A plea for reason in an age of conspiracy

1999.

Y2K was in every conversation, every nightmare.

Aircraft were going to fall out of the sky. Banks were going to lose all of their financial records. Social infrastructure would collapse within minutes after midnight. The end of the world was nigh, and as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses I got to hear all about that angle.

I tried to explain that computers didn’t really care if their internal clocks were reset. Every time a CMOS battery went belly up your computer thought it was 1980 anyway. Some financial transactions were vulnerable, but Microsoft was working around the clock (so to speak) to make sure their operating system was okay with the Big Change. Apple users sat back and chuckled, because their computers were fine with the Y2K change right out of the box.

“Things are going to be fine” I told people as the Date of Doom neared to a month away. I was assured that things would in fact not be fine.

“Our Elders told us how to survive when everything collapses.”

I lost the arguments, I lost the war. People wanted to believe the worst, so they did. Day after day that ticked by after January 1, 2000 should have helped people have a healthy skepticism about doomsday predictions. Instead, a bit less than 2 years later planes did indeed crash (into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon, a field) and it seems that in 2014 America is more paranoid than ever.

I wrote an article for Yahoo Voices (now defunct) concerning Catastrophilia, a love of bad news or disasters. It’s what drives people to stay glued to their televisions for up-to-the-second updates about something that scares them. They can’t look away, even though hour after hour of coverage may be anchors simply repeating themselves without an iota of new information.

Then the speculation begins. If anything can make a true crisis worse it’s misinformation being handed to you with promises that it’s THE TRUTH and assertions that you can’t trust any other information provider but me or us because all the others are lying to you.

Welcome to the world of brainwashing 3.0.

What is brainwashing anyway?

You can look up all the definitions and examples of “brainwashing” in all of its variations, and you’ll see huge disagreements. Basically it needs to involve pain or threat to really be called brainwashing, while the social pressures and mind-redirecting methods used to control how and what people think are sometimes called the same thing.

I object to the ridiculous bullying that is being used by fringe groups today.

“You are being lied to by your government and the media!” Actually that’s very true at times. Okay so far.

“You need to think for yourself! Arm yourself with knowledge!” Very nice, you’re speaking my language. I’m just about to raise my fist and chant for solidarity.

“Avoid all of these other information streams and tune in to mine, because I’m fighting the lies and I’ll tell you the straight truth!”

Wait what?

The pet term being used by these social bullies is “sheeple” in reference to people who just uncritically believe whatever the authorities, officials, major media, or others tell them.

But the people who are arrogantly proclaiming me to be a sheep if I don’t believe their severely subjective view of the world are just as deluded as the people they oppose.

I don’t like judging, but I’m not fond of being judged either. Although it may result in a Moebius Strip of endless judgment, since I’ve born the weight of their judgment recently, I’m now free to fire back.

This is my salvo.

If you tell me that I need to limit my media or information intake to only the networks or groups you approve of so that I can hear the real truth, you’re part of the problem.

If you judge people as blind sheep because they don’t accept and agree with your version of The Truth then you’re just as big a hypocrite as the system you oppose.

If you only fact-check stories you hear by researching only the information outlets “you can trust” then you’re ensuring you take in an inbred view of the world custom-designed to control your thinking, and you are railing against one cage while you intentionally remain in another one.

If you tell me that I’m too stupid or brain-numb to see the way things really are around me, because you’ve had your eyes opened and want to rescue the world from their slumber, I’d suggest you lay off the Matrix marathons and expand your conspiratorial sphere a little to include views that don’t add up to yours.

If you think I’m an idiot for believing what I believe about FEMA, or the Government, or the police, or the World Bank, or the UN, or the plethora of other things that are heralds of our demise? All I can say is “Kettle? Pot calling on line two.”

Whatever floats your goat

I won’t convince people to stop believing in FEMA concentration camps, Goliath-sized metal coffins (for mass burials or to prevent the zombies from getting out, I haven’t decided which), bar-code tattoos and computer chip implants and chem.-trails and whatever else they want to believe.

And I don’t want to try. I don’t care what you believe. You can believe your neighbor is Bigfoot if you want (please get better photos!), or that aliens are watching your house (again – get those cameras ready!) – more power to you. Ebola, Islam, Gay people, zombies, or whatever other thing is about to wipe out civilization? Whatever you say, dude.

You can also believe that there’s no such thing as police brutality or racism or electronic surveillance invading your privacy if you want – I’m not going to lose sleep over what you believe.

But when you start looking down on me from your lofty throne, as one who has Finally Had His Eyes Opened To The Truth looks down onto me and the other poor, deluded, unwashed masses who “believe whatever they’re fed”, we will have problems.

I choose to believe my version of reality, and you are choosing to believe yours. Fine. This is America, the land where I’m free to believe as my heart and mind direct. I don’t want to judge anyone for their views.

But this time? You started it.