Was there a plan to turn vaccine hesitancy into full blown covid conspiracism? Just asking questions.
Many of us will have the experience of loved ones being swept into social media algorithms and falling down rabbit holes, into the arms of harmful conspiracy peddlers. Suddenly, they’re spreading mirror world beliefs about government-induced democide of the population, nano-bots in the vaccine and one-world government plots. And it may have started with just a small doubt.
So how are people funnelled into these beliefs? Some groups use a technique called “Just Asking Questions” or “JAQing off.”
JAQing-off is disingenuous. It’s when a statement is framed as a question to create the appearance of being open minded and “just curious”
Questions can create doubt. You can imply things in a question without saying them outright. If you can create a discussion, you’ll have answers ready to suggest. And since you have created a bunch of online resources that answer the questions you pose, your conversation partner will be likely to find them if they answer the call to “do your own research.”
In New Zealand, conspiracy theory peddling anti-vaccine group Voices for Freedom (VFF) encourages its supporters to use the “just asking questions” approach. They are clear that the mainstream “wobbly middle” is their intended audience. Founder Libby says:
“We’re still trying to reach the wobbly middle of the people and the great unwashed… We’re trying to appeal to the wider range of New Zealanders who are just like, not really sure something doesn’t feel right.” – VFF Fireside Chats With Peter Canaday, Feb 13 2022
Friends and family members who are cautious about vaccines, for example, or distrustful of government institutions, are their prime target.
VFF are strikingly open about their recruitment strategy. They’re not sneaking around.
That’s the whole point of this is to grow this movement of people who are understanding what is happening in the country and the world. So that there are more of us to push back when crazy things happen. – VFF Lounge Edition Christmas Special 2023
Whether it’s QAnon, anti-vaccine or white supremacist ideals, conspiracy-minded folks are adept at presenting dangerous ideas in a more acceptable light, providing an attractive veneer to the absurd.
Researchers say disinformation is “being used as a kind of Trojan horse” to coax New Zealanders from vaccine hesitancy to vaccine resistance and then to the embrace of far-right ideologies from overseas, like white supremacy and extreme misogyny. We can see the transition from VFF to harder groups happening in New Zealand too.
Many observers of the parliament protest were shocked to witness the violence, death threats and presence of Qanon and Nazi imagery, revealing dark ideologies within the ‘freedom’ movement.
Simultaneously, people concerned about vaccine mandates were being recruited into the movement while they were vulnerable.
The best way to recruit according to VFF is “just asking questions.” This is better than going straight to nanobots in the vaccine.
“I think questions are good. I’m not always the best at that… I was telling the girls, you know, I’m the sort of person in relation to say this COVID, um MRNA, the the new vaccine type, I was telling my ex who said he’s gonna be first in line, he wants to be first in line to get this new vaccine. So I end up sort of telling him on the phone, you know, “but it’s got robots inside of it!” You know, it all goes out the window.” – VFF Lounge Edition Christmas Special 2023
By posing questions instead of advancing a claim, you’re invited into a conversation with someone who can then share their answers, answers which take you a bit further into the recruitment funnel.
They know that a full-noise approach can be off-putting.
Don’t be afraid to just drop a few… just ask some questions somewhere, I find it helpful to have my husband with me because he kicks me if he thinks I’m going too far. – VFF Voices For Freedom With Plan B, October 2021
And in this way, people can be introduced to “entry level” material that supposedly answers their questions and takes them further into the funnel.
“We’re going to try and do more short ones [videos] that you can share just to try and get your wobbly middle friends who you might be able to encourage to come and watch one of these webinars.
Maybe there’s somebody tonight it’s your first time, who are new to this and we have to remember that it’s like what we could do, the kind of webinars we could get right down the rabbit holes. We could do that and we kind of, you know, our own personal chats are a bit like that when we’re talking about things.
But the reason we’ve set up Voices for Freedom like this is from the very beginning, we wanted to do something different that hadn’t been done like this before in New Zealand, because we know that ultimately we need the numbers of people. And to do that we need to be an entry level great accessible group for people just starting to think about things.” – VFF Lounge Edition With Alia, Claire and Libby, 17 June 2022
Here’s an example of how it works.
It’s best to phrase what you would like to say as a question. So even if you already know the answer to something, if you put a question out,… if you say, like, you know, might be pasting on a Michael Baker thing, ‘Oh, I’m kind of confused. Michael, I just saw this expert overseas. Have you seen this study?’ … the thing is, if you post it as a question, you can share information in that way. But you’re not doing it in a way that’s immediately going to either get you banned by the page because they just don’t want to have you there. And you’re going to get the engagement of other people who might also ask, you know what, yeah, that’s funny, why is that? what’s going on with the all cause mortality? – VFF Freedom TV Lounge Edition How To Express Yourself Online with Natalie Cutler-Welsh, 31 August 2022
Several interesting things are going on here.
- It’s a conversational opener. Like how spruikers or chuggers on the street ask questions to try and get you engaged
- It gently implies something nefarious is happening by not supplying the straightforward answer (vaccination against COVID 19 is not associated with excess mortality, but covid is)
- The questioner is acting in bad faith. They are posing as curious and open minded but already “know” the answer. The purpose of JAQing off is to introduce it into the conversation.their
- If the answer is informed by VFF or one of its “overseas experts”, the answer is likely to be misinformation.
So if you’re wondering why your mild-mannered auntie said she wants politicians to be executed for a “vaccine genocide” or uncle Bob has started spouting racist nonsense about “muslim invaders”, groups like VFF could be to blame.
They’re explaining to us quite clearly, exactly how they are duping your friends and family in the wobbly middle. They’re just asking questions. Leading questions, that could take them into a strange and potentially dangerous world.
