Facebook/Twitter/etc. recently removed a video by a Houston doctor who’s claiming that hydroxychoroquine + etc. (HCQ+) is a proven remedy in the fight against Coronavirus. She claims to have seen hundreds of situations where HCQ+ has eradicated the disease, or kept people from it.
My social media feed lit up with claims of censorship, and “here we go with the takedown of America” sorts of things. I tried to find the video, but it had been taken down by this time, so I had to go to a few other places on the interweb to watch it. It’s very emotional, very personal to her, and, in a few different ways promotes the idea that there’s something fishy going on; the video doesn’t just promote HYDX, it also claims that there’s a conspiracy afoot, that the people who want to do testing on the drug are “nazis,” and that the government’s hesitancy to endorse the drug’s use for Coronavirus is unethical.
To top it off, she’s yelling the entire time.
Some of my friends are very angry, using this video and its “censorship” as further evidence that a large group of people have no interest whatsoever in the health/progress of our country.
The CDC’s Coronavirus numbers have generated a few other theories, i.e., the case/death counts are being manipulated to make things look worse than they are.
There are others: QAnon, climate change, vaccinations and autism, BLM promotes violence against police, etc. I’ve never seen so many conspiracy theories floating around in a similar moment like they are today. It seems like we’ve gotten to a point where, if someone presents data that we don’t like, we call foul. St. Paul warned us about this; if we’re not careful to be grounded in the right things, we’ll be like a ship tossed around on giant waves.
That’s us. We love a good conspiracy.
But 99% of the time, there’s not one.
Obamacare is a great example. The only reason that liberals keep pushing nationalized healthcare, we say, is because they live somewhere between not caring about America and wanting to obliterate it.
A friend of mine who’s a staunch conservative, and a former three star general, once told me that Obamacare was a great idea, but poorly executed. My wife, a healthcare professional who’s beyond weary of seeing patients who don’t have the resources for preemptive medical attention, is in favor of “socialized” medicine. Beyond that, guess who pays the bill when someone goes to the emergency room and can’t pay for it. You and me. Guess who goes to the emergency room more often than anyone else. Yep. Folks who can’t afford regular visits to the doctor. I won’t go into the social justice aspect of healthcare, that sends people through the roof these days.
Guess what happens to our economy if we double Coronavirus’ life span because we refuse to be “sheep” and follow a few simple guidelines?
As with all of our current conspiracy theories, there are two compelling sides to each story. I’m in favor of Obamacare because I think too many of my fellow Americans need better access to the things I have nearly unlimited access to. There’s an unfairness to our system, often referred to as “inequity,” that needs to be remedied ASAP. But I don’t have any conspiracy-minded friends who are interested in my side of the story. Why would they be? In many ways, I present as a liberal, nigh unto a traitor in their eyes.
American Chrisitanity is especially susceptible to conspiracy theories. We’ve been on the defensive for awhile now, losing almost every political/cultural battle we’ve engaged. We’ve lost our voice, our seat at the table. The government has recently made attempts to place limitations on corporate, indoor worship. What’s next? In the absence of a fuller picture, we see nothing but people who don’t care about our country, soon to be at our very doorstep with shackles and chains.
Not on our watch.
Our fear has made us suckers of the highest order, because fear has one job, to take over our minds, put us in survival mode, and keep our higher brain function out of the loop while we escape disaster and ruin. It’s a great thing to have when a Grizzly is chasing you through the woods, not so great when it comes to politics, especially when it comes to faith.
There are a million reasons why Jesus warned us so clearly to avoid it.
Sadly, because so many of us feel like we’re being chased through the woods by a horde of nasty, snarling, nation-damning liberals, we’re convinced that the guy who’s either defended or birthed our most popular conspiracy theories has our back. All he has to do is hold up a bible, or say something like “God,” and we swoon. When he labels his political foes “traitor,” or talks about liberals like Hitler talked about the Jewish people of his day, we’re all ears.
“In a country beset by extreme and distressing inequality, America’s premier hustler sold the electorate a wagonload of beguiling and deceptive tales about what’s gone wrong, who’s to blame, and how he’ll make things better. He persuaded not through rational argument, analysis, and truth-telling, but rather by manipulating our imperfect reasoning and our unreasoning emotions. Although this playbook has been around for a long time, Americans have never witnessed this level of mastery before. Trump’s unanticipated success dramatically illustrates the importance of understanding the “mind games” that allowed him to win, despite breaking almost every rule of evidence, logic, and propriety.” – Psychology Today Dec. 2016
Our problem is not that we’re faced with a deadly swarm of conspiracies. We’ve segregated ourselves, politically speaking, and now live at arm’s length from a fuller representation of the truth. But we’re also segregated from the non-religious world, which adds to our political segregation, as most conservatives are also religious. Think again if you don’t believe that faith and politics are about to get married and have kids.
In our desire to craft the world and her inhabitants in our image, we’ve ultimately segregated ourselves from the truth. Add that to our overall sense of threat and everything becomes a conspiracy.
Our only way forward is to desegregate.
But, as we’ve seen countless times throughout history, once a human segregates, it takes a mountain to reunite, reconcile, and come together as God so desperately seems to want. It hurts. It feels painful. Wrong. The demons we talk ourselves into aren’t easily swept away.
That’s why Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan. His Jewish audience had segregated from the “bad” Jews of Samaria, against better advice from their scriptures. In this story, a “good” guy gets beaten and robbed, left for dead by the political/spiritual leanings of his kinfolk, then rescued by a “bad” guy, the only one willing to help.
Replace “Jewish” with “conservative” and “Samaritan” with “liberal,” or vice versa depending on what island you’re on, and you’ll have some idea of what Jesus was getting at.
It’s actually unfair to call us “suckers” for a conspiracy theory. What we’re truly suckers for is segregation – all of it; spiritual, political, ethnic, etc. Electing a president who’s found a way to prosper by pouring gas on it wasn’t a good idea, but he’s not the problem. We are. Until we can find a way to reconcile and reunite, not only will be distancing ourselves from the deeper truths of scripture, we’ll have to watch as our country rends itself into a few different pieces.
But at least it won’t be our fault. We’re the “good” guys.
Great post!