… to Distrust the Government
I was talking with my brother as he was sitting in traffic on the Belt Parkway one sunny Saturday afternoon, when he chimed in with “chemtrails.” He was being sarcastic, of course, amusingly associating the condensation trails formed by airliners at high altitude with a conspiracy theorists’ belief that the government is spreading chemicals into the atmosphere for nefarious reasons. Chemtrails are among the more popular “fringe” conspiracy theories out there, but if you don’t want to buy into that particular one yet still jones for a juicy bit of unprovable government tyranny, there are countless to choose from. Alex Jones and Jesse Ventura are but two of many who propagate all sorts of nutty ideas, and the Internet has made it really easy to find deep “analysis” proving everything from fake moon landings to the Illuminati to 9/11 being a government job to “false flag operations,” whatever those are.
Generally, one will find that conspiracy theories tend to more often be associated with the Right than with the Left, possibly because the Right tends to be a bit more distrustful of government, but you will find conspiracy theorists of all political stripes. And, you’ll find a wide range of degrees of belief. There are people who will laugh off the chemtrail folks and 9/11 truthers who will nevertheless suggest that it’s within the realm of possibility that the moon landings were faked, that JFK was assassinated by the CIA, that fluoride in the water is suspicious, that the government is hiding alien corpses in Area 51, that AIDS was deliberately invented and released by the government, that subliminal advertising is used to control our minds, or that Princess Diana was murdered. While conspiracies and coverups have existed and do exist, there seems to be inordinate and unwarranted credence given to the outlandish, unsubstantiated and unproven.
What’s the point of all this? Is it rooted in wanting to be exceptional, to know things that others don’t, to be cooler than the sheep who believe that those white lines in the sky are easily explained by physics? Is it rooted in being bored with the simple explanation for things? Or is it rooted in a pursuit of reasons to distrust those in power, those who have done better economically or socially, or those who don’t see things the way they do?
If the latter, there’s no reason to embrace the fantastical. There are, throughout history but especially nowadays, countless reasons to distrust government and to suspect those in power of corruption, debauchery, and villainy. More than suspect, actually. There are examples too numerous to mention, all supported with actual fact, of malignant, repugnant, and criminal behavior in the ranks of government, high and low. Only among our current crop of pols and bureaucrats, we find the IRS targeting politically active groups, the Justice Department targeting members of the press, gun running operations gone wrong, Congressional investigations stonewalled, secret email accounts at the EPA, et cetera. Go backwards just a bit in history, you find Iran-Contra, the Keating Five, ABSCAM, Watergate, Bay of Pigs, the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII, Tuskegee, the list is long. Even longer is the list of politicians wrapped up in misbehavior and scandal. It’s evident that we don’t need chemtrail theories to distrust government and politicians.
In fact, even voicing mere suspicions that some conspiracy theories aren’t totally wacky does quite a bit of harm. Those who want to trust the government or who disagree with someone who’s suspicious of unfettered government will happily latch onto any reason to dismiss and marginalize the entirety of that person’s statements and arguments, and if a hot-button label can be attached, it’s game over. Get tagged as a “birther,” or a “truther,” or a “denier,” or as someone who subscribes to some bit of wackiness immediately puts you on many people’s “ignore” list, and gives you an uphill battle to fight just to have your opinions heard rather than dismissed outright. Like it or not, people do judge others by appearances, labels and associations. Guilt-by-association may be a logical fallacy, but it can be very effective even at a subconscious level.
Furthermore, one can embrace a universal and consistent philosophy of skepticism and do very well with it in challenging others’ trust in government and their desire to cede power to politicians. In fact, being unfailingly skeptical, a “show me” Missourian, makes it far harder to marginalize and dismiss one’s arguments and opinions. And, being skeptical of crackpot conspiracy theories can very easily disarm or fluster the opposition, who very often looks for reasons to dismiss rather than counterpoints to refute. Skepticism also allows you to root out actual misdeeds and ill intent instead of losing them in the noise. And, skepticism lets you remain grounded, rather than get dragged down a rabbit hole by some charismatic and well-rehearsed conspiracy theorist.
Bottom line, you don’t need black helicopters or FEMA internment camps to harbor a distrust of government. And, you can make a far stronger case without invoking the New World Order.
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