People obsessed with baseless conspiracy theories want so badly to believe in extraordinary alternatives to reality.
After all, why believe the truth when fabricated stories are so much juicier, right?
People love conspiracies because they’re usually so much more scintillating than reality. Let’s face it, they’re so off-the-wall they’re kinda fun.
But, reading conspiracy theories should be like watching a movie; If you have to do it, make sure it’s for entertainment purposes only.
Unfortunately, some get carried away and make a conscious decision to believe what feels good to them even if there’s not an iota of evidence to support their claims.
When children believe in Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy, they do so because they WANT to. But even a six-year-old knows it’s impossible for a jolly fat man to visit millions of homes in one night all while being transported by flying reindeer.
And where does he keep all of those gifts anyway?
Children who believe in extraordinary, baseless phenomena can be cute but adults who partake in those behaviors are wacky and potentially dangerous.
A guest on CNN yesterday, billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates joined Anderson Cooper for a discussion about the pandemic and vaccines, and shared his thoughts on COVID conspiracy theories.
Despite being vaccinated and fully boosted, Gates caught COVID last week but remains virtually asymptomatic and strongly suggested that people continue to take COVID-fighting vaccines because the virus will be with us a while longer.
“For people who are 50 or 60, they will probably have to be boosted every six months until we get even better vaccines,” Gates said.
“To be safe, every six months, you [should] probably be vaccinated,” he said. “As we get more data, they might make that shorter for people who are, say 60 or even over 70.”
When Cooper addressed the multiple COVID conspiracy theories about him in relation to public trust about the vaccines, Gates replied: “The [initial] hesitancy did go down somewhat. Initially, it was like 60 percent of the population [who distrusted the vaccines].”
“But as they saw their friends getting vaccinated [with] very rare side effects… When they saw their friends being protected and the people with severe diseases were overwhelmingly unvaccinated, most people came around.”
Facts.
Cooper then asked Gates, “How do you deal with conspiracy theories? People believe you’re tracking people through microchips inserted into the vaccine.”
Gates chuckled and then lamented folks who were seriously impacted by COVID but were vaccine-hesitant due to the groundless, unverified conspiracies.
“Simple explanations are kind of fun to click on,” Gates noted, before he said, “The one about tracking people, I don’t know why they think I’m interested in knowing people’s locations.”
Think about it. Why would a busy multi-billionaire want to know what John Doe in Paducah, Kentucky is doing?
Do people think they’re THAT important?
Gates concluded, “If it’s [conspiracy theories that are] holding people back from getting vaccinated, then that’s tragic.”
