Hillary Rodham Clinton Did What?
I think the very first conspiracy theory I heard had to do with Pearl Harbour, in fact at the time I didn’t know what a conspiracy theory was. I thought it was just some type of entertaining and fanciful way of thinking outside the box whilepresenting another perspective, that definition I’m afraid, would ultimately be very benign and naïve. The conspiracy theory I heard some 25 years ago stated that America secretly, of course,attacked Pearl Harbour in order to speed up the process of getting America involved and committed to entering World War ll.
Later, I heard more conspiracy theories through the proliferation of modern-day social media. I realized very soon that with the acceptance of these “theories” each one sets logical thought backwards, sets civilization and society backwards. When as aan individual and a society we find ourselves discussing a Satanist pedophile ring run by the political elite, rigged elections, or school shootings designed to push gun control,bonds of logic and civility seem to rapidly dissolve.
All of these so-called theories, including Pearl Harbour, are very extreme in nature, bizarre in fact, yet many people choose to tend in this direction in their thinking. People who do poorly on critical thinking tasks, like evaluating arguments for example,are much more likely to believe conspiracy theories. In today’s society such theories are also fueled like an explosion throughsocial media which relies on no real discernment or factual information.
Conspiracy theories for many provide comfort in their somewhat out of the box “solutions” to worldly problems. They are often highly simplistic solutions to negative events. Through CT people derive a sense of control over events that otherwise seem out of control or unmanageable. It is a mechanism by which some people who are fear based in their day-to-day thinking can feel a measure of security. They are a security blanket for the unknown.
There have always been CT, maybe we didn’t always call them as such but anything to explain an eclipse, earthquake or natural disaster, enter also the realm of religion, to the paranoid style of American politics based on suspicion and conspiratorial fantasytoday. During the American Civil War and during the Reconstruction Period that followed there were many CT which revolved around the idea of Slave Power. Theories that revolved around how the Southern planter elite would revive the slave economy which would also explain the Lincoln assassination. If Hilary Clinton, according to QAnon CT, is involved in white slave pedophile trade it seems anything is possible in some minds.
Ironically, research shows that conservatives, not politically speaking, but rather people of that nature have more fears and less analytical thinking skills and operate according toemotionally laden decisions, as opposed to a reliance on facts and data, then do people who are less fear based. What is really needed to combat these trends is first of all a society in equilibrium as crisis breeds CT. For example, Twin Towers, Presidential assassinations and attempts from Andrew Jackson to John f Kennedy, Economic Depressions, to listening to War of the Worlds a radio drama, all spawn CT. Since equilibrium is likely impossible then we have to educate ourselves better and have better news sources.
Most importantly we need an educated society with a strong public education system science based, (scientific method) which instructs and teaches analytical thought and deductive reasoning. CT thrives best in a petri dish laden with social upheaval, with poor educational systems, a disaffected population (the election was rigged) and with low social capital (poverty).
Therefore, at the right time and place CT can and are used as a manipulative tool to sway thoughts and weak minds in an attempt to explain harmful, or tragic events through the actions of a small but powerful group. My own CT, in a general sense,is that a range of conspiracies are directed at any number of governments to show how they abuse their power. The particular CT that applies to the situation will serve to discredit the government, make them appear evil, weak or ineffectual, with the hope of eventually transferring power and influence to outside minority forces to decentralize any type of government power.
A recent example would be using Covid as a mechanism to show government abuse of power, or was it a mechanism to distribute vaccinations and save people. Take a side. Another,the AIDS epidemic. CT: the government was using it to rid theworld of the homosexual population. CT: a small group of elites are using immigration policy to illiminate White Privilege.
All fear based “theories” based on emotion, not fact, are used to drive minority political and/or private agendas against another group, is just another form of propaganda, which used during a time of crisis, sadly, and with great danger to society as a whole,can collectively sway the course of history.
The question is do we learn from history?
The answer, we barely teach it any more.
