Conspiracy theories have played too large a part in our lives for some time now.
When I was a youngster, there were only a few well-known conspiracy theories – someone other than Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK, man never landed on the moon, aliens at Roswell, etc.
Now, things are different.
Conspiracy theories are everywhere, and more widely believed than ever.
There’s a widespread notion that people believe in conspiracy theories because, despite being bizarre and unlikely in the extreme, they make the world more understandable.
How could an American president be killed by some random nobody with a grudge? The world made more sense if it was some powerful, shadowy conspiracy. This makes people feel, in a strange way, safer.
But there are many theories now that seem designed to make people feel unsafe.
The most notable are the theories that involve human trafficking and kidnapping on a massive scale.
These stories come in a bewildering variety, but they all involve women or children being kidnapped for sex trafficking out of ordinary, populated areas, especially suburban mall parking lots.
Often there is some sign that the would-be kidnappers use, like a zip-tie attached to a windshield wiper – anyone who pauses to try to remove it is grabbed!
The stories are spread on TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube by people who claim to have just escaped by the skin of their teeth.
About 99.99 per cent of these stories are total bunk.
Only a minuscule fraction of sex-trafficking cases involve kidnapping a stranger. The vast majority of victims are trafficked by someone they know – a parent or other family member, a boyfriend, even a supposed friend. Traffickers usually use deception and threats on their victims, who are often kept isolated and dependent on their abusers.
So why do people spread these lurid tales in the first place? This seems like a conspiracy theory designed to make people feel unsafe!
But, as was pointed out to me by a very smart person, these stories make people feel knowledgeable and powerful.
“Aha!” they say the next time they’re stocking up on groceries. “I won’t get kidnapped! I know the signs!”
I would add to that a secondary theory – these stories are, in a strange way, fun.
Our lives are very, very safe on a day-to-day basis. We are prone to imagining ourselves in more dangerous situations. This can come from idle daydreaming, or from watching action or horror movies. The part of our brain that is alert for danger is stimulated, but we know we’re okay.
These conspiracy tales, in other words, are a kind of mental game, that those who partake are playing with themselves.
The people spreading them only believe them so far. They might make mental preparations for an attack, their heart rate can increase. They can get really scared.
But on some level, the vast majority of believers know it’s not real. Their belief is as paper-thin as the stories themselves.
