Within the past three years, Telegram has become the most important platform for conspiracy ideologues and right-wing extremists in German-speaking countries. Using this messaging service, numerous channels reach hundreds of thousands of people every day – and for some messages, the number of views is in the millions. The messaging service was used, for example, […]
“In June 1942, a German officer walks up to a young man and says, “Excuse me, sir, where is the Place de l’Étoile?” The young man points to the left side of his chest. (Jewish history.)” Patrick Modiano, La place de l’étoile, Gallimard, 1968 Meditating on the unfathomable nature of the Holocaust, the historian Alain […]
Conspiracy Watch: Since you wrote your book Voodoo Histories, about conspiracy theories, back in 2009, would you say the phenomenon has grown in size? Why? David Aaronovitch: Obviously, the Internet has played a key role in the creation and spreading of various conspiracy theories. People discovered websites that had the appearance of scholarliness, with footnotes and […]
Late last year, a semi-retired British scientist co-authored a petition to Europe’s medicines regulator. The petitioners made a bold demand: Halt COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials. Even bolder was their argument for doing so: They speculated, without providing evidence, that the vaccines could cause infertility in women. The document appeared on a German website on Dec.1. […]
