From COVID-19 to climate change, scientists are facing a flood of hate mail, threats and harassment from conspiracy theorists.
Scientists are bearing the brunt of this, but it is very much everyone’s problem. The people being harassed are doing things we urgently need them to do. That includes things like warning us about about immediate dangers, telling us what precautions we need to take, and doing research that could lead to workarounds and solutions to the problems themselves.
We need to speak against this. We need to act against this. And we need to change the system to provide protections and remedies. Otherwise we are all going to suffer.
They give conspiracy theorists a bad name.
Did conspiracy theorists ever have a good name?
Sure back when it was the British and American aristocracies coming up with shadowy organizations that must have perpetrated the French revolution.
Doesn’t seem to be tarnished when Smedly Butler unveiled the business plot, nor when the Pentagon papers leaked or evidence of MKULTRA was discovered. Then all the sudden right around the time they stopped teaching humanities at public schools all these groups appeared with very specific very laughable conspiracies they were blindly dedicated to.
And now it’s just shorthand for pedophile racist.
