There are real reasons to distrust governments and corporations.
There reallyareplenty of powerful people acting in their own interest, often to the detriment of others.
Thereare, in real life, legit conspiracies and cover-ups.
That weird thing where Volkswagenfaked its emissions test results.
At first glance, it might be hard to tell one from the other.
Doesnt the existence of real conspiracies mean that conspiracy theories are sometimes correct?
Any fact (or lie!)
can be creatively inserted into this cloud of suspicion and believers will insist that the theory has been strengthened.
Nefarious intent:The powers that run these supposed conspiracies never have a boring (or benign) motivation.
Persecuted victim:People held up as heroes are also framed as victims.
Conclusions that persist despite changing, conflicting evidence tick off about four different boxes in our list above.
Lets try a few coronavirus examples.
I count one red flagpossiblycheckable from the list, which is nefarious intent.
But theres no clear explanation for exactly why its happening.
The story is complicated and messy in the way real world stuff often is.
Watch out for these characteristics in other stories you see on social media.
