What is the “rabbit hole”? In the words of Mick West: “The phrase comes from Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. Alice enters the bizarre Wonderland by following a white rabbit down a hole. In recent times a more specific usage has arisen, derived from the 1999 film The Matrix, where at a crucial point Morpheus offers Neo a choice. He can either take the blue pill and return to a normal life, or take the red pill and “see how deep the rabbit hole goes.” Neo, of course, “takes the red pill,” and the “rabbit hole” leads him to discover the true nature of the world. He “wakes up” from his programmed illusion of comfortable, bland monotony into a brutal yet genuine struggle for existence, a messianic battle against evil, manipulating overlords. This terminology has been directly adopted by various conspiracy communities. The rabbit hole is seen as a good place to be, a place where the true nature of the world is revealed.
So why would you want to get out of the rabbit hole, if it is such a comfortable place to be? Beliefs in different conspiracy theories tend to reinforce each other, cutting a person off from other people, until they surround themselves with a like minded crowd. This has been a well-known fact for a considerable period of time. What is more problematic, however, is the fact that social media tend to produce a very similar effect for any kind of strongly held belief. Obviously, people on the right and left avoid each other, but it goes much further than that – vegans shun meat-eaters, who in turn perceive them a bunch of fanatics, cyclists frown at car owners, heavy-metal fans despise mainstream pop-music listeners, and so on. In that context, being surrounded by a group of likeminded fellows who seem to be the only decent and reasonable people in an otherwise crazy world is hardly an outlier – it is rather the norm. So how to help people out of the rabbit hole, if almost everyone is stuck in one?
There are a few steps that could help, although no universal solution is available. The decision in what kind of theories to believe is ultimately a personal one – no amount of external pressure could force a person to change their convictions. The role of an external person – a friend, teacher, youth worker, parent – can be only one of a partner. We can listen, discuss, provide information, reach out a hand – but it is up to the other person to take it.
Want to find out more? Read the Critical Balance e-book for youth workers on critical thinking and conspiracy theories!
