2023's Word of the Year: Conspiracy

Steve McAlpine takes a look at our trend towards conspiracy theories and wonders where it will take us in the coming year. 

2022's word of the year was 'gaslighting' and it seems we are set up for a darker shade of deceit in 2023 now that everyone is increasingly committed to only searching for the news they want to hear.

The death of six people in Queensland as the year comes to a close demonstrates how dangerous conspiracy theories can be. 

But such disturbing events are a result of our increasing tendency to seek information online that conforms to what we already believe and confirms the directions in which we want to go.

Yet Steve says truth can still exist in our public forums, but it relies not on the mass revelation of some dark secret, but the communication of a single man.