A Long American Tradition Continues

 In the summer of 1947 the Roswell, New Mexico newspaper, The Roswell Daily Record ran a headline saying a UFO had crashed near the local Army Airforce base. A large chunk of the public went nuts over the news, much of it still is.

The Army Air Force quickly issued a statement which said it wasn't an alien spacecraft that had pancaked out in the wilds of New Mexico, but rather the wreckage recovered was that of a weather balloon. Their denial quickly spawned speculation that they were trying to cover things up. Within a few years rumors of alien bodies and autopsies began to circulate. There was even talk of some super secret U.S. agency, one presidents don't even know about, hiding the truth from the American people. 

Later came the mysteries of, Area 51, a place so secret the military refused to admit it even existed until 2013. That was 16 years after the movie, "Men in Black," was released. It was a comedy which revolved around a secret agency hiding the presence of aliens among us--you know, like the X Files on steroids. It was also 50 years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy which inspired conspiracies which ran off in so many different directions it is nearly impossible to list them all. 

At the moment more than a couple of cable TV networks run a number of series touting grand conspiracies. One of them, OAN claims to be a news outlet.  

The point being as far back as 74 years ago segments of the American people were starting to believe their government was hiding something from them, that there were unseen powers controlling the press and manipulating the information we were seeing and hearing. It didn't take long for the phenomenon which began with UFOs in Roswell to morph into murky cabals pulling the strings of presidents, prime ministers, and just about anyone else who publicly held power. 

Throw in solid doses of racism, anti-Semitism, religious fundamentalism, and good old stupidity and we've arrived at a place where everything is a conspiracy. 

Indeed, if we don't like it, no matter what it is, some evil force outside of public view must be behind it. If you wanted Trump to win last November, battalions of conspirators came together to coordinate his downfall from Georgia, to Pennsylvania, to Michigan, and finally Arizona. If you were desperate to see Mitch McConnell lose his Senate seat the election in Kentucky must have been rigged because he kept it. 

The right wing of this country seems more prone to believe in conspiracies perhaps because they remain in perpetual states of victimhood and outrage. These aggrieved conditions appear to come naturally to them, although they were aggressively nurtured by the former President and his political minions.

So much so, on the 6th of January this year they tried to forcibly steal back what they claimed, without any evidence other than Trump's caterwauling, was a stolen election. The irony of attempting to destroy the constitution which they claimed to have wanted to preserve was utterly lost on them.

Yes, things get weird with conspiracies. The problem is, like opioids, the more you involve yourself with them the more outlandish they must become. The pizza joint basement thing is passe, as are the deaths of Vince Foster and Seth Rich. 

Yes, we must move onward and, let's face it, into the beyond. 

The latest from QAnon: Joe Biden isn't in the White House at all. He is on a sound stage made to look like the Oval Office at an unknown location. Donald Trump remains in charge of the military and he's just waiting for the right time to strike.

Ah, a long and unbroken American tradition continues.

3-10-21