How Did COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories Get So Out of Control?

Some folks are less informed than others and are duped by illusions. We refer to this as primary process thinking. And others thrive on the drama created by their oppositional defiance. These observations are a part of my six clinical research projects, all published on Research Gate.
Rich

1SG (Join to see) Once again, I Pray a Most Fervent Prayer for each and everyone of you who has contracted the COVID-19 pandemic.

"They argue quarantine-induced social disconnection drove people online, where platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube served them a steady diet of misinformation."

And a good portion of that misinformation came from the government.

Why was there so much traffic in conspiracy theory? Because when the government and "trusted news sources" consistently lie to you, it becomes VERY hard to tell truth from fiction.

Additionally, even when the government wasn't lying, they did a HORRIBLE job of messaging, which made things LOOK LIKE lies. When a government expert states things as fact, only to later make a similar, but more nuanced statement, it APPEARS as though they were lying, got caught, and had to backtrack. And technically, they were. "Everyone needs to wear a mask" is patently not true. There are any number of people who don't need a mask - and the later statement that you don't need a mask if you are by yourself, or well-distanced out-of-doors, just makes the original statement a lie. A well-intentioned one, sure. A lie of being overly broad, sure. But still a lie. And if the government is going to lie to me about that, what ELSE are they lying about? <cue sinister music>

When a government expert continuously moves the goalpost - and is caught on tape admitting that the original "goal" was never honest, but used not to scare people away and build cooperation (read: compliance), it makes everything that government expert has said suspect.

And the media who continuously parrot, unquestioningly, without doing any ... what's the word.... JOURNALISM?.... become complicit and untrusted.

I am not at all trying to say that these conspiracy theories are accurate or good. But if you want to stop them, trying being a credible source. Use honest language, such as "We are still figuring this out. We don't know for sure, but right now our best guess is that masking will help reduce the spread. Based on this, we strongly encourage everyone to wear a mask. And when we know more, we will let you know." Or "We believe this was zoonotic. We haven't pinpointed things, but right now the science points to it being transfered from a bat. There are other theories out there, including a lab leak theory. Frankly, we have no evidence to support that, but until we can prove the zoonotic transmission theory, we cannot definitively rule it out, either." <cue peaceful melody>

But our "experts" and our media didn't want to do that. They were quick to jump to "it is known" (shout out to Game of Thrones) so that our government could create policy and the people would simply comply. No one wanted to question anything - and anyone who did was IMMEDIATELY a conspiracy theorist.

When the experts are dishonest, when the journalist refuse to question or investigate, when the government uses this to create policy, and when anyone who questions any of this is immediately thrust aside and forced to exist "on the fringe" it creates a bad situation. A situation where "the fringe" has a ton of crackpots - but a few honest truth-seekers (and even fewer truth-tellers, but some!). And a situation where the public cannot fully trust the government and the media, either.

I cannot *fully* trust the "official" story, and I cannot completely discount the whack-jobs on the fringe. In that situation, why does anyone seriously have *any* questions as to why conspiracy theories flourished?