{"id":12478,"date":"2024-02-05T12:18:06","date_gmt":"2024-02-05T17:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=12478"},"modified":"2024-03-05T19:06:18","modified_gmt":"2024-03-06T00:06:18","slug":"believe-it-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=12478","title":{"rendered":"Believe it or not!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hoodies up,<\/span> \u201cstudents\u201d slink<\/span> across the TCNJ<\/span> campus to Forcina Hall, and when no<\/span> one is looking, duck into a utility closet<\/span> that doubles as a secret portal to a <\/span>laboratory deep underground. There,<\/span> a shape-shifting alien reptile known<\/span> aboveground as \u201cTom Arndt\u201d injects<\/span> microchips into their bloodstreams to<\/span> program them for their next mission:<\/span> working as crisis actors in a staged<\/span> catastrophe that will dominate<\/span> American politics for as many news<\/span> cycles as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yeah, none of that is actually<\/span> happening. But in case anyone feels<\/span> inclined to take those assertions as<\/span> fact: Well, OK, there is a Tom Arndt,<\/span> but he\u2019s a genial adjunct professor of<\/span> political science without any outward<\/span> sign of space lizard in his genes.<\/span> His course, \u201cConspiracy Theory in<\/span> American Culture and Politics,\u201d does<\/span> meet in Forcina, though in a second-<\/span>floor classroom. And its aim is to get to<\/span> the root of conspiracy theories, not to<\/span> serve as the basis for one.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Tom Arndt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOne thing that motivates me is<\/span> I\u2019m very anti-conspiratorial,\u201d says<\/span> Arndt. \u201cI don\u2019t believe any conspiracy<\/span> theories, and actually find them very<\/span> toxic, very corrosive, and damaging.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Arndt is one of two TCNJ<\/span> instructors who teach classes<\/span> that examine the phenomenon<\/span> of conspiracy theories: how they\u00a0originate, spread, and destabilize not only your\u00a0<\/span> Thanksgiving dinners but, increasingly,\u00a0America\u2019s civic life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He meets the topic head-on, deconstructing numerous narratives\u00a0around historic events, including<\/span> what he calls \u201cthe big three\u201d of<\/span> the last 70 years: the 1963\u00a0assassination of President<\/span> John F. Kennedy; the\u00a0alleged fakery of the Apollo<\/span> moon landings; and the September 11, 2001\u00a0<\/span>terrorist attacks<\/span> on American soil.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve identified at least<\/span> 18 specific story lines<\/span> that speak to what\u00a0allegedly happened on 9\/11,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>says Ardnt. Among them:<\/span> an easily refuted claim that<\/span> BBC News \u201creported\u201d the collapse of 7 World Trade<\/span> Center before it happened, used\u00a0to bolster another conspiracy theory\u00a0claiming that a \u201ccontrolled demolition\u201d<\/span> was orchestrated by any number of\u00a0shady actors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In nearby Kendall Hall,<\/span> communication studies professor Paul<\/span> D\u2019Angelo takes a different approach,<\/span> providing students with a framework<\/span> for navigating the intersection of<\/span> politics, traditional journalism, and<\/span> social media in a class titled \u201cNews in<\/span> Our Lives Today.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In trying to determine where a<\/span> report falls on the continuum from<\/span> truth to lies and propaganda, look<\/span> for intent, D\u2019Angelo tells students.<\/span> Does the author attempt to verify<\/span> information with named sources?<\/span> Appear willing to debunk false<\/span> information? Or is he or she out to<\/span> \u201cconstruct a worldview impervious<\/span> to validation?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the best of circumstances,<\/span> mainstream news is where conspiracy<\/span> theories should go to die,\u201d D’Angelo tells the class. But that doesn\u2019t always<\/span> happen, \u201cbecause people who believe<\/span> conspiracies are apt to blame the<\/span> mainstream media for undermining<\/span> their conspiratorial thoughts. So<\/span> now \u2018the media\u2019 becomes part of the<\/span> populist rant.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Paul D\u2019Angelo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What\u2019s a conspiracy theory?<\/span> According to D\u2019Angelo, it\u2019s an<\/span> \u201cexplanation of an event or set of<\/span> issues that challenges established<\/span> accounts, and instead refers to the<\/span> machinations of powerful actors or<\/span> secret societies\u201d as those responsible,<\/span> almost always implicating<\/span> mainstream media as a player.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Conjuring conspiracies to explain<\/span> events is \u201ckind of attached to our<\/span> history, our culture,\u201d says Eric<\/span> Bridgewater, a student in Arndt\u2019s class<\/span> last fall. Conspiracies \u201cgive people the<\/span> power of narration.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Bridgewater, a five-year Army<\/span> veteran, admitted he wasn\u2019t thinking<\/span> much about conspiracy theories<\/span> before he took Arndt\u2019s class. But he<\/span> quickly got into it. He was particularly<\/span> engaged by speculation about a<\/span> man holding open an umbrella in<\/span> the sunshine of Dealey Plaza when <\/span>JFK was shot, though he was not<\/span> convinced the guy had any role in the <\/span>assassination.<\/span><\/p>\n

Neither was Arndt. In interviews<\/span> and in class, both he and D\u2019Angelo<\/span> acknowledged personal antipathy to<\/span> many prevailing conspiracy theories,<\/span> but say they attempt to strike a<\/span> balance. For one thing, says D\u2019Angelo,<\/span> \u201cthe line between when misinformation becomes disinformation is not<\/span> always that clear. It\u2019s hard to know.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Arndt says he is transparent with<\/span> students about his skepticism. \u201cI tell<\/span> them on the first night of class that<\/span> I have my mind made up on most of<\/span> these topics and that I am the furthest<\/span> thing from a conspiracy theorist,\u201d he<\/span> says. \u201cBut I don\u2019t judge students or<\/span> grade them unfairly if they happen<\/span> to buy into any particular theory.<\/span> Students are always encouraged to<\/span> bring out their true opinions even if<\/span> they clash with my own.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Historically, false and often<\/span> bizarre narratives aren\u2019t a new<\/span> development in America or elsewhere,<\/span> say both professors. But things started<\/span> getting out of this world in 1947, when<\/span> a rancher discovered some strange<\/span> wreckage in the desert near Roswell,<\/span> New Mexico. Whole industries of<\/span> entertainment and political intrigue<\/span> followed, none of it to cash in on<\/span> the official explanation: a crashed<\/span> weather balloon.<\/span><\/p>\n

Aliens are not uncommon figures<\/span> in the literature. Arndt\u2019s class spent<\/span> some time looking into the work<\/span> of David Icke, an Englishman who<\/span> has posited that many of the world\u2019s<\/span> powerful elites are actually shape-shifting reptilians from outer space,<\/span> and also, Jewish.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, online, you can buy a create-your-own-conspiracy-theory set of<\/span> refrigerator magnets, complete with<\/span> a tin foil hat. Still, public derision of<\/span> woo-woo apparently does little to curb<\/span> the bottomless appetite for it. So who<\/span> believes this stuff? D\u2019Angelo, treading<\/span> carefully, says that studies show it\u2019s<\/span> people with relatively lower \u201cnews<\/span> literacy\u201d scores, \u201cand yeah, it does tend<\/span> to thrive more on the right, obviously,<\/span> than the left.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The problem, of course, is that the<\/span> embrace can turn dangerous. Take<\/span> Pizzagate, the narrative that posited<\/span> Hillary Clinton and a cabal of loyalists<\/span> were sexually abusing children in<\/span> the basement of Comet Ping Pong,<\/span> a Washington, D.C., pizzeria. Never<\/span> mind that the business didn\u2019t have a<\/span> basement. A North Carolina man took<\/span> the story to heart and used a military-style assault rifle to shoot through<\/span> the lock of a closet in the restaurant;<\/span> he was later sentenced to four years<\/span> in prison.<\/span><\/p>\n

More broadly, there\u2019s the threat<\/span> some theories pose to democratic<\/span> norms, such as former President<\/span> Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cbig lie\u201d about a<\/span> stolen election, which fed into the<\/span> January 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol.<\/span> That one\u2019s \u201ca bit tricky to talk about,\u201d<\/span> D\u2019Angelo says. The Trump team\u2019s<\/span> purported facts about the outcome<\/span> of the 2020 election have been thoroughly debunked by democratic<\/span> institutions, such as the court system<\/span> on state and federal levels, he notes.<\/span> \u201cBut when discussing and dissecting<\/span> those facts in class, some students<\/span> may feel as though I am professing<\/span> from my own ideological perspective.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In those cases, D\u2019Angelo says he<\/span> leans heavily on findings of scientific<\/span> organizations and legitimate institutions. \u201cI want students to be<\/span> able to think for themselves, but do so<\/span> by taking into account and debating<\/span> what others have found out through<\/span> rigorous inquiry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

What should probably make all of<\/span> us uncomfortable is disinformation<\/span> and \u201cdeep fake\u201d imagery, already<\/span> proliferating, and now getting a<\/span> rocket-fuel boost from artificial<\/span> intelligence. Shortly after the debut<\/span> of Open AI\u2019s ChatGPT app in late<\/span> 2022, more than 1,000 leading<\/span> tech scientists, policy experts, and<\/span> executives signed a statement warning<\/span> AI carried a potential \u201cextinction\u201d<\/span> threat that should be made \u201ca global<\/span> priority alongside other societal-scale<\/span> risks such as pandemics and nuclear<\/span> war.\u201d PEN America, a free-expression<\/span> advocacy organization, warned in <\/span>particular that \u201cgenerative\u201d AI, or<\/span> systems that create their own text,<\/span> audio, and image content, \u201chas the<\/span> potential to supercharge tools of<\/span> deception and repression.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis tool is going to be the<\/span> most powerful tool for spreading<\/span> misinformation that has ever been <\/span>on the internet,\u201d Gordon Crovitz, a<\/span> co-chief executive of NewsGuard,<\/span> a company that tracks online<\/span> misinformation, told the New York<\/span> Times in early 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n

Neither Arndt nor D\u2019Angelo counts<\/span> himself among the doom, however.<\/span> Arndt, who also works for Silicon<\/span> Valley companies as an AI trainer<\/span> to help make large language models<\/span> smarter and safer, is optimistic that<\/span> the leading tech firms will continue<\/span> building guardrails to minimize AI<\/span> being used for nefarious purposes<\/span> like scamming people or inventing<\/span> misinformation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Big tech, he says, \u201cis starting to get<\/span> this right.\u201d Just as banks have begun<\/span> to crush identity theft with data, he<\/span> notes that a number of videos he once<\/span> showed his students as examples of<\/span> 9\/11 conspiracy theories are no longer<\/span> on YouTube, operated by Alphabet,<\/span> the parent company of Google, \u201cand<\/span> they\u2019re using mostly AI\u201d to scrub<\/span> them. \u201cI can\u2019t find them anymore. I<\/span> can search all day long, and they\u2019re<\/span> just simply gone. I think in 10 or 20<\/span> years, between big tech companies and<\/span> government regulation, it won\u2019t be the<\/span> wild west anymore.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At the same time, \u201cI don\u2019t think<\/span> conspiracy theories will ever go away<\/span> completely, and frankly, I don\u2019t think<\/span> they should,\u201d Arndt says. Among the<\/span> \u201cupsides\u201d to allowing them, he says, is<\/span> \u201cthey could turn out to be true,\u201d as did<\/span> the early, widely pooh-poohed theory<\/span> that the Nixon White House was<\/span> behind the 1972 Watergate break-in.<\/span> And to \u201cwash them completely out of <\/span>the system, you\u2019d probably have to be<\/span> totalitarian, which we\u2019re not. We live<\/span> in a free-speech society. There ought<\/span> to be room for legitimate questioning.\u201d<\/span> D\u2019Angelo notes that, in order to <\/span>become widespread, conspiracy<\/span> theories must go public, which<\/span> exposes them to critical scrutiny.<\/span> \u201cAlong the lines of dealing with<\/span> bullies,\u201d that scrutiny, he believes,<\/span> must be increasingly \u201cstrident\u201d<\/span> to counter the threat posed by<\/span> disinformation.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the moment, \u201cI think our culture<\/span> is cornered by conspiracy theories,<\/span> and one way to get through that is to<\/span> attack with a certain stridency that<\/span> still adheres to journalistic principles <\/span>of verification,\u201d D\u2019Angelo says.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAn institutional response to<\/span> an intractable set of irrational<\/span> propositions is a good thing,\u201d he says.<\/span>\u201cIt\u2019s something that matters, a bulwark<\/span> for democracy. If we consider, rightly<\/span> so, conspiracy theories to be a drain on<\/span> democracy, institutional responses are<\/span> necessary.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, \u201cjournalism has its work cut<\/span> out for it,\u201d and requires a citizenry<\/span> armed with \u201cnews literacy and analytical tools to be effective,\u201d says D\u2019Angelo.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among his students who felt better<\/span> equipped after the fall term was Joe<\/span> Arocho, a third-year communication<\/span> studies major. Arocho says he\u2019d begun<\/span> D\u2019Angelo\u2019s class fairly credulous,<\/span> willing to accept as true just about any<\/span> assertion he came across on social<\/span> media.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t big into news,\u201d he says,<\/span> often tuning it out as just so much<\/span> noise. But the class, he says, made<\/span> him realize that \u201cyou have to go back<\/span> to legacy sources\u201d to verify dubious<\/span> reports on social media, and gave him<\/span> a framework for doing so.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example: After seeing videos<\/span> claiming that pro-Palestinian<\/span> protestors had \u201cremoved\u201d an<\/span> American flag from a pole at Harvard,<\/span> Arocho says he dug deeper, and found<\/span> a report in the Harvard Crimson<\/span> refuting the claim; the protestors<\/span> had instead cheered as the flag was<\/span> lowered in the afternoon \u201cconsistent<\/span> with daily routine.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf I feel like, \u2018is the journalist<\/span> giving me an opinion here?\u2019\u201d Arocho<\/span> says, \u201cI have to go back and fact-check<\/span> that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Illustrations Peter Arkle<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two professors speak the truth about the enduring allure of conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":314,"featured_media":12480,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/314"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12478"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12655,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12478\/revisions\/12655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}