If you frequent the bulletin boards at the Redwood Campus, then you’ll no doubt have seen a set of flyers put up regarding various conspiracy theories ranging from microchips implanted by the CIA to satellites causing miscarriages.
Most of these theorists treat their theories as fact without having any proof to back up their arguments. As any scientist might tell you, the two types of evidence that are the least reliable when it comes to the pursuit of truth are circumstantial and anecdotal evidence.
It’s that same line of reasoning that drives law-enforcement officers to find solid proof linking a suspect to a crime before getting an arrest warrant. If it’s circumstantial, then a good attorney would be able to find ways to refute it in court.
Using logic, let’s dissect the theory that government agents are able to cause miscarriages via satellite. I believe it’s pretty clear that the person who came up with that theory has no knowledge about what satellites are actually capable of, nor has any scientific background that lends them any credibility.
While I am no better when it comes to science, the biggest flaw I find with this argument is the lack of motive or purpose of such a set-up. Never mind the fact that we haven’t developed the technology that would allow for the weaponization of satellites, but what motivation would the government have to put down the billions of dollars it would take to build said satellites, making it so that they couldn’t be detected by any of the other satellites that are currently in orbit or by any foreign nation with the same technical capabilities?
Not even the richest people in the country could afford to finance such an endeavor, nor could the U.S. government as such spending would have to be approved by Congress, which is highly unlikely given that the national debt is almost $17 trillion. If a government were looking to keep key people silent and under control, there are far cheaper and far more effective methods.
If it were a private company, then they would be found out pretty quickly as soon as they tried to launch said satellites into space.
If not by the U.S. government, then most certainly by a foreign nation as most of the space launches nowadays take place in Kazakhstan and French Guiana. Angering world powers in order to accomplish your own plans for world domination is not the smartest idea.
Before you retort by saying there’s a secret society in charge of all of the world’s governments, take a look at the United Nations. It was founded so that the nations of the world could work together to make a more peaceful world. If you look at the five permanent members of Security Council, which is in charge of maintaining peace and security between nations and is the only branch of the U.N. that can make binding decisions, you will see that those member nations are the U.S., the United Kingdom, France, China and Russia. Those binding decisions have to be unanimous, as any one of the five permanent members can veto any resolution that is brought to the Council.
Getting those five nations to agree on a decision while at the same time benefiting the nations they represent is like trying to get Nintendo to produce a first party video game with an Adults Only rating. It’s not going to happen.
However, that is not what bothers me the most about these conspiracy theories. What really gets my goat is when people try to tie in real tragedies to their absurd fabrications. On these aforementioned flyers, you’ll find that some of the paragraphs of what is no better than a forwarded email assert that the shootings in Aurora, Colorado, and Newtown, Connecticut–tragic events where people, including children, lost their lives to the deranged whims of a lone gunman–are the result of the CIA implanting microchips into the brains of the assailants.
These theorists have no shame, dignity, or respect for the victims of these events. They only care about spreading their doctrine and doing whatever it takes to do so; a practice they claim to be rallying against.
People create and spread these conspiracy theories for various reasons, but most of those reasons can be attributed to the simple desire for attention, adoration and respect. They want to come across as someone who knows what’s really going on. As a result, like a peacock puffing out its chest, they achieve a false sense of superiority with the aim of getting people to pay attention to them.
People cling to these theories because it makes life more interesting. These people want it to be true because it adds a romantic flair to an otherwise mundane life. To paraphrase a quote by Oscar Wilde, anything can become exciting if one simply hides it. The feelings of suspense and dread these followers feel when they’re “pursuing” the truth is all in their mind. They want those feelings of suspense and excitement in their lives.
To the conspiracy theorists on campus: I submit that all those people you got this “precious information” from are the ones you should really be afraid of. These may very well be the agents of the government or secret society you so fear tasked with feeding you false information, so that you are led away from the path that would uncover the real secrets, motivations and machinations that are being implemented in society. They want to keep you deluded in your elaborate fantasy so that you are unable or unwilling to do the very things that put their operation at risk. Play around with that for a while.
