During the final Presidential debate of the US 2016 election season last week, Republican nominee Donald J. Trump shocked many viewers and analysts with his statement that he would not necessarily accept the election results on the night of November 8th / morning of November 9th. He repeated his now common claim that this whole election is rigged, that mass voter fraud has tilted the election unfairly in favor of Hillary Clinton. The day following the debate, he “qualified” his statement by saying that he will accept the election results… if he wins… Later, he further modified his statement by alluding to challenging the results after the election if he sensed fraud (which apparently he can do months in advance), similar to how Al Gore did after the 2000 election.
Despite widespread condemnation from many Republicans, Trump stuck to his guns as always, and of course, merely doubled down when pressed on the issue. Like he did during the second debate, Trump played to his crowd, which I’m sure includes mostly nice and reasonable. However, we all know that there is an extremist fringe among Trump’s supporters, whom have bought fully into the alternate reality that Trump has created: a reality where all the media and politicians are fully conspiring against him to ensure a Clinton victory. It’s a world where crime and Islamic terrorism will run rampant in the streets should Clinton win, a world where America is no longer the world power that it is now. There is hope though, for Trump himself is the only possibility of salvation from this deplorable nightmare (or at least so he claims).
If you doubt that some Trump supporters truly live in this alternate reality, consider that the Trump parody account on Twitter has stated that the election is actually being held on November 28th of this year. The parody account then retweeted a reply from a Trump supporter, oblivious to the fact that he/she was responding to a parody account, telling fellow Trump supporters that the election really is on the 28th, and that the Democrats and the media are lying whenever they say that Election Day is November 8th. Yes, the alternate reality proposed by a Trump parody account has greater sway over some Trump supporters than anyone living in actual reality.
There are plenty of other examples of this insanity. The parody account retweeted another Trump supporter whom claimed that Breitbart is too biased, so he now reads StormFront.com, a white nationalist site. Note that this occurred shortly after a Breitbart poll indicated that Hillary Clinton had won the final Presidential debate, another instance where real life is perhaps indistinguishable from The Onion. And of course, vast numbers of Republican voters (obviously no all) sincerely believe that President Obama is a Muslim born in Kenya and that he and Hillary want to take away their guns. Evidently, Obama has done an abysmal job of destroying the Second Amendment during his eight years in office.
These sorts of conspiracy theories might be most common on the Right, but there is plenty of lunacy on the Left and in non-Western societies as well. The day after the Orlando shooting, in every comment section on the Internet, there was always that one deluded liberal claiming the falsehood that the shooting had nothing to do with Islam, even though Obama and Hillary have already stopped spreading this lie ever since the San Bernardino massacre. Many liberals will claim that Islam is a religion of peace, despite Islamic scholars across the centuries claiming otherwise, including ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whom has a PhD in Islamic studies. Across the Sunni Islamic world, many believe that Iran (a Shia nation) is in collusion with Israel and the US against them, while throughout the Shia Islamic world, many believe that ISIS (which is a Sunni Islamic organization) is in collusion with Israel and the US against them.
Why do people believe such ridiculous things? The modern world of politicized media has led everyone into their own echo chambers of confirmation bias. Most people will only hear opinions and views from their side of the political spectrum, and this applies to their real life interactions as well, as shown in a recent Pew poll: http://www.people-press.org/2016/08/03/few-clinton-or-trump-supporters-have-close-friends-in-the-other-camp/. But our susceptibility to fallacies goes deeper than this. It is wired into the neural makeup of our brains. We are not creatures of reason and rationality. We are creatures of ideas and beliefs.
Consider the following: It is 3 million years ago on the plains of Africa. You are a small australopithecine standing in the tall grass. Suddenly, you hear a rustle in the bush nearby. Is it merely the wind or a dangerous predator? If you think it’s a dangerous predator, and it’s merely the wind, you’ll have wasted time and energy leaving the area, but at least you’ll be alive. If you think it’s the wind, and it’s a dangerous predator, you are lunch. Over time, our ancestors evolved to identify threats where there were none far more often than failing to identify threats. This has led to us holding onto basic ideas and beliefs (e.g. people whom hold political and/or religious views different from me are bad) and mentally defending them at all costs, regardless of facts presented, as a primal survival mechanism.
This susceptibility to bad ideas is worsened by the fact that there are actual conspiracies out there, with Watergate being one of the more famous examples. The modern age isn’t free from clandestine collusion either. A few months ago, French police forced a (supposedly) Muslim woman on the beach to take off her burkini, based on fears that the burkini was linked to Islamic terrorism. It was later revealed that the woman was paid by an Australian television company to put on the display for propaganda reasons: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/inquirer/seven-and-its-burkini-family-owe-france-an-apology/news-story/212b97b26ad5858a2421523dde546dec. Closer to home, while many conspiracy theories regarding an Islamist takeover of the United States government are false, there is some truth to the idea. Both Muslim members of Congress have been found to have at least some ties to the Muslim Brotherhood: http://www.clarionproject.org/news/two-reps-attended-muslim-brotherhood-front-event. As long as there is a kernel of truth in an idea, it will continue to survive.
Regardless of your political or religious views, be aware of what ideas you are defending without rationality. Be aware of when you are merely confirming your own biases instead of trying to find counter-examples. Only when we all are more aware of our own biases and myopic thinking can we live in a less divided, less polarized society, where unfounded conspiracy theories are less likely to spread, even if they are coming from the mouth of a Presidential candidate.
“What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient... highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed - fully understood - that sticks; right in there somewhere.”
- Leonardo DiCaprio in “Inception” (2010)
