Let's Talk About UFOs [S2Ep13 audio]

In recent months one of the most viral pieces of MH370-related content has been a video that purports to show the airplane being surrounded by a trio of UFOs, which then escort it through some kind of wormhole or interdimensional portal. The video has been tirelessly promoted by a man named Ashton Forbes who has developed a whole elaborate patter to explain how the video came to be.

On its face, the whole thing is ridiculous. For one thing, UFOs aren’t real — or, if they are, they’ve never so casually revealed themselves as they do in this video. And interdimensional portals aren’t real, either, except in Marvel movies. Yet for a great many people, the videos seem seem utterly real. They think that Ashton Forbes has solved the mystery of MH370.

The videos have gotten so much traction that various debunkers have taken it upon themselves to demonstrate their fraudulence, for instance by tracking down the original snippet of video game that the wormhole effect was cadged from. But these debunking efforts never seem to work; Ashton Forbes simply responds by claiming that the debunkers have themselves been debunked. He says so with unreserved confidence. For those who want to believe, he seems very convincing.

From my perspective, it’s futile to try to push back against someone like Ashton Forbes by trying to show that the video is fake. People will continue to believe him because they want to believe the things that he’s telling them.

Are we helpless, though? I don’t think we are, entirely. For one thing, we can try to understand the dynamic of the misinformation peddler so that we can navigate today’s complicated information space more effectively. To help me in that effort I’m joined in today’s episode by David Dunbar, co-author of the book “Debunking 9/11 Myths: Why Conspiracy Theories Can't Stand Up to the Facts.” In years of dealing with believers in delusional ideas about the destruction of the World Trade Center, David has learned a lot about the emotional forces that drive true believers. Among other things, we discuss how to distinguish conspiracy theories from actual conspiracies and delusional beliefs from well-informed ideas that can lead us toward knowledge.

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