Fake News

Yesterday I was talking to my cleaning lady and she told me something very interesting. She had watched the new Michael Jackson movie. I had also watched it, and we were discussing how much we enjoyed it. We both agreed that it felt like Michael had been reincarnated in the film.
Speaking of reincarnation, then she said, very casually,
“I don’t really believe Michael Jackson is dead.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. For a nanosecond, I thought she thought he was actually in the movie.
“I think he faked his death.”
“Like Tupac?” I said.
“I don’t know about that.”
“Like Elvis? You think Elvis is still alive?”
“I mean, he did fake his death… but he’s probably dead by now. Considering his age.”
Fair.

She then told me that Selena Gomez is not alive, and that there is a body double acting as her.

At that point, I stopped asking follow-up questions.

It reminded me of when my mom told me that China invented COVID in a lab and infected America on purpose. She got that information on WhatsApp.

And the thing is—I understand the fascination.

A good conspiracy theory makes the world feel less random. It gives chaos a storyline. It turns confusion into conviction. There’s something comforting about believing that someone, somewhere, is in control… even if their intentions are bad.

I watched the movie JFK a long time ago; it was about how there was a conspiracy to kill John F. Kennedy. I believed it because it was a good story. Kevin Costner played the detective and did a fabulous job. Honestly, it’s just a really interesting theory, almost entertaining. Everyone likes a good story.

I was in high school at the time and I remember my English teacher telling me that the movie was not fair because that is how people would remember JFK’s death from now on. She wasn’t wrong. Was the movie? It was based on a ‘true’ story.

But when John F. Kennedy Jr. died in a plane crash, I remember hearing about the Kennedy curse. I don’t know who allegedly cursed the Kennedy family but it did seem from the outside that they were dropping dead.

I talked to my mom about it recently and she believes it was a political conspiracy that killed JFK Junior because he was slated to possibly become president one day. I don’t know about all that. She was absolutely sure. My mother is a doctor. She’s not an ignorant person.

That’s what scares me.

And the truth is, I’m not exactly getting my information from the highest sources either.

I’m not going to lie—I often get my news from social media and late-night shows like Bill Maher. I like my news with an opinion—a witty one at that.

I love memes from Occupy Democrats and other liberal sources. I love comedians who can be dark and hilarious at the same time—something that makes the chaos feel digestible. I like my news spicy. No surprise there.

I’ll take that over a dry segment on CNN any day.

It feels informed. It feels smart.
But it’s still filtered.

I once met a woman who believed the Earth is flat. She was completely normal otherwise. Smart, even.

At some point, I just let it go. Sometimes it feels easier to let people believe what they want than to sit in the awkwardness of challenging it.

It feels like conspiracies are buy one, get one free; often, when someone believes in one, they believe in many, as evidenced by my cleaning lady.

I love my cleaning lady. She’s a sweetheart. I’m not exactly judging her for believing this stuff.

Or… maybe I am.

Not because I think I’m smarter. But because I don’t think these beliefs exist in a vacuum.

The same cleaning lady refused to get vaccinated during COVID. We asked her not to come for a while because we thought it was risky.

She genuinely believed the vaccine would kill her.

And that belief didn’t come out of nowhere.

It came from forwarded messages, viral videos, people speaking with absolute certainty about things they barely understand—and other people wanting to believe them.

And I’m not immune to that either.

I pick and choose what I trust all the time. I believe things that align with what I already think. I scroll past things that don’t. I don’t fact-check everything. I just like to think I’m better at it. That my version of the truth is somehow more legitimate.

Maybe I’m not.

But I do know this: there’s a difference between believing Elvis might still be alive and believing vaccines will kill you.

One is harmless. The other has consequences.

Now you have people in positions of power telling the public that vaccines are dangerous. And people are listening. Parents are choosing not to vaccinate their kids.

Measles is coming back.
Measles.

That’s not mysterious. That’s not interesting. That’s not a hidden truth waiting to be uncovered.

That’s just preventable. And yet—here we are.

And that’s when “fake news” stops being entertaining and starts being dangerous.

And we all think we’re the exception. That our version of the ‘truth’ is the reasonable one.

nina