COVID, Hunter Biden's laptop, the 2020 election results, and plenty of other things have made everybody skeptical of every news report we hear from the mainstream media, the White House, and all of their underlings -- and rightfully so.
Just today, my friend Ben Bartee wrote about how the American Psychological Association (APA) is putting forth a book telling kids not to question the official narrative and to only trust "official" news sources.
Scarier still, and I quote, "disinformation can be spread just by asking a question." Yes, this book Ben was talking about really said that. They are actively discouraging critical thinking.
But what prompted me to write this column was not actually immediately related to Ben's article.
While looking for Arizona news to write about for my day job on X (it is very slow out there), I scrolled the feed of Representative Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), who posted a video of himself and fellow Arizona Republican Representative Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) addressing the border crisis being enabled by the Biden-Harris regime on the House floor.
He started off the caption of the video by saying, "I’ve said this time & time again, but it bears repeating: it only took 19 depraved individuals to carry out the horrific attacks on 9/11."
I’ve said this time & time again, but it bears repeating: it only took 19 depraved individuals to carry out the horrific attacks on 9/11.
— Rep. Eli Crane (@RepEliCrane) September 20, 2024
Since Kamala was installed as Border Czar, close to 400 members of the terror watchlist have attempted to infiltrate the US.
What has to… pic.twitter.com/i1mqNUGguN
Naturally, all of the 9/11 truthers came out of the woodwork to say it was an inside job, one guy saying that because Rep. Crane said the attacks were carried out by 19 al-Qaeda members, he is not any different from the rest of Washington.
That you repeat the lie of 9/11 tells us you’re like all the rest.
— GangstalkingHandicapped (@disabledstalker) September 21, 2024
Keep in mind that I am not saying this to defend Crane (although he is pretty good) or Washington (which I am certainly not), but that comment reminded me that there is a particular irony to investing heavily in a conspiracy theory.
Despite calling themselves skeptical and freethinkers, believers end up being just as dogmatic and uncompromising as the blindest followers of the official narrative, quick to dismiss anyone who says otherwise as an idiot or an enabler of the conspiracy.
After all, as I have said before, conspiracy theories are unfalsifiable and self-verifying, meaning they cannot be proven because they do not let themselves be proven wrong. Any evidence to the contrary is a coverup, and the conspiracy intentionally conceals any missing facts unknown to the public.
But as my other friend, Chris Queen, also wrote about today, what separates conspiracy theories on the left from those on the right is that the leftwing ones are allowed to continue running amok because the mainstream media wants them to be true.
One thing he missed, however, is that what allows the rightwing conspiracy theories to persist is the fact that the mainstream media do not embrace them, validating the idea that they are hidden, forbidden knowledge.
C.S. Lewis once argued that "heresy comes in pairs" and that we should not immediately embrace one error because the other is worse or goes against our beliefs.
It is one thing to be rightfully skeptical of what you hear from the government, but thinking everyone who disagrees with it is automatically correct is not an automatic improvement.
