At the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Trevor Noah framed our current era as the “Golden Age of Conspiracy Theory.”

Future textbooks that aren’t censored by anti-education Republican governors will document the proliferation of conspiracies like the anti-vaxxers, QAnon, pizzagate, organ harvesters, The Big Lie told by Trump himself, Deep State and more. We’ve long ago left the seemingly harmless Flat Earthers and Bigfoot believers and entered truly dangerous territory. 

Underpinning all the social issues feeding the Golden Age of Conspiracy Theory is one constant: social media that amplifies lies and overwhelms truth. Until the insurrection of Jan 6, social media platforms allowed waves of endless conspiracy nonsense. For years I’ve watched them blare their idiotic claims nationwide, often amplified nightly by FOX “news.” In a disgusting display of tragic irony, FOX pundit Tucker Carlson bloviated pro-Putin propaganda while FOX was mourning the death in Ukraine of two of their own, killed by Russian fire. In my opinion, Tucker Carlson gives aid and comfort to their killers.

Ministers have preached “a lie goes halfway around the world before truth even gets its boots on” long before we had the internet but now a lie literally goes all the way around the world before truth gets a second glance.

Conspiracies appeal to people unable to comprehend even slightly complex issues, whether it is how vaccines work or how votes are counted. Ignorance of how things work is a hallmark of conspiracy theorists, and if they feel validated by an authoritarian leader telling them “how special they are,” they end up marching to the Capitol, violently assaulting police, despoiling symbols of American democracy and declaring themselves “freedom fighters” when in reality they are domestic terrorists.  

It is no wonder that Proud Boys and Oath Keepers and paramilitary wannabees conspired to rebellion on Jan. 6: they had absorbed the conspiracies and marching orders in social media groups, untempered by rational thought or actual facts.

Leaders like Brad Raffensperger who said “the election was fair” were then attacked by the mob, because nothing is more important than how mob mentality makes them feel, facts be damned. “I can’t be an ignoramus if Trump tells me I’m special.”

Oh, you’re special, all right.

Every community in America has had a local conspiracy group that wreaked havoc on community relations, and Valdosta has borne the brunt of the unhinged social media mob that followed people who falsely accused a white family and nearly every police officer, city and county leader of murder.

Society needs to stop giving every conspiracist a global platform for their inflammatory rhetoric. We need to regulate Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other social media outlets. If Elon Musk gives Twitter unmoderated “freedom” the resulting cesspool will birth more Jan. 6 insurrections. Free speech does not apply to incendiary, inciting and libelous words.

Demand responsibility and accountability from social media platforms.

Stop the chaos.

Leigh Touchton of Valdosta is a member of The Valdosta Daily Times editorial board.