Lately, you can't peruse the news without running into an article or opinion piece about QAnon and today was no exception. This piece greeted me when I compulsively checked the New York Times this morning and was the straw that broke the camel's back in getting me to write this post. Conspiracy theories are nothing new, the story occasionally changes but there's always some secret cabal pulling strings and getting up to no good. People's capacity for believing patent nonsense never ceases to amaze me but lately it has seemed to reach new heights. I'm not sure if people are going to new extremes or if they're just being more visible and in your face with the crazy, either way it's a bit much.
The video is Lunatic Fringe by Red Rider, because if there's a song more appropriate for a post about conspiracy theories, I am not familiar with it (if you know of a better one, point me in its direction). There will always be gullible people so I suspect we are stuck dealing with conspiracy theories in one form or another. Since we're stuck dealing with them, the least we can do is have a little fun with it, right?
It has been my experience that the deeper down the rabbit hole you go, the more impervious to facts you become. It can be rather frustrating trying to reason with a person in that mindset, instead of wasting our breath trying, lets have a little fun and go the opposite direction! As a sort of creative writing prompt from hell, let's see what's the craziest/wildest conspiracy theories we can come up with and get people to believe. I'm not quite sure what form this will take but I'm looking for suggestions and co-conspirators :)
My initial reaction to learning about QAnon and 'Q drops' was that 4chan was back at it again and had found a new gag. I'm still about half convinced it's some nerd(s) pulling off some grade-A trolling, regardless of who is behind it we can't let them have all the lulz(fun)! Did y'all know that trolling wasn't always synonymous with 'internet name calling'? I'm not quite sure when it picked up its current meaning but back in the dialup days to troll was to play dumb to elicit an (over)reaction from people, particularly newbies.
Long before the nerds were doing it for fun the KGB had made tricking gullible people into something of a sinister art form. 'Active measures' was their euphemism for political warfare and one of the tactics they used for that was creating and spreading conspiracy theories. Since Vlad and his buddies are running the country now instead of just the KGB it's probably a safe bet they're still up to such tricks.
I've been kicking around this idea for a bit but seeing reddit's fun with Wall Street has inspired me to quit procrastinating and write this. Anyways, below is a few examples for starters:
Ted Kaczynski invented the internet
Politicians are trustworthy, admirable people
Bill Gates is putting microchips in chicken mcnuggets to make us gain weight
Aliens masquerading as squirrels are secretly controlling world leaders
On second thought, disregard that second one, that'll never fly. You get bonus points if you can say the last one and follow it up with "They just want you to think I'm nuts!" and keep a straight face. For this post just drop a comment with your idea for a conspiracy theory or add to one of the examples (adding to other's comments/conspiracies is also allowed/encouraged) and the two comments that tickle my funny bone the most will split 5 HIVE.
I think this could turn out to be a fun little exercise so look for more #truthing posts in the future (or create your own, I will be keeping an eye on that tag). I'm not much for rules so aside from don't write things that will mess up people's lives/get people killed there are none. Now let's have some fun!