SANTA: QAnon Conspiracy or not?
As an early promoter of Santa Claus, I admit to having been part of a worldwide conspiracy. My husband and I went so far as to take photos of Santa’s boot coming down our chimney and showing our seven-year-old son a dish of half-eaten cookies that he supposedly snacked on while depositing gifts. I did have a twinge of guilt when the pictures we took were taken to school to share as proof of Santa’s existence.
However, it was easy to rationalize that fairies, goblins and a toy manufacturing center at the North Pole run by elves are good things for children to believe in. Fantasies help spur their imagination, I thought. It makes them happy to know there is a place where sugar plum fairies exist. On the negative side, I risked losing his trust. Why should he believe what I tell him in the future?
Fantasies are ways of seeing a world composed of hopes, dreams, fears and plans for the future. At times they go so far that people project onto others what they imagine they are thinking and feeling. Tensions within marriages are often colored by such unconscious fantasies.
Ethel Person, Professor of clinical Psychiatry says, “You need fantasy, but there has to be a way to put the brakes on. Killing your boss may be a pleasurable fantasy and can reduce tension, but murder is a terrible thing.” Being overtaken by fantasy can be detrimental to your mental health. Porn addition, for example, can grow to take precedence over real-life interactions. Fantasizing about a stranger may lead to stalking.
But, for healthy, well balanced individuals, there are many benefits of fantasy. Reading travel magazines and imagining a vacation sailing down the Rhine River can be a mood booster that lets you escape from mundane routines or being sequestered at home during a pandemic. Those caught in adverse family situations or in jobs they can’t walk away from can insert themselves in happier environments through imaginative stories.
Allowing your mind to go to a place without rules or parameters opens up creative possibilities that are useful to solving problems. Fantasy feeds artists, writers, and readers as well as those involved in scientific pursuits. Playing with ideas is can motivate us to try something new. Psychoanalyst, Lisa Schlesinger writes that fantasy is a mental holding space that is safe, a place where the mind is able to play with the idea of change before doing it.
Difficulty arises when the mind turns fantasy into reality and barriers between thought and action disappear. Over the past year, the public has been inundated with misinformation from the alt right. Fake news, a type of fantasy, was presented in such a way as to be believable and accepted as truth. Commentators on Fox News, QAnon and other conspiracy promotors spread lies, some of which were homegrown while others emanated from foreign entities. They created mistrust and chaos around institutions Americans always held sacred. Testing the accuracy of false statements required hours of research that most people are not willing to engage in. It was easier to accept illusions presented by charlatans they hope will better their lives.
I find disproven and discredited far-right conspiracy theories so unbelievable, it is a wonder anyone takes them seriously. QAnon conspiracies center on the idea of a “deep state” in which anti-American elements in the government, industry, media and other institutions are involved in bringing down President Donald Trump. It promotes that Satan-worshiping pedophiles are running a global child sex-trafficking ring that control the world and the media, and that Princess Diana was murdered after trying to stop the September 11th attacks. Conspiracy theorists also subscribe to the belief that COVID-19 was planned. Why accept such outlandish statements?
Unfortunately, like telling a seven-year-old that Santa is real, misinformation not only plays havoc with the lives of gullible people, but with the rest of society as well. Though social media sites attempt to ban such falsehoods, they are still passed on and gossiped about to friends through private accounts on Facebook and Twitter. An increasing number of people are allowing harmful fantasies to creep into U.S. politics.
During the past election, over two-dozen Republican candidates who engaged with QAnon conspiracies, ran for congress, and one, Marjorie Taylor Greene, from Atlanta is headed there. QAnon believers divorced themselves from reality are capable of bringing about real-world violence. The FBI published a report last year calling them a potential source of domestic terrorism.
According to Pew Research Center, the majority of Americans who learn of right wing conspiracy theorists, say they are a bad thing for the country, but they don’t know what to do about it. The fight for the U.S. presidency is being taken to bitter end by nay-sayers who do not believe in democracy.
So, what is the difference between conspiracy theorists and Santa promoters? Santa is a benevolent jolly man who brings presents and fulfills wishes. He’s fair, and only rewards the good children, bringing coal to the bad. In the United States 85% of five-year-old children believe Santa exists, stopping by the age of eight.
Some psychologists say that believing in him is harmful because it asks children to suspend critical thinking and encourages them to consume false ideas. Other experts consider it harmless to let children believe that if they are good they will be rewarded, and is innocent fun for parents who get a kick out of surprising little ones with magic on Christmas morn.
I’ve come to believe the Santa story more harmful than good after realizing so many people don’t know how to separate truth from fiction. Santa doesn’t care if the child believes in him or not. Kids can enjoy fantasizing about him as a storybook character as much as they have fun imagining the Grinch stealing Christmas. They will still wake up with excitement and anticipation on Christmas morning ready to tear wrappings off gifts piled under the tree.
Whatever your beliefs, have a Merry Christmas and enjoy the holiday season. ____________________________________________________________________
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REFERENCES:
(2020) 5 facts about the QAnon conspiracy theories. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/03/30/qanons-conspiracy-theories-have-seeped-into-u-s-politics-but-most-dont-know-what-it-is/
Schlesinger,L.(2015) 5 Reasons Fantasizing is Good for you. Huffpost. retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/five-reasons-fantasizing-is-good-for-you_b_8060884#:~:text=Fantasies%20are%20comprised%20of%20your,might%20be%20thinking%20or%20feeling.&text=If%20we%20are%20overtaken%20by,room%20for%20relating%20with%20others.
DiResta,R (2020 Right-Wing Social Media Finalizes Its Divorce From Reality. The Atlantic. retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/right-wing-social-media-finalizes-its-divorce-reality/617177/
Giubilini,A. (2018) Should we Believe in Santa Claus? Practical Ethics, University of Oxford. retrieved from http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2018/12/should-we-believe-in-santa-claus/
