Plans for a more walkable, bikeable Oxford anger conspiracy theorists
WHEN CONSPIRACY THEORISTS UNITE
Sometimes two extremist political factions — each with their own set of conspiracy mythologies — meet on the picket lines and merge, creating a hybrid Frankenstein’s monster of a fringe group. We saw it happen when the Reichsburger conspiracy theorists who believe that Germany should go back to the monarchy of the 1870s met up with anti-vaccine adherents during the pandemic. Both groups were out campaigning against the Covid lockdown — and it was a sort of a conspiracy theorist meet-cute.
This week, two groups I’ve been covering separately for a while got together: the anti-bike brigade and the QAnon, New World Order, anti-vaccine adherents. It would almost be heartwarming if it wasn’t so disturbing.
The anti-bike movement, which I wrote about in November, is furious about the transformation of European cities into green, low-emission zones where they can’t drive their cars. Meanwhile, the QAnon types are convinced that the world is in the midst of a “great reset” and that we will soon all be confined to our homes in a permanent lockdown.
So when the historic British city of Oxford introduced a new plan to make the center of town more walkable and bikeable, both groups kicked off. The city council proposed creating more “15-minute neighborhoods” — an urban planning term that aims to develop cityscapes where everything you need is a quarter-hour walk away and where cars become redundant for shorter journeys. But the two groups saw the plan as a dystopian ploy to keep us all locked inside.