Busy times for conspiracy expert Pepin Van Erb: “I didn’t immediately expect it to take such a journey” | The best stories this weekend

Listen and ask lots of questions, is Van Erp’s advice. He is a member of the board of directors of the Skepsis Foundation, which has been “critically investigating unusual allegations” since 1987. This could be a day-to-day job, in a year in which it constantly revolves around “alternative facts” about the coronavirus and about QAnon, the conspiracy theory that came from America with a leading role for former President Donald Trump.

In recent years, mathematician Van Erp has become stuck in the claims of Wim ‘Iceman’ Hof, broker Brabant Robbert van den Broeke and in the ‘shore protection tubes’ of a Danish inventor. Van Erp writes articles and blogs on the topic. “Getting someone to change their thoughts is almost impossible,” he says. But Doubt He hopes that everyone who hears his neighbor talking about the deep state of active medicine and thinks, “Huh ?, will look for more information. And then – hopefully – on the flyers. Doubt Pitfalls.

What are you doing now?
“There is still a lot of corona. I go into a bunch of scientists, in quotes, who are suggesting that the epidemic is only in the data. They are highlighting it in a quasi-scientific way in the media.”

Did you see that the Corona crisis would be a fertile ground for conspiracy theories?
“During the first lockdown, I saw conspiracy theories surrounding the corona emerging slowly. Initially there was an association with the 5G network. Wuhan was supposed to be the first city in which they introduced 5G and where the virus also originated by ‘coincidence’. Not surprisingly, this happened. We know. “From psychological research, conspiracy theories are gaining ground in times of uncertainty. I didn’t immediately expect you to take such a trip.”