During a recent episode of The Project, host Waleed Aly clashed with Kate Langbroek on air after she spoke about conspiracy theories.
It all began with a segment about ‘15 minute cities’ (a city where all necessities like grocery shops, GPs, dentists, schools, TAFEs, etc. are located within a 15-minute walk from peoples’ homes) and how some conspiracy theorists believe that 15-minute cities are a way for the government to easily monitor people and potentially keep them from ever leaving their city.
WATCH: Waleed Aly disagrees with Kate Langbroek on The Project
Kate chimed in immediately and said, “You know I love a conspiracy theory.” And when she was asked whether she bought into this one, she hesitated before saying:
“Um, well I don’t know about you, but I have been locked down by governments recently. So, I’m like, it’s kind of easy to go, ‘Oh conspiracy theorists,’ however, let us just remember that in the 1600s, a guy called Galileo was put in jail and, I think, died in jail because he said the Earth went around the sun.”
Waleed immediately replied, “Oh, well that’s that then,” in an extremely sarcastic tone.
Kate then explained herself further and said that Galileo’s theory was a conspiracy during his time and so he was punished for it even though we now know that he was correct.
In response, Waleed admitted, “I can see what you’re saying” before adding, “I feel like it’s a slightly different argument”.
Not one to lay down, Kate argued, “I don’t think conspiracy theorists, in some cases, are that crazy.”
Ultimately, Waleed said, “I get the idea that people are losing trust in government and things like that, and I get that. But the problem is the logical extension of that is any time someone comes up with what might be a good idea, we’ll just want to kill it because we’ll decide it’s a conspiracy somehow.”
“Well, you agree with me then,” Kate replied.
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Instantly, Waleed shut Kate down and said, “No, I don’t agree with you!”
Kate joked, “You’re saying, ‘We,’” before Sam Taunton diffused the situation by bringing up Harry Styles and then smoothly moving the show along to the next segment, which involved the As It Was singer.
But we can’t help but wonder if Waleed would’ve argued his point further if he wasn’t interrupted by Sam…
