Between Harmless Gossiping and Harmful Politicking: Conspiracy

Theories on Covid-19 in Indonesia

Ahmad Norma Permata, Napsiah, Dwi Nur L.Fithriya and Hikmalisa

Department of Sociology, UIN Sunan Kalijaga, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Keywords: Pandemic, Covid 19, Conspiracy Theory, Politics.

Abstract: During the escalating Covid-19 pandemic, conspiracy theorists explaining that it is not a natural phenomenon

but rather a human one created by some kind of evil international actor for political or economic gain--have

caught the attention of social media users around the world and sparked controversy. Indonesia is no

exception. Critical responses immediately emerged from the government, medical experts, and other

community leaders, who considered it dangerous and detrimental to the community and hampered efforts to

overcome the pandemic. However, this article argues that conspiracy theories intransitive arguments that

pandemics can be engineered for political and economic purposes are not necessarily harmful. Such habits

have their roots in primitive human culture: the animist instinct that some kind of creative agency must be

behind complex phenomena such as the Covid-19 pandemic; and gossip about the faults of others.

Understanding the difference between the gossiping and political side of conspiracy theories will help find

appropriate and effective responses. This article uses the QCA method of seven viral content on Youtube.

1 INTRODUCTION

The Covid-19 pandemic has shocked the world. The

outbreak, which began in the central Chinese city of

Wuhan, has infected tens of thousands of people

within weeks, with acute respiratory symptoms, and

quickly claimed thousands of deaths. This virus has

spread to various countries in less than a month,

panicking everyone, including higher medical

countries such as the United States. The first

recommendation issued by the World Health

Organization (WHO) is a lockdown for all activities

outside the home. It did not take long to paralyze the

business world and make the political situation

unstable (worldbank.org, 2020). The rapid spread of

the infection without precedent, while the slow

response from health authorities both nationally and

internationally, due to a lack of adequate data, has led

the public mainly through social media to seek

alternative information about what happened. As

official information arrives very slowly and is often

incomplete, raising more questions than answers,

more speculative and ultimately conspiratorial

information comes to the fore. Present in various

versions, this narrative contains a typical speculative-

political argument that this seemingly complex and

systematic event could not have occurred naturally

(Uscinski, et al., 2020).

In the US, the first conspiracy theories related to

Covid-19 carried the name of Judy Mikovits, a

virologist who posted a video on YouTube entitled

"Plandemic", in which he explained that Covid-19

was not a disaster but was planned by a global

network of rogue agents that includes the WHO, US

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),

and businesses like Bill Gates. Although YouTube

later banned the video, arguments have spread. The

pros and cons are unavoidable. Many think Mikovits

is exacerbating the situation amid efforts to

understand and control the outbreak. At the same

time, others praised Mikovits as a hero who dared to

speak the truth about corruption in the world of health

(Kompas.com, 2020). Such conspiracy theories also

spread quickly throughout the world, including in

Indonesia. Amid public uncertainty and anxiety,

conspiracy narratives with some sort of "inside

information" easily attract attention and provoke pros

and cons.

This article argues that conspiracy theories are not

necessarily harmful because, in some ways, they are

part of society's tradition, namely the animistic logic

that there is always creativity. The power behind

every event--including the Covid-19 pandemic, and

Permata, A., Napsiah, ., Fithriya, D. and Hikmalisa, .

Between Harmless Gossiping and Harmful Politicking: Conspiracy Theories on Covid-19 in Indonesia.

DOI: 10.5220/0010805100003348

In Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Inter national Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities (AICOSH 2021), pages 93-100

ISBN: 978-989-758-603-3; ISSN: 2685-273X

the habit of gossiping that finds fault with others or

makes them scapegoats for whatever problem occurs.

This article further argues that conspiracy theories

will only be harmful if exploited for economic and

political gain, leading to systematic and ongoing

disinformation. This article examines seven videos on

YouTube containing conspiracy theories related to

Covid-19 that became popular in early 2020,

featuring Siti Fadilah Supari, Yasonna Laoly, Irene

Burhan, Tirta Mandira Hudi, Mardigu Wowiek

Prasantyo, I Gede "Jerinx" Ari Astina, and

Ichsanuddin Nursy. The extent to which conspiracy

theory discourse about Covid-19 is harmful to the

public. Therefore, this research adopts Qualitative

Content Analysis (QCA) to extract the content,

context, and characteristics of conspiracy discourse in

videos.

In addition, conspiracy theories are a complex

phenomenon. Scholars from various disciplines have

proposed different definitions that are not only

numerous but also varied in content. Some definitions

are general and abstract, defining conspiracy theories

as discourses with three characteristics: that nothing

happens by chance, that what happens is not as it

seems, and that everything is always connected

(Butter & Knight, 2020). More empirical definitions

highlight certain aspects of the phenomenon. Some

define a conspiracy theory as an alternative or

informal version of information, as distinct from the

public version of the government or academic

community (Butter & Knight, 2020). There are those

who emphasize elements of the ruling elite (Butter &

Knight, 2020); for example, accusations that Western

countries conspire to ban imports of wood products

from Southeast Asia on the grounds of environmental

issues are an excuse to protect wood products from

Western countries of competitive new entrants.

Others see more of the threat of conspiracy theories,

such as the notion that vaccines are a nefarious

attempt by international pharmaceutical businesses

(the largest after the oil and arms network) to spread

disease and then sell the antidote (Butter & Knight,

2020). Finally, several definitions break down the

structure of conspiracy theories by distinguishing

conspiracy theories as a discourse, beliefs, and

(Butter & Knight, 2020).

The definition is becoming increasingly complex

in the hands of scholars from various disciplines. For

example, in psychology, psychologists tended to

associate the spread and adoption of conspiracy

theories with symptoms of mental illness, anxiety and

distress (Georgiou, Delfabbro, & Balzan, 2020).

The idea that conspiracy theories are related to the

problem of psychological illness has been challenged

by sociologists. They suggest that it is not due to

psychological defects but rather due to broader social

factors. Several sociological studies have found that

conspiracy theories are more likely to be popular

among low-educated groups unfamiliar with

analytical thinking and less popular among highly

educated groups or those familiar with critical and

analytical (Georgiou, Delfabbro, & Balzan, 2020).

Others show that conspiracy theories are also widely

accepted among marginalized groups. Those most

vocal in promoting conspiracy theories tend to have

higher alienation, exclusion, or social isolation rates.

Researchers explain that alienation from social norms

will lead people to conspiratorial ways of thinking for

several reasons: first, rejecting normative and typical

explanations to reject source legitimacy; second, they

may be forced to support other conspirators' groups to

seek support; third, marginalized groups can justify

their situation by popularizing conspiracy theories to

create the impression that they are victims and not

perpetrators of their situation; Finally, the oppressed

will also get the meaning of conspiracy theories

which imply that society has lost its morals

(Moulding, et al., 2016). Research findings in

political science also challenge conspiracy theories'

associations with mental illness. Several studies have

shown that acceptance of conspiracy theories is an

extreme ideological mechanism for a group to

overcome emerging political and economic problems

by simplifying the problem by finding scapegoats to

blame (Wlezien & Soroka, 2016a). Other research

shows that the application of conspiracy theories

shows a cynical attitude towards political reality or

ruling groups with either anarchic, apathetic, or

democratic tendencies. Finally, conspiracy theories

are also related to popular political tendencies,

namely the efforts of political elites to garner public

support by simplifying the situation into conflicts

between good people and bad people while placing

themselves in first person champions (Douglas, et al.,

2019).

In contrast to the three previous approaches,

which tend to regard conspiracy theories as a problem

that needs serious attention, Anthropological studies

offer a different explanation by emphasizing the

reasonableness of the phenomenon. It is said that

conspiracy theories are part of the daily activities of

modern society and have long roots in the history of

human civilization: namely animistic reasoning and

the habit of gossiping. Although modern scientific

education has abolished animism as a belief system

about invisible creative agents behind natural

phenomena such as the sun, moon, stars, wind,

disasters, and others. However, the animistic

AICOSH 2021 - The Annual International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities (AICOSH) “Life After Pandemic: Perspectives,

Changes, and Challenges”

reasoning that there must be someone or something

creatively responsible for a complex problem like a

pandemic is still a common heuristic in everyday life.

While gossiping is the habit of turning every stone to

look for the ugliness and faults of others and make

them scapegoats for every problem they face. Gossip

is a psychological mechanism for people to feel okay

by talking bad about others (Andrade, 2020).

From the literature reviewed in the previous

paragraphs, there are four points related to conspiracy

theories: First, conspiracy theories are different from

hoaxes or fake news. Conspiracy theories about

Covid-19 do not deny that many Covid-19s are real

but emphasize that it is not something natural but

instead deliberately engineered by certain groups for

political and economic gain at the expense of the

common people. Second, there are two distinct ways

people believe and promote conspiracy theories:

those with good intentions to uncover scandals that

harm the public and those who seek personal or group

gain by fishing in murky waters. Third,

anthropologically, conspiracy theories are part of

everyday mundane activities and are rooted in

animistic thinking and gossip habits. Fourth, certain

psychological, sociological, and political conditions

can increase the acceptance of conspiracy theories

and exacerbate the negative effects of these

conditions.

This article examines the phenomenon of

conspiracy theories related to Covid-19 in Indonesia.

Data were taken from social media and other online

sources. The main sources are 7 YouTube videos

discussing conspiracy theories about the Covid-19

phenomenon, featuring: (i) Siti Fadilah Supari,

former Indonesian Minister of Health 2004-2009

(Corbuzier, 2020b); (ii) Yasonna Laoly, Minister of

Law and Human Rights and top official from the

ruling party (Corbuzier, 2020c); (iii) Erlina Burhan, a

pulmonologist who works in a government program

to research and deal with the Covid-19 pandemic

(Corbuzier, 2020f), (iv) Tirta Mandira Hudi, an

entrepreneur and social activist, a doctor with

training, who became a favorite media for his major

efforts to mobilize public awareness of the deadly

dangers of the Covid-19 pandemic (Corbuzier,

2020g); (v)Wowiek Mardigu "Bossman Sontoloyo"

Prasatyanto, a businessman and former intelligence

expert (Corbuzier, 2020) (vi) I Gede Ari Astina alias

"Jerinx", a Balinese musician from the indie band

Superman is Dead (KompasTV, 2020b); and (vii)

Ichsanuddin Noorsy, an economist known for his

criticism of government policies (tvOneNews, 2020);

(Yahya, 2020a). The seven videos were chosen

because of their popularity and became a source of

controversy regarding Covid-19. In addition, the

resource persons featured in the videos also represent

different positions related to the pandemic and how

society reacts to it.

This paper follows a QCA approach. It is a

method used to explore the meaning in a text about

the context in which it is used. Content analysis is a

research method that offers a systematic and objective

way to obtain conclusions/inferences from verbal,

visual, and written data to describe and identify

certain phenomena (Bengtsson, 2016). Content

Analysis has a long history and has been used since

the 18th century in Europe among biblical scholars

and historians (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005); (Bengtsson,

2016). Besides content analysis, there are at least five

other approaches to examine textual phenomena.

First, Objective Hermeneutics was developed by the

German sociologist Klaus Oevermann, a method for

exploring and capturing the structure of social reality

behind a text. Second, the famous Grounded theory

by Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss can also be

applied to analyze textual data using inductive and

deductive coding processes to build exploratory

theoretical models. Third, Psychoanalytic Textual

Interpretation focuses on exploring the inner structure

of a text. Using logical analysis, looking for gaps,

fragmentation, and consistency in the text to find the

author's defense mechanism. Fourth,

phenomenological analysis to explore the core

content of a text through a bracketing process, putting

brackets on non-core meaning units, to find the core,

following the standard procedure of analysis in the

philosophical tradition of phenomenology. Fifth,

biographical analysis to explore and interpret data

related to an individual's history or life journey,

usually using a narrative structure to organize data

that may not be structured in the text into a coherent

life story (Mayring, 2014).

This study adopted QCA because it is non-

intrusive and non-reactive, providing a basic

understanding of how words and terms are used

(Hsieh & Shannon, 2005). QCA identifies certain

terms or words to understand their contextual usage.

This is not to explore the meaning of the word but

rather about its use. Therefore, it not only calculates

the frequency and percentage of words and terms but

also includes latent content, i.e. the meaning of the

implications of using words and terms (Hsieh &

Shannon, 2005). This procedure is carried out in three

stages:

First, decontextualization, by examining the

content and structure of the text being studied. In this

study, each video was analyzed to find out what the

researchers said about the conspiracy theory about the

Between Harmless Gossiping and Harmful Politicking: Conspiracy Theories on Covid-19 in Indonesia

Covid-19 phenomenon purely without going further

into its context and meaning. Second,

recontextualization, to find the relevant personal

context of each speaker. The contextual situation and

conditions of each speaker that are relevant to the

Covid-19 discourse will be explored to find personal

situations to understand the speaker's profile and what

is being discussed. Third, categorization, to formulate

conceptual inferences on statements about whether

conspiracy theories are harmful to public discourse

(Bengtsson, 2016).

2 RESULT: VARIETIES OF

CONSPIRATORY

NARRATIVES ON COVID-19

2.1 Decontextualization: What Did

They Say

This study found that, in general, all the resource

persons shown in the video believed that Covid-19

was a real phenomenon, actually happened and not

just fake news created by the media. So that in this

context, all speakers can distinguish between

conspiracy theories and hoaxes.

Furthermore, they also understand that the Covid-

19 outbreak is a new and very complex phenomenon,

many of which are still unknown, both related to the

development of the virus, symptoms of the disease

suffered by patients, treatment and care of people

infected with the virus, as well as the non-medical

implications of the outbreak such as on economic,

social and political conditions in society.

Yasonna Laoly, for example, admitted that the

Covid-19 outbreak could be the result of engineering

by certain groups for political or economic gain. As a

politician, he admits that politics is full of fabrication

and intrigue, where political actors often justify any

means to pursue their interests. But he also underlined

that we could not confirm this until there is concrete

evidence. Likewise, Irene Burhan can accept the

possibility that the Covid-19 pandemic was

deliberately engineered because there is still no

unanimous agreement regarding the explanation of

the origin of the spread of Corona in Wuhan, China,

so that this epidemic can still be engineered. Tirta

Mandira Hudi gave a slightly different statement. On

the other hand, like the two previous sources, Tirta

officially acknowledged that there was a possibility

that the Covid-19 outbreak was a man-made

pandemic. However, we cannot move beyond

speculative possibility until empirical evidence is

found to support it.

At this point, it is clear that the three speakers are

carefully refraining from going any further than

formal and speculative acknowledgments of the

possibility of the Covid-19 outbreak as a man-made

pandemic. They regard this possibility as a hypothesis

statement that can only be confirmed after there is

evidence. While the next four speakers were more

confirmatory, stating that the engineering of the

Covid-19 pandemic was a fact. However, they do not

support claims with empirical data or findings. On

syllogistic logic regarding the phenomenon of

commercialization and politicization of the Covid-19

pandemic: politicians and business people are always

looking for ways to profit by any means, Covid-19

vaccines are produced commercially with huge

profits. Consequently, Covid-19 is part of a political

and economic project for profit.

For example, Siti Fadhilah Supari (SFS) stated that

pandemics are not a natural thing but part of the

engineering of business politics and international

politics. She relied on her experience as the Ministry

of Health, who handled the bird flu outbreak in 2005.

She was controversial with the WHO for refusing to

submit virus samples to produce vaccines because the

vaccine production program only benefits developed

countries. Mardigu also believes that the Covid 19

outbreak is the result of engineering by certain groups.

If Siti considers the Covid-19 outbreak to be the result

of international political engineering, Mardigu uses

the narrative of US political-economic competition

between globalist groups vs. nationalist groups as a

reference. For him, the election of Donald J. Trump as

president has opened the door to the domination of

nationalist groups who prioritize US economic

interests, which lead to a trade war with China. This is

detrimental to the interests of globalist groups whose

businesses do not have a national identity. I Gede

"Jerinx" Ari Astina, in a video interview with Aiman

from Kompas TV, stated that the Covid-19 outbreak

is part of a big scenario of international interest. Jerinx

said that he sourced information from online sources

while citing the name of a certain Kaufmann doctor as

a reference (Dr Andrew Kaufmann, a psychiatrist

from New York America who is famous for declaring

Covid-19 a hoax). Jerinx also emphasized that these

international political interests have tremendous

power to control the mainstream media, which

sometimes contradict each other, giving the

impression that the public has a choice of sources of

information, when in fact, they do not. He added that

there was information that doctors in America were

paid to produce a higher Covid-19 death rate, which

AICOSH 2021 - The Annual International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities (AICOSH) “Life After Pandemic: Perspectives,

Changes, and Challenges”

caused public fear. He also questioned why

Indonesian doctors are afraid of WHO, even though in

other parts of the world doctors and scientists have

different opinions about Covid-19.

Lastly, Ichsanuddin Noorsy stated that Covid-19 is

unnatural (sometimes said to be unreal) and part of

international business competition. He specifically

mentioned the cryptocurrency business scenario

competition involving big parties such as Bill Gates,

Mark Zuckerberg, Russia, and China. He also cites

internet news about Bill Gates, who has designed bio-

information technology through his Microsoft, which

collects personal data by inserting a chip into the

human body.

2.2 Recontextualization: Relevant

Situation behind the Statement

Recontextualization is a Qualitative Content Analysis

procedure that finds situations outside the data (i.e.

the video being studied) relevant to understanding the

broader meaning of the spoken statement. More

specifically, the context in question is the life

situation of each speaker, both in the past and present,

which is relevant to their statement about the Covid-

19 conspiracy theory. In this way, statements that

look similar may have very different meanings.

Yasonna is a representative of the government and

the ruling party. He appears in the video in his private

rather than official capacity, although he does speak at

length about his policies as a government minister.

The same thing happened to Irene Burhan, who was

introduced in the video as a government employee and

senior pulmonologist involved in research and

handling the Covid-19 outbreak. There is also no

information linking Irene Burhan to the discourse of

conspiracy theories about Covid-19 other than in this

video. Tirta Mandira Hudi has a similar situation,

although not the same because he is a private person

and not a government employee. In the early days of

the pandemic, Tirta was very active in campaigning

for emergency aid to prevent and control viral

infections. Through his social media accounts, he

raises funds to buy masks and distribute them to

medical personnel in the field, especially in areas

directly facing the threat of the deadly virus. He also

mobilized a coalition with fellow medical doctors to

raise awareness about the importance of multi-sectoral

participation in handling the coronavirus outbreak.

Moreover, of course, the most interesting case is

Siti Fadilah Supari. In the medical history of

Indonesia, his name is recorded as the minister who

can handle bird flu outbreaks and was hailed as a hero,

not only by Indonesia but also by many other

countries, for daring to boycott the WHO program to

collect virus specimen samples for vaccine

manufacturing programs. Siti considers the program

only benefits the vaccine-producing rich countries,

ignoring the sample-owner countries. Besides, there is

no knowledge transfer, and small countries are only

consumers (Supari, 2007); (Supari, 2008). This has

become international coverage and has been the

subject of analysis in several journal articles. Some

criticize Siti's policies that hinder efforts to develop

health services; others support it as Indonesia's right to

protect the interests of its country regarding specimen

samples as state assets if they do not provide benefits

(Kamradt-Scott, 2020); (Lowe, 2019).

Mardigu Wowiek Prasetyanto also has an

interesting case because he is present as an

intelligence expert, or someone who knows the part

of the story, behind the scenes, or the unrevealed story

of an incident. Like Jerinx, for the support and

promotion of conspiracy narratives about Covid-19,

Jerinx does not seem to have complicated arguments

and relies more on other local and international

conspiracy theories. It seems that what brought him

to the media was his uncompromising attitude in

pushing Covid-19 conspiracy theories and criticizing

the government, which ultimately sent him behind

bars. The last one is Ichsanuddin Noorsy. Ichsanuddin

does not seem to have a straightforward grand

narrative, other than the classic argument that

capitalism is an exploitative global political and

economic network. He appears to have randomly

chosen sources and perspectives, perhaps because of

his undergraduate background, which combines law,

politics, and economics. He was particularly

interested in citing the argument that a Covid vaccine

was engineered by Bill Gates for the cryptocurrency

program, an argument similar to posts that went viral

on internet forums, and not citing sources with

scientific credibility.

At this point, it is interesting to note that,

according to the research findings, what makes

conspiracy theories so popular, so compelling, and

seductive is that they contain the so-called "minimal

counterintuitive effect," which is a slight twist to the

story. Already popular ones: ideological conflicts,

high-level political and business battles, etc., adding

logical but unverified elements (Andrade, 2020).

2.3 Categorization: What Can We

Infer

The contextual reading in the previous section allows

us to get a more significant meaning from the

statements in the video, for example, what benefit

Between Harmless Gossiping and Harmful Politicking: Conspiracy Theories on Covid-19 in Indonesia

each speaker gets from this conspiracy discourse. The

study found that conspiracy narratives about Covid-

19 fall into at least four categories.

First, the formalistic and casual neutral position

recognizes the rationality of conspiracy logic about

Covid-19 but does not believe it or regard it as

anything specifically good or bad. This is the position

of Yasonna and Irene. For them, the conspiracy

discourse that Covid-19 might be engineered is quite

reasonable because such realities: intrigue, scandal,

sabotage are commonplace in politics. However, to

confirm this, we need solid evidence. Statements like

this are typical of casual gossip, time killers, which

carry no pretense and tend to be attractive. Second, a

formalistic casual neutral position recognizes the

rationality of conspiracy narratives about Covid-19

without believing it but adds that to some extent,

conspiracy theories have a positive value in

increasing public critical awareness of the

complicated political elements of the situation. From

one side, this attitude reflects political pragmatism to

use anything to achieve goals that are considered

good or profitable.

On the other hand, this is a public education

strategy to offer information that can stimulate the

community to explore further and cross-check. Third,

the position that believes in conspiracy narratives

related to Covid-19 while at the same time taking

credit from the discourse for personal gain. This

happened to Siti Fadilah Supari, where she used a

conspiracy narrative to support her argument that she

was innocent and just a victim of policies she took

against the interests of international powers. This will

give a moral charge that he is not only a national hero

but also a martyr. Finally, a position that believes in

and supports conspiracy narratives but does not make

narratives part of the core business. This happened to

I Gede "Jerinx" Ari Astina, who never claimed to be

an expert in related fields--health, politics,

economics--and always referred to the arguments

built by other parties.

3 DISCUSSION: BETWEEN

GOSSIPING AND

POLITICKING

It is undeniable that one of the biggest problems facing

governments and other institutions in dealing with the

Covid-19 pandemic is uncertainty. In such a situation,

anything that adds to the uncertainty and confusion of

conspiracy theories that rely mostly on unverified

sources is negative or even dangerous.

So, conspiracy theories about Covid-19 are the

least useful and the most dangerous. It is useless

because it contains no substantive information other

than a logical exercise. So, no matter how many

versions of conspiracy theories people read or hear, it

will not help them in their practical daily activities.

They will continue to work at the same places, shop at

the same places, and consume the same commodities

as those who do not believe in conspiracy theories.

That means it does not help at all. And, of course,

believing and spreading conspiracy narratives

regarding the Covid-19 outbreak would be dangerous

if it involved seeking personal gain. Because it would

be a public scam when someone tries to persuade the

public with correct information while seeking

personal gain behind their back. Like Siti Fadilah,

when she was in prison, she criticized the government,

but after her release, she quickly fell into the same

group that she criticized.

Likewise, in Mardigu and Ichsanuddin cases, they

made the conspiracy narrative related to the Covid-19

part of their business. If Siti's case is a fraud, in

Mardigu and Ichsanuddin, it is systematic

exploitation. Mardigu runs a Youtube channel that

features a lot of content with an alternative perspective

to typical intelligence leaks and has more than 1.4

million subscribers. Mardigu monetizes conspiracy

discourse, including those related to Covid-19, and

earns money. Meanwhile, Ichsanuddin gained

additional popularity in conveying narrative

conspiracy about Covid-19 in his expertise as an

economic observer. Many videos and news on the

internet display the narrative of the conspiracy, not

only about Covid-19. A Google search with the query

"Ichsanuddin Noorsy Covid-19" yielded 82,000

results in 0.58 seconds, double the results for Mardigu

with the same keyword. With the logic of market law,

as applied to the monetization of social media, the

more popular the theme of conspiracy theories about

Covid-19 on the internet, Mardigu and Ichsanuddin

will also get a higher income. Of course, this is

something that must be watched out for, because in the

context of handling the Covid-19 pandemic, which is

still messy in Indonesia, where there are still many

people who refuse to follow medical advice, such as

the use of masks and social distancing, strengthening

the popularity of alternative discourses about the

pandemic, although it does not deny reality will only

add to the problem. Not to mention that if anti-

government groups use this, it can become a

counterproductive polemic. A strict ban on Covid-19

conspiracy theories can also be counterproductive.

Many people participate in this conspiracy

discourse in a casual context, part of a habit of

AICOSH 2021 - The Annual International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities (AICOSH) “Life After Pandemic: Perspectives,

Changes, and Challenges”

gossiping or keeping the dialogue alive, as in the case

of Yasonna Laoly and Irene. Burhan. The two agreed

on the topic of conspiracy not because they believed it

but as an attempt to lighten the mood. If they try to

argue, they will spoil the chemistry of the situation,

while the topic is just a trivial part of the dialogue. This

is a common ethic among Indonesians to be tolerant

of trivial things that they do not agree to maintain good

relations or an atmosphere of dialogue and not to miss

essential points in dialogue or conversation.

4 CONCLUSION

This article discusses the extent to which conspiracy

theories about Covid-19 are harmful to the public. On

the one hand, this question is essential because one of

the main obstacles in dealing with the Covid-19

pandemic is uncertainty, both related to medical

aspects and its broader social impact. On the other

hand, conspiracy narratives that encourage the idea

that humans intentionally created this pandemic for

economic and political gain will complicate the

situation.

The government tries to respond to this situation

pragmatically by classifying it into misinformation

and disinformation so that it needs to be removed from

public discourse. This step, at first glance, seems to be

in line with the findings of scientific studies related to

conspiracy theories, which tend to see it as a result or

symptom of a problem: psychological, social,

economic, or political. However, a closer examination

of the literature across disciplines – psychology,

sociology, anthropology, politics, and economics –

shows that conspiracy theories have some degree of

acceptance. Some people support or approve of

conspiracy theories even though they do not believe

them; it is an informal response to keep the

conversation warm or lively. In this context,

anthropological studies confirm that conspiracy

narratives are very close to two widespread habits of

society, namely animistic reasoning as a heuristic, to

conclude that there is always another side to reality

and the habit of gossiping to look for the ugliness and

faults of others. Then make them scapegoats for a

problem. At this level, conspiracy narratives are

harmless because they are spontaneous. Forbidding

people to gossip will only create new problems.

On the other hand, some people believe in

conspiracy theories and promote them with good

intentions to help society uncover the scandals behind

the pandemic. In this case, conspiracy theories have a

negative side that can delegitimize strenuous efforts to

overcome it, but also a positive side to raising

awareness that there are political dimensions that are

most complex and dilemmatic, which are not only

black and white, and that whatever the policy there

will be those who disagree. Moreover, open dialogue

in academic forums can help society to take advantage

and eliminate excesses (Uscinski, 2020).

Meanwhile, some people are promoting Covid-19

conspiracy theories while gaining personal, financial

or other benefits. Believe it or not, this group will

benefit directly from the popularity of conspiracy

theories. This group needs to be regulated so that the

Covid-19 conspiracy theory does not spread out of

control and become a commodity that can be

instrumented for personal gain.

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