Waleed Aly halts co-host Kate Langbroek’s wild conspiracy take
Waleed Aly is no stranger to making headlines for his work on The Project, but a debate with co-host Kate Langbroek has brought him back for perhaps the most bizarre reason yet.
On Tuesday night, Langbroek argued the merits of those who believe that walkable 15-minute cities are, as described by those deepest in the conspiracy, “a cynical ploy by climate obsessed autocracies bent on control”.
Conspiracy theorists are under the impression that the concept of a 15-minute city is actually a ploy for government control, and though that couldn’t be further from the truth, Kate Langbroek had plenty to say about it.
As RMIT’s Associate Professional in International Planning Marco Amati explained, “the 15 minute city is actually about getting people to - or enabling basically - walking and active travel to shops, schools, and basically places that they want to go.
“Many Australian cities face a challenge of how to create community, how to build walkable suburbs really quickly, so that they are as liveable and as enjoyable as inner-city areas.”
As the show’s summary on the topic came to an end, Langbroek mused, “mm, you know I love a conspiracy.”
When asked if the panel believed in this one, she said “I don’t know about you, but I have been locked down by governments recently.”
Langbroek was likely referencing the COVID-19 lockdowns across Australia in recent years, something that experts worldwide may have something to do with the traction this particular conspiracy has gained across the globe.
“So, I’m like, it’s kind of an easy thing to go ‘oh, conspiracy theorists’, however, let us just remember that in the 16 hundreds, a guy called Galileo was put in jail and I think died in jail because he said the Earth went around the sun,” she went on.
“Oh, well, that’s that then!” Aly responded.
“Okay,” Langbroek said, “well, because that at the time was considered to be heresy, and now we know it to be the truth.”
“That’s not a conspiracy,” Waleed pointed out.
“It was then, Waleed!” Langbroek argued.
“What was the conspiracy?”
“The conspiracy was that what he believed was wrong, what he was telling people was wrong.”
While Aly acknowledged that he heard what she was saying and could see where she was coming from with that point, Langbroek had more to say on the matter, cutting him off before he could finish his thought.
“I just feel increasingly like there’s a battle for control of people,” she said. “Clearly. Everywhere you go, there are cameras. Everywhere you go.
“I just don’t think that conspiracy theorists in some cases are that crazy.”
In a desperate bid to defuse the situation, co-host Sarah Harris tried to inject some humour, saying, “but that bird thing’s pretty crazy, right? All birds are robots?”
“I don’t know about all of them, Sarah,” Langbroek powered on, “but I do know birds have got tiny little brains capable of anything.”
“Easily influenced like the sheep,” she said, before emitting an uncanny bleat.
“I guess the case has been made,” Aly answered, before Langbroek went on to ask the panel if they understood why conspiracy theorists are feeling the way they are.
“I get the idea that people are losing trust in the government,” Aly allowed, striving to bring an end to the bizarre conversation. “But the problem is, the logical extension of that, is that any time someone comes up with something that might be a good idea, we’ll just want to kill it because we’ll decide it’s a conspiracy somehow.”
“You agree with me then?” Langbroek asked.
“No,” Aly didn’t miss a beat in stating, “I don’t.”
Images: Network Ten