Conspiracy Theories

I've mentioned early on that I have a strong distaste for conspiracy theories. They make people scared, and people do dumb things when they are scared. An extreme example would be the holocaust in Nazi Germany. The Jewish people have been the scapegoats throughout much of their history. I know of one Jewish person who summed up the Jewish holidays as, "they tried to kill us, we won, let's eat." Hitler was successful in blaming a Jewish conspiracy for all the world's problems, and with that... well, you know the rest.

I'd actually be really amused by many conspiracy theories if not for the dangers they presented. I've heard of one where the world is supposedly run by reptilian Illuminati shape-shifters from outer space. I've heard of chem trails - the theory that the trails some jets leave behind are chemicals aimed at eventually exterminating the human race, or that they are from the government doing secret experiments on us to see what happens when we're exposed to various chemical or biological agents. Then there's the theories about HAARP... the belief that this project secretly controls the weather and such like. More well known are the theories that 9/11 was an inside job, that Obama is a Muslim and not a US born citizen, and the still-enduring theories about the Jews trying to take over the world.

Don't misunderstand me - I am aware that the government has done some pretty shitty things, and that there have been some pretty scary real life conspiracies - the Tuskegee experiment, MK-ULTRA, Operation Northwoods, the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, STD experiments in Guatemala, and several others.

What I do ask however is that people question everything, including those who tell them to question everything. Just because someone comes up with a neat, dramatic, and scary sounding conspiracy theory doesn't make it true. Look at actual evidence. Don't just trust someone's word that it came from an insider. Look at science. Look at motivation. 

If someone tells you not to trust the mainstream media, ask why. The mainstream media, while far from perfect, at least has accountability. They can be biased, they can choose to report... but if they tell an outright lie, they can be held accountable. Us hacks with blogs though are another matter. I could tell you the sky is actually pink with purple polka-dots, but MK-ULTRA has us thinking it's blue... and no one could do anything about it, because 1) I have such a small fan-base as it stands (although strangely, this blog gets almost as many hits from Russia as it does from the US), 2) I'm fairly anonymous, 3) I'm probably dirt poor and therefore not worth suing, and 4) I don't claim to be the news.

The thing is that the internet does put all kinds of info at our fingertips, but a lot of it is false information. Make sure the information you get is from a reliable source, or can actually be backed up from a reliable source. Know the difference between news and commentary/opinion. And seriously, question everyone - especially those who tell you to question everyone.