12-05-2020
Just this week a friend of mine gave me a gift. It was a hat with a propeller top, wrapped in foil. We had a good laugh.
It got me to thinking, this tin foil hat. I’m a little slow sometimes as I’ve heard the term for ages, chuckled every time, but never bothered to analyze it. We laugh at people who believe in conspiracies. Worse, we dismiss them.
As with all things, the rotten apple spoils the barrel. Every conspiracy theory is not true, but there are conspiracies. Let’s look at the Mafia. In the 1960s I remember many people telling me that there was no such thing as the Mafia. It was a hoax, a conspiracy theory. Yet the RICO laws were passed in 1970 (laws to use against a hoax?), and used to break up and do damage to the families. By the end of the 20th century the Mafia had become a shadow of its former self. The godfather was much more than a movie, but a real person or persons.
Of all people currently being dismissed and ridiculed , Rudy Giuliani led the 1980s federal prosecution of New York City mafia bosses as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Fmd-> ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Giuliani ) If anyone can recognize a conspiracy you would think it might be him, eh?
Then you have the Kennedy assassination. To this day we do not have definitive proof of much of anything. However the Warren Report, the definitive document of the time, has been basically blown away – and there are a dozen different theories still floating, most with at least some merit.
What about 911? Could those airplanes randomly hit the World Trade Center by accident on the same day? Did we hunt down the brains behind that plot? Are we still in Afghanistan?
George Washington was part of a conspiracy against the British throne. He had spies all over the colonies, and he never met most of them.
No. Those who dismiss we tin foil hat wearers are simply following rule number 1. They are accusing us of conspiracy lunacy all the while propagating other allegations against us that truly are fantasy. This is a strategy, and it works so well they use it over and over and over. They want the truth to seem relative. They intend to divide us. You have a narrative; I have a narrative. Chaos. And let’s don’t forget the millions of followers we can sway with our accusations.
But there is such a thing as objective truth, objective evidence, even circumstantial evidence, which all can be used to build a case using logic and reasoning. By the way, simple mathematics is considered indirect evidence. “The bullet entered the right side of his head.” A bullet being a vector, a property of physics defining direction.
Notwithstanding, the very definition of conspiracy is subject to some debate. I worry that people think that it means the Wizard of Oz is standing behind the curtain, controlling the world with his levers. Unlikely. Rather, a group of otherwise unrelated folks have a common goal. Their actions coalesce more or less in the same direction to create the same desired circumstance. Look at the Mafia again. The families did not always get along. They warred among themselves. They acted independently. Yet when caught, snitching was absolutely unacceptable – upon pain of death!
That is why the RICO laws were passed! Those laws finally persuaded testimony from one bad guy against another. It broke the code of silence.
So a conspiracy need not be as complex as some might assume therefore increasing its probability. After all, it’s just a word.
Here’s a simple conspiracy. The predicate is “We hate Trump.” The goal is to remove Trump from office. The rules are – there are no rules. You will be doing a morally righteous thing therefore the ends justify the means. You don’t need top level meetings and an advertising campaign to spread the word. Those things will help. But you don’t need them.
Each of us, the reporter, the CEO, the bureaucrat, the student, the demonstrater, the community organizer, department heads, FBI agents, attorneys, politicians, judges, etc can contribute to the end goal without ever knowing about the other’s plans or actions. Likewise, we will support others who are acting on our behalf. It’s not rocket science. But I would call it a conspiracy, or a pact or agreement.
con•spir•a•cy kən-spîr′ə-sē►
- n.An agreement to perform together an illegal, wrongful, or subversive act.
- n.A group of conspirators.
- n.An agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime or accomplish a legal purpose through illegal action.
I’m wearing my hat today. There’s plenty of rabbit holes out there that need inspected.