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Forgive some of the jargon, but this is from a presentation I just gave to a group of fellow psychotherapists last week about the three core appeals of Conspiracism:

• Makes sense of an otherwise confusing and unpredictable world. Wars, poverty, disease, etc. are all due to a small group of evil humans/aliens/lizards – so they are within human control. [Projection]

• Offers an appealingly simple worldview of good people vs. evil forces with sharp moral certainty and paths of righteous action. [Splitting]

• Gives a sense of specialness – the masses are brainwashed and deluded “sheeple”, while they possess secret knowledge and can congratulate themselves on having seen through the deception. [Narcissism]

That specialness/narcissism factor is particularly problematic - and those smug grins are a bit of a tell for it.

When a conspiracy becomes more widespread and popular (and QAnon is definitely that), the more shame-prone conspiracists tend to adopt increasingly fringe and extreme conspiracies to keep their sense of personal specialness. That's what makes them vulnerable to further radicalisation into racism, misogyny, fascism, and other forms of hate which all have ugly conspiracies at their core.

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Apr 14, 2021Liked by David Farrier

Have you heard of a guy called Laurence Fox? In the UK he’s running for mayor of London and earlier today he tweeted a picture of a fake vaccine card he’d managed to download from somewhere and a fake exemption for travel because he doesn’t believe in covid and is claiming he’s afraid of needles to not be vaccinated - all while sporting multiple tattoos! Honestly the UK is full of these idiots at the moment, I actually dream of living somewhere like NZ where you have your normal lives and these people aren’t as common, we definitely would be in less of a bad situation over here if people didn’t act like this all of the time!

The way I see it is that I might be young and even if I was happy to take the risk of catching covid (I’m not but for arguments sake) how can anyone happily risk passing it on to someone who might die because of it? If the pandemic has revealed one thing it’s how selfish some people are and social media just perpetuates the selfishness and gives these guys a place to meet!

Do you think you’ll be vaccinated soon if you’re off to the US? I’m fully vaccinated now and it really is a weight off my shoulders

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Apr 14, 2021Liked by David Farrier

I am so angry at these people but am also fascinated. I live in a world where most people are intelligent, compassionate and have an innate sense of what is right. Then there are these types. When I have come across them it feels like a punch in the gut, their willful ignorance, grandstanding arrogance, actual stupidity and lack of not only self-awareness but awareness of anything beyond themselves is staggering and shocking. I have no fucks to give any one of them and consider them to be responsible for the homicide of the millions past the first wave, as well as for the destruction of community space and businesses around the world. Plus the extra stress and strain on healthcare workers, teachers, parents, essential workers, the suicides, the entrapment and the unnecessary pain and suffering their choices have inflicted upon the rest of us.

I will not forget a single person who I saw joining this free-for-all of delusion. I will always remember how they chose to participate during these hard times and will continue to let them know just how I feel about them.

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Apr 14, 2021Liked by David Farrier

what upsets me the most about this is that if you ever truly need an exemption from wearing masks, you're gonna have to worry about looking like an asshole and justifying yourself to everyone. It's the same issue as when people abuse disabled parking spots so much that someone without a visible disability using them can end up being bullied or assaulted. Now there's a real risk of people with genuine reasons not to wear masks avoiding travel because they can't handle the confrontation.

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Apr 14, 2021Liked by David Farrier

I'm trying to see these people as vulnerable to being duped. I notice there seem to be more Maori covid deniers and suspect the correlation is with mistrust of the government and authorities who traditionally have shafted them under all kinds of guises around controlling measures being for their own good. That they are being targeted by groups spreading misinformation is therefore another layer of irony. I'm glad they're here 8n New Zealand where they will do less damage.

What the world will look like once the vaccine is rolled out is beyond my understanding, but there will still be no shortage of selfishness and stupidity. The industries and billionaires making money from Covid while offering no protections to their workers are proof enough of that.

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Apr 14, 2021Liked by David Farrier

Hi David, thanks for this post.

It's frightening (and depressing) that some people go around and put other people at risk without a care in the world - many even thinking they're doing the "right thing". I think about if that older woman on the plane was my mom and I get anxious at the thought (thankfully my mom is getting her first dose of the vaccine tomorrow). Something that comes to mind right now are the super spreader worship events that a certain individual working with a certain mega-church in the US (i.e. Sean Feucht for Bethel Ministries) was putting on in the fall. They hosted an outreach event on Skid Row and then there was an outbreak a few weeks later...I wonder how that happened *cough*...

Perhaps I'm just a misanthrope or nihilist but sometimes I feel so discouraged by the state of the world and these kinds of oppressive, entitled attitudes that are sometimes masked as doing good or being righteous. I come from a fundamentalist, evangelical Baptist upbringing but now that I'm deconstructing my faith (and I now consider myself an "exvangical") I'm cluing in more to this kind of behavior and how oppressive it is.

Perhaps Webworm isn't the place to go into this topic so I'll wrap up here. Nonetheless, I am curious to know David if you would ever consider investigating this kind of thing. If so I would recommend you reach out to a few people: 1) Brenda Davies (a.k.a. God is Grey), 2) Tara Teng (fellow Canadian, whoop!) and 3) Nadia Bolz-Weber. All beautiful women who I've been following the past while and have, along with yourself, find sanity in these times.

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Apr 15, 2021Liked by David Farrier

This whole thing is just nuts, because I’ve met this lady. Her kids are friends with my workmate’s daughter, so she’s come into my work place before. She first came in when she had just launched her campaign for Advance NZ and continued to come in a few times and go about about “the truth” (blah blah blah). My workmate says that this lady has completely gone off the deep end now - so many of her family and friends have pushed her away because of how she is so convinced off all this Qanon shit. My workmate also ends up looking after her kids when she disappears off to all corners of the country spouting her “beliefs”. The whole thing is honestly just really sad, especially when out vulnerable South Auckland communities are being targeted like this.

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Apr 15, 2021Liked by David Farrier

A lot of insightful commentary here. But my immediate reaction is "fuck these people". Ugh.

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Apr 15, 2021Liked by David Farrier

Humans are such trash. I find consent seeking cannibals far more palatable than than covid deniers and I’ll die on that hill.

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Apr 14, 2021Liked by David Farrier

*sigh* I just can't right now. The last few days have been filled with racists, misogynists and covid deniers. If I start I'll get sweary and off topic. Send help!

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Apr 14, 2021Liked by David Farrier

I blame idiots like these for the death of my uncle. He contracted covid in a nursing home. It wasn't his reckless behavior that got him in contact with a deadly virus. I have zero tolerance for this behavior. It is selfish beyond belief.

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Apr 14, 2021Liked by David Farrier

Interesting... she seems to have taken the post down now. Perhaps a few people who disagreed with her "heroic" stance popped her bubble....

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Apr 15, 2021Liked by David Farrier

That's the grin that wants me to reach for the face slapping fish delivered by Monty python....

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Utter farking eejits and arseholes, the lot of them.

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Apr 14, 2021Liked by David Farrier

Oooh buddy, if you're enraged already, just wait till you get over here. There are people who will drop a couple hundred bucks on a fake proof of vaccination card instead of just getting the *free* vaccine. I hate all of these people so much. I don't even have anything insightful to say about it, it just makes me white-hot mad.

I kind of think wearing masks on planes is a good permanent rule, honestly. Though admittedly they are already very stifling places to be for hours.

Btw if you're gonna be out and about a lot while you're here, you might wanna invest in a few fabric masks. The single-use disposable ones go fast when you're out running around.

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This is exactly what a sheeperson would say! In all seriousness though, I love that you are doing a service by shining a light on these concerning issues around conspiracy belief and it's growing real impact. I even bought the t-shirt!

But is this Webworm community not just another echo chamber in itself? Is it solving anything? How can we reach people who do not want to be reached?

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