Here we are. January 2018. If you wander around even the sanest
parts of the Internet, you might bump into a few conspiracy theories. Weird
ones abound. Some are even taking shots at our trusted institutions.
In the mid-1970s, when I was a senior in high school, I
worked full time in a gasoline service station. I went to classes in the
morning, and was on a work/study program so I could get out of school at noon. My
work hours were from 1:30 PM until closing at 9 PM. I liked the hours, after
the boss went home and I cleaned the tools, mopped the floors, swept the garage,
it gave me more than two hours of quiet time. During the week gas business was
slow, so I always brought a library book to read.
One “regular” customer named Ed would either stop for gas,
or just come in and buy cigarettes from the machine in the office. He would
come in at least twice, maybe three times a week, depending on his gasoline or
smoking needs. One night I saw his car drive in and as he wandered in with his
usual friendly greeting, he noticed the book I was reading. Whatever the
library book I had checked out, it greatly excited Ed.
Ed extended his usually brief visit by quite a bit that
evening and the next time he stopped, enthusiastically brought with him several
mimeographed pages of what I only can describe as conspiracy theories. He left
them with my weak promise to read every single paragraph. Being young and
impressionable, but smart enough to realize Ed’s ideas were “out there.” I
carefully read each page with a teenager’s vigor and quest for knowledge of any
type. On Ed’s next visit he asked me if I wanted to join him and also his wife
to discuss his ideas further. Politely, I declined because, frankly, they both
creeped me out. Valiantly, he inquired if he could leave some more “reading
material’ in my car from time to time. I feebly pointed to my orange Volkswagen
Beetle and told him it’d be okay.
Weirdness soon became the norm. Not only did I find reams of
propaganda on my car’s seat weekly, but I started getting random gasoline
customers shoving carefully crafted pamphlets into my hands. One day, I recall
vividly, another regular customer, Dave, was chatting with me as I filled his
pickup truck’s gas tank when a person handed me a pamphlet. Dave asked for one
too. Before his truck’s tank was full he had read the material and tossed in in
the trash, looking at me and rolling his eyes. Dave asked if this was normal,
and I told him to check my VW if he wanted to practice rolling his eyes, because
I knew there were several pages of conspiracy ideas on my seat.
From what I recall, years later, these theories varied greatly.
Some were warnings of the “deep state,” a kind of compartment deep inside the
government whose sole purpose was disrupting political norms. These “deep state”
theories live on in some form or another to this day. Some theories exposed
Bohemian Grove, with the thinking that about twenty people rule the whole
world. The alien-underworld-undead people material was always the most
interesting, especially the material packed with information on Transylvania
and the Hoia-Baciu forest in Romania. In the spirit of complete transparency,
my maternal great-grandfather was born smack dab in the middle of the
Hoia-Baciu forest. So, if you believe in conspiracy theories, I might be part
alien. All humor aside, conspiracy theories have always been around. They are
not inclusive to weird talk of aliens, spaceships hiding behind the moon,
lizard people, weird owl people, rogue FBI agents, and the list goes on and on.
In my youth, I learned quickly of the description of “tin
foil hat” when self-proclaimed rational people read Ed’s mimeographed pamphlets
and schooled me in the weird “fringe” people. Moving on, the Internet has
brought these like-minded people together, making communication instant, whereas
back when I was a kid the only means to get their ideas out were print media and
“meetings.” Today’s inter-connected world help make these gain more readers and
ultimately, more believers.
Some of the people who spread these theories are well
educated. Ed, as I later found out, had a PhD in philosophy. Some of the people
who shoved papers in my hand seemed as dumb as oatmeal and perhaps were. People
with weird ideas come from all facets of society, income, and education levels.
It doesn’t matter, though, what their
education level is, the ideas that erupt from them suggest that they might belong
to alternate species. Perhaps they haven’t read enough books, or read the wrong
ones.
In my youth, and as an adult, I still am more interested in the
PEOPLE who spread these theories, rather than the theories themselves. I think
that in 2018 a lot of people who spread these theories are sound-byte/ headline
reading only people. In the current news climate, my opinion is a lot of people
are either too busy or intellectually lazy to read/digest more information to
prove their conspiracies wrong. It’s also easier to dismiss informational logic
with the rallying cry of “Fake News” uttered by certain news outlets and even
the president of The United States.
We are living in a odd time in history, where conspiracy
theories sometimes gain more news traction than real news. My brain gets tired
from sorting out the truth from the weirdness, but my heart pushes on for a better
tomorrow.
