In each edition of web_crawlr we have exclusive original content every day. On Mondays our Tech Reporter Mikael Thalen debunks the most wild conspiracy theories swirling around the web in his “One Dumb Conspiracy” column. If you want to read columns like this before everyone else, subscribe to web_crawlr to get your daily scoop of internet culture delivered straight to your inbox.
Has celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay severed ties with a multinational food company in order to stop a conspiracy aimed at forcing the world to eat bugs? That’s what conspiracy theorists think.
In a post on Facebook this month, a page known as “America – Love It Or Leave It” (ALIOLI)” issued a thank you to Ramsay for allegedly resigning from his role as spokesperson for Tyson Foods. The reason? The company was supposedly planning to introduce bugs into their products.
“Thanks for that, chef,” ALIOLI wrote.
Despite the post itself not providing any source for the claim, users in the comments celebrated nonetheless.
“It’s astonishing that the food companies think we would go for such a thing in the first place!?” one user said.
“Thank you for sharing,” another Facebook user added. “I don’t eat much meat and that’s why I appreciated this greatly and for standing up and speaking out.”
The false claim is being spread to other social media platforms as well and derives from a conspiracy theory that claims the global elite plan to force the public to eat bugs.
“This is just the beginning…. They as in Bill Gates…. Are already trying to replace our meat sources to fake meat,” one garbled comment read.
While government bodies have pointed to bugs as a cheap source of protein, especially for food-stricken areas, there is no global plan to forcibly replace meat, or any other type of food for that matter, with bugs.
People are falling for a fake post about Gordon Ramsay protesting bugs in food
Yet a quick glance at the bio for ALIOLI shows that the group openly admits to posting satirical content.
“A subsidiary of the America’s Last Line of Defense network of trollery,” the bio says. “Nothing on this page is real.”
Perhaps most incredibly, ALIOI even went as far as to comment on their own post to let users know that it was fake. Nevertheless, most users don’t seem to have noticed.
“You heard it here first, patriots. And second, And third. And then fourth. Or so,” the page commented. “Chef Gordon Ramsay, who has nothing to do with an American processed chicken conglomerate, won’t stand for bugs in food.”
“God bless you, fictional chef Ramsay, for sanding up against… chickens?” ALIOI said in closing. “And God Bless America.”
Other posts on the page, although satirical, appear to touch upon topics that are most likely to rile up and fool right-wing conspiracy theorists. For example, countless posts claim that Hollywood icons such as Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, and Jon Voight have created an “anti-woke” film studio in order to take on Hollywood.
Why it matters
Even though ALIOI openly labels its content as satire, the stories continue to trick conspiracy theorists all over the internet.
The issue shows that while such labels, notifications, and fact-checks are important, teaching a significant portion of the public to be critical of the information they come across is still a struggle.
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