Unification Church, Conspiracy
"GROWING up, Sam Park always knew he was a 'Blessed Child,' but discovering his real father was the 'Second Coming of Christ' who 'owned the universe' was a lot to live with.
Especially since his dad, the founder of Unification Church – better known as The Moonies – was busy positioning himself as the Messiah who would save the world from hell.
This revelation was to have a damaging lifelong effect on Sam as he learnt how his Korean-born father, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, used the church to satisfy his voracious sexual appetite.
The cult leader indulged in group sex with his "Disciples" and made couples drink "Holy Wine", laced with his own semen, in mass wedding ceremonies.
There were also accusations that he brainwashed young, impressionable people drawn to the movement, looking for a purpose in life.
But even darker and more personal for Sam was the sexual abuse he received from the woman he later learnt was his biological mother, which began when he was just five years old.
"I am the product of the evilness that they hid and I'm not going to be silent about it anymore because it's destroyed my life," says Sam, who features in the documentary, The Moonies: Married to the Cult, which can be seen on Amazon Prime."
MIT Technology Review: How to help friends and family dig out of a conspiracy theory black hole
"Someone I know became a conspiracy theorist seemingly overnight.
It was during the pandemic, and out of nowhere, they suddenly started posting daily on Facebook about the dangers of COVID-19 vaccines and masks, warning of an attempt to control us and keep us in our places. The government had planned it all; it was part of a wider plot by a group of shadowy pedophile elites who ran the world. The World Economic Forum was involved in some way, and Bill Gates, natch. The claims seemed to get wilder by the day. I didn't always follow.
As a science and technology journalist, my duty was to respond. So I did, occasionally posting long debunking responses to their posts. Facts alone (uncertain as they were at the time) would help me win the argument. But all I got was derision. I was so naive, apparently. I eventually blocked this person for the sake of my own mental health.Over the years, I've often wondered: Could I have helped more? Are there things I could have done differently to talk them back down and help them see sense?
I should have spoken to Sander van der Linden, professor of social psychology in society at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of Foolproof, a book about misinformation and how we make ourselves less susceptible to it.
As part of MIT Technology Review's package on conspiracies, I gave him a call to ask: What would he advise if one of our family members or friends showed signs of having fallen down the rabbit hole?"
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