Going to build a little bit on Cassandra’s recent post, Deep Fried Dumbasses.

I’ll start by saying I have no respect for most conspiracy theories; they are indications of overly emotional and/or warped thinking, and should be viewed with disdain. However, conspiracy theories are so common at the moment that it often feels to me that it is reality that is being viewed with disdain. Reality, or how things actually are, like the sun rises in the east and the Earth being round, are seemingly becoming a little controversial. And yes, these people hold part of the responsibility for where we are today.

A combination of the public indeed believing myths about things like the crime rate, moral panics like Stranger Danger and the Satanic Panic, and just plain human nature meant that conspiracy theories will always find fertile ground to grow in the human mind. People believe them because they provide easy explanations for confusing, emotional, and tragic events. It can’t be that an actor just walked right up and shot Abraham Lincoln, there has to be more to it. People also turn to conspiracy theories to demonize entire groups of people, such as the “Jews Run the World” nonsense. Also, if you tend to be someone who relies on your intuition over facts on the ground, you tend to be more open to conspiracy theories, due to the very nature of conspiracy theories.

I have been thinking about two aspects of all this lately. One is something I’ve noticed about Facebook.

So, as you might have heard, back in early January Meta/Facebook announced that they were more or less going full Wild West with their moderation policy. They claimed it was about “free speech” because it is always about free speech until it isn’t. This had the expected result, not just in the U.S., but elsewhere: It enabled the worst people.

Lately, I’m noticing a marked increase in bullshit Facebook pages. Like, every third post in my feed is a bullshit page. I am a Penn State football fan, so I get these weird pages that have a clickbait headline designed to get someone who is a Penn State football fan worked up. One day I decided to see what was up with all these new pages and clicked on one about Penn State’s quarterback Drew Allar being referred to as “playing like a freshman” by the Nittany Lions’ offensive coordinator. They offered a link to an “article” about this. The article was obviously written by AI and full of errors, including getting Allar’s stats completely wrong and claiming they played Michigan in last year’s Big Ten championship – they played Oregon.

But no matter, the people who have strong opinions about Penn State football and their quarterback took the article and bought it hook, line, and sinker. Some people pointed out the falsehoods, but these people countered with the puzzling idea that the lies didn’t matter.

It’s not just sports. I see these pages popping up about all sorts of subjects, including “science,” gardening, and of course, politics. They are streaming out at an increasing rate, so I imagine they will soon become a breeding ground for more crazy conspiracies. I don’t have proof that these things are out there in such numbers due to Meta’s decision (that might be a…conspiracy theory), but it does make me wonder a little.

The other thing I’ve noticed is that people on the left side of things are not immune. There are a ton of conspiracy theories about the Trump assassination being staged and about the 2024 election. I will say that these tend to be different than right-wing ones. Trump is depraved enough to stage an assassination to win an election, but the real question I have is whether the Biden DOJ would have had to be in on it to pull this off, and also I question whether Trump’s people are competent enough to pull off such a move. I think the idea that there was chicanery with the election is somewhat more feasible, but there are a lot of questions, and I have my doubts that the New York lawsuit will uncover anything. So, at least there are grains of truth around these conspiracy theories, unlike right-wing ones that want us to believe Hillary Clinton was trafficking children out of a pizza parlor. They also tend to be less malevolent.

Still, I wonder what all these conspiracy theories, fanned by social media so they spread fast, are doing to our collective brains. I would imagine it would make it harder for a government for the people and by the people to function.

The last word goes to the Black Crowes.