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Short abstract:

This article investigates the grievances and struggles for recognition underlying the anti-Western conspiracy theories concerning the 2023 natural disasters in Libya, Morocco, and Turkey/Syria. Interviews with local media professionals show post-colonial resentment and climate change frustrations.

Long abstract:

This academic article investigates the underlying sentiments of the anti-Western conspiracy theories following from the 2023 natural disasters in Libya (Sept 12), Morocco (Sept 9) and Turkey/Syria (Feb 6). In all these cases, widely circulating posts on social media pointed to HAARP as the cause of the disaster. The HAARP, or the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program, is a research facility in Alaska studying the ionosphere. HAARP has a history of being the subject of conspiracy theories, having been accused of both mind control and weather modification (e.g. Begich, 1995; Smith, 1998). The claims about HAARP's role in the MENA natural disasters of 2023 have been debunked by fact-checkers who relied on the expertise of several university professors (Haag, Sept 14, 2023; Haag, Sept 11, 2023; Cercone, Feb 15, 2023; Goel, Feb 8, 2023). However, none of the debunking articles mentioned the rationale motivating these conspiracy theories. Rather than rejecting these misinformation narratives based on their “objective” truth value, this article seeks to explore the grievances and struggles for recognition that are expressed in these narratives. Based on interviews with media professionals from the MENA region, the anti-Western conspiracy theories make sense of the natural disasters and thereby reflect (1) a distrust deriving from memories of the colonial era; and (2) frustrations with bearing the brunt of climate change for which industrial powers are mostly responsible. This assessment calls for rethinking scientific categories of truth, as well as suggests alternative approaches to managing misinformation than fact-checking and media literacy education.