In much the same way that we buy a bundle deal for our internet, the TV and the telephone, we are increasingly being led to buy a bundle of beliefs as well. Feeling transphobic? How about hating on the racial rights protesters too, and throw in some anti-semitism lite?
Researcher and TikTok star Abbie Richards shows how transphobia can be a gateway into extreme far-right views when she analysed almost 400 online videos that quickly curated her suggestions into outright white supremacist content.
And just to be clear: this bundle deal is offered on the opposite spectrum of beliefs as well — a checklist of views and opinions that you must adhere to if you want the right to call yourself progressive.
To escape these political extremes, it is no surprise that people seek the comfort of inner peace from the health, wellness and spirituality industry that touts to be apolitical. But, as the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed, this industry is also offering its own cluster of beliefs. Unsure of Western medicine and big pharma? Then reject the vaccine! Not a fan of billionaires? Then you should know they are all paedophiles anyway!
This week in The Global Tiller, we check in on the wellness industry to see how it has been plagued by 'conspirituality’. How did we reach a point where meditation guides and healing crystals become interspersed with Q-Anon warnings against the deep-state cabal of Satanic paedophiles and 5G-infused vaccines?
For an industry that prides itself on being apolitical, it is ironic that the origins of wellness can be traced to the 1960s and 1970s as a form of resistance by historically marginalised groups against white, patriarchal pharmaceuticals and medical establishments. Overtime, these ideas became mainstream, making up an industry worth $4.5 trillion and in which Gwyneth Paltrow gets to sell a $8,600 necklace that you can "hike in" and treat long Covid.
The way that Covid-19 caught us off guard and created a myriad of uncertainties around life as we know it, has played right into this 'conspirituality' — a term coined by sociologists in 2011 to describe this rapidly growing online movement expressing an ideology fuelled by political disillusionment and the popularity of alternative world views. This movement has only grown bigger with the pandemic. According to Lydia Khalil, research fellow at Deakin University and the Lowy Institute:
"QAnon has grown louder by attaching itself to scepticism about the pandemic and fears over 5G and vaccination to feed the idea that there are more insidious motives at play. Clever movements will pick up on what’s happening currently to fit it into their conspiracies … It gives them a way to legitimise what they’re arguing."
This newfound following and increased influence has its benefits. The Anti-Vaxx industry in the US accounts for at least $35.8 million, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate. Facebook and Instagram alone have an anti-vaxxer audience that earns them up to $1.1 billion in revenue; Twitter makes $7.6 million from its 2.7 million anti-vaxx audience.
Given the global reach of these social media platforms, this is as much a problem for the United States as it is for any other country. The curious marriage of QAnon and wellness has puzzled folks in the Pacific too.
What is it about the wellness industry that provides a gateway into conspiracies? Is our mistrust in our governments enough to justify these beliefs? Could it be that this journey into ourselves to find inner peace made us so self-centred that we fail to act collectively when it comes to Covid-19? How do we navigate virtual spaces where just about anyone can claim just about anything without considering the impact their advice could have on someone in radically different circumstances?
Do let us know how you think are some ways to make this industry be well again.
Until next week, take care and stay safe.
Hira - Editor - The Global Tiller
Your guide to Glasgow
Continuing our ongoing coverage of the upcoming COP26 Summit in Glasgow, here’s how the bigwigs are preparing for what could be the most decisive landmark in the course of our fight against climate change:
Take a step back
The Global Tiller is proud to partner with Ours For The Making because we too strive to become future-fit in an age of certainty and short-term thinking.
Don’t miss The Makers newsletter this week. It focuses on how can we (individually and as societies) think and act in genuine uncertainty.
…and now what?
The current Covid-19 pandemic has taken a huge toll on our mental health. For several months now, we have been living in persistent uncertainty. We’re surrounded by an invisible threat that we still don’t know much about.
For many of us, locked in our houses, afraid to go out in public because of the virus, or somehow unwilling to comply with health measures, we have turned inwards. We have focused on taking care of ourselves —which is an important thing to do. Facing the stress of uncertainty and of a global pandemic, caring for yourself, addressing your mental health and making sure you develop coping mechanisms to deal with this, is fundamental.
But somehow, because we were deprived (voluntarily or not) of our social connections, we ended up looking maybe too deep inside. As our societies were becoming more and more divided, on fundamental issues such as the integrity of our body, of our mind and our ability to make decisions on very complex issues, we focused a little too inward.
As human beings we need to socialise, to share both time and space with others. While the pandemic deprived us from sharing the necessary space with others, technology allowed us to continue sharing time. But it only let us share time with the people we wanted. We attended events we wanted to attend, called the people we wanted to hear. And, along the way, it prevented us from being exposed to differences: differences in situations and differences in point-of-views.
This was the perfect timing for those who wanted to sow the seeds of division to get to work. And what better place to do that than places where people are looking for advice about their wellbeing, their mental health and their place in the world.
Those people took advantage of our vulnerabilities, of our quest for peacefulness, for a quiet space, for a way to make sure we could be well and do well. They entered through the doors we left open because we trusted them, but they ended up planting the seeds of hatred and division even more.
They invaded our private space that we’ve been told to cherish so much. The same space that I created for myself and for those I allow to enter (family, friends). A space at risk of having homogeneity of views, values, perspective and even origins. On the other hand, the public space — the one that takes the gamble of ensuring that everyone can share and interact positively — was abandoned.
By focusing too much on ourselves, on our private space, on our individual wellbeing, we lost touch with the collective wellbeing. One that is as important for our communities as it is for our individual selves.
As an individual, my point-of-view is limited and subjective. Therefore, I risk being exposed to all the charlatans and those trying to take advantage of my gullibility. To inoculate myself, I take protection in the public space where I can engage and share my views, and also be corrected and educated. Perhaps it will allow me to expose myself to the views that leads to a much richer and longer-term perspective than what I’m capable of thinking on my own.
And if you don’t want to take my word for it, here’s what Albert Einstein warned us about in 1949:
the individual’s “position in society is such that the egotistical drives of his make-up are constantly being accentuated…Unknowingly prisoners of their own egotism, they feel insecure, lonely, and deprived of the naive, simple and unsophisticated enjoyment of life. Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society."
Philippe - Founder - Pacific Ventury