Conspiracies

No matter what anyone says, I am not a conspiracy nut. I've simply never allowed the common fear of such charges intimidate me into silence. Today I will try to provide you with ammunition so that you don't have to feel the need to shut up either.

Michael Medved and a few others have made a grand living providing microphones to actual conspiracy nuts, and of course, the effect is to undermine the very idea of looking into actual conspiracies. Maybe only because it is entertaining. Maybe because they don't like how past false conspiracies have hurt innocent people and don't want to see it happen again. And maybe because they are paid by special interests to prevent revelations of some specific conspiracy. Perhaps there are other reasons, but motive is unimportant here.

See, it should never be forgotten that history is replete with conspiracies. To me the most consequential one took place in a once great republic similar in many ways to our own. It was the famous* First Triumvirate of ancient Rome. Lesser ones occurred in our own country, and were what brought about legislation like anti-trust and institutions like the FBI. Conspiracies have existed; they can always be created anew no matter what fool-proof preventive measures we  believe we've forged; therefore there will always be some. So the frequent knee-jerk laugh at the idea of conspiracy can only be the product of relentless propaganda and indoctrination and not sober understanding of history and the risks from letting it be repeated. The indoctrination is so great I am sure this paragraph will be met with worse than merely deaf ears. But the fact remains.

Now don't go overboard. There are examples aplenty of those who do. The most useful thing to come out of considering how conspiracy might be present is discovering ways to counter it. You can't defeat what you never consider.

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*It was notorious only to loyal republicans such as Cicero. I wrote famous because it was a conspiracy that was widely accepted by the time the three generals revealed their fait accompli and announced that their previous battling had been a smokescreen to hide their partnership.