The Health Nut to Radical Conspiracy Pipeline

 

        After the COVID pandemic, we’ve all become much more aware of conspiracy nuts. The anti-vax movement became far more influential, the words of scientists were increasingly denied, and the uproar over the scientific process was amplified on a public scale. It makes one wonder, “Where the hell did all of these wackos come from?” For many of us, our own families became wrapped up in this nonsense, claiming to have “done their own research” and refusing to listen to anyone with a Dr. before their name. Facebook and other online platforms are a cesspool for this line of thinking.

        The rise of conspiracy theories overall is a concerning global trend, but anti-vaccine sentiment stands out as a particularly dangerous and divisive one. Surprisingly, there is a noticeable correlation between individuals interested in wellness and nutrition and those that fall into radical conspiracy groups, such as the anti-vax movement. How do these people radicalize into conspiracy theories from conservative talking points? Let’s take a look.

        To start, conservative rhetoric is often strongly connected to the conspiracy theory pipeline. This rhetoric often centers around promoting distrust in mainstream institutions, fostering a sense of victimhood, and demonizing opposing views. The echo chambers created within conservative circles can reinforce and amplify these ideas, leading individuals to seek alternative sources of information that confirm their biases. Through these alternate sources, they find conspiracy theories that claim to provide answers to the natural entropy of the world. Through the ingestion of this content, readers lean farther and farther to the right while becoming more and more distrustful of the government.

        This has become exponentially more potent from the rise of social media. Before social media, you may have known someone who always wore a tinfoil hat, so to speak. They’d spout nonsense, and you’d chalk it up to delusion or perhaps mental illness. Now, these crackpots can all find each other online. Before you know it, alt-right platforms start to claim that Hillary Clinton drinks the blood of babies (???). The structure of internet algorithms only adds fuel to the fire. Imagine that the same crackpot has one conspiracy theory; they consume content related to that theory, and are recommended dozens of videos and posts that relate to other theories. The crackpot is now far down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole, such that any reasonable discourse sounds like a personal attack to them. If you’re very liberal like me, you’ve certainly been in one of these situations:

• Some crackpot says something unhinged online. “Trans people are coming for your kids”, for example. It can be anything, though normally is something morally horrific.

• You, as a reasonable person, would respond along the lines of, “Hey, uh, trans people are not any more dangerous than anyone else, and in fact they need our help more than ever. Please support your trans friends and family.”

• Crackpot now goes on a tirade about “You sheep are indoctrinated by the government”, how “Big Pharma wants to turn us all gay”, you name it. Any possible retort you could give would be answered by the equivalent of a “nuh uh”.

For these conspiracy theorists, they don’t need to provide any reasonable proof. All they need to do is dogpile on preexisting ideas, and thousands of others will follow suit.

Now, onto the wellness community. This internet group spans millions of people, from gym rats to green juice gurus. This pipeline seems to only affect a certain flavor of health nuts: older, affluent white women. This community’s ideology starts reasonably; they’re often driven by a genuine desire for a healthier and more natural lifestyle. Perhaps they heard good anecdotes about the use of essential oils, or maybe they heard about how their relatives had good health outcomes following a homeopathic medicine regimen. However, this pursuit of well-being can lead them to become susceptible to radicalization into anti-vax groups. The pipeline generally proceeds as follows:

They start off as normal people. They use Tylenol when their head hurts, etc. Then, they hear about the supposed benefits of pseudoscientific treatments like detox diets, essential oils, and homeopathy. They think, “It’s natural! I’ll try it!” and they might get good results, too. They start to use this alongside medication and may start to replace medication with this new medicine. 

Over time, they may start to question the pharmaceutical industry's influence and the potential side effects of medications. They see the millions of people who take pharma-grade medications that fail to get better and wonder if these medications are any more effective than placebos. While this critical thinking is essential for informed decision-making, it can also make them susceptible to rejecting tested treatments despite overwhelming scientific evidence supporting their efficacy and safety. They tout the effects of their homemade remedies and how they’re “better than medicine”. Funnily enough, these effects are likely to be placebo effects, but the right wing will get defensive if you point this out. At this point, they’ll likely just talk about how great essential oils are and won’t deny the advice of doctors quite yet.

Now that they’re using these alternative treatments, they’ll seek the advice of others to make the most of their newfound knowledge. They find online circles of like-minded people, some of whom promote misleading information about many sides of medicine. The new health nuts will now question all sides of the healthcare system. This is around when they’ll start to avoid intervention from doctors. Their kids may now be affected too.

Their new radical groups emphasize individual empowerment and autonomy over health decisions. They gain confidence in their ideas by only listening to those who agree with them. As they begin to trust these communities more, they become more susceptible to other claims. Perhaps they start to believe that the government is taking coercive and intrusive measures to control us, or that QAnon is real. Now, they’re deep into the pipeline. They may now believe anything their community tells them, even if all the evidence tells them otherwise.

        

Personally, I have people in my family who fell into earlier categories, but thankfully nobody in my close circles. Some of my relatives have begun to believe that vaccines have microchips and that they make people magnetic if taken. Magnetic. They huff about any mention of STEM careers in my own family. They were crestfallen to hear that my brother and I are far-left.

One well-known person in this realm of quackery is RFK. I remember listening to his podcast episode with Joe Rogan, and this conversation happened:

RFK Jr.: Wifi radiation opens up your blood-brain barrier, so all these toxins that are in your body can now go into your brain.

Rogan: How does wifi open up your blood-brain barrier?

RFK Jr.: Now you've gone beyond my expertise.

This is both hilarious and baffling. Rogan asks the most logical follow-up question, and RFK is at a loss for words. Yet he’s written his own books with blurbs from celebrities, and is known as one of the largest proponents of the anti-vax movement. If he’s one of the more credible figures to these groups, just how bad are the worst of them?

Also, I just have to mention this, but there is a group of people who supposedly “refuse to let RNA enter their body without their consent”, in reference to the mRNA vaccine. They…don’t know what RNA is. At all. Their bodies have billions of RNA strands each. Without RNA, you wouldn’t exist! Your body is made of DNA and RNA! This is a single Google search away! I’m getting worked up just writing this. 

Dealing with this self-fulfilling prophecy is hard, but there’s no better time to start than now. We’ll need a multi-pronged approach, starting with media literacy. We need to teach all generations, not just the new ones, about online critical thinking skills to help them discern reliable information from misinformation and conspiracy theories. We need experts from all areas to show complete, concrete proof that these ideas are false in an easily-digestible way.

Next, we’ll need to enact changes on social media platforms to prioritize accurate information over engagement alone. Science communication should be normalized and streamlined so that scientists can converse with the public directly. The fewer steps there are between the research and the public, the better. We need to improve the communication of scientific knowledge to the general public, making it accessible, understandable, and relatable.

Next, we’ll need to sponsor reputable influencers and celebrities from the wellness community to spread accurate information about vaccines and public health. Then, after all this is done, we can consider appropriate regulations and legislation to curb the spread of misinformation and prevent the radicalization of vulnerable communities. You might be asking, Why wait? Why not enact these laws now? The reason is that there will be a backlash. A lot of backlash. Conspiracy theorists will squawk that the government is silencing them, and they’ll only have more fuel to shout their beliefs. We need to make these social changes slowly, over years, so that the public is most receptive to changes that will improve the online landscape.

By promoting media literacy, responsible social media algorithms, and scientific communication, we can work toward a healthier, more informed society that relies on evidence rather than unfounded conspiracy theories. So, the next time you see your conspiracy-loving relative, hear them out. See what they have to say, and gently offer some insight into the truth. Have a discussion, not a shouting match. Then, they may listen to what you have to say, too, and (hopefully) reconsider how they view health and medicine.