From CNN
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a chemtrail? A new conspiracy theory finds traction at Kennedy’s HHS
By Stephanie Armour
While plowing a wheat field in rural Washington state in the 1990s, William Wallace spotted a gray plane overhead that he believed was releasing chemicals to make him sick. The rancher began to suspect that all white vapor trails from aircraft might be dangerous.
He shared his concern with reporters, acknowledging it sounded a little like “The X Files,” a science fiction television show.
Academics cite Wallace’s story as one of the catalysts behind a fringe concept that has spread among adherents to the Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, movement and is gaining traction at the highest levels of the federal government. Its treatment as a serious issue underscores that under President Donald Trump, unscientific ideas have unusual power to take hold and shape public health policy...
“When we have low access to information or low trust in our sources of information, a lot of times we turn to our peer groups, the groups we are members of and we define ourselves by,” said Timothy Tangherlini, a folklorist and professor of information at the University of California-Berkeley. He added that the government’s investigation of conspiracy theories “gives the impression of having some authoritative element...”
Timothy R. Tangherlini is a Professor in the Dept. of Scandinavian and in the School of Information.
