I believe in giving every conspiracy theory a fair shake. 9/11 was an inside job? That's interesting, tell me more. There was a second gunman? Hmm. Fluoride is a scam? That isn't shocking. Vapor trails? Okay, I just don't get that one..
Most of the conspiracy theories don't survive any scrutiny. Obama wasn't born in this country? How long has the plot to make him president been in the works? Obama is a secret Muslim? Then why was he going to the Reverend Wright's church for twenty years.
Some conspiracy theories are trickier to dissect. The 9/11 truth movement had a wide variety of people in it. On one end there are people who believe that the towers were shot down by helicopters and that the airplanes were holograms (I have never met one of these people and didn't even hear of them until South Park spoofed them). On the other end you have people that say "I don't know what happened I just know that Bush is lying about 9/11."
So why not just dismiss these people and save ourselves some time? Most people forget that in the story of the boy who cried eventually did see a wolf. And no one looked because they were too proud. They didn't want to feel stupid for falling for it again. I've never worried about looking a fool.
In my willingness to look foolish I have found the shades of truth. Life isn't binary. Listening to crazy ideas has showed me there are truths being lost in the momentum. There are facts between what is on the for profit media that covers the for profit politicians and the crazy nut jobs. Questioning the status quo doesn't automatically make you a kook or an idiot.
What makes one a kook or an idiot is when you don't back down when you're proven wrong. It's easy to become a kook or an idiot because something in our culture or nature tells us to attack when someone is backing down. In the controversy over vaccines I have heard scientist criticize anti-vaccination groups as moving the goal post, but isn't that what they are supposed to do when they start losing an argument?
There is an anti-intellectual movement in this country and the way to combat it is not to get our collective panties in a bunch because our sensibilities have been offended or we're tired of flame wars online. The only chance reason has to prevail is to be more rational than the person we are arguing with and be willing to take what we can get from the experience. Telling anti-vaccine people that there is no danger to vaccines as absurd as how unlikely those dangers are against the benefit to society for vaccination (I do have reservations about the seasonal flu vaccine but that is for another time).
We need to encourage people to think outside the box, because being paranoid doesn't mean that no one is out to get you. And only the paranoid can keep the outrage up enough to pay attention to things the rest of us have brushed aside.
Oh guess what these conspiracy theories turned out to be true:
5) The NSA now says that the attack on American ships that got us into Vietnam- probably didn't happen.
4) The benefits to fluoride are bullshit.
3)The Bulderberg group does try to influence politicians while they are still up and coming.
2) There were not any WMDs but there were no bid contracts
1) The media is oddly silent about the Bohemian Grove even though it is a hangout of the most powerful people in the country.
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