The Great Raccoon Conspiracy
The Art of Thinking 4.
In our post Illegal Ideas, we have raised some so-called conspiracy theories. This is a useful word to stick on concepts you want people to recoil from. There are plenty of other similar labels, such as “extremist”, “regime”, “terrorist”, etc. Upon reading the label conspiracy theory, most respectable citizens will shudder. They quickly leave the page knowing that decent people reject conspiracy theories. You wouldn’t want to be called a conspiracy theorist, would you?
The same logic also works in the other direction. If someone believes in five things that are labeled conspiracy theories, and another one pops up with the same brand name, they tend to assume this one to be also true.
Right now we’re not going to assume things, just explore possibilities. If Joe is said to beat his wife, several things are possible. The accusation could be true, as such a phenomenon exists. It’s also possible that someone is accusing him maliciously or mistakenly, while he is completely innocent. Several other things could be also true; he may have beaten her in the past but has since repented his sins, or she may be the one doing the beating, with the rumor having undergone a transformation, having adapted to a more familiar pattern.
The first question is the source of the story. Where does it come from? Let’s say there are articles in the press saying that Joe denies being a wife-beater. Other articles refer to unnamed relatives who claim that Joe’s grandfather was also a notorious wife beater. News is circulating that his colleagues have found a copy of The Wife Beaters’ Handbook on his desk. You think I’m joking? After the fall of the Twin Towers, the press was full of reports that a pilot’s manual and a Quran had been found in the airport parking lot. When this happens we moan at being taken for fools. Yet we fall back into the self-delusion that big media is not about propaganda, but news.
Of course, this could also be a conspiracy theory — perhaps the billionaires’ media isn’t driven by political and financial interests, but purely by the desire to tell the truth. Decide that for yourself. In any case, we will now examine a few of the arguments in favor of conspiracy theories, and then move on to some of the arguments against them. Whether you sympathize with these theories or find them daft, a cool head is useful when considering them. The goal is not to get confirmation of your already existing preconceptions, but to practice impartial thinking and inch closer to the truth.
Source: Mario Aranda, Pixabay
In spite of all the ridicule and stigmatization, quite a few conspiracy theories have been proven to be true. Take MKUltra, for example, in which the CIA tested LSD and other psychoactive substances on US and Canadian citizens without their consent for decades. It was a massive-scale experiment replete with torture in search of ways to break people’s will and turn them into a zombie. Or the Tuskegee Syphilis Study in which hundreds of unsuspecting poor black patients were given a placebo instead of penicillin to study the long-term effects of the disease. And you can read about a bunch of other fairly well-documented events here .
On the relatively rare occasions when a nasty thing done by authorities must be admitted, the perpetrators invariably shove the activity into the past. “It’s unfortunate that these things had happened a long time ago.” Remember that when you read about “discontinued” biological weapons programs or “former” MI6 agents and “retired” US officers stationed in countries at war.
Other conteos might not be documented but are quite probable. Let’s take the one according to which the authorities of some countries are the ones pushing drugs on the counter culture. What advantages would that bring to the people in power?
1. Instead of engaging in political activity, the enemy will be chasing dope. 2. In the case of hard drugs some of the scum will kick the bucket with the rest going nuts. 3. We can incarcerate them whenever we want, thus getting them off the street or blackmail them into ratting for us. 4. Since we are providing the dope, we’ll make a few billions in pocket money. 5. The hot-headed boys now can’t exist without the stuff we are controlling. If we refuse to supply them their bodies will start to jerk and they won’t be able to leave their den. 6. If we specifically want to get rid off someone, we sell them a poisoned hit. 7. The despisable pigs will completely lose their reputation in society.
Source: Лечение Наркомании, Pixabay
As you can read in this amazingly wonderful post on cocaine and related drugs, one of the main architects of the ‘war on drugs’ has admitted the criminalization of some mind-altering substances in the US for political purposes. This in itself does not mean that state agencies were involved in distribution or profited from the trade. However, in the light of some other activities we know about the CIA the allegation cannot be called completely unjustified. For example, during the US invasion of Afghanistan, the area under opium poppy cultivation increased more than five times to that of the average of previous years.
Of course, this is just a joke. It is well known that the leaders of democratic countries always look after the good of their people and would never do anything illegal or immoral. They would not launch a war against a country that had vast stockpiles of absolutely zero chemical weapons and in which a few thousand a few million civilians would die. They wouldn’t send their own soldiers to witness a nuclear explosion to test the effects. Speculating about such things is ridiculous, since those people are good.
Now let’s swing to the other side. Many classic conspiracy theories tend to assume that everything is controlled by a centralized, secretive power. Its members have their meetings out of the public eye where they make their evil plans.
One problem with these kinds of theories is that they cannot be disproven. They function a bit like urban legends: Everyone knows they’re true and everyone refers to each other, with the original source being obscured. “Where is the proof?” “Well, the evidence is hidden.” “OK, then how do you know it’s true?” “Well, it’s written right here.” “And how does that guy know?” “Well, he’s an expert.” “Oh.” If you ask someone who firmly believes in these things what proof would convince them otherwise, they will often look you into the eyes and say: “Nothing.” We’ve come upon a religious kind of belief.
If we are really curious about the truth, it’s not only information from the outside world that we need to take into consideration. There are also the fundamental biases of our own culture and personality. Eastern European, and especially Hungarian culture sports a — historically quite understandable — hefty paranoid streak. We have always been taken advantage of, so whatever happens, we assume that this is the case again. And the cultural paranoia may be supplemented by a personal one. I don’t know about you, but it often helps me to ask myself: Is that realistic or am I just having an attack of paranoia? Have I actually perceived this or am I just weaving a reality in my head?
The human mind finds connections between events so easily. Our brain is not a machine. We think in gestalts, in meaningful wholes. The bunny suddenly turns into a duck. We interpret everything, we actively create our reality.
Do all authorities, government bodies and rich people really always want to do us harm? And are they all a part of a centrally controlled organisation? I think this kind of thinking gives too much credit to the groups that hold power. It doesn’t take into account all the stupidity, sloppiness, misunderstandings, accidents, the conflicting interests of different gangs. It assumes the world of people is functioning in a pre-planned and smooth manner. Is that your experience?
There are other interesting aspects of conspiracy theories. We can’t rule out the possibility that certain theories are deliberately spread to confuse people’s minds. It must be a good job, making up ridiculously inane stories and getting paid for it. I’m not familiar with this lore, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the experts had a long-standing jargon together with a timetable and a Facebook campaign. Of course, this is just another conspiracy theory. I have no proof, and I don’t think I can proudly inflate my chest for being the originator. Someone must have thought of it a long time ago.
Some conspiracy theories might enrich our understanding in a more metaphorical sense. According to one, many high-ranking politicians and the super-rich are actually reptiles. Have you ever thought of them like that, as icy monsters devoid of human emotions? The proponents of the theory think this in a literal sense, which doesn’t fit with my view of biology, but as a metaphor it does shed some light on certain phenomena.
Source: David Clode, Unsplash
There are a few more points to be made, but it’s time to finish this rant, so it’ll have to wait for another time. And anyways, enough of these idle musings! Did you know that Earth is actually controlled by raccoons from the Great Magellanic Cloud? The Latin name, Procyon lotor, is telling: Procyon means ‘before dog’, while ‘lotor’ is obviously a derivative of Latin ‘latro’, marauder. Just think about their masked faces! In Hungary brainwashing begins in grade one, with Mosó Masa Mosodája being required reading. It’s a book about a raccoon supposedly helping you to learn to read. Out of all animals, a raccoon! The very name ‘raccoon’ comes from Algonquin, meaning: ‘he who scratches with his hands’. A manipulator! And why is the American raccoon spreading unstoppably in Asia and Europe? Answer this if you can! Did you think it was all a coincidence? Aren’t you being a little bit naive? Raccoons have it all planned out! Today the Earth, tomorrow the Universe!
Source: Herbert Aust, Pixabay
The world is an interesting place. Many things are not what they seem to be at first glance, and not even what they seem to be at second glance. Can we still get to know them? Paying some attention to our own mental processes might help.