> if other countries have the same levels of conspiracy theory belief as the United States?
From what I am aware of, at least in western Europe a lot of new fake stories indeed have their origin directly from the internet and English speaking sources.
It's that bad: even different politicians, who theoretically should have some people in charge of checking what they should talk about, repeat publicly things that they probably get from the internet.
Additionally, I'm aware of more than one medical practitioner also spreading misinformation about the pandemics, obviously also after reading initially English-originated fake stories.
Internet is more powerful than most would like to accept in spreading false beliefs internationally.
"BERLIN — Thousands of protesters, some waving flags with the symbol of the QAnon conspiracy movement, gathered in the German capital Berlin on Saturday to demonstrate against social restrictions in place due to the coronavirus pandemic."
A report from the Switzerland (German, the relevant part translated to English follows):
"It was hardly a coincidence that QAnon fanatics marched publicly for the first time in Switzerland in May. The big Q on T-shirts and signs was omnipresent at the corona demos of radical anti-vaccination opponents and right-wing esotericists in Bern and Zurich.
Celebrities also acted as a fire accelerator for the growing movement in Europe: vegan chef Attila Hildmann, musician Xavier Naidoo and pop singer Robbie Williams. They all spread QAnon propaganda. Xavier Naidoo said in a Telegram video: “I've slowly been able to put the puzzle together. Because that is an industry, a huge industry that tortures and murders children. " Now one could dismiss these horror stories as outrageous nonsense if the story did not have concrete consequences. Because radicalization on the internet is increasingly leading to real violence."
"The politician in this video is Italian Parliament Member Sara Cunial. She’s part of Italy’s “5 Star Movement,” a political party that has been blamed for a rise of measles in Italy after pushing an anti-vaccination agenda. Cunial, who was briefly suspended from the party in 2018 after likening vaccines to “free genocide” in a Facebook post, was fined in April 2020 for violating one of the country’s shelter-in place policies to visit a beach. (Cunial claims she was never fined.)
Cunial’s speech before the Italian Parliament hit on a number of popular (and discredited) conspiracy theories regarding COVID-19. For instance, she linked the spread of the disease to the rise of 5G technology, claimed that Gates was working to de-populate the world, and said that the “ID2020” coalition was working to secretly implement digital microchips via mandatory vaccines."
Edit:
The link to the second article by Robert Guffey on Salon:
From what I am aware of, at least in western Europe a lot of new fake stories indeed have their origin directly from the internet and English speaking sources.
It's that bad: even different politicians, who theoretically should have some people in charge of checking what they should talk about, repeat publicly things that they probably get from the internet.
Additionally, I'm aware of more than one medical practitioner also spreading misinformation about the pandemics, obviously also after reading initially English-originated fake stories.
Internet is more powerful than most would like to accept in spreading false beliefs internationally.
Just an example, a report from Turkey about that:
https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/why-the-far-right-conspira...
stating:
"Websites, pages, social media groups and accounts have appeared in the UK, Germany, France, and Italy, and are gathering a large following."
In Germany, covered by NBC:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/qanon-supporters-join-tho...
"BERLIN — Thousands of protesters, some waving flags with the symbol of the QAnon conspiracy movement, gathered in the German capital Berlin on Saturday to demonstrate against social restrictions in place due to the coronavirus pandemic."
A report from the Switzerland (German, the relevant part translated to English follows):
https://www.blick.ch/news/schweiz/das-fbi-stuft-sie-als-terr...
"It was hardly a coincidence that QAnon fanatics marched publicly for the first time in Switzerland in May. The big Q on T-shirts and signs was omnipresent at the corona demos of radical anti-vaccination opponents and right-wing esotericists in Bern and Zurich.
Celebrities also acted as a fire accelerator for the growing movement in Europe: vegan chef Attila Hildmann, musician Xavier Naidoo and pop singer Robbie Williams. They all spread QAnon propaganda. Xavier Naidoo said in a Telegram video: “I've slowly been able to put the puzzle together. Because that is an industry, a huge industry that tortures and murders children. " Now one could dismiss these horror stories as outrageous nonsense if the story did not have concrete consequences. Because radicalization on the internet is increasingly leading to real violence."
In Italy:
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/italy-bill-gates-arrest/
"The politician in this video is Italian Parliament Member Sara Cunial. She’s part of Italy’s “5 Star Movement,” a political party that has been blamed for a rise of measles in Italy after pushing an anti-vaccination agenda. Cunial, who was briefly suspended from the party in 2018 after likening vaccines to “free genocide” in a Facebook post, was fined in April 2020 for violating one of the country’s shelter-in place policies to visit a beach. (Cunial claims she was never fined.)
Cunial’s speech before the Italian Parliament hit on a number of popular (and discredited) conspiracy theories regarding COVID-19. For instance, she linked the spread of the disease to the rise of 5G technology, claimed that Gates was working to de-populate the world, and said that the “ID2020” coalition was working to secretly implement digital microchips via mandatory vaccines."
Edit:
The link to the second article by Robert Guffey on Salon:
https://www.salon.com/2020/08/23/the-deep-twisted-roots-of-q...
From there, writing about one writer of fiction:
"To Shaver's credit, he never tried to base a church on his theories."
Another writer of fiction however actually did base a church on his own weird texts:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenu