousands of people thinking this was some kind of Police cover-up. I mean why? Why would the Police do that?

And when she was of course, found in the river. Those thousands of people felt that was some kind of confirmation of nefarious activity rather than what had always been the most obvious answer - accident/suicide rather than abduction/murder. Coming up with insane theories about how she'd been murdered somewhere else and placed there, with the Police somehow being involved in that.

A lot of people over-estimate their intelligence and knowledge but also just enjoy talking about shit on the Internet. Same thing happened in a different way with Philip Schofield.