S1:E4-The Conspiracy Conspiracy

"A wingnut is someone on the far-left or far-right wing of the political spectrum- the professional partisans, the unhinged activists and the paranoid conspiracy theorists. They're the people who try to divide us rather than unite us." -John Avlon, Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America

The very term "conspiracy theory" is misleading and it's proponents would do well to abandon it.

[1] con-spir-a-cy, noun

1: The act of conspiring together

2 a: an agreement among conspirators

b: a group of conspirators

If we turn to modern law, we see people can be indicted on charges such as "conspiracy to commit murder," "conspiracy to commit robbery," or "conspiracy to commit larceny." Collusive firms are guilty of "organizational conspiracy." The Catholic Church has entered, in regards to sexual abuse accusations, a "conspiracy of silence." It certainly has it's greater usage in the context of criminal or otherwise nefarious activity. But when planning a surprise birthday party for someone, you are entering into a conspiracy with the other party-goers. When parents leave presents under the tree marked "from Santa," they have entered into a conspiracy. This modern context of disinformation or information suppression meant to deceive others is an abuse of the English language and has become nothing more than a convenient trigger word for the purposes of fear-mongering.

There are a few distinct brands of conspiracy theory, and we should be able to distinguish between them.

Michael Barkun, professor emeritus of political science at Syracuse, has a book A Culture of Conspiracy; Apocolyptic Visions in Contemporary America (2003,) in which he breaks them down into three groups:

-Event conspiracy theories

This refers to speculations surrounding 9/11, the JFK assassination, AIDS, etc.

-Systemic conspiracy theories

The idea that Freemasons, Communists, Jews, etc. are infiltrating and subverting existing institutions (banks, media, govt.)

-Superconspiracy theories

A hierarchical construction linking the two previous presumptions, such as the Illuminati faking the moon landing.

The book itself is a good read, pick it up if you get the chance or read it here, if nothing else for his witty commentary on subculture. He has two other titles, Religion and the Racist Right; Origins of the Christian Identity Movement (1996) and Chasing Phantoms; Reality, Imagination, and Homeland Security since 9/11 (2011) which I have not read but were similarly received. I have my own system for diagnosing these attitudes:

-Covert paranoia

The belief that X-group for X-reasons is keeping X-information from the general population.

-Totalitarian paranoia

The belief the X-group is withholding X-information in order to later cement their place as unquestionable rulers.

-Supernatural paranoia

The idea that X-group is achieving aforementioned goal with either the assistance or suppression of something otherworldly.

Similar to Barkun's model, mine builds upon itself. Many people (even if only subconsciously) believe that someone somewhere is keeping something from us, even without knowing why, and of course they are not incorrect. Wikileaks has proved this since their inception in 2006. In many cases this progresses to the next tier, an assumption that this is being done to affirm mass control. Rarely (but more often than would be nice) folks commit to the third tier, a belief that there are spiritual, mystic, extraterrestrial or otherwise unproven factors at play. Though covert paranoia may involve say, the government classification of alien contact, supernatural paranoia victims would then go on to say that those aliens are perhaps helping the U.S. rule the world. I am (and will be) using the term victim (or sufferer/patient/case/subject) quite intentionally.

Where our models differ comes from an emphasis on the amount of information these individuals profess to have, and the extent of their delusions. Barkun makes the assumption that those who subscribe to an event theory know and agree on precisely who was behind the event and why they would perpetrate it. In practice, if you were to speak with a thousand people who believe JFK was assassinated by anyone besides Oswald, you would get a thousand different answers, including a few who had no idea as to a culprit, only that there was "something fishy about it." Barkun also assumes that disciples point to specific organizations in their systematic theories, when in fact the most widely-accepted (though no less dangerous) theories we see point directly to the institutions already in place. While most conspiracy is inherently conservative in origin, every time a democrat takes the fairly-arbitrary seat as President, there is a new barrage of anti-state propaganda that (very popularly) makes the rounds. Lastly, Barkun's superconspiracy category combines what I see as the shortcomings of the previous two, while my final tier can be used to conveniently classify the most extreme, fatuous, and neurotic.

While I don't want (or need) to dwell too long on it, we should examine the shortcomings of such mindsets.

Much like the attitudes we explored in S1:E3, the major flaws behind conspiracy culture can be summed up by two factors: A lack of education and inert action.

I'll ignore the multitudinous logical deficiencies these victims not only exhibit but proudly wave and proceed to my more important grievance. I use the term education because devotees already have quite a bit of "information," however inaccurate it may be. They are not equipped to reach accurate conclusions because they have not learned (or have since refused) to adhere to the standards of research used for hundreds of years. They are content to cherry-pick data, accept unreliable and/or unverifiable personal testimony, and reject all that does not support the framework of narratives passed down from the equally-disreputable founders of that school of thought.  Climate change deniers vehemently reject the overwhelming consensus in scientific circles that global warming is indeed real, and indeed man-made. The fault of 9/11 Truthers is not that they believe the government could or would commit such a vile act of domestic terrorism, it is that they ignore the many, many studies proving that two planes did indeed bring down the Twin Towers. Does this mean that we should indubitably accept the word of those in a relevant industry as if they could not also be involved in such deceptions? Of course not! But these folks have well-researched, well-thought out, cited, tested, peer-reviewed knowledge that can cheaply and easily be accessed and assessed by all. Not doing so, and continuing to not only harbor but disseminate your misinformation is nothing short of sociopathic laziness.

In addition, for all the secret knowledge they claim to have compiled, for all the horrible atrocities and wicked fabrications they claim to have uncovered, they have yet to produce a single constructive movement or even single action to combat the evil they perceive around them. They may change a minute aspect of their normative lifestyle, but allow the culprits to continue unhindered. Timothy McVeigh is often labelled a conspiracy theorist because he stated the OKC Building bombing of 1995 was to avenge the 1993 "murder" of Branch Davidians in Waco, TX. But upon reflection, FBI agents essentially did murder almost 75 American men, women and children, whether under orders or negligence is no matter, and while a horrible, deranged man, McVeigh can hardly be called a conspiracy theorist for recognizing that. Yet for all the thousands of people who believe the royal family of Britain is comprised of shape-shifting reptilian aliens that secretly rule the world, there have been no assassination attempts on the Queen. Millions believe that 9/11 was an inside job, and yet no one within the CIA, Department of Homeland Security, or Bush Administration have ever been brought to justice, let alone made to stand trial. Our subjects are complacent in their consciousness, choosing instead to sit safely at their computers and speculate as to the nature of the next anathema that will be laid in front of them. If they are in fact correct, then surely they too now have blood on their hands. 

In order to combat misinformation, it is important that we look at it's origins.

We have already seen the way in which people are allowed to adopt such aberrations, namely, through the utilization of bad science and faulted cognitive reasoning. But how do such ideas emerge into the public conscious to begin with? To paraphrase Fredrick Douglas: where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, and where ignorance prevails, one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them. The "conspiracy class" is, with a few rare exceptions, not composed of successful financiers or decorated academics or well-adjusted family men. Rather, the ones responsible for such fascinating posits as hollow earth theory feel that society has failed them in one way or another and seek first a culprit, then, in an ill-conceived attempt to appear more sane, proof that they are not the con's only victim. That Jews somehow furtively control the US, and indeed the world, is a popular conspiracy amongst white supremacists. Despite most likely being raised in poverty in an unhealthy family environment, receiving minimal education and abusing drugs, alcohol, or both, they believe that they did not achieve because "the Jews are holding them down." (They of course fail to realize the irony in claiming that the "master race" is so easily subjugated by another.)

The truth is that there is something comforting in such conspiracies; it is the reason that they can so easily sway minds and develop an almost religious dogmatism in their followers. The idea that there are individuals, no matter how depraved or detestable, capable enough to conceal their identities and pull the wool over the entire world's eyes speaks volumes to human ability. The idea that they have a plan (no matter how dark) for the world makes us feel protected, under some sort of structure. Moreover, believing we have by some graces gained access to this secret information makes us feel "chosen," makes us feel as if we belong to something larger and gives us a purpose in life.

Finally, though I have little evidence on which to support this, I believe conspiracy is allowed to take off because it just sounds so fucking cool. You never hear asinine theories like "aliens are secretly fixing the import price of tuna" or "the Illuminati got Arrested Development yanked off the air." Because those don't sell. Fear sells. We like fear. Look at the EXPLOSION of zombie apocalypse media in the past five-or-so years. Think about how many people honestly, truly believe an event like that would be an awesome way to spend the rest of their lives. How many teenage "anarchists" dream of single-handedly taking on the government before their first black bloc. People buy into the bullshit because part of them so desperately wishes it were true they are willing to throw reason out the window.

Conspiracy's role as a placatory structure

I wish I could end by saying that our paranoia sufferers are overall harmless, irrational members of society best kept indoors. For the most part this is true. But we need to analyze the ramifications of a culture that quite often weasels it's way into the mainstream core of beliefs. We have already examined how it (like our other structures) breeds apathy and creates a fictitious, iniquitous mannequin upon which to heap our more legitimate concerns. Indeed, the true culprits are often quite easy to find when we proceed logically and follow the money. Despite public disquiet, fluoride continues to be pumped into American water supplies unnecessarily. Now, it has been proven that these levels of fluoride are not detrimental to human health, and certainly do not have any of the mind-control abilities so ludicrously associated with them. We must find a new motive, which is easily done when we recall how many policymakers (including those in the EPA) not only collect paychecks from, but sit on the boards of chemical manufacturers who then get the government contracts.

But in what other ways does it benefit the Capitalist Statists? We return to the idea of fear, a tool which has kept them in power for years, conventionally being administered via mass media and war. But this, the fear of the unknown and unverifiable, is perhaps most powerful. Who will speak out in a country they believe murders its own citizens secretly, and with impunity? Who will stand against a system they believe controls every aspect of our daily lives? And will the more rational citizenry remain silent, fearing they risk association with those so susceptible to artifice? The only thing we need fear is duplicity, in any form. Commit to memory that fear-mongering is fear-mongering, whether done by the state, the media, or the man wearing an "End is Nigh" sandwich-board.