Conspiracy Theories
Dear Editor: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists posted a May 2 on-line article that was a survey, analysis, and proposed explanation regarding the apparent growing propensity of an increasing number of Americans to take “conspiracy theories” seriously, particularly in this age of “post-truth” alternative facts, fake news, and alt-fake news: “Has the Deep State hoodwinked Trump?” (Source: http://thebulletin.org/has-deep-state-hoodwinked-trump10730 .)
As regards whether or not some “Deep State” is trumping Trump and Trumpatismo, it might be a good place to start – in considering why so many more folks seem to be so more prone to believe in conspiracies and their theorists – to start just by looking at some MSM headlines over the past 50 years, and to ask a few pointedly impertinent questions.
“America is Attacked in the Tonkin Gulf by North Vietnam.” It turns out that that did not, in fact, actually happen. Was this just a simple, little lie this government told to the nation and the world? Or was it part of a conspiracy to get us into a little war down in the tropics?
“This Nation is doing Nothing to help the Contras.” Was this not exposed as a conspiracy conceived, crafted, resourced, and run from and by the highest levels of that same government?
“Kuwaiti Babies in Incubators Were Killed By Iraqi Troops.” Another lie. Perhaps part of a conspiracy to get a full U.S. military presence in the Middle East, something we’d been trying to do since the end of World War II?
And, who could forget “Saddam has Weapons of Mass Destruction?’’ Just another intelligence blunder, or perhaps part of an even bigger conspiracy perhaps begun ten years earlier in Moscow and Kuwait?
Other headlines that come to mind include: “Without the Bank Bailout, This Economy Is Going Down”; “The United States government is not surveilling American citizens’ cell phones...”; and of course, “al-Qaeda did 9/11, and We have Proof.”
One manifestation of paranoia is the suspicion that there are conspiracies afoot that will bring you – and all that is important to you – to harm.
What is it called when the evidence of the historical record demonstrates quite clearly that there HAVE been conspiracies all over the place all along, and that, by them, a lot of people and places have been brought to great harm, indeed? And not just Americans.
JG Moebus,
Veterans Against War, Sitka Platoon
