The above image was made with stable diffusion using the prompt 'classified.'
As a teenager in the 1990s, I was informed by mainstream entertainment that fistfights were a standard way of settling disputes, and that knowing karate was the best way to win these disputes. During the same period, I was led by news media to believe that big business and government were basically good, even if a few bad apples sometimes misbehaved. By 18, having noticed that all of my lived experience contradicted this nonsense, I found myself drawn deeper and deeper into the world of conspiracy theories.
At that time, participating in this world made you an outcast. There was tons of paranoia and our online message boards were probably infiltrated by government agents. In those message boards and at in-person events, there were always people trying to dominate the conversation by pushing their antisemitic views, the existence of lizard people, the hollow Earth theory, and all kinds of other stupid distractions.
As a young environmental activist, I bought into the paranoia. I also bought into bogus claims about free energy devices and hilariously inaccurate portrayals of the Freemasons. But I was never one to believe anything blindly, and when I really dug into these things, I found them to be fantasies. Not the paranoia, of course. That turned out to be justified.
Much has changed in 20 years. We now know for sure that the government spies on everyone and has a hand in manipulating and censoring the news and social media. We also have access to more information about proven and suspected conspiracies than ever before. JFK, RFK, MLK, COINTELPRO, Operation MHCHAOS, the Franklin Cover-up, 9/11, and so much more.
The covid response can now be added to the list. The control regime lied to everybody about everything while bringing about a massive consolidation of wealth and power. Curiously, the government chose this moment to admit the existence of UFOs. At the same time, everyone on what was once the political left has become exclusively obsessed with race, gender, and sexuality. Their inattention to the covid conspiracy seems very convenient for the control regime.
Though inattention isn't quite right. This group supports the control regime uncritically, articulating its will in sometimes proto-fascist ways. Online, they're champions of censorship under the guise of protecting the marginalized. I don't know how they are in person because they never talk to me.
One of the strangest current conspiracy theories is Flat Earth. At the coffee shop, one regular is a Flat Earth evangelist and another guy became his disciple. It's a little disconcerting to see these otherwise reasonable people misunderstanding their circumstance so fundamentally. It proves the strength of belief, however baseless.
At this point, some of the conspiracy theories I've bought into over the years have been proven false, while others have been supported by strong evidence that only later came to light. Considering this, I expect some portion of what I currently believe to turn out to be hogwash. Maybe that's for the best.
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