Apropos of nothing (a lovely phrase that makes me seem smarter than I is) I wanted to elucidate further on the way I think. Quite why anyone should care, I know not, but I find conspiracy theories absolutely fascinating. I don't really believe that, for instance, the moon landings were faked, aliens live under New Mexico, shape shifting lizards control the monarchy, or that 9/11 was an inside job/the whole New World Order shebang. Though of course to say there aren't conspiracies would be disingenuous - the plot to fly planes into the twin towers was a terrorist conspiracy after all. Just not the same thing that the 'truthers' believe, who, I've noticed, tend to conflate a lot of ideas: new age and occult themes and symbols (the Tower card from the tarot i've seen used to 'predict' 9/11) for instance the Mayan prophecies concerning this year.
All this fascinates me. There's a channel, on Sky freesat (at least), devoted to all this stuff. Edge Media it's called. It's got an amateurish feel to a lot of the productions, but that lends it a particular charm which I find appealing. It seems earnest, even though it panders to all the usual suspects as well as new agey stuff like ghosthunting and lightwork. Perhaps it's cruel to say, but it's good viewing. They went off air for a while, lack of sponsors, but have managed over the last year, I gather, to reappear. Frankly I don't think they'll last again, but who knows maybe there are some big donors in the conspiracy movement willing to subsidise it all.
We live in deeply uncertain and unsettling times: just look at the headlines of the first few days of this year. Certainly the media colludes with the ruling elite to propagate a certain agenda. That agenda has the left and true liberal thinkers in an almost complete stranglehold. We are told that money is scarce, but we can also print it on demand to hand over to the banks for them to further gamble on things as intrinsic to human existence as food prices. We know that governments hide things - and sometimes with good reason (at least I can give that notion the benefit of the doubt). Curiously, many years ago, I saw a programme about the Bilderberger Group who are synonymous with conspiracy theories over the past century (some cabal of the rich, powerful and influential). There was a group of cameramen and conspiracy followers camped like paparazzi outside the hotel where the group was apparently holding it's latest meet. They managed to film members as they were shuffled onto waiting coaches to take them...somewhere, and there, in full view like a rabbit in the headlights, at the back of one of the coaches was Peter Mandelsson!
Whether that has any intrinsic meaning, I don't know. He meets people all the time (just as George Osbourne). He also seemed to have a curious influence, over the last decade, over the Labour party, rising like Dracula to his brides to do whatever it is he does. Makes you think at least.
So it's no wonder these views take root in people. being a member of the 'truth club' has all sorts of appeal: you are with like minded people and you are at the forefront or cutting edge of something ostensibly positive. But the bitter truth is that a lot of these people will refuse to countenance evidence simply because it comes from sources as mistrusted as the status quo. This is the legacy of our politics: liars and crooks have become the boys and girls that cried wolf once to often. They have forfeit their credibility through their own failings and so the truth about 9/11 is believed not to be the failing of US intelligence and the effectiveness of Jihadi terrorism, but a wholly implausible government conspiracy. All sorts of fallacious arguments are used as evidence for these theories while similar logic is criticised in the official line. The hypocrisy is unfortunate.
People need to belong. They want to feel they are doing something positive or at least living that way - or just saving a few bucks (after all, why spend money investing in solar panels, fancy lightbulbs etc when global warming is a conspiracy?). As I said, I don't believe these theories, by and large, but I wouldn't turn someone away if they wanted to show me evidence that disproved the official line. But then I wouldn't assume that, because they claimed to have evidence, it would be valid. If we lose trust completely, we might as well give up. Besides, I admire anyone that questions things. We must always question.
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