Sigh. What is really annoying, is that conspiracies really do happen. Things go on all the time that many people would like to know about. Theories abound, and then decades later we find out a lot of it was actually true. ECHELON used to be a "conspiracy theory". MKULTRA. These NSA backdoors all over the place. They were all "whoo conspiracy" until suddenly they weren't.

But there's this certain type of person, the "Conspiracy Theorist" type, who is just an utter idiot, denies all reality, and doggedly defends the biggest, most unbelievable conspiracy they can find, and in the most discreditable manner possible. They are so stupid, obnoxious and loud that they paint the whole idea of "governments doing naughty things in secret" in this ridiculous, indefensible tone. They turn the whole issue into a laughing stock.

Consider these two statements on, say, 9/11. I know we're not talking about that, but it's illustrative of the problem I'm describing:

A. Elements in the govt know a lot more about 9/11 than has been revealed
B. The CIA planted explosives in the twin towers and used a missile on the Pentagon

To me, statement A is reasonable. Many people consider the 9/11 commission to have been a complete joke. There are plenty of weird things about the "official" explanation. I personally think there is quite a bit more to the story, I think it's a near certainty that there has been a cover-up of sorts, and I think there's plenty of intelligent people around who have similar ideas.

But you can't even mention them because of these nutcases shouting about B. They take such a ludicrous, extreme position that no-one can differ from the party line at all without risking being tarred with that highly toxic brush. They poison everything.

I'd like to mention, btw, that some people believe that those "truther" types are being deliberately manipulated for the very reason that they attract the spotlight away from some pretty dark places that it's in no-one's interest to light up. Evidence for this theory includes such things as the refusal to release the many videos showing the pentagon impact. I can think of no other reason than to inflame wild speculation. Meanwhile the real questions go un-asked and un-askable.

It's because of this that it pains me so much to see these "Conspiracy Buffs" - these morons, these wilfully ignorant tools spouting this fucking nonsense. And so once again, everything is polarised. Any skepticism of the fairytale means you're a fucking loon. Let's have another A/B:

A: NASA possesses unreleased photographs of some pretty interesting things
B: THE MOON LANDINGS ARE FAKE!

One of these statements is acceptable to me. There are plenty of people, usually the type of person entrusted with total control of an extremely expensive aircraft, who say they have seen interesting things in the sky. Some people claim NASA has seen a great many of these interesting things, and unlike your average pilot, has cameras all over the place, so they have pics. Now personally I'm not very convinced of this one, I will need very good evidence, but it's a semi-reasonable thing to say.

The second is just nonsense, easily disproved, and just makes anyone who is even slightly inquisitive "behind the scenes" look like an idiot. Sigh! The dark side clouds everything.

Oh well, I'm not sure what the point of this rant was, besides this: please make an effort to keep a nuanced outlook on "conspiracy theories". There are conspiracies all the time, count on it. Don't just dismiss them all wholesale because a bunch of crazies has latched noisily onto the stupidest ones.