Do you ever feel like you’re surrounded by conspiracy theorists? Or maybe becoming one yourself?
These days, it seems I’m always either scrambling down a dark rabbit hole or clinging to higher ground by my fingernails. I never want to get too comfy in a tin foil hat – perish the thought! – but putting my head in the sand seems equally unappealing. To paraphrase the old adage about paranoia: Just because you’re a conspiracy theorist doesn’t mean there are no conspiracies.
I saw a meme on Facebook the other day reading: “The only difference between a conspiracy theory and a conspiracy is about six months.”
Frankly, six months may be a generous assessment. I’ve noticed that it often takes the NY Times at least a year, usually more, to turn a “conspiracy theory” into “news,” lending legitimacy to what alternative sources – and, heck, regular people on social media – have been saying for ages, only to be branded conspiracy theorists.
For instance, it’s now officially kosher to discuss the possibility that Covid came from a lab leak. (Though I’m not sure it’s kosher to say “kosher” anymore.) It’s also fine – now – to say that lockdowns were damaging to children’s education, and even that the Covid vaccines have had some harmful side effects. The NY Times and other mainstream sources have finally come around, so you’re no longer a “conspiracy theorist” for voicing these possibilities aloud.
The same goes for the suggestion that Joe Biden just might be too old for another four-year term as president. Until a few short weeks ago, that, too, was supposedly a figment of the far right’s fevered imagination, perpetuated by “cheap fakes” and Russian bots … much like Hunter Biden’s laptop. Or something?
According to recent polls, public trust in American institutions is at an all-time low, and that includes the media. (Actually, the media are held in particularly low esteem.) It’s not that surprising, really, since in order to gain trust, you must be trustworthy. When our public institutions repeatedly fail to tell us the truth in a timely manner – no matter their intentions – trust erodes.
In a stroke of uncanny timing, while I was noodling on this column – I typically noodle for several days – a Facebook memory appeared on my feed, something I’d written two years ago. It reminded me that I’ve been fretting about this low-trust situation for a while now.
On July 12, 2022, I wrote: “I’m torn between my conviction that Americans desperately need a common narrative – or at least a few common facts – and my certainty that censorship is rampant and the media, increasingly lame. I dutifully read my NY Times every morning, but I can’t ignore the fact that they’re consistently telling me things I learned AGES ago, from sources they label “conspiracy theorists” or “dissidents” or “radicals” or – most horrible of horribles – “conservative.” (How weird is it that conservatives are the dissidents and radicals today?) The Times merely gives these stories and opinions – the ones I’ve already read and formed – the veneer of social acceptability, and they’re always late to the party. So why am I paying for this subscription? Because I still care about the common narrative! How does our country survive without one? Is anybody out there just reporting the facts – as they come to light – without a righteous (in their minds) agenda steering the narrative? Wish I were la-la-la enough to ignore this gargantuan conundrum, but I’m not. ‘Go along to get along’ is something I simply can’t stomach.”
(Ironically, I had set this FB post to “only me,” which means nobody ever saw it. Apparently, I got those thoughts off my chest, then decided they were too controversial to share publicly. In other words, I went along to get along.)
But despite corporate media’s repeated failures to earn my trust – not to mention those institutions on whom they report, or don’t – I still stop short of seeing conspiracies around every corner. Maybe it’s just my nature, but I tend to lean toward Hanlon’s razor as an explanation for much of what others spin conspiracy theories around:
“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” Or incompetence. Or peer pressure. Or natural bias. Or buck-passing.
Another meme I saw on FB recently made this bold claim: “There are two types of people in this world. People who think the government is looking out for their best interest and people who think.”
That binary set-up didn’t sit right with me. In fact, it ruffled my feathers – and not just because I believe there are way more than two types of people in the world.
Fortunately, someone had left a comment beneath the meme: “Actually, there are three types of people. Those who think the government is looking out for their best interest, those who think the government is a deep state conspiracy, and those who think.”
That one hit the spot.
Yet another meme that’s been making the rounds was created by somebody called The Healing Doc. I think he was referring to the Covid vaccine when he wrote: “Once you understand that the ‘solution’ wasn’t created to solve the ‘problem,’ but the ‘problem’ was intentionally created for the ‘solution’ to be rolled out – then you will comprehend the magnitude of evil in the people behind everything.”
Really, Healing Doc?
I just don’t see the world that way. Not only because I don’t want to, but because I literally CAN’T. Call me naïve – you wouldn’t be the first – but the idea that the people “behind everything” are EVIL – in magnitudes far greater than the rest of us – just doesn’t ring true to me.
In my experience, most people in positions of responsibility are trying to do good work. But sometimes, big screw-ups occur – like a deadly virus escaping a lab, for instance – because people are imperfect. And then those same imperfect people try to fix the problems they’ve created, mostly in good faith, but inevitably, more screw-ups occur, because . . . people. And yes, some people have various baser motivations – money, prestige, power, ass-covering – which is why institutions have checks and balances in place. Sometimes, even those fail, because once that cycle of screwing it up/fixing it begins, all manner of self-protective survival instincts kick in.
Still, I believe there are plenty of people out there sincerely trying to do the right thing. I know too many of them not to believe that.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m certain evil plays a part in human affairs – that goes without saying – but somebody’s going to have to show me a lot more evidence to convince me that the “problem” of Covid was intentionally unleashed on the world so a secret cabal of exceptionally evil people could create a “solution.” That’s just too diabolical a concept for me to contemplate.
Just as I was finishing this column, news came that Donald Trump had been shot at a campaign rally. Within 10 minutes, several of my friends – the ones most likely to accuse others of being “conspiracy theorists” – were publicly asserting that the assassination attempt, which damn near succeeded, was a set-up orchestrated by . . . Donald Trump.
See how easy it is to go there, guys?
Text me if you need instructions on how to make a tin foil hat. That’s easy, too.
