2 Conspiracy Theories That Really Matter

The "conspiracy theory" tag is freely tossed around every time someone wants to avoid a subject. Most of the time they really don't matter. But in these two major 21st century cases they did.

When you make the decision to walk away from mainstream corporate media, you can expect a long journey. You’ll have to navigate through different news shows and programs that leave you wondering if the person doing them really knows what they’re talking about. You’ll encounter ideas that are—how about we just say unorthodox or innovative.

There’s usually a lot of trial-and-error involved with figuring out who is smart and who isn’t, who is honest and who’s just pushing for easy clicks. And through it all, you’ll here explanations of our current moment that will easily get you branded as a “conspiracy theorist” if you even consider them .

A while back, I wrote that the very phrase conspiracy theory should be banned from polite discourse. After all, a conspiracy simply means two or more people collaborated to make something happen. It’s not exactly complex. The term itself is simply a tactic of intellectual bullying, intended to prevent discussion from going outside a certain, Pre-Approved Framework.

There’s nothing wrong, at least per se, with a Pre-Approved Framework. In fact, most human beings and societies have one. It gives order and shape to one’s intellectual life.

In our American political sphere, the standard “conservative vs. liberal” framework has been pre-approved. Yes, the corporate media is overwhelmingly liberal. But you can advocate conservative ideas on taxes, spending, and even a few high-profile social issues. True, you’ll get branded a lot of things for doing that, but conspiracy theorist won’t be one of them. .

That means two important presumptions are made—first, that the Pre-Approved Framework is reasonably accurate. And second, that the conspiracy theories that go outside of it are not just wrong, but genuinely harmful.

But what if those two presumptions are wrong?

What if the Framework is leading us astray and the conspiracy theories—whether you believe them or not--are basically harmless?

In short, what if our conventional wisdom is really the deranged conspiracy theory?

To that end, let me submit two major 21^st century conspiracy theories that have not only been debunked, but whose widespread acceptance has proven devastating for society:

Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq

Every intelligence agency in the Western world assured us that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction in 2002-03. This was widely accepted, primarily by the Republican Party, but with plenty of Democratic support (everyone from Joe Biden to Hillary Clinton to John Kerry were on board).

We took actual policy actions based on this conspiracy theory. Here are the consequences:

*A nearly 20-year war and occupation
*Death and carnage all over the Middle East, including thousands of Iraqi children
*A subsequent migrant crisis that continues to overrun Western Europe
*The rise of ISIS to fill the void left by Saddam’s removal, and more terrorism and chaos
*The empowerment of Iran
*Soldiers coming home with PTSD, and an epidemic of veterans sleeping on the streets
*Long tours of duty that took their toll, with the consequences including divorce and broken military families
*A budget situation that was reasonably healthy turning into trillions of national debt

That’s just the short list. But you get the point. The fact the WMD in Iraq conspiracy theory was mainstreamed and used as the basis for actual policy had catastrophic consequences for the United States.

Mass Economic Lockdown in Response to COVID-19

The prominent public health officials in the U.S., notably Anthony Fauci and Deboarh Birx, insisted that the only way to protect ourselves from the pandemic of 2020 was to effectively cease economic activity and stay inside, only going outdoors with a mask on and maintaining six feet of social distancing.

The decision to do this level of quarantine on a global basis, was unprecedented in human history. It was still widely accepted, primarily by Democrats, but with plenty of Republican support (even those who pivoted after a few months, such as President Trump and Ron DeSantis, were at least initially on their back heel and accepting of the conventional narrative).

We took actual policy actions based on this conspiracy theory. Here are the consequences:

*The wreckage of small businesses, many of whom were never able to recover, wiping out jobs, savings, and dreams.
*The shutdown of schools set back—quite likely for good—the learning and development of children, particularly in poorer areas where access to Zoom classes wasn’t as easy.
*The transfer of an estimated $3 trillion in wealth from the mom-and-pop businesses that were shut down to the handful of large corporations that were mysteriously allowed to stay open.
*The revamping of our election system into something ridiculous, with its mail-in provisions and drop-boxes.
*A rise in domestic violence and alcohol/drug abuse, as people had their livelihoods ripped away and were shacked up at home with nothing to do.
*Damage—perhaps permanent—to family relationships and friendships, as people screamed “You want to kill Grandma!” at others who were watching their entire lives get wiped out overnight.
*The ushering in of an experimental mass-vaccination program that took all this social division, harm to children, and corporate wealth expansion to newer and higher levels, and will one day soon deserve a section all its own on the list of damaging conspiracy theories.

That’s just the short list. But you get the point. The fact that the economic lockdown conspiracy theory was mainstreamed and used as the basis for actual policy had catastrophic consequences for the United States.

The cost of these twin conspiracy theories has been incalculable. Millions of lives either ended or permanently altered. Trillions of dollars in wealth transferred to either Big War or Big Pharma. It is not unfair to say that these consequences aren’t just catastrophic—they are almost biblical in their devastation. It’s only the fact we’ve lived through them in slow-motion that keeps them from being grasped. But historians will one day look at both of them as the defining Big Lies that shaped the first quarter of the 21^st century.

And they bring to mind a quote by Warren Harding, a president from the early 1920s. With his Administration rife in scandal, he’s said to have told an ally “It’s not my enemies that worry me. It’s my friends that are keeping me awake at night.”

In that same spirit, we might say that it’s not the “conspiracy theory” you should be afraid of. Maybe it’s true, maybe it’s not, but in the end, it doesn’t really matter. It’s the theories that “everyone believes” that are killing us.