New “Guide” Teaches UK MPs To Spot “Conspiracy Theories”

Authored by Kit Knightly via Off-Guardian.org,

The British government has issued a new guidebook to all sitting MPs to help them spot “conspiracy theories”.

Leader of the House Penny Mordaunt  MP, who commissioned the guide, has warned that:

The proliferation of conspiracy theories across the UK is deeply disturbing. They are deliberate campaigns to spread disinformation and fear

[…]

If they go unchallenged we risk the public being conned and their wellbeing potentially damaged. These campaigns are also a threat to the health of our democracy.

It is essential that we give the public and their representatives the tools they need to combat this phenomenon.”

And claimed the aim of the new guide was to:

protect the public from the damaging effects of misinformation and safeguard the integrity of our democratic process,”

Which sounds just lovely, doesn’t it?

Oh, and just in case any of you are still caught up in the party politics illusion, the guide has full cross-party support, the Shadow Leader of the House called it “a must-read”.

The report was co-written by “experts” representing several non-governmental organisations, and fact-checkers including:

FullFact – funded by (among others) Google, Facebook and the Open Society Foundation.

The Institute for Strategic Dialogue  – funded by (among others) the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, Facebook, over a dozen national governments and the UN.

Global Network on Extremism and Technology  – The academic research arm of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, a thinktank “designed to prevent terrorists and violent extremists from exploiting digital platforms”…and which is funded by (among others) Facebook, Amazon, Youtube and Microsoft.

In short, it’s all a rather incestuous funding pool of the same handful of tech giants and billionaires paying “experts” to tell them what they want to hear.

But we probably shouldn’t judge until we’ve read the “guide” itself, which is tricky because it doesn’t seem to be publicly available (seriously I looked everywhere, if you’re aware of a copy online post it in the comments and we’ll add it the link here).

Fortunately, our old friends at the Guardian have given us a little taste, here’s three things they’re warning about.

The Great Reset, which the Graun describes as…

…a vague set of proposals from the World Economic Forum to encourage governments to move to adopt more equitable policies, the concept has been hijacked by conspiracy theorists claiming it is a bid by a small group to exert control.

…which is wonderful, because it’s essentially admitting it’s true and then pretending it’s not.

The Great Reset is, indeed, a WEF initiative. It was launched in June 2020 with the backing of world leaders and captains of industry, it aims to totally and completely rebuild the way our society works, including how we travel, what we eat and where we live.

You can read about it in Klaus Schwab’s own words here, or see their handy diagram:

How is that NOT “exerting control”?

How does one go about transforming the farming, travel, taxation and employment policies of every nation on Earth without “exerting control”?

Eating Insects is another “conspiracy theory”, apparently.

With the Guardian warning that:

 [conspiracy theories] have included claims – fuelled by attempts to reduce meat consumption – that the WEF wants to make people eat insects.

The only problem being that the WEF really does want people to eat insects:

Like, a lot:

You know what? The Guardian wants people to eat insects too. So does the BBC. And Time. The list is endless.

This is – to use an overused word – gaslighting of the highest degree.

They are at once saying “hey, we all need to eat insects to save the world”, and then claiming anyone who repeats it back at them is a conspiracy theorist.

To encompass how mad this is you have to picture it being done on an interpersonal level.

Imagine a double-glazing salesman comes to your door, wearing a double-glazing company logo and holding a double-glazing sales catalogue and says “I think you should buy some double-glazing”.

To which you reply, “No thanks I don’t need any double glazing.”

At this point the man screams “Double glazing? Who said anything about double glazing!? You lunatic!” storms off down the path, gets in his double-glazing van and drives away.

It’s just that insane.

Climate Lockdowns are the third “conspiracy theory” the Guardian warns us about, claiming:

The ISD identified “climate lockdown” as the catchphrase for the conspiracy that the climate crisis will be used as a pretext for depriving citizens of liberty.

But climate lockdowns are not a conspiracy theory either, they were first posited in a report in October 2020 published by Project Syndicate and the World Council for Sustainable Development. The proposed lockdown included banning private vehicles, the consumption of red meat and “extreme energy-saving measures”.

Since then we have been inundated with peer-review studies, claiming lockdown is good for the environment.

The Guardian itself headlined, in March 2021:

Global lockdown every two years needed to meet Paris CO2 goals – study

It was such an unpopular story that they sneakily changed the headline.

It’s fairly clear that “climate lockdowns” are far from a conspiracy theory, that they were planned and then abandoned (or delayed) due to public anger at the first lockdown.

*  *  *

So, it looks like at least three of these “conspiracy theories” MPs are being “warned against” are actually…true. At least partially.

Oh well.

Still, it’s reassuring to know that unnamed experts from billionaire-funded NGOs are writing “guides” teaching our elected officials about the dangers of wrongthink.

What a great way to “safeguard the integrity of our democratic process”.