OPINION
Matt Judd
Conspiracy Theory.
Dictionary.com:
conspiracy theory
[ kuhn-spir-uh-see theer-ee ]
noun
1. A theory that rejects the standard explanation for an event and instead credits a covert group or organization with carrying out a secret plot: One popular conspiracy theory accuses environmentalists of sabotage in last year’s mine collapse.
2. A belief that a particular unexplained event was caused by such a covert group: A number of conspiracy theories have already emerged, purporting to explain last week’s disappearance of a commercial flight over international waters.
Historically the belief in my circles was that the CIA developed the term ‘conspiracy theory’ to deflect rising doubts among the population that the hairy fisted American agency’s efforts at home and abroad weren’t strictly beneficial to the American people.
Fact Check:
https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-conspiracy-theory-jfk-941578119864
So the term arose before the assassination of JFK and wasn’t related to secret three letter agencies from Washington or Langley.
Of course, the AP is a puppet organisation and has strong links to the deep state [sic].
Seriously, let’s have a discussion about this terminology which is now ubiquitous in the media and amongst our social groups discussing current events at the pub or around the water cooler. It’s most often used as a slight to shut down a conversation.
Conspiracy theories are like a bottom. Everyone has one and some are worse than others. I’m an antivaxxer. I wasn’t always. I am fully vaccinated up to 2020 and so are all my children. After the obvious contradictions that arose during the Covid years and the inconsistencies in the science and the arguments given by the Labour Government to persuade the population, the entrance to the rabbit hole was revealed to me and I cautiously ventured down.
I ended up entertaining myself with new sources of information like Joe Rogan, and his guests such as Peter McCullough, Robert Malone, Robert Kennedy Jr, Naomi Wolf and others. I’m now at the point where I question the whole scientific basis of vaccines, especially in relation to infants with naïve immune systems and adjuvants with mercury or aluminium injected directly into their tiny bodies.
Of course, my critics will say, as I once said to ‘fringe’ friends, “Vaccines have saved millions of lives over the years.” Maybe. But the supposed successes of all the great vaccines like those for measles and polio were also associated with the natural decline of those diseases and also the growth of modern sewerage treatment, clean drinking water, improvements in housing and other advancements. The increase in the childhood vaccine schedule correlates suspiciously with the growth in autism and increases in autoimmune issues like allergies, asthma, and eczema. I know, I know, correlation does not imply causation.
I have read a substack article by Alex Berenson which convincingly shows that the advent of the annual ’flu vaccine has not been associated with any reduction in annual ’flu deaths when corrected for population growth. Certainly, when you dwell on the logic of educated guesses at the coming season’s ’flu strain before the advent and pre-immunising the population, a certain suspension of disbelief is required.
So what’s yours? Do you believe (unlike the AP) that the CIA was responsible for the assassination of JFK? His brother? Malcolm X, MLK or Marilyn Monroe? Or was that done by Bobby Kennedy and the FBI to protect his image while running for president?
Is the moon landing a theatrical production made in a disused film lot in Glendale, California? Is the Earth actually flat? Do airliners create chemtrails? Does the United States Government control the weather? Do they control earthquakes?
Were there ever weapons of mass destruction? Did the FBI collude with Hillary Clinton’s campaign to ruin Trump’s presidency with Russia-gate? Did the Biden family sell access to Joe when he was vice president using Hunter Biden as the bagman? Is the world careening towards war in Ukraine because the US military industrial complex and Victoria Nuland stoked a colour revolution in Kiev back in 2015?
Is truth stranger than fiction? Do the news media in New Zealand sell their credibility for their share of the government’s $55 million dollar public interest journalism fund?
What I’m getting at, is that some people believe almost everything, some people believe some things, some people believe just their favourite and some believe nothing.
Some people believe that on the third day, a half-tonne stone was rolled back and the carpenter from Bethlehem rose from the dead after being crucified, to save us all from original sin, and his deeds started the spread of the greatest religion ever known to mankind. They believe the Bible is the word of God.
Every theory requires some study and some degree of faith. Something that I’ve developed lately is that I never automatically assume a news article is truthful. There’s enough evidence to suspect them all of lying at least some of the time and they’re all guilty of pushing narratives.
The most important thing is that when we interact in public or on social media, we should resist the urge to gatekeep. We shouldn’t tell someone who is part of our movement, that some topic is within the Overton window but another is too crazy to discuss and harms our credibility as a group. That’s what the enemy does. Let’s not help them with their work.
The thing is, any idea, no matter how unhinged, is worthy of debate and nobody’s ideas should be censored. The good guys are never the ones who are shutting down debate.
The elites and self-appointed expert class are the ones who want to control free speech. All speech is good speech. The more the better.
If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
Orwell. 1984.