Conspiracy Theories Not What They Used to Be?

“Even Conspiracy Theorists Are Alarmed by What They’ve Seen” was the title of a recent New York Times article.

I grew up in an era of real conspiracies. Senator Frank Church of Idaho conducted hearings after Watergate investigating the horrific abuses by the CIA, FBI, and NSA. Perhaps most shocking for U.S. citizens: Operation MKULTRA, which involved the drugging and torture of unwitting Americans in mind control experiments.

Americans were also under attack by COINTELPRO. The surveillance and infiltration of U.S. organizations working to end the U.S. war in Vietnam and working for civil rights.

The committee also revealed the Family Jewels program to assassinate foreign leaders. Seven case studies of lawless foreign covert interference were uncovered, but only one was allowed to be publicly revealed: The original 9/11 (9/11/1973) – The overthrow of the elected government of Chile, which installed the brutal dictator Pinochet; the country has never fully recovered.

They also revealed the NSA’s Secret Watch List of millions of names, many of whom were prominent law-abiding U.S. citizens.

The most famous conspiracy theories of my era involved the assassination of President Kennedy. Unlike the Church cases, these have never been fully laid to rest.

Drug running tied to CIA operations was investigated by the Kerry Commission and found to be true in indirect ways.

But conspiracy theories expanded with the advent of late-night radio talk shows. An endless stream of fringe theorists were guests and listeners could call in. But at least there was still a moderator.

That changed in the Internet age. The notable change: the new conspiracy theories were not even theories. A proper theory should have a story line and internal logic with specific players and motivations. And evidence.

The World Trade Center attacks of 9/11 created “9/11 truthers” who presented evidence that the buildings collapsed from explosives placed in the buildings. They were wrong, but at least they had physical explanations. As with some other such conspiracies, supporters came from the political left and the right. That is not true with the latest fringe claims.

Social media allowed fringe claims to attract followers. The minimal restrictions of social media were evaded by creating Dark Web gathering places. 4Chan alone has an estimated 22 million guests each month.

There has been an actual conspiracy by fossil fuel companies for decades to spread disinformation about global warming. We are now facing the consequences as our state burns and insurance companies are pulling out.

But Congress member Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) advanced another “theory” for the fires: space lasers. She also implied there was a Jewish conspiracy behind it. Jewish space lasers.

I was shocked to see recent Facebook posts by friends who seemed to believe some or all of this “theory.”

A good friend confided that another friend believed in the lizard-people “theory.” Apparently, this was invented by British conspiracy theorist David Icke. It apparently also involves Jews and was advanced by QAnon.

One point noted in The New York Times article by journalist Jonathan Vankin: Traditional conspiracy theories challenged power, whereas newer “theories” serve powerful interests.

“Traditional” conspiracy theorist Stephen Miles Lewis also noted that in his era, there was no big money in this work. They might sell books and tapes and ads on radio shows. But the infamous Alex Jones is estimated to be worth $270 million.

These wacky non-theories have led to real violence. The absurd “Pizzagate” conspiracy led to a real shooting. Most notably, the absurd “theory” that Democrats “stole” the 2000 election led to the violent insurrection of January 6. Trump continues to incite his followers to lesser acts of violence based on this nonsense.

In fact, Nixon conspired to keep the U.S. war in Vietnam going as part of his 1968 campaign to steal the election. We now have the tapes.

Traditional conspiracy theories may seem to be all gloom and doom. But they actually were optimistic. If we could just get rid of these nefarious actors, true democracy could thrive.

Current fringe claims just create division and chaos. Fueled in part by real conspiracies of bots from real bad actors like Russia. Soon to be turbocharged with AI. Can people at least make an effort to learn critical thinking skills? And to check facts before repeating fringe claims?

I do think we can build a better society if we can transcend the chaos and focus on the world we want to create.