It seems to me, people simply love conspiracy theories, no matter how absurd they are. The lastest ‘bad guy’ is the new Harry Potter video game. It is said to be transphobic and not only are there tons of criticism and calls to ban it by the cancel generation, but some have also bought the US$60 (RM250), then destroyed it with a hammer, just to share photos of them doing so on the internet.
Well, I too fell prey to conspiracy theories when I was a Christian. When I was a Christian, I was told that the devil (a.k.a. Satan) comes in many forms to lead people away from God. A seemingly nice thing may be a trap just like Satan offering Jesus the kingdoms of the world in the desert. In return, Jesus only had to worship Satan.
In the late 1980s, I was told that my favourite potato chip maker was in league with the devil. Pringles potato chips had entered the Malaysian market that, until then, had only sold sweet potato chips (known locally as kerepek ubi kayu). Chips made from sweet potato were hard and not crispy. Pringles offered a magically crispy chip and anyone who ate them loved them.
When I was in Bible college, I was told that the CEO of Proctor and Gamble (the owners of Pringles) had openly confessed that he was a Satan woshiper and the proof was in his company’s logo. P&G’s round logo had the image of a cresent moon with an old man’s face and thirteen stars. I was told that there were two horns and the number 666 hidden in it. I was skeptical at first but a trip to the supermarket soon confirmed the story. There, on a can of Pringles potato chips was the P&G logo with the satanic elements. I stopped eating Pringles for many years because of that. Even after I was told the actual history of the P&G logo, I still did not eat Pringles just to be on the safe side.
In case you are wondering just how P&G came up with such a strange logo for their company, you have to remember that that company was founded way back in 1837, almost two hundred years ago! Back then, it made candles and soap. Their candles were called Star Candles and dock workers marked the boxes with a star for easy identification. Back then, many people were illiterate so a symbol on the boxes helped them identify the boxes. Later, the company formalised the logo with thirteen stars to represent the original thirteen colonies of the USA. The man on the moon was a common motif at that time.
Around that time, there was another rumour flying around. It seems the music industry was controlled by the devil! Rock music was secretly implated with hidden messages that could only be heard if you played the music backwards. It was called ‘backward masking’ and rock music album burning events were not uncommon. Christian parents forced their children to break and burn their rock records and cassette tapes just like how people are hammering their Hogwarts Legacy video games.
Why do people so readily believe such nonsense? From an evolutionary point of view, we owe our survival to being predisposed to being fearful of the unknown. We have a ‘better be safe than sorry’ self-preservation mechanism inside us that keeps us safe from harm. It is how we mammals have survived for millions of years, jumping at the sight of a snake only to find out later that it was only a cucumber on the floor.
However, once we find out that it is a cucumber, we stop being frightened by it. Now, this is not the case with the conspiracy theorist group. I feel people like conspiracy theories because they seem to give the believers something special; a hidden knowledge that only they possess. I am not concerned about benign groups like flat earthers but the dangerous groups like anti-vaxxers, extreme cults and the blame-it-on-white-patriarchy groups. These groups lead people to their deaths and cause the death of others.
If you think you are too smart to fall for such nonsense, I want to remind you that people used to burn educated women as witches. Education is no protector against a frenzied mob.
Pepper's World. Notes to myself. 