When the COVID-19 pandemic started, Wes Regan and his colleagues at Vancouver Coastal Health found themselves “in the crosshairs of conspiracy theorists.”
Regan and his colleagues received numerous threats and were constantly harassed.
“I’ll never forget the day a suspicious package arrived, triggering fears of anthrax or ricin poisoning,” Regan said.
“It was these experiences during the pandemic that made me want to devote my PhD research to understanding how and why people turn to conspiracy theories in order to oppose government policies,” Regan said.
Regan shared some of his findings in Surrey on Wednesday (March 20) during a TEDxSurrey salon talk at SPA Church (Surrey Pentecostal Assembly.)
TEDx salon events focus on one theme or topic and are often smaller than the annual event. This provides an opportunity for the audience to engage with the speakers with a Q&A. Seating for the event was limited and tickets cost $20.
The March 20 event featured talks and a panel discussion by Wes Regan, Paul Budra, PhD, and Anjali Appadurai, all centred around conspiracy theories and misinformation. Appadurai is a climate activist and is the director of campaigns at the Climate Emergency Unit. Budra is a Shakespeare scholar and English professor at Simon Fraser University. Each spoke about conspiracy theories from their area of expertise.
Regan spoke about the importance of empathy. “I’ve come to the following opinion—let’s dare to call it a hypothesis—if it’s pointless to debate facts with those who believe conspiracy theories, then perhaps we should focus on having better discussions about the ways that we feel about what’s happening in the world today instead.”
“Even if we live in different worlds constructed by alternate facts, we still feel the same feelings, and we may experience them differently but generally speaking, when someone speaks about hope, fear, or love, we understand what that means and when facts fail us, the possibility remains that we might relate to each other through these,” Regan added.
There is a fine line you have to walk, though, Regan said.
“When you try and pin it on people because of their faith, the colour of their skin, or their religion, or whatever else it is, I believe we have to hold a firm line and say, that’s not right that’s not the kind of society that we’ve committed to living in here,” Regan added.
One thing that a lot of people who believe conspiracy theories do get right is questioning and critiquing power, Regan said.
“These sorts of things are actually perfectly healthy and reasonable things to do and conspiracism for some offers what I would call a language of resistance,” Regan added. “This is part of conspiracy theory beliefs that I actually have some respect for; they might not feel welcome in the discourses of social justice or a human rights framework or the inclusion, equity diversity, they might not feel that that’s a language of resistance that they have been hailed into, but they might feel that the conspiracy theory language around government overreach and other things is something that they can feel welcome and step into.”
Anjali Appadurai echoed Regan’s sentiments and said that conspiracy theories oftentimes have a “core of truth that runs through” them.
“I actually have found that a lot of the COVID-era conspiracy theories are rooted in what could be, if we just talked it through a bit more, what could actually be a very strong critique of corporate power, which is one of the things that really stands in our way today, is deepening, growing and almost limitless corporate power that is sucking the life out of the public sphere and drug draining away from sort of public good,” Appadurai said.
“I think there’s so much power there that if we were able to do some of these deep democracy conversations, kitchen table conversations with a lot of these folks, we would actually end up building a very powerful movement to counter some of the most concerning forces,” Appadurai added.
Speaker Paul Budra, PhD, echoed Appadurai and Regan’s words but added that it is important to be aware of one’s own values and beliefs in these conversations. “We’ve got to be careful that we don’t unthinkingly impose our own values on other historical periods and other cultures and other people because it’s so easy to do. We have to exercise our empathy. We have to stretch our imaginations to accompany the diverse realities of this world,” Budra said.
READ MORE: Hundreds Attend TEDxSurrey event Jan. 20 at Bell theatre
The seventh annual TEDxSurrey will be held at Bell Performing Arts Centre in Surrey on Jan. 18, 2025. For more information, visit TEDxSurrey.ca.