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<\/a><\/div>\nUN Education Agency Launches War on \u2018Conspiracy Theories\u2019<\/h1>\n<\/div>\nUNESCO is training and recruiting teachers as a key part of its global effort to combat what it considers problematic information and ideas<\/div>\nhttps:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\nSeptember 5, 2022<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>Updated: September 6, 2022<\/b><\/div>\n<\/a>biggersmaller<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe\u00a0United Nations<\/a>\u00a0Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, better known by its acronym, UNESCO, is escalating its global war on ideas and information it considers to be \u201cmisinformation\u201d and \u201cconspiracy theories.\u201d<\/p>\nAccording to the Paris-based U.N. education agency, which released a\u00a0major report<\/a>\u00a0on the subject for educators this summer, conspiracy theories cause \u201csignificant harm\u201d and form \u201cthe backbone of many populist movements.\u201d<\/p>\nAmong other concerns, conspiracy theories \u201cfoster and reinforce harmful thinking patterns and exclusive worldviews,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n
They also \u201creduce trust in public institutions\u201d and \u201cscientific institutions,\u201d which can drive people to violence or decrease their desire to \u201creduce their carbon footprint,\u201d UN officials argued in the document.<\/p>\n
While \u201call conspiratorial thinking threatens human rights values,\u201d the document says without elaborating, some conspiracy theories are more dangerous than others.<\/p>\n
In some cases, teachers are even encouraged to report their students to authorities.<\/p>\n
Examples of \u201cconspiracy theories\u201d cited in the report include everything from widely held and respectable beliefs such as \u201cclimate change denial\u201d and \u201cmanipulation of federal elections\u201d in the United States, to more far-fetched notions such as the \u201cearth is flat\u201d or \u201cMichelle Obama is actually a lizard.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are plenty of crazy thoughts on the Internet, many of which are patently false,\u201d\u00a0explained Citizens for Free Speech Director Patrick Wood. \u201cThe only thoughts being \u2018corrected\u2019 are those contrary to the globalist narrative. This proves that the focus is on protecting their own narratives and nothing else.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUNESCO joins a censorship cartel that now includes the European Union, the U.S. government, the World Economic Forum, social media giants like Facebook and Twitter, and notably, Google,\u201d\u00a0Wood told The Epoch Times. \u201cAnyone who does not parrot the globalist narrative is by default considered to be a \u2018conspiracy theorist.’\u201d<\/p>\n
At the heart of the global program to combat these ideas and theories are teachers and schools, according to the U.N. agency. Also central is the battle online and in the media, UNESCO documents explain.<\/p>\n
The latest strategy was unveiled at UNESCO\u2019s \u201cInternational Symposium on Addressing Conspiracy Theories through Education.\u201d Held in late June in Brussels, the summit brought together academia, governments, civil society, and the private sector to promote \u201cjoint action\u201d against conspiracy theories and those who believe or spread them.<\/p>\n
The plan includes strategies to prevent people from believing in conspiracy theories in the first place as well as tools for dealing with those who already believe them.<\/p>\n
Several experts on propaganda and free speech, however, warned that the U.N. effort represents a \u201cdangerous\u201d escalation in what they portrayed as a global war on free speech, free expression, questioning official narratives, and dissent more broadly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat they mean by \u2018conspiracy theory\u2019 is any claim or argument or evidence that differs from the propaganda pumped out by the government and media,\u201d warned New York University Professor of Media Studies Mark Crispin Miller, who studies propaganda and government misinformation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t think of anything more dangerous to free speech and free thought\u2014and, therefore, democracy\u2014than this effort by the U.N., which has no business telling us what\u2019s true and what is not,\u201d Miller told The Epoch Times. \u201cThat distinction is not theirs to make, but ours, as free people capable of thinking for ourselves, and unafraid of civil argument.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Global War on Conspiracy Theories<\/h2>\n
Official efforts to clamp down on \u201cconspiracy theories\u201d and \u201cmisinformation\u201d are not new. In fact, Western governments\u2014including the U.S. government\u2014have for years been leading the charge.<\/p>\n
In 2010, the U.S. State Department, with help from its \u201cCounter Misinformation Team,\u201d published \u201cConspiracy Theories and Misinformation<\/a>\u201d on America.gov claiming to debunk various \u201cconspiracy theories.\u201d<\/p>\nMore recently, the Biden administration has also turned its focus to \u201cconspiracy theories.\u201d Last year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security repeatedly suggested that belief in widespread voter fraud or alternative views on COVID-19 and public health measures represented a major terrorism threat to the United States.<\/p>\n
While the Biden administration\u2019s proposed \u201cDisinformation Governance Board\u201d appears to have been shelved for now following a public outcry, the U.S. government has been working closely with technology giants to suppress speech surrounding election fraud, Hunter Biden\u2019s laptop, alternative views on COVID-19, and more.<\/p>\n
National Public Radio, a tax-funded operation, has published numerous pieces over the last month echoing UNESCO\u2019s talking points about the alleged danger and prevalence of conspiracy theories in schools and beyond.<\/p>\n
Outgoing senior health official Dr. Anthony Fauci has chimed in recently, too. \u201cWhat we\u2019re dealing with now is just a distortion of reality, conspiracy theories which don\u2019t make any sense at all pushing back on sound public health measures, making it look like trying to save lives is encroaching on people\u2019s freedom,\u201d he said on MSNBC\u2019s \u201cThe Rachel Maddow Show\u201d on Aug. 22.<\/p>\n
The World Economic Forum, which has become a lightning rod for criticism around the world over its \u201cGreat Reset\u201d agenda, is also working to counter ideas it labels misinformation and conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n
\u201cKey to stopping the spread of conspiracy theories is educating people to be on the lookout for misleading information\u2014and teaching them to be suspicious of certain sources,\u201d senior WEF writer Charlotte Edmond wrote two years ago in\u00a0a piece for the organization\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe U.N. has been central to the global effort. Indeed, the new program is actually an extension of a 2020 initiative by UNESCO and the European Commission dubbed\u00a0#ThinkBeforeSharing<\/a>\u00a0to combat conspiracy theories online.<\/p>\nThat effort included urging citizens to post links to fact-checking services and even report journalists who may be engaged in conspiracy theorizing to \u201cyour local\/national press council or press ombudsperson.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an October 2020 World Economic Forum podcast on \u201cSeeking a cure for the infodemic,\u201d U.N. global communications chief Melissa Fleming boasts of having enlisted over 100,000 volunteers to amplify the U.N.\u2019s views and squelch competing narratives.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo far, we\u2019ve recruited 110,000 information volunteers, and we equip these information volunteers with the kind of knowledge about how misinformation spreads and ask them to serve as kind of \u2018digital first-responders\u2019 in those spaces where misinformation travels,\u201d the U.N. communications chief said.<\/p>\n
The revelation came after years of U.N. and governmental efforts to quash what it describes as extremism, misinformation, and more on the internet.\u00a0In 2016, the U.N. Security Council launched a \u201cframework\u201d to fight \u201cextremism\u201d online on the heels of a\u00a0program from the previous year to battle \u201cideologies\u201d<\/a>\u00a0that could lead to violence.<\/p>\nBut the fresh UNESCO efforts in education signal a dramatic escalation in the battle\u2014especially in the targeting of school children.<\/p>\n
\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nCombating \u2018Conspiracy Theories\u2019 at School<\/h2>\n
Education and schools are at the center of the new UNESCO plan to combat conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fight against conspiracy theories, and the antisemitic and racist ideologies they often convey, begins at school, yet teachers worldwide lack the adequate training,\u201d said UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay about the new effort. \u201cThat is why today, UNESCO is launching a practical guide for educators, so they can better teach students how to identify and debunk conspiracy theories.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond working through education, the U.N. agency also hopes to expand its efforts to combat the spread of what it refers to as conspiracy theories in the realms of press and social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis builds on the wider work we\u2019re doing to strengthen media and information literacy to better prepare learners to navigate a world of algorithms, artificial intelligence and invasive data collection,\u201d added Azoulay, who served in the French government as a member of the Socialist Party before taking over the UN education organization.<\/p>\n
The UN strategy for fighting conspiracy theories in education lists a number of major objectives for educators.<\/p>\n
These include teaching teachers how to \u201cidentify and dismantle conspiracy theories,\u201d how to develop students\u2019 \u201cresilience to conspiracy theories,\u201d and how to tell the difference between a \u201creal conspiracy\u201d and a \u201cconspiracy theory.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the ways offered for educators to determine the veracity of information is to check fact-checking services, which have come under repeated criticism in recent years for being highly politicized and often inaccurate. Many of the services are funded by individuals, such as billionaire founder of Microsoft Bill Gates, who UNESCO says are frequently the target of conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n
The document also contains multiple strategies for combating conspiracy theories.\u00a0To fight \u201charmful information\u201d among students, for example, UNESCO urges teachers to engage in what the agency describes as \u201cprebunking.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPrebunking is also sometimes called \u2018inoculation,\u2019\u201d the report reads. \u201cPsychologists have proven that weakened forms of harmful information, carefully introduced and framed, can help to strengthen the resilience against wider harmful messages, much like a vaccine.\u201d<\/p>\n
When students believe in ideas because of parental influence, teachers are instructed to seek help from school officials and consider a \u201cmediated conversation with parents.\u201d<\/p>\n
If a student were to express concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine, teachers are instructed to \u201cstate that the vaccine has been scientifically proven to be safe\u201d and \u201cthat it is important to get vaccinated to curb the pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was not immediately clear whether the relevant section of the UNESCO document was written before public health authorities in the United States and around the world began acknowledging that the COVID-19 injections do not prevent infection from or transmission of the CCP virus that causes COVID-19.<\/p>\n
In some cases where conspiracy theories involve alleged hate or discrimination, teachers are urged to consider reporting students to \u201csafeguarding authorities or safeguarding officers.\u201d<\/p>\n
What Is a Conspiracy Theory?<\/h2>\n
The document, titled \u201cAddressing conspiracy theories \u2013 what teachers need to know,\u201d defines a conspiracy theory as: \u201cThe belief that events are being secretly manipulated by powerful forces with negative intent. Typically, conspiracy theories involve an imagined group of conspirators colluding to implement an alleged secret plot.\u201d<\/p>\n
The UNESCO report moves on to offer warnings about, and definitions for, misinformation, disinformation, hate speech, and fake news.<\/p>\n
One term that is not defined in the document, however, is the word \u201cconspiracy\u201d itself. Most dictionaries define it as an illegal or immoral plot carried out in secret involving two or more individuals. State and federal law-enforcement authorities charge large numbers of people with the crime of \u201cconspiracy\u201d each year.<\/p>\n
In its short guide for telling the difference between \u201creal\u201d conspiracies and mere \u201ctheories,\u201d the U.N. report divides the thinking into two broad categories.<\/p>\n
The first, dubbed \u201cconventional thinking\u201d in the UNESCO document, uses Watergate as an example of a real conspiracy uncovered by following evidence and having \u201chealthy\u201d skepticism.<\/p>\n
The other mode of thinking, labeled \u201cconspiratorial thinking,\u201d features a \u201cbirds aren\u2019t real\u201d theory that concludes birds are robots spying on people and the government creates replica eggs to cover it all up. This conclusion is reached as a result of \u201coverriding suspicion\u201d and \u201cover interpreting evidence,\u201d UNESCO said.<\/p>\n
In the real world, experts say the line between conspiracy theory and conspiracy fact is far less obvious.<\/p>\n
According to a 2020 YouGov-Cambridge Globalism poll cited in the UNESCO document, strong majorities believe in overarching \u201cconspiracy theories\u201d in many nations. Almost eight in 10 Nigerians, for example, said they believed in \u201ca single group of people who controlled world events.\u201d Almost six out of 10 Mexicans, 56 percent of Greeks and 55 percent of Egyptians believed that, too, the poll showed.<\/p>\n
One of the reports at the center of the new UNESCO effort, \u201cThe Conspiracy Theory Handbook<\/a>\u201d by Stephan Lewandowsky and John Cook, also acknowledges that conspiracies exist and are not uncommon.<\/p>\n\u201cReal conspiracies do exist,\u201d the report admits at the start. \u201cVolkswagen conspired to cheat emissions tests for their diesel engines. The U.S. National Security Agency secretly spied on civilian internet users. The tobacco industry deceived the public about the harmful health effects of smoking. We know about these conspiracies through internal industry documents, government investigations, or whistleblowers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.N. documents also outline various reasons why people believe in conspiracy theories. These include feelings of powerlessness, coping mechanisms for handling uncertainty, or seeking to claim minority status. Evidence is not listed as a reason why people might believe in a conspiracy theory.<\/p>\n
One of the \u201ccase studies\u201d listed in the UNESCO document refers to Mikki Willis\u2019s documentary \u201cPlandemic.\u201d Among other points, the film and the experts who are interviewed argue that COVID-19 may have been created in a laboratory for sinister purposes.<\/p>\n
Reached by The Epoch Times, Willis slammed the U.N. and its effort to \u201cindoctrinate\u201d people.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I hear that the U.N. is now directing its indoctrination towards teachers, I become concerned about the well-being of our future generations,\u201d he said, adding that the U.N.\u2019s attack on \u201cconspiracy theories\u201d was an effort to stop the truth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that they continue to use my film series as an example of what they\u2019re fighting against says everything we need to know,\u201d continued Willis, saying the vast majority of scientists now agree with key points in his film and yet \u201cpropagandists\u201d keep trying to \u201cperpetuate the lies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nCritics Sound the Alarm<\/h2>\n
Multiple experts in the field of propaganda warned The Epoch Times that the UNESCO initiative was a major threat to free expression.<\/p>\n
Organisation for Propaganda Studies<\/a>\u00a0Co-Director Piers Robinson said these kinds of developments are \u201cextremely dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cBasic principles of freedom of expression remind us that, because we can never be sure who is right and who is wrong, all ideas and arguments need to be evaluated through a process of rational scrutiny and debate,\u201d Robinson told The Epoch Times. \u201cCensoring arguments and opinions believed to be wrong means we risk censoring the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Explaining that these dangers have long been understood, Robinson quoted the great 19th-century British philosopher John Stuart Mill.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst: the opinion which it is attempted to suppress by authority may possibly be true. Those who desire to suppress it, of course deny its truth; but they are not infallible,\u201d Mill said. \u201cAll silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robinson, who also serves as co-editor of Propaganda in Focus and sits on the executive committee of Pandemics Data & Analytics (PANDATA.org), also cautioned that powerful actors with large budgets would likely be involved in deciding what is true and not.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis means allowing powerful actors to define reality and, as history shows, they will define reality in a way that serves their own interests,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is all contradictory to democracy and, of course, the reason why freedom of expression is understood to be so important: we must be free to scrutinize and criticize those in power in order to guard against tyranny and abuse of power.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robinson also blasted the use of the term \u201cconspiracy theory\u201d as \u201cdeeply problematic,\u201d saying it was a term often used to shut down discussion on serious issues and questions about powerful actors.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we value democracy and the ideas of freedom of expression and rational debate, UNESCO could do useful work on helping people of the world to think for themselves, and develop their own critical skills,\u201d he concluded. \u201cThey should not be in the business of telling people what to think.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another expert on propaganda, environmental political theory Professor Tim Hayward at the University of Edinburgh, also warned that efforts to demonize and silence \u201cconspiracy theories\u201d was really an effort to pathologize dissent and inconvenient lines of questioning.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of reasoned arguments put forward by critics and dissidents being met with proper consideration and rebuttal, they are just dismissed out of hand; and the critics themselves are smeared with the name conspiracy theorists,\u201d warned Hayward, who has written a number of peer-reviewed academic papers on the subject in recent years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWorse, of course, is that the general denigration of dissent is used to whip up moral panic about \u2018disinformation\u2019 and to try and justify increased censorship,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Hayward views the focus on education to combat \u201cconspiracy theories\u201d as particularly concerning.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is truly worrying when those responsible for the strategic communications challenged by dissidents get to infiltrate education systems and implant prejudices in favor of \u2018official stories\u2019 which are only official because they are backed by political authority rather than actual epistemic authority,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While\u00a0Hayward\u00a0cautioned that he was not necessarily accusing UNESCO of doing this, he warned that the organization and its programs needed to be watched as this was a troubling trend.<\/p>\n
It would be better to teach children \u201cthe fundamentals of critical reasoning\u201d so they can detect falsehoods on their own, he told The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot reasonably identify disinformation or reject a \u2018conspiracy theory\u2019 unless you have a robust and defensible grip on what is reliable information,\u201d he said, calling for \u201clogical thinking\u201d and \u201cbroad knowledge\u201d to help people guard against disinformation from adversaries or even their own leaders. \u201cThat should be the focus of education.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nTruth or Misinformation?<\/h2>\n
The fresh push to quash \u201cmisinformation\u201d and \u201cconspiracy theories\u201d online comes as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other federal agencies increasingly admit that much of what was labeled false during the pandemic turned out to be correct.<\/p>\n
For instance, today, the CDC admits that the COVID-19 vaccines do not prevent infection or transmission\u2014an idea that was censored by multiple social media companies relying on government as \u201cmisinformation\u201d as recently as a few months ago.<\/p>\n
Also widely acknowledged by federal officials today is that the CCP virus may have, in fact, been created through \u201cgain-of-function\u201d research taking place at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in communist China. This, too, was blocked, censored, and labeled as misinformation.<\/p>\n
Alleged conspiracy \u201ctheories\u201d being ultimately proven correct is hardly a new phenomenon.\u00a0Just this summer, Reader\u2019s Digest\u00a0published a list of \u201c12 Conspiracy Theories That Actually Turned Out to Be True<\/a>.\u201d The list includes everything from CIA mind-control programs and government spying to tobacco companies conspiring to hide the negative health effects of their products.<\/p>\nDespite the escalating UN concern about conspiracy theories and the claims that they are proliferating at an unprecedented rate,\u00a0new research<\/a> by the University of Miami suggests that is simply not true.<\/p>\nCritics, though, have repeatedly raised concerns about UNESCO\u2019s leadership, and even those behind the new effort, including a number of individuals from autocratic nations and with ties to dictatorial regimes.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n The\u00a0United Nations<\/a>\u00a0Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, better known by its acronym, UNESCO, is escalating its global war on ideas and information it considers to be \u201cmisinformation\u201d and \u201cconspiracy theories.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the Paris-based U.N. education agency, which released a\u00a0major report<\/a>\u00a0on the subject for educators this summer, conspiracy theories cause \u201csignificant harm\u201d and form \u201cthe backbone of many populist movements.\u201d<\/p>\n Among other concerns, conspiracy theories \u201cfoster and reinforce harmful thinking patterns and exclusive worldviews,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n They also \u201creduce trust in public institutions\u201d and \u201cscientific institutions,\u201d which can drive people to violence or decrease their desire to \u201creduce their carbon footprint,\u201d UN officials argued in the document.<\/p>\n While \u201call conspiratorial thinking threatens human rights values,\u201d the document says without elaborating, some conspiracy theories are more dangerous than others.<\/p>\n In some cases, teachers are even encouraged to report their students to authorities.<\/p>\n Examples of \u201cconspiracy theories\u201d cited in the report include everything from widely held and respectable beliefs such as \u201cclimate change denial\u201d and \u201cmanipulation of federal elections\u201d in the United States, to more far-fetched notions such as the \u201cearth is flat\u201d or \u201cMichelle Obama is actually a lizard.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere are plenty of crazy thoughts on the Internet, many of which are patently false,\u201d\u00a0explained Citizens for Free Speech Director Patrick Wood. \u201cThe only thoughts being \u2018corrected\u2019 are those contrary to the globalist narrative. This proves that the focus is on protecting their own narratives and nothing else.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUNESCO joins a censorship cartel that now includes the European Union, the U.S. government, the World Economic Forum, social media giants like Facebook and Twitter, and notably, Google,\u201d\u00a0Wood told The Epoch Times. \u201cAnyone who does not parrot the globalist narrative is by default considered to be a \u2018conspiracy theorist.’\u201d<\/p>\n At the heart of the global program to combat these ideas and theories are teachers and schools, according to the U.N. agency. Also central is the battle online and in the media, UNESCO documents explain.<\/p>\n The latest strategy was unveiled at UNESCO\u2019s \u201cInternational Symposium on Addressing Conspiracy Theories through Education.\u201d Held in late June in Brussels, the summit brought together academia, governments, civil society, and the private sector to promote \u201cjoint action\u201d against conspiracy theories and those who believe or spread them.<\/p>\n The plan includes strategies to prevent people from believing in conspiracy theories in the first place as well as tools for dealing with those who already believe them.<\/p>\n Several experts on propaganda and free speech, however, warned that the U.N. effort represents a \u201cdangerous\u201d escalation in what they portrayed as a global war on free speech, free expression, questioning official narratives, and dissent more broadly.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat they mean by \u2018conspiracy theory\u2019 is any claim or argument or evidence that differs from the propaganda pumped out by the government and media,\u201d warned New York University Professor of Media Studies Mark Crispin Miller, who studies propaganda and government misinformation.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t think of anything more dangerous to free speech and free thought\u2014and, therefore, democracy\u2014than this effort by the U.N., which has no business telling us what\u2019s true and what is not,\u201d Miller told The Epoch Times. \u201cThat distinction is not theirs to make, but ours, as free people capable of thinking for ourselves, and unafraid of civil argument.\u201d<\/p>\n Official efforts to clamp down on \u201cconspiracy theories\u201d and \u201cmisinformation\u201d are not new. In fact, Western governments\u2014including the U.S. government\u2014have for years been leading the charge.<\/p>\n In 2010, the U.S. State Department, with help from its \u201cCounter Misinformation Team,\u201d published \u201cConspiracy Theories and Misinformation<\/a>\u201d on America.gov claiming to debunk various \u201cconspiracy theories.\u201d<\/p>\n More recently, the Biden administration has also turned its focus to \u201cconspiracy theories.\u201d Last year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security repeatedly suggested that belief in widespread voter fraud or alternative views on COVID-19 and public health measures represented a major terrorism threat to the United States.<\/p>\n While the Biden administration\u2019s proposed \u201cDisinformation Governance Board\u201d appears to have been shelved for now following a public outcry, the U.S. government has been working closely with technology giants to suppress speech surrounding election fraud, Hunter Biden\u2019s laptop, alternative views on COVID-19, and more.<\/p>\n National Public Radio, a tax-funded operation, has published numerous pieces over the last month echoing UNESCO\u2019s talking points about the alleged danger and prevalence of conspiracy theories in schools and beyond.<\/p>\n Outgoing senior health official Dr. Anthony Fauci has chimed in recently, too. \u201cWhat we\u2019re dealing with now is just a distortion of reality, conspiracy theories which don\u2019t make any sense at all pushing back on sound public health measures, making it look like trying to save lives is encroaching on people\u2019s freedom,\u201d he said on MSNBC\u2019s \u201cThe Rachel Maddow Show\u201d on Aug. 22.<\/p>\n The World Economic Forum, which has become a lightning rod for criticism around the world over its \u201cGreat Reset\u201d agenda, is also working to counter ideas it labels misinformation and conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n \u201cKey to stopping the spread of conspiracy theories is educating people to be on the lookout for misleading information\u2014and teaching them to be suspicious of certain sources,\u201d senior WEF writer Charlotte Edmond wrote two years ago in\u00a0a piece for the organization\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n The U.N. has been central to the global effort. Indeed, the new program is actually an extension of a 2020 initiative by UNESCO and the European Commission dubbed\u00a0#ThinkBeforeSharing<\/a>\u00a0to combat conspiracy theories online.<\/p>\n That effort included urging citizens to post links to fact-checking services and even report journalists who may be engaged in conspiracy theorizing to \u201cyour local\/national press council or press ombudsperson.\u201d<\/p>\n In an October 2020 World Economic Forum podcast on \u201cSeeking a cure for the infodemic,\u201d U.N. global communications chief Melissa Fleming boasts of having enlisted over 100,000 volunteers to amplify the U.N.\u2019s views and squelch competing narratives.<\/p>\n \u201cSo far, we\u2019ve recruited 110,000 information volunteers, and we equip these information volunteers with the kind of knowledge about how misinformation spreads and ask them to serve as kind of \u2018digital first-responders\u2019 in those spaces where misinformation travels,\u201d the U.N. communications chief said.<\/p>\n The revelation came after years of U.N. and governmental efforts to quash what it describes as extremism, misinformation, and more on the internet.\u00a0In 2016, the U.N. Security Council launched a \u201cframework\u201d to fight \u201cextremism\u201d online on the heels of a\u00a0program from the previous year to battle \u201cideologies\u201d<\/a>\u00a0that could lead to violence.<\/p>\n But the fresh UNESCO efforts in education signal a dramatic escalation in the battle\u2014especially in the targeting of school children.<\/p>\n Education and schools are at the center of the new UNESCO plan to combat conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fight against conspiracy theories, and the antisemitic and racist ideologies they often convey, begins at school, yet teachers worldwide lack the adequate training,\u201d said UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay about the new effort. \u201cThat is why today, UNESCO is launching a practical guide for educators, so they can better teach students how to identify and debunk conspiracy theories.\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond working through education, the U.N. agency also hopes to expand its efforts to combat the spread of what it refers to as conspiracy theories in the realms of press and social media.<\/p>\n \u201cThis builds on the wider work we\u2019re doing to strengthen media and information literacy to better prepare learners to navigate a world of algorithms, artificial intelligence and invasive data collection,\u201d added Azoulay, who served in the French government as a member of the Socialist Party before taking over the UN education organization.<\/p>\n The UN strategy for fighting conspiracy theories in education lists a number of major objectives for educators.<\/p>\n These include teaching teachers how to \u201cidentify and dismantle conspiracy theories,\u201d how to develop students\u2019 \u201cresilience to conspiracy theories,\u201d and how to tell the difference between a \u201creal conspiracy\u201d and a \u201cconspiracy theory.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the ways offered for educators to determine the veracity of information is to check fact-checking services, which have come under repeated criticism in recent years for being highly politicized and often inaccurate. Many of the services are funded by individuals, such as billionaire founder of Microsoft Bill Gates, who UNESCO says are frequently the target of conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n The document also contains multiple strategies for combating conspiracy theories.\u00a0To fight \u201charmful information\u201d among students, for example, UNESCO urges teachers to engage in what the agency describes as \u201cprebunking.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPrebunking is also sometimes called \u2018inoculation,\u2019\u201d the report reads. \u201cPsychologists have proven that weakened forms of harmful information, carefully introduced and framed, can help to strengthen the resilience against wider harmful messages, much like a vaccine.\u201d<\/p>\n When students believe in ideas because of parental influence, teachers are instructed to seek help from school officials and consider a \u201cmediated conversation with parents.\u201d<\/p>\n If a student were to express concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine, teachers are instructed to \u201cstate that the vaccine has been scientifically proven to be safe\u201d and \u201cthat it is important to get vaccinated to curb the pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n It was not immediately clear whether the relevant section of the UNESCO document was written before public health authorities in the United States and around the world began acknowledging that the COVID-19 injections do not prevent infection from or transmission of the CCP virus that causes COVID-19.<\/p>\n In some cases where conspiracy theories involve alleged hate or discrimination, teachers are urged to consider reporting students to \u201csafeguarding authorities or safeguarding officers.\u201d<\/p>\n The document, titled \u201cAddressing conspiracy theories \u2013 what teachers need to know,\u201d defines a conspiracy theory as: \u201cThe belief that events are being secretly manipulated by powerful forces with negative intent. Typically, conspiracy theories involve an imagined group of conspirators colluding to implement an alleged secret plot.\u201d<\/p>\n The UNESCO report moves on to offer warnings about, and definitions for, misinformation, disinformation, hate speech, and fake news.<\/p>\n One term that is not defined in the document, however, is the word \u201cconspiracy\u201d itself. Most dictionaries define it as an illegal or immoral plot carried out in secret involving two or more individuals. State and federal law-enforcement authorities charge large numbers of people with the crime of \u201cconspiracy\u201d each year.<\/p>\n In its short guide for telling the difference between \u201creal\u201d conspiracies and mere \u201ctheories,\u201d the U.N. report divides the thinking into two broad categories.<\/p>\n The first, dubbed \u201cconventional thinking\u201d in the UNESCO document, uses Watergate as an example of a real conspiracy uncovered by following evidence and having \u201chealthy\u201d skepticism.<\/p>\n The other mode of thinking, labeled \u201cconspiratorial thinking,\u201d features a \u201cbirds aren\u2019t real\u201d theory that concludes birds are robots spying on people and the government creates replica eggs to cover it all up. This conclusion is reached as a result of \u201coverriding suspicion\u201d and \u201cover interpreting evidence,\u201d UNESCO said.<\/p>\n In the real world, experts say the line between conspiracy theory and conspiracy fact is far less obvious.<\/p>\n According to a 2020 YouGov-Cambridge Globalism poll cited in the UNESCO document, strong majorities believe in overarching \u201cconspiracy theories\u201d in many nations. Almost eight in 10 Nigerians, for example, said they believed in \u201ca single group of people who controlled world events.\u201d Almost six out of 10 Mexicans, 56 percent of Greeks and 55 percent of Egyptians believed that, too, the poll showed.<\/p>\n One of the reports at the center of the new UNESCO effort, \u201cThe Conspiracy Theory Handbook<\/a>\u201d by Stephan Lewandowsky and John Cook, also acknowledges that conspiracies exist and are not uncommon.<\/p>\n \u201cReal conspiracies do exist,\u201d the report admits at the start. \u201cVolkswagen conspired to cheat emissions tests for their diesel engines. The U.S. National Security Agency secretly spied on civilian internet users. The tobacco industry deceived the public about the harmful health effects of smoking. We know about these conspiracies through internal industry documents, government investigations, or whistleblowers.\u201d<\/p>\n The U.N. documents also outline various reasons why people believe in conspiracy theories. These include feelings of powerlessness, coping mechanisms for handling uncertainty, or seeking to claim minority status. Evidence is not listed as a reason why people might believe in a conspiracy theory.<\/p>\n One of the \u201ccase studies\u201d listed in the UNESCO document refers to Mikki Willis\u2019s documentary \u201cPlandemic.\u201d Among other points, the film and the experts who are interviewed argue that COVID-19 may have been created in a laboratory for sinister purposes.<\/p>\n Reached by The Epoch Times, Willis slammed the U.N. and its effort to \u201cindoctrinate\u201d people.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I hear that the U.N. is now directing its indoctrination towards teachers, I become concerned about the well-being of our future generations,\u201d he said, adding that the U.N.\u2019s attack on \u201cconspiracy theories\u201d was an effort to stop the truth.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that they continue to use my film series as an example of what they\u2019re fighting against says everything we need to know,\u201d continued Willis, saying the vast majority of scientists now agree with key points in his film and yet \u201cpropagandists\u201d keep trying to \u201cperpetuate the lies.\u201d<\/p>\n Multiple experts in the field of propaganda warned The Epoch Times that the UNESCO initiative was a major threat to free expression.<\/p>\n Organisation for Propaganda Studies<\/a>\u00a0Co-Director Piers Robinson said these kinds of developments are \u201cextremely dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBasic principles of freedom of expression remind us that, because we can never be sure who is right and who is wrong, all ideas and arguments need to be evaluated through a process of rational scrutiny and debate,\u201d Robinson told The Epoch Times. \u201cCensoring arguments and opinions believed to be wrong means we risk censoring the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n Explaining that these dangers have long been understood, Robinson quoted the great 19th-century British philosopher John Stuart Mill.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst: the opinion which it is attempted to suppress by authority may possibly be true. Those who desire to suppress it, of course deny its truth; but they are not infallible,\u201d Mill said. \u201cAll silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility.\u201d<\/p>\n Robinson, who also serves as co-editor of Propaganda in Focus and sits on the executive committee of Pandemics Data & Analytics (PANDATA.org), also cautioned that powerful actors with large budgets would likely be involved in deciding what is true and not.<\/p>\n \u201cThis means allowing powerful actors to define reality and, as history shows, they will define reality in a way that serves their own interests,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is all contradictory to democracy and, of course, the reason why freedom of expression is understood to be so important: we must be free to scrutinize and criticize those in power in order to guard against tyranny and abuse of power.\u201d<\/p>\n Robinson also blasted the use of the term \u201cconspiracy theory\u201d as \u201cdeeply problematic,\u201d saying it was a term often used to shut down discussion on serious issues and questions about powerful actors.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we value democracy and the ideas of freedom of expression and rational debate, UNESCO could do useful work on helping people of the world to think for themselves, and develop their own critical skills,\u201d he concluded. \u201cThey should not be in the business of telling people what to think.\u201d<\/p>\n Another expert on propaganda, environmental political theory Professor Tim Hayward at the University of Edinburgh, also warned that efforts to demonize and silence \u201cconspiracy theories\u201d was really an effort to pathologize dissent and inconvenient lines of questioning.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of reasoned arguments put forward by critics and dissidents being met with proper consideration and rebuttal, they are just dismissed out of hand; and the critics themselves are smeared with the name conspiracy theorists,\u201d warned Hayward, who has written a number of peer-reviewed academic papers on the subject in recent years.<\/p>\n \u201cWorse, of course, is that the general denigration of dissent is used to whip up moral panic about \u2018disinformation\u2019 and to try and justify increased censorship,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Hayward views the focus on education to combat \u201cconspiracy theories\u201d as particularly concerning.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is truly worrying when those responsible for the strategic communications challenged by dissidents get to infiltrate education systems and implant prejudices in favor of \u2018official stories\u2019 which are only official because they are backed by political authority rather than actual epistemic authority,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n While\u00a0Hayward\u00a0cautioned that he was not necessarily accusing UNESCO of doing this, he warned that the organization and its programs needed to be watched as this was a troubling trend.<\/p>\n It would be better to teach children \u201cthe fundamentals of critical reasoning\u201d so they can detect falsehoods on their own, he told The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n \u201cYou cannot reasonably identify disinformation or reject a \u2018conspiracy theory\u2019 unless you have a robust and defensible grip on what is reliable information,\u201d he said, calling for \u201clogical thinking\u201d and \u201cbroad knowledge\u201d to help people guard against disinformation from adversaries or even their own leaders. \u201cThat should be the focus of education.\u201d<\/p>\n The fresh push to quash \u201cmisinformation\u201d and \u201cconspiracy theories\u201d online comes as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other federal agencies increasingly admit that much of what was labeled false during the pandemic turned out to be correct.<\/p>\n For instance, today, the CDC admits that the COVID-19 vaccines do not prevent infection or transmission\u2014an idea that was censored by multiple social media companies relying on government as \u201cmisinformation\u201d as recently as a few months ago.<\/p>\n Also widely acknowledged by federal officials today is that the CCP virus may have, in fact, been created through \u201cgain-of-function\u201d research taking place at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in communist China. This, too, was blocked, censored, and labeled as misinformation.<\/p>\n Alleged conspiracy \u201ctheories\u201d being ultimately proven correct is hardly a new phenomenon.\u00a0Just this summer, Reader\u2019s Digest\u00a0published a list of \u201c12 Conspiracy Theories That Actually Turned Out to Be True<\/a>.\u201d The list includes everything from CIA mind-control programs and government spying to tobacco companies conspiring to hide the negative health effects of their products.<\/p>\n Despite the escalating UN concern about conspiracy theories and the claims that they are proliferating at an unprecedented rate,\u00a0new research<\/a> by the University of Miami suggests that is simply not true.<\/p>\n Critics, though, have repeatedly raised concerns about UNESCO\u2019s leadership, and even those behind the new effort, including a number of individuals from autocratic nations and with ties to dictatorial regimes.<\/p>\nThe Global War on Conspiracy Theories<\/h2>\n
Combating \u2018Conspiracy Theories\u2019 at School<\/h2>\n
What Is a Conspiracy Theory?<\/h2>\n
Critics Sound the Alarm<\/h2>\n
Truth or Misinformation?<\/h2>\n