I like conspiracy theories. No, I don’t believe all of them, but they certainly are entertaining. Also, not all conspiracy theorists are completely insane. If we were to plot people’s intelligence on a normal distribution curve, I would speculate that the people at the extremes are the most likely to believe conspiracy theories. Those in the middle are likely to just believe what they are told. Those on the outer ends are more likely to question what they are told. (The ones on the higher end likely ask better questions than those on the lower end, but they both ask questions.) So, you have extremely intelligent people, and extremely unintelligent people being the most prone to believing conspiracy theories.
For the state, conspiracy theories serve an important function. When they can simply say, “That’s a conspiracy theory,” the state quickly silences opposition. The term “Conspiracy Theorist” has an undesirable connotation.
However, conspiracies do exist. Let’s take the 9/11 Conspiracy. No, not the 9/11 conspiracy theories you tend to associate with 9/11 conspiracy. Rather, let’s consider the official conspiracy theory. The official report is that Al Qaida and several hijackers conspired together to target major centers of American industry and politics. That is a conspiracy theory. It likely happened. Conspiracies occur all the time. So why, then, does the term “conspiracy theory” carry a negative connotation?
The Theory
Here is my theory. It involves some conspiracy. The deep state recognized the benefit of labeling people conspiracy theorists as a way to silence opposition. But, because there are some true conspiracies, they had to be able to associate “conspiracy” with the most insane theories out there. Therefore, they funneled money, attention, and probably even agents into conspiracies like “Flat Earthers.” That way, when someone suggests a much more plausible conspiracy theory, for example, the government funneling drugs into poor neighborhoods, they can labeled that “theory” the same way they label the flat earth theorists. They are all “conspiracy theorists.” Suddenly, someone who has a plausible theory (which was later proven to be true) is in the same camp as someone who claims the earth is flat. The deep state benefits from crazy conspiracies, like Flat Earthers, because they can lump them in with less crazy conspiracy theorists, so as to make them all seem crazy.
The Problem
The problem with this conspiracy theory, as with all others, is that it is quite difficult to prove. Does the state have that incentive? Sure. Would it look any different if they acted on the incentive than what we see now? No. But, that doesn’t mean they DID act on that incentive. There is no proof one way or another. Therefore, rather than saying that it certainly did happen, or to say it certainly did not happen, it’s best to keep an open mind about conspiracy theories. And even if you believe they didn’t happen, you can still be entertained by them.
