Disaster Trolls: 8. I Was a Conspiracy Theorist... Get Me Out of Here!
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BBC
2.8 • 947 Ratings
🗓️ 30 October 2022
⏱️ 15 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Brent has disavowed the toxic conspiracy theories he helped create about the 7/7 London terror attacks. But what will happen when he meets a survivor?
After years down the rabbit hole, Brent has severed his ties with the conspiracy world which has dominated much of his adult life. He recalls helping to shape false claims that the 7/7 London terror attacks in July 2005 were “false flag” operations staged by sinister forces in the government. But now he is trying to make amends.
Paul was seriously injured in those attacks, and has also suffered as a result of the sort of conspiracy theories that Brent used to propagate. Marianna brings the two men together for a conversation.
In this BBC Radio 4 podcast series, Marianna Spring, the BBC’s disinformation and social media correspondent, investigates how survivors of terrorist attacks are targeted with online abuse and false claims that deny the reality of the traumatic events they have lived through.
Across this series - and in this episode - there are graphic descriptions of violence.
Presenter: Marianna Spring Producer: Ant Adeane Editor: Ed Main
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A group of men ran in with machetes. |
| 0:03.8 | I'm Livy Haydock, and from BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 5 Live, |
| 0:08.6 | this is gangster, the story of Georgie Pye. |
| 0:13.2 | The scene of the killing near a Chinese bookshop is being flooded with detectives. |
| 0:17.0 | Welcome to the world of the triads. |
| 0:19.6 | If the triads are coming out of you, you're done. |
| 0:21.5 | Where loyalty is sworn in blood. |
| 0:24.8 | Gangster, the story of Georgie Pye. |
| 0:27.6 | Listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:31.4 | BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts. |
| 0:35.9 | I am now recording, sweet. |
| 0:38.8 | This is Brent Lee. |
| 0:40.6 | I'm a former conspiracist of 15 years between the years 2003 and 2018. |
| 0:47.4 | During those 15 years, he didn't just believe in conspiracy theories. |
| 0:51.8 | He also played an active role in creating them. In particular, the false |
| 0:56.6 | idea that the terrorist attacks in London on July the 7th, 2005, had been orchestrated |
| 1:02.8 | by the British state. I was there to date that we created the 7-7 conspiracy theory just |
| 1:08.4 | out of the ether. |
| 1:18.6 | Across this series, we've been looking at people who target survivors online in the aftermath of horrific events like terror attacks. |
| 1:21.6 | To understand how obscene these lies are and the tactics used to further them, |
| 1:26.6 | we'll be hearing from those |
| 1:27.8 | who've survived the very worst. |
... |
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