Covid-19 Conspiracy Theories: QAnon, 5G, the New World Order and Other Viral Ideas

In an exceptionally timely book, the authors—two folklorists (John Bodner and Ian Brodie), a historian (Donald Leech), two public health experts (Anna Muldoon and Wendy Welch), and an attorney and policy expert (Ashley Marshall)—combine intellectual forces to explore the complexities of the conspiracy theories that gained enormous traction during the COVID-19 pandemic. The team marshals the perspectives of these diverse fields to provide historical and folkloristic anchoring for the narratives, memes, and other expressive forms that “went viral” across various platforms during the first months of the pandemic. The folkloristic perspective of Bodner and Brodie ensures that the stories themselves are not glossed over, but rather form the backbone of the ensuing investigations of this dynamic narrative ecosystem.The first of the volume's 10 chapters, “Conspiracy Theory 101: A Primer,” stands as a useful primer on the study of narrative in general, and conspiracy theory in particular. Conspiracy theories (unfortunately abbreviated as CT throughout the book) are presented as “vital idea expressions that purport to explain how the world truly works” (p. 10). For the authors, the concept of a “kernel narrative” is essential to the dynamics of conspiracy theory creation. The discussion of how these kernel narratives, rumors, and legends get linked together in a dynamic narrative ecosystem, and how a reliance on low-probability links between existing narratives can create a dense web of meaning-making, could perhaps have been expanded to include a clearer characterization of the genre as a whole. Nevertheless, the typology of conspiracy theories is particularly helpful, and one that informs a great deal of the rest of the work: (a) “event conspiracies,” (b) “systemic conspiracies,” and (c) “super-conspiracies,” where (c) are often comprised of links between conspiracy theories of type (a) and (b) (p. 14). This relatively dense first chapter ends with two important, albeit brief, considerations of bias and amplification.The second chapter, “The ‘Wuhan Virus’: A Cautionary Tale of Origin Conspiracy Theories,” explores narrative elements, such as foodways and origin tales, that played important roles in the emergent conspiracy theory narratives at the start of the pandemic. It also introduces the conspiratorial notion of “problem-reaction-solution” (PRS) that provides a map for the explanatory aspects of conspiracy theories: (1) A problem is clandestinely manufactured by malign actors for which they have already devised a self-serving solution; (2) the problem is then amplified by the media; (3) in reaction, there is public outcry calling for action; (4) allowing the initial malign group to implement its predesigned solution (p. 44). The various examples of conspiracy theories in this chapter, including the “virus-as-hoax,” are among the most engaging of the entire volume. In this context, the authors explain several important ideas, including that the layering of narrative frameworks as a conspiracy theory grows in complexity and the ability of conspiracy theorists to reconcile seemingly incompatible ideas.“Recycling White Power Rumors after the Black Death” offers a historical perspective on the relationship between conspiracy theory and health crises. The chapter includes a thoughtful examination of antisemitism and the conspiracy theories of the past several centuries that have given impetus to the antisemitic aspects of many COVID-19 conspiracy theories. The discussion of the Canadian material is an excellent corrective to the often American- and European-focused scholarship on this subject. Chapter 4, “‘But My Cousin Said’: Covid-19 and Black Communities,” extends the discussion into Black communities and the long and troubling history of medical experimentation on unwitting members of these communities. It then pivots to important considerations of the Black Lives Matter movement and the re-emergence of white supremacy groups spurred on by the Donald Trump presidency.“Harmful Additives: Pre- and Pandemic Anti-vaccination Thinking” is oddly prescient in its scrutiny of anti-vaccination attitudes and the potential harm that such attitudes have to a coherent pandemic response. Although vaccines were not available at the time the book was written, the chapter offers an important overview of the history of vaccine hesitancy. In this chapter, Bill Gates’ emergence as a super-villain in COVID-19 conspiracy theories indirectly reveals how low-probability links are made across multiple competing stories to create a “super-conspiracy.”“Apocalypse Now, or Later? End Times and the New World Order” investigates the largely evangelical Christian notions that inform certain COVID-19 conspiracy theories, particularly those that liken the vaccine to the “Mark of the Beast” and the “New World Order,” while “QAnon, Pizzagate and the Pandemic” explores one of the best-known and most active conspiracy theories of the past decade. The all-encompassing, collectively negotiated QAnon conspiracy theory rests on a frame narrative of an anti-democratic “deep state” intent on eroding people's freedoms. In the context of the pandemic, because QAnon had already subsumed the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, lockdowns and field hospitals were easily linked to a “benevolent conspirator” response to the alleged cannibalistic satanic child trafficking ring at the heart of Pizzagate. Chapter 8 considers 5G and its emerging role as a central component of COVID-19 conspiracy theories and includes an important exploration of ostension and profit-seeking, as the sale of various devices to block the harmful effects of 5G radiation explodes. The volume's penultimate chapter on the deeply racist political cartoons of Ben Garrison is an unnecessary addendum to the volume, providing little in the way of critique of the troubling aspects of Garrison's cartoons and his calls for real-world action. That hands-off perspective stands in sharp contrast to the final chapter, which provides a series of resources and strategies for developing critical understanding of the forces and counterforces at play in conspiracy theories in general, and COVID-19 conspiracy theories in particular.The book is written in a remarkably accessible language and targeted primarily at university-level students. It will also be of interest to researchers and journalists looking for a substantive and well-researched introduction to COVID-19 conspiracy theories. The authors should be commended for documenting and analyzing an ongoing crisis despite the fact that the inevitable result of doing such work in medias res is that many of the discussions become outdated by later developments (e.g., the wide availability of vaccines, the seditious attack on the US Capitol on January 6, and successive waves of virus variants). Corralling scholars from so many disciplines is difficult under the best of circumstances, but here, the efforts are clearly worth the end product, as the authors have provided an important view of the storytelling ecosystem of the early pandemic period, while modeling the best of interdisciplinary research.