I used to imagine an evil satanic cabal was orchestrating all of the world’s atrocities from 9/11 to mass shootings. Now I am convincing different conspiracy theorists how improper they’re

For 15 years, Brent Lee believed the world was run by a shadowy evil cabal of paedophiles orchestrating virtually each atrocity from 9/11 to mass shootings.

However now the 44-year-old works to fight disinformation and says he’s ‘completely obsessed’ with difficult the wild theories he as soon as wholeheartedly believed.

The self-labelled ‘recovering conspiracist’ says he used to imagine politicians carried out ritual sacrifices and that terrorist assaults had been government-orchestrated.

However in 2018, he started to query his worldview when the ‘alt-right’ US broadcaster Alex Jones started claiming that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary College capturing was pretend.

The ex-truther noticed theories that nobody died and the mother and father of the 20 kids who died had been actors and thought it was ‘implausible’.

That was the start of the tip for his perception within the wild ‘various’ explanations on the web.

Now, he appears to be like again at his earlier beliefs finds it ‘humorous’, evaluating it to believing in Santa Claus. 

However he warns that the truther group spreading disinformation may be harmful, and instructed the Times how ‘conspiracy influencers’ like Russell Brand say they’re ‘anti-establishment’ however are actually simply spreading conspiracy theories.

Brent Lee works to fight disinformation and says he’s ‘completely obsessed’ with difficult the wild theories he as soon as wholeheartedly believed. Credit score: Brent Lee

In 2018, The 44-year-old started to query his worldview when the ‘alt-right’ US broadcaster Alex Jones started claiming that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary College capturing was pretend. Credit score: HC Podcast

Bristol-based Mr Lee, who shall be addressing a convention in Poland on disinformation this month, instructed the Guardian: ‘I felt, I can not take care of listening to this any extra as a result of it is now not what I imagine, so I simply logged off the web.’

He added: ‘Do not attempt to get me to make it make sense as a result of it would not. That is why I get so embarrassed about what I believed.’

In 2003, Mr Lee was 24 and dealing behind the until in a storage in Peterborough when he began watching movies that supplied various views on 9/11.

The movies mentioned the assaults had been orchestrated by the US authorities as a approach of justifying navy motion in Afghanistan and Iraq. 

Earlier than he turned a conspiracy theorist, he held a robust anti-war stance and a skepticism about politicians’ motivations, however later believed {that a} community of secret societies and cults was operating the world.

The previous conspiracy theorist used to imagine evil politicians had been performing satanic and morbid rituals. Credit score: Brent Lee

Mr Lee mentioned he was ashamed of contributing to the unfold of misinformation however he did not intend to lie. Credit score: Brent Lee

 Talking on the HCPod podcast, he mentioned: ‘Inside a couple of years I used to be considering that all the world was run by a secret society or a cult. That they had been making an attempt to lift the Antichrist. That we had been continuously underneath black magic to maintain us in line.’

One of many theories he believed was {that a} secret pupil society at Yale College which George W Bush and Democrat John Kerry had been members of – Skull and Bones – carried out satanic rituals.

This led him to suppose there are evil politicians performing satanic and morbid rituals.

He defined: ‘As soon as you’ve got been swayed by these arguments, it is easy to simply maintain happening the rabbit gap, discovering extra dots to attach.

‘After you have such a skewed view of the world, you may be satisfied of different stuff.’

‘If I am laughing at conspiracy theorists, it is as a result of I am laughing at myself.

‘It’s humorous – that you simply’re adults who imagine in Santa Claus or one thing equally ridiculous.’

Mr Lee mentioned he wasn’t taught the best way to analysis and fact-check info and that would have led to his rabbit gap of other theories. 

When the 2005 7/7 assaults occurred in London, he examined footage of the attackers and determined photos had been Photoshopped earlier than being launched by the police. 

He spent months constructing an alternate clarification for the assaults and running a blog about it.

Mr Lee mentioned he was ashamed of contributing to the unfold of misinformation concerning the assaults, however he did not intend to lie.

He wished justice for the victims however admitted that he was improper. 

Mr Lee started to query his worldview when the US broadcaster Alex Jones started claiming that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary College capturing was pretend.

He learn that nobody died and the mother and father of the 20 kids who died had been actors.

However Mr Lee discovered this unrealistic and began to really feel aggravated by different wild theories swirling across the web.

He mentioned he noticed theories that Justin Bieber and Eminem had been Illuminati clones, and {that a} paedophile ring, involving high-level Democratic politicians, was working out of a pizza restaurant.

However he thought ‘properly that is simply silly.’

That was the start of Mr Lee crawling out of his conspiracy theorist gap. 

He now works in a manufacturing unit and spends his lunch breaks and free time analysing conspiracy theories on-line.

However as an alternative of fueling the misinformation, he’s making an attempt to fight it.

The ex-truther has now been ostracised by his former on-line group due to his efforts to discredit the wild theories floating round.

He mentioned he wished to carry folks out of the rabbit gap however it backfired and his on-line group of ‘truthers’ have since handled him as a pariah.

However he instructed the BBC that the help from others has helped him address the lack of buddies.

He mentioned: ‘It has given me an entire new lease of life – I wasn’t anticipating folks exterior of the truther group to wish to hear what I needed to say.

‘Individuals discovered it helpful listening to from somebody who believed that stuff and why they believed it – placing issues into context actually helps folks perceive.

‘That is what I discovered with conspiracy theories, placing the theories into context helps dismantle them.’