Conspiracy Theories? Nah!

The other night I was watching a discussion on MSNBC among Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow, and others about conspiracy theories.  They were opining that those who indulge in conspiracy theories in public ought not to do so – that conspiracy theories were usually not correct, and were outlandish.  Over time, however, I have learned that what Hayes and Maddow were saying is not completely accurate.  It is perfectly acceptable to indulge in conspiracy theories (after all, our best spy and mystery novels are conspiracy theories), but the danger lies in starting to actually and totally believe them to the point they cause one to do something irrational.

Years ago I became acquainted with a very nice man who had begun to question whether the Drug Enforcement Agency was somehow operating in his relatively small town south of where I live.  He began reading all sorts of stuff about the DEA, the FBI, etc., and then he began to believe his theories.  As a result, he stockpiled all sorts of weapons, ammunition, and bomb-making material in his house, in a residential area, yet.  Needless to say, he spent some time in an institution for the criminally insane.  Now this is obviously carrying a conspiracy theory much too far.

In our present political climate I still haven’t decided whether the behaviors of some of our Republican state governments are just plain incompetence or are somehow connected.  Take the case of all of the Republican controlled states that did their best to limit voting in certain areas under their jurisdictions.  These areas almost always had a majority of minority voters who tend to vote Democratic.  At the same time in Michigan last year, Republican Rick Snyder, after slashing taxes to the bone, had his Republican controlled legislature pass a law that he could declare a community or city in a fiscal crisis, abolish all duly elected officials, and replace them with an “emergency manager” of Snyder’s choosing.  The people of Michigan were, of course, pretty upset and passed in the November election an initiative measure overturning that very undemocratic law.  In December, Snyder had the legislature passed almost the exact same law, but with the added ruling that the law could not be overturned by an initiative measure from the people!  The most recent city to be placed under an “emergency manager” was Detroit.  It has been noted that almost all of these communities and cities have predominately minority residents.  Fortunately in the last few days a coalition of groups in Michigan has sued to have this law overturned. 

Probably anyone reading this has also noted that states that are governed by predominately Republican legislatures are doing their absolute best to eliminate all women’s health clinics on the basis that they provide abortions.  Forget that the clinics also provide other vital health services to poor women.  But these attacks on women’s health services have pretty much happened in the last months, and all under the guise of “preventing abortion”.  It is completely beyond my understanding why anyone would want to limit women’s health services, although at one time I read that women need to get married so they can have health insurance from their husbands. 

My take on conspiracy theories is that they can be really interesting, if viewed as a novel.  For instance, imagine a group of obscenely wealthy people who decided to destroy the economy of the United States, disenfranchise minorities and women, and have corporations using emergency managers run the country.  This could be a really good novel or movie.  Any takers?