Critical Thinker, Conspiracy Theorist
The words ‘critical thinker’ and ‘conspiracy theorist’ have been appearing a lot in public and social media of late. Everyday we see a succession of assertions made by one ‘theorist’ or another, one thinker or another - some well founded and cogently argued, others poorly articulated and defended. The experience of Covid-19 in 2020 has brought the question of authoritative and reliable knowledge firmly into the spotlight. In the face of the maelstrom of ideas, rhetoric, assertion and hyperbole that arrive everyday, how does one know what to accept and what to reject? One of the unfortunate (and occasionally dangerous) aspects of the COVID-19 experience in 2020 is the alarming rise in the number of conspiracy theories and theorists that have made their way into the ‘public square’. It is remarkable to note the visibility of these ‘theories’ now and the alarming scale of interest in them. Conspiracy theories are dangerous for they come from a mind that is unwilling to subject its conclus