Review – ‘Conspiracy Nation’

Conspiracy Nation is a terrific new book, a thoroughly engaging read, and one that is surprisingly empathetic about its subjects – Australian conspiracy theorists.

“We want to acknowledge up front that ‘conspiracy theorist’ is a loaded term.  It can be used to denigrate people with genuine grievances and to dismiss real conspiracies.”

Tasmania is fertile soil for conspiracy theories, especially in the poor, often illiterate rural North-West.  Climate change is a hoax, the Port Arthur massacre was a ‘false-flag event’, vaccines are deadlier than the diseases they purport to inoculate against, and trans rights activists are actually grooming children – vast conspiracies operate secretly, orchestrated by ‘elites’ intent on corralling us all into a totalitarian hell.

Conspiracy theorists feel they’ve ‘done their research’, and despite feeling denigrated, they also feel they’ve ascended above the sheeple around them to discover truths that explain everything that’s wrong with their world.

Where do these “truths” come from?  Why are they believed with such fervour when they’re so clearly and demonstrably false?

Ariel Bogle and Cam Wilson

Authors Ariel Bogle and Cam Wilson have spent years listening, digging, interviewing and coming to understand how and why these views are held, and why they’re being pushed by well-funded organisations like Advance, SkyNews, and elected politicians.

The reality is that people on the margins have plenty to be aggrieved about – the world works for the wealthy, and against the interests of less educated, less affluent and the more rural communities.  Understanding how and why occupies entire universities full of academics and fills entire libraries of peer-reviewed papers.

But if you aren’t trained in painstaking critical thinking, online influencers and the Sky After Dark pundits make the complex world simple.  It’s woke!

Who is to blame for the wokeness?  Pedophiles!  Politicians!  Greenies!  Big Pharma!  The UN!  Bankers!  Jews! Muslims!  Gays!  Leftists!  Climate alarmists!

Bogle and Wilson reveal the logical fallacies and the emotional substrate of beliefs most of us scoff at.

‘Conspiracy theorists get the facts wrong but often get the feelings right.’

Beliefs which allow us to know the cause of our unease can provide relief; sudden ‘aha!’ moments provided by the purveyors of conspiracy theories may give us a dopamine hit – it all makes sense now!

With thorough and thoughtful research and interviews, Bogle and Wilson take us into Pete Evans’ world, and lift the lid on Qanon, Pizzagate, anti-vaxxers, sovereign citizen “freedom” movement, the Great Replacement theory and much more – all of it fascinating.

Powerful forces are harnessing conspiracy theories and the ‘freedom movement’, and Conspiracy Nation addresses the need, and methods, of pushing back against them.  It’s an important, and morbidly enjoyable, read.  Recommended.

B.P. Marshall is a scriptwriter and author.