QAnon, plandemics and sheeple – making sense of the Covid conspiracy-speak
OPINION
Whilst many of us have been finding ways to cope with lockdowns and restrictions related to Covid-19, or trying to hang on to jobs and keep our family safe, others have used their spare time to indulge in an elaborate alternate universe of plandemics, sheeple and evil 5G. Bill Gates is apparently the devil in human form and ‘Q’ isn’t the grumpy gadget man for James Bond any more.
As the Covid-19 pandemic keeps evolving as a harsh reality, so has the infodemic. Whilst the scientists have battled to develop vaccines, news and social media platforms have been in a battle of facts. Normally intelligent people are denouncing the wearing of masks, refuse to consider getting vaccinated and believe 5G networks ‘infect’ people with Covid-19. Elaborate videos have been produced, at great expense, full of unsubstantiated nonsense, alternate statistics, claims that the coronavirus is “just a flu” and that the impact of the virus has been vastly exaggerated.
It’s now becoming increasingly simple to brand the people who indulge in these fantasies as ‘cultists’, unable to extricate themselves from the world of make believe, feeding off each other and the curated posts sent to them on their chosen social media platforms.
There’s also a whole new language where terms of derision are used to replace facts and reasoned argument. Almost all of the conspiracy theories, and the people promoting them, emerge from the US.
In what’s become somewhat of a new cult of alternate facts, welcome to the nouveau lingo of the Covid conspiracy world…
Plandemic
aka. ‘Scamdemic’.
Plandemic usually refers to two conspiracy theory documentaries produced this year by Mikki Willis. Until May, Mikki Willis was best known for posting ‘nice’ viral videos of his family online. His first documentary was hugely popular, the second sunk without a trace.
The much-viewed first documentary has since been thoroughly debunked and discredited. Both feature Judy Mikovits, an equally discredited scientist who was formerly worshipped in the anti-vaccine movement, despite her denials. In the documentary she maintained that a malevolent global “elite” (below) caused the pandemic in order to seize power, money and control the wider population – sort of a collective noun for Bond villains.
Among her other claims, face masks can activate the Covid-19 virus. Her nonsense has been completely dismantled by just about every scientist and medical practitioner. Unfortunately the documentaries came at a time when the US was in the midst of its first quasi-lockdown and clocked up a credible 7 million views on YouTube before it was removed. You can still see it if you really dig into a few dark corners of the internet.
In her book, ‘Plague of Corruption’, Mikovits compares herself to Galileo and Martin Luther King jnr.
A Pew Research Centre survey asked people in the US if they had heard the theory that Covid-19 was “intentionally planned” by people in power. 71% of US adults said they had. A third of the respondents said it was “definitely” or “probably” true.
Follow the breadcrumbs – the world according to ‘Q’
Originally used as a means of navigation in the Grimm’s penned “Hansel and Gretel’ tale, where the children drop breadcrumbs along the way into the forest so they can then find their way back home, the breadcrumbs are now tidbits of knowledge you must follow to learn the truth – that is the truth according to American conspiracy theorists QAnon. In a long line of famous American cults, QAnon is the latest, the most politically toxic and widespread.
Greatly simplifying, QAnon claim that former US President Donald Trump has been spearheading a secret war, between golf games, against “well known” Satan-worshippers and paedophiles – the new President Joe Biden being one of them according to QAnon. A whole secret, satanic cult of paedophiles, (not only paedophiles but ‘cannibalistic paedophiles’), all Democrats of course, exists in an underground cult. Hillary Clinton was also one of them.
It all comes from the mouth of the anonymous “Q” who posts the stories on encrypted message services and then get shared around social media. Not to be confused with Q from James Bond who was responsible for ejector seats in Aston Martins, poison pens and guns fitted to license plates.
These messages from “Q drops” or “crumbs”explain facts about a “cabal” within the “elite”, or the secret war , referred to as the “cbts”, or “calm before the storm”. The series of “breadcrumbs are then shared and spread online by people that have the time to understand facts from an unknown person sprouting outrageous nonsense.
It would be laughable except that the QAnon theories (a poor use of the word ‘theories’) were circulated in the White House by a number of staffers that subscribe to the trail of breadcrumbs, dragging other down the Q-inspired rabbit hole.QAnon is now considered a ‘cult’ by US prosecutors.
Sheeple
If you’ve had the wool pulled over your eyes regarding the “truth” of Covid-19, or are easily led astray, you’re one of the Sheeple (alternate spelling – ‘sheople’).
Unless you’re wallowing in your own self-righteous, unprovable alternate reality, YOU are sheeple… you don’t have the clarity of vision and intellect to understand the “truth”. Luckily, for the rest of us, the accusers have the time and commitment to bring us up to speed with their facts, and can usually reel them off at pace. And then repeat them over and over to MAKE SURE the sheeple understand.
YOU sheeple just follow the main stream media (which is any media that reports news they don’t like)… you are just part of the uninformed flock.
Bill Gates
Just throw his name into any Covid-19 conversation and stand back.
Wikipedia lists Bill Gates as ‘William Henry Gates III’, an American business magnate, software developer, and philanthropist. He is best known as the co-founder of Microsoft Corporation. Our generation has seen the young geek, sometimes competitor and sometimes collaborator with Apple’s Steve Jobs, grow into the cardigan-wearing philanthropist who, along with his wife, have formed one of the largest private foundations in the world.
They get their foundation involved in all sorts of public health projects but, according to conspiracy theorists, are spreading evil around the world.
Now Bill Gates, earlier seen as a geek-version of Mr Rogers, is now the voodoo doll for Covid-19 conspiracy theorists.
Back in 2015, an unassuming-looking Bill Gates came on stage at a TED conference in Vancouver to issue a dire warning…
“If anything kills over 10 million people over the next few decades, it is likely to be a highly infectious virus rather than war.”
So, he knew all about it! Aha! Now Bill Gates is leading a class of global “elites” (below) and leading efforts to depopulate the world, a sort of Dr. Evil, with hair. His ‘vaccine’ has some tracking device that will be able to track us once we’ve been vaccinated. All this is a surprise to Bill Gates.
“I’m very surprised by the course of these conspiracy theories and of course the ones involving me are completely incorrect. I hadn’t been a part of conspiracy theories up until this and it’s ironic because I talked about the risk of a pandemic in 2015.”But he WOULD say that, wouldn’t he!”It is novel that you have a pandemic and you have social media, and somehow the true messages aren’t as titillating or as exciting as the conspiracy-type message.”
5G
Once a term referring to the fifth generation of mobile technology, the worldwide role out 5G somehow got wound into any number of conspiracy theories involving Covid-19 and the plandemic, sorry pandemic. Whilst most of us eagerly looked forward to the introduction of 2G,3 G and 4G, and the faster internet speeds and services, 5G came along at the same time as Covid-19. So OF COURSE they have something to do with each other.
No longer just a technology, 5G is now front and centre of any self respecting conspiracy theorist. Exposure to 5G antennas would give you Covid-19, apparently “altering your cells” in a way that was never quite explained, and WHAMMO, you had the coronavirus. That Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications giant, was behind some of the leading 5G technology, just added fuel to the story – they are a Chinese company so they MUST be spreading evil… and Covid-19.
Elites
1. a select group that is superior in terms of ability or qualities to the rest of a group or society.
Not any more. Once the so-called elite drove around, or were driven around, in their black Mercedes Benz, shopped at those stores on the first floors of fancy shopping centres and puffed cigars whilst counting their millions. Now the “Elite” are a secret society of people who are complicit in planning and carrying out the biggest hoax in history – the Covid-19 pandemic.
The “elite” have conspired with governments to keep us sheeple (yes YOU) in compliant control. Most governments find it difficult to role out stimulus payments and pick up the rubbish on time, let alone conspire to do anything in a secret, controlled manner. Any self-respecting elite usually does everything they can NOT to be involved in governments, anywhere.
The Great Reset
Not what we do to our computers after tearing our hair out for an hour. This baseless conspiracy theory, known as the ‘Great Reset’, claims a group of world leaders “orchestrated” and planned the pandemic to take control of the global economy.
The conspiracy theory has its origins in a genuine plan entitled ‘The Great Reset’, drawn up by the World Economic Forum – now used as somewhat thin ‘evidence’ that The Great Reset is true. The WEF is an annual conference for high-profile figures from politics and business.
The plan explores how countries might recover from the economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic but has never mentioned any control or broader policy covering world populations.The recovery plan has now been interpreted as a sinister plan, first by fringes of the conspiracy theory networks and then taken up by conservative commentators and then shared around social media.
Do you have any other favourite theories that keep popping up, or new words to add to the list? Tell us below…
