When I first started writing this blog I was going to focus on some of the labels people wear in regards to their ideals. Labels such as: Birthers, Truthers, Progressives, Liberals, Conservatives, Conspiracy Theorists, and on and on. Does anyone really fall completely under any one banner? I know I don’t. I am not one who believes that US government had anything to do with the 9/11 attacks. But, I do think that the stigma surrounding the Presidents origin of birth would be easily put to rest if a validated birth certificate could or would be made public. To me, if you have nothing to hide and are truly a US born citizen what is so difficult about that? Why is that kept such a tight security secret? Is it a conspiracy?
I never thought of myself as a conspiracy theorist. I didn’t think I fit the “mold”. They’re nut jobs after all…aren’t they? Conceiving of and believing in all sorts of crazy notions. Rational, sane people don’t buy into such nonsense…do they?
Are those that lean toward belief in conspiracy theories weak? Or are they actually stronger for going against the grain of main stream thought regardless of the back lash that is sure to ensue?
So, then I got to wondering what makes people believe in a particular conspiracy theory? Is it a general distrust of government that makes people feel they are being continually lied to by those in power? And, how do you know who to believe in regards to these theories?
For everyone that believes in Alex Jones there are more that think he’s a couple cards short of a full deck. Glenn Beck has as many people blindly following him as does Al Gore.
I know that there are people in this world who are perfectly happy thinking everything they hear on TV is real and not try to determine on their own if a story is true or not. These same people are satisfied believing what Hollywood actors would tell them to do, not realizing for a moment how far removed from reality they actually are, instead of doing their own homework and researching facts.
Case in point; how many people believed US Weekly or Time Magazine when they erroneously picked up a story stating that Sarah Palin wanted Christina Aguilera to be deported because she flubbed the National Anthem before the Super Bowl? Or when Fox Nation reported as real an Onion article regarding a 75,000 word email a frustrated Obama supposedly penned to the American people?
Now, I have never believed Paul McCartney dead or Elvis still alive. But, I wouldn’t put it past people with too much medical knowledge to think they know what is best for me and my family by forcing us to be vaccinated against a disease whose numbers have been artificially inflated and manipulated to make it appear there is an epidemic in order to increase their influence over us.
And while I don’t believe that our government actually caused 9/11, I may be inclined to believe that a government full of itself and under the influence of rich financial bankers with an agenda to say one thing to our face yet strive for something else in back room deals.
The number of conspiracy theories swirling around is wide and varied as the stars in heaven. There is at least one conspiracy theory for almost every major event that has happened in the past 75-100 years:
· The Federal Reserve – Established in 1913 was designed to transfer wealth from the poor and middle classes of the United States to the international bankers of the New World Order.
· Creation of Diseases – Claims have been made that AIDS is a man-made disease. Created as a tool of genocide or population control.
· Area 51 – Alleges that this Air Force Base in Nevada has participated in the storage, examination, and reverse engineering of crashed alien space craft.
· Pearl Harbor – That the attack on the port in Hawaii in 1941 was not a surprise. That President Franklin D Roosevelt was aware of the risk of an attack by the Japanese but ordered the information kept quiet in order to pump up public opinion in favor of the US entering WWII.
· Man walks on the moon – It is believed by some that the Apollo landings were staged in a Hollywood movie studio.
· Assassinations – Conspiracy theories abound on the subject of the assassinations of John F, Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.
· Celebrities – Stories of intrigue still surround the deaths of Marilyn Monroe, Sam Cooke, Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, Elvis Presley, Bob Marley, John Lennon and even Michael Jackson.
Just to name a few.
So, who do you believe and why? Better yet, what’s true and how do we know?
What gauges do you use to determine the validity of a news story? What do you go by to decide what issues (conspiracies) you believe and which ones you chalk up as hype?
