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The rise of the centrist conspiracy theorists

The ‘Boris wasn’t ill’ crowd are truly unhinged.

spiked

Topics Covid-19 Politics UK

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One of the alarming things of recent times has been the mainstreaming of conspiracy theories. While everyone is (rightly) rinsing those on the fringes of the internet who have bought into the ‘5G spreads Covid’ nonsense, socially acceptable conspiracy theories have been gaining ground in recent years among the centrist chattering classes – from madcap theories that Russia was to blame for Trump and Brexit to baseless claims that right-wingers have been fabricating milkshake attacks against themselves.

This particular brand of conspiracism has flared up again in response to prime minister Boris Johnson coming out of hospital over the weekend. He was admitted to intensive care with a nasty case of coronavirus and is said to have come close to death. But some anti-Boris voices became deeply suspicious when he appeared in his recent video address to be in relatively good health. One prominent journalist – Chris Lockwood, the Europe editor of The Economist, no less – said there was something ‘fishy’ about it all in a since deleted tweet.

You would have thought that Lockwood’s humiliation on Twitter for posting this would have served as a warning to others. But no. Anti-Brexit activist Marcus Ball – who got a bit of time in the sun for crowdfunding a legal action against Boris Johnson, until it was revealed what Ball had been doing with some of the cash – has also ploughed in.

Next time you hear centrist Remainers say that Brexiteers are the ones given to irrationality, mad claims and bullshit, send them this blog.

Picture by: Getty.

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