Nearly three decades ago in 1991, English former footballer, former Green Party spokesperson, and former BBC sports journalist, David Icke, came out of the closet as it were, to confirm his true identity – first during a press conference and then a week later on BBC’s primetime show, Wogan.

Icke told the world that he was, in fact, the son of the Godhead. Unsurprisingly, he was ridiculed. “I couldn’t walk down the street without people laughing at me. Going into a pub, there was an uproar. A comedian only had to say my name to get a laugh,” he would later tell the television host.

Nonetheless, Icke would go on to publish several books during the ‘90s – five were initially published by mainstream publishers. It was the controversy around his 1994 book, The Robot’s Rebellion, and its embrace of a century-old anti-Semitic literary forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, that would eventually lead him to self-publishing.

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion claims to be the minutes of a meeting of Jewish secret rulers of the world and contains gems such as, “Protocol 9: The weapons in our hands are limitless ambition, burning greediness, merciless vengeance, hatred and malice. It is from us that all-engulfing terror proceeds … We will not give [the people of the world] peace until they openly acknowledge our international Super-Government.”

As far back as 1921, it was debunked and proven to be a fabricated text, thought to be the work of Russian secret police – and not a very clever one. It didn’t need to be clever, though – these days it is shared online and in print by neofascist, fundamentalist and antisemitic groups who still claim it is a genuine document.

Yet Icke referred to it in his book and claimed it as evidence of a plot by an illuminati reptilian race that controls the world. Yes, he believes that governments, banks, the internet, the British royal family, are all either colluding with or are members of this shape-shifting alien lizard race from another dimension that controls the world. He wrote several more books expounding on his theories, questioning the holocaust, and identifying specific politicians as Satan-worshippers and reptilian descendants.

By the turn of the century, Icke was a world-touring speaker and author.

According to Education out of Bounds: Reimagining Cultural Studies for Posthuman Age – a 2010 book that examines the prevalence of the “monster” trope in popular imagination – by the year 2000, Icke had “been invited to lecture in at least twenty-five countries,” and, “Icke’s most recognised publication — the massive 533-page Rosetta stone for conspiracy junkies, The Biggest Secret — has already gone through multiple re-printings since its release in 1999; his latest conspiracy/ufology testament, Alice in Wonderland and the World Trade Center Disaster, passes for vogue among American, British, and Canadian audiences as well as in non-Anglo international cultural arenas such as South Africa (where the book has been an enduring Top 5 seller).”

South Africa, beloved country, we need to talk.

Most recently, Icke has jumped on the “5G causes Covid” conspiracist wagon. He has also claimed that you can’t catch the coronavirus by shaking hands, and that it is not real, but part of some plan to kill people. It is these views that led to him getting kicked off Facebook, where his page had over 800,000 followers, and off YouTube, where his channel had over 900,000 subscribers in May 2020. However, he is still active on his verified Twitter account with over 340,000 followers. He continues to champion climate change denialists, promote his books and talks, challenge the wearing of masks, and share videos of black people who question the Black Lives Matter movement.

Looking over the past three decades of conspiracy theories this self-proclaimed son of the Godhead has pushed, one might be surprised at his large following. Surely a man who once claimed the world was going to end in 1990, and that we are ruled by lizards, should by now, even in the fringiest of fringes, be approached with suspicion.

Alas, it is not so – even Alice Walker, beloved author of The Color Purple – is a fan. In 2018, in a New York Times article responding to a question about books on her nightstand, Walker said, “‘And the Truth Shall Set You Free,’ by David Icke. In Icke’s books there is the whole of existence, on this planet and several others, to think about. A curious person’s dream come true.” Walker is referring to the 1995 self-published title by Icke, which caused controversy due to its suggestion that Jews funded the Holocaust.

At this moment in time, characterised by uncertainty, millions of readers looked to the likes of Icke for explanations. According to an in-depth investigation by the UK’s Press Gazette, his website davidicke.com was “visited 4.3m times in April – up from 1.3m in March, 600,000 in February and 700,000 in January.”

Icke is not alone either – there are numerous conspiracy theory super spreaders with large followings, such as Alex Jones’ Infowars and the London Real. The latter, by the way, are also big fans of Icke. Their 3 May three-hour long interview with Icke, where he reiterates his belief that the virus doesn’t exist, among other wild claims, currently has 4.5 million views and growing.

Then there’s also American Fox News opinion hosts such as Laura Ingraham, who have millions of viewers, supporting a conspiracy theory that suggests Bill Gates is behind the virus, so that he can install microchips on people and track them. Or their other popular host, Tucker Carlson, telling his viewers night after night that the Black Lives Matter protests have nothing to do with racial inequality, but rather that they’re part of a secret plot by the Democrats to take over from Republicans.

Encountering someone who believes in a conspiracy theory that one might consider a step too far, might make one think that conspiracist ideation is something that happens among a minority on the fringes of society. However, judging by the popularity of conspiracist platforms, and the amount of false claims that websites like snopes.com and factcheck.org and africacheck.org have to regularly debunk, it would seem they are anything but fringe.

In addition to the stuff we all see spreading across Facebook and Twitter, and on TV channels, there is also a wealth of misinformation spreading in more private and less visible groups, like neighbourhood and family WhatsApp groups.

This writer has certainly had to get into a few heated debates on family WhatsApp groups, whether to debunk claims including aspirin cures coronavirus or that lemon and baking soda cures the virus. Whether you’re someone who might be tempted to buy into some of these false claims, or looking to arm yourself with knowledge in the face of so much misinformation and conspiracy ideation, based on my experience with my not-so-fringe family WhatsApp group, I would recommend paying this page on Africa Check a visit, where they list and debunk some of the most popular false claims and conspiracies related to the coronavirus.

In the last four decades, the body of research into the spread of conspiracy theories has grown, the majority of it coming from researchers in the US.  Take, for example, this study titled Medical Conspiracy Theories and Health Behaviours, conducted in August and September 2013 in the US and weighted to be nationally representative. They found that 37% of respondents believed that the US Food and Drug Administration intentionally suppressed natural cures for cancer because of drug company pressure – 31% neither agreed nor disagreed, and only 32% disagreed.

Then there are the anti-vaxxers– the study also found that “only 44% disagree that doctors want to vaccinate children, even though they know vaccines are harmful”. And on and on.

These studies looked particularly at conspiracy theories that affect the health sector, and therefore behaviours that might affect the decisions taken. Others looked into what makes all kinds of conspiracy theories attractive in the first place, and what elements make up a conspiracy theory, as seen in this 2018 paper, Conspiracy theories: Evolved Functions and Psychological Mechanisms.

The authors break it down into at least five critical ingredients. The first is our need to see people, objects and events as interconnected. As humans we look for patterns and narratives to explain things. This is a quality that has served us well in our evolution; it has helped us to avoid threats and be able to identify alliances, among other things. Second, conspiracy theories assume some sort of agency, a deliberateness, on the part of the conspirators: “they’re out to get us.” Third, a conspiracy always involves some sort of coalition, a group working against “us” . Fourth, there’s always an element of threat, be it to cause harm or to deceive. Lastly, secrecy: “They don’t want you to know.”

Two authors, Stephan Lewandowsky from the University of Bristol’s School of Psychological Science, and John Cook, from George Mason’s Center for Climate Change Communication, have compiled “The Conspiracy Theory Handbook”, published in March 2020 and freely available to download. At 12 pages including the cover, it is a fairly short read, albeit an important one towards understanding conspiracist ideation.

In a nutshell, the pair emphasise the importance of fact-based debunking, logic-based debunking, challenging the credibility of sources, as well as being armed with links to fact checkers.

Their handbook goes further and makes recommendations on how to speak to conspiracy theorists, like showing empathy and avoiding the temptation to ridicule. Many conspiracy theorists also see themselves as critical thinkers – the handbook emphasises the importance of affirming their capacity for critical thought, but then redirecting it towards the conspiracy theory itself.

The book is just one of many easily available online resources for dealing with conspiracy theories. But there is no guarantee that the tools it provides will help one succeed in the mission to debunk misinformation.

While some conspiracies might be easier to debunk – in a world where some conspiracy platforms have larger audiences than many legitimate news platforms – many will not be as easy. Afterall, the Laura Ingrahams, Sean Hannitys and Tucker Carlsons are among the most watched shows in the US, regularly beating primetime shows on other channels like MSNBC and CNN.

Closer to home, we had cases like that of Mzwandile Masina, mayor of the City of Ekurhuleni, who claimed back in March that a coronavirus vaccine had been found, and that he would direct funds towards its procurement.

Best to maintain a healthy scepticism and stay armed with facts, no matter how tempting it is to believe that corona doesn’t exist, or that you can cure it with lemon and bicarbonate of soda, or that Bill Gates is out to get you, or that the British royal family is actually a race of lizards from the fourth dimension. DM/ML