FEAR - False Evidence Appearing Real

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less”.

Marie Curie

(7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934)

Interesting that (False Evidence Appearing Real) is an acrostic of FEAR! Time and again, history has proven FEAR to be the most virulent contagion known to man. If you or someone in your social circle has become censorious, conformist, tribalistic and enraged by an opposing opinion, no matter the evidence, there's a good chance you're infected.

Fear and Loathing in Las Covid!

Coronavirus is by no means the first or last pandemic humanity will face. Leprosy in the 11th century, Black Death in the 14th. Spanish Flu in 1918, Asian Flu in the 1950s. HIV/AIDS in the 80s, Bird flu in 1997 and Ebola in 2013. They say there is nothing new except what's forgotten. Did we forget we’ve had pandemics before?

When the pandemic first struck, the speed at which so many reverted to their most base instincts was alarming. In China, signs were put up in malls and fast-food chains telling Africans they were not welcome. In the UK and Australia, those that looked to be of East Asian heritage were harassed, spat at, and physically assaulted. Crisis is the lifeblood of FEAR, and our FEAR of Covid and its many variants, unfortunately, manifested itself in xenophobia, discrimination, violence and pietistic judgement.

A group of mask-wearing citizens, Locust Avenue, California, during the flu pandemic of 1918. Photograph: Raymond Coyne/Courtesy of Lucretia Little History Room, Mill Valley Public Library.

Fears First Foothold

When news of the first confirmed case of Covid outside of mainland China was reported Public Health England announced it was revising the risk level to the British public from very low to low. For a moment, we remained level headed. There was a sense that we may all have to have a month of work while our scientists came up with a vaccine, and that would be that.

On the 23rd of March 2020, Boris Johnson told us we must stay at home, and our first Lockdown began. It was bothersome that we couldn't dine out, go to a movie, or have a glass of wine with friends, but we would muddle along. We tuned in to our trusted news media outlets for reliable, factual updates and information, but is that what we got? 

Toilet paper became rarer than hail in Alabama; holidays, weddings and christenings had to be cancelled, and our unease grew. Headlines read 'Horror as Mass of People From Most Infected EU Nation Descend on the UK'. Large corporations went into administration, and thousands of jobs were lost. Finances became strained, schools closed, and families were thrown together 24/7. Rows and domestic violence flared, marriages fell apart, and the headlines read 'Five-Year-Old Among the Latest Victims' and 'Mass Burials Amid Outbreak'. The death toll rose, our mothers, fathers and grandparents were dying, and we were unable to be by their sides. Anxiety levels soared, and our newsreaders were shelling us with death toll graphs as the words 'Silent Killer and Killer Bug' scrolled across the bottom of our screens. Were these headlines meant to comfort the British public or instil FEAR?

FEAR caused panic buying, resulting in empty shelves across many shops.

Social Media or Social Misinformation?

According to the peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature: Human Behaviour. Facebook is by far the worst perpetrator when it comes to distributing fake news. Many see Facebook as a place where conspiracy theorists, propagandists, and Karens go to proselytise. Maybe rebranding as Meta will make us forget that Facebook is still failing to curb the proliferation of Fake News. 

Conspiracy theories about mobile phone technology have been circulating since the 1990s, but Facebook lent credibility to the idea that 5G was somehow linked to Covid. Groups popped up explaining 5G weakened people's immune systems and the radiation caused by the new technology triggered the virus. So many believed that to be true, cell towers were set alight across Europe, and the World Health Organisation had to spend time and money explaining that mobile networks were not Covid's preferred mode of travel. 

Facebook told Karen the cure for Covid was chilli peppers and an injection of bleach. Karen took herself off to the shops and grabbed all the Scotch Bonnets and Domestos she could find. These are the extremes, but 30% of the UK’s population still refuse to be vaccinated. Have they been unnerved by misinformation on Facebook? 

You may be quick to look down your nose at those who can’t differentiate between fact and fiction, but should you be? Facebook aren't incentivised to cause confusion and incite FEAR on behalf of big pharma as well as anti-vaxxers, are they?

In 2020, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and Allergan spent a combined £93 million on ads across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. At the same time, Facebook earned millions from the (NVIC) National Vaccine Information Centre and other organisations that are openly anti-vax. If anti-vaxxers are generating millions for Facebook, are we supposed to believe the platform is doing all it can to combat Covid misinformation?

Who Wins?

Studies have highlighted vaccine hesitancy amongst ethnic minorities in the UK and the United States. Social media platforms and news outlets have the opportunity to redress that, to educate and quell any FEAR those people may have. Instead, Facebook chose to promote a documentary produced by Robert F. Kennedy Jr and his anti-vax group Children’s Health Defence. It was called Medical Racism: The New Apartheid. Tell me, is that title meant to bring people together and encourage ethnic minorities to get jabbed, or is it meant to stir up racial tension and further divide? Who benefits when we’re all so infuriated we bypass logic? Governments, billionaires, big pharma and big tech, that's who. Whether liberal, conservative, black, white, Muslim or Jew, mask wearer or Covid denier. You must recognise the danger posed by monopolies like Facebook controlling the narrative. Ask yourself what it is they want? 

A free thinker isn’t captive, and how do you win elections, increase ratings, promote nihilistic ideologies and remove freedoms from those with a non-captive mind? The next time you find yourself in an online pseudo-scientific scrap about Covid and the inculcated sheep that are triple-jabbed, or the selfish dullards who believe they have a right to choose what medications they take, remember this. If you create enough FEAR, you can undermine a democratically elected government, manipulate societal norms, legislate speech, and dictate behaviours. If you create enough FEAR, you can make good people say and do terrible things!

“I must not fear.

Fear is the mind-killer.

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration”.

Franklin Patrick Herbert Jr

(October 8, 1920 – February 11, 1986)

Words by George~Carter Cunningham

Empty London during lockdown.