There have always been and probably always will be conspiracy theories of one sort or another. Some people will always look for simple explanations for complex problems that face countries and societies, which is effect what conspiracy theories give to those who believe in them.

It is tempting, for any of us, to look at a situation and find a pattern where there is not one or to believe that a problem can be tackled with a simple solution or that all questions have a yes or no answer. Of course there are often situations and problems that can be resolved by a simple solution or by a yes or no answer, but not always.

One example of such a relatively easy situation would be this: Suppose that you are a police officer in a hypothetical town in a hypothetical country faced with dangerous madman swinging a firearm around in a crowded street.  He’s not just swinging the firearm around but due to the type of firearm he’s waving you can be reasonably sure that it is loaded and you are aware that the safety catch on the madman’s gun is off. The madman is also threatening to kill innocent people. You are also armed and in a protected position where the madman cannot easily shoot you but in this situation nobody apart from you and the madman are armed. The obvious solution is to kill the madman who is threatening the innocent. This is a situation that is easily resolved by a simple solution. Another problem requiring a simple remedy would be being faced with a small fire and being in possession of a suitable fire extinguisher. The right way to proceed in this situation would not be to run away panicking shouting ‘fire fire’ whilst wetting yourself, but to use the extinguisher to put out the fire.

The problem is that the vast majority of problems cannot be solved by simple solutions or questions that have yes or no answers. This is where conspiracy theories come in. They provide simple answers to complex problems and they often look very very tempting precisely because they provide such simple answers. The downside of these easy answer conspiracy theories are that they sometimes cause real world issues and also some massive tragedies. It could be argued that both the Holocaust and the Stalinist paranoia about ‘counter-revolutionaries’ had their roots in conspiracy theories. The Holocaust, or rather the political culture that led up to it, was to a significant degree built on Tsarist forgeries about Jews such as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. In the case of Stalinist terror, false stories about ‘enemies of the revolution’ that circulated around, often with the assistance of the Soviet Government played a major part in the deaths on Stalin’s orders, of millions of Soviet citizens.

Back in 2015 I read and reviewed here an excellent book by the author and journalist David Aaronovitch entitled Voodoo Histories – How Conspiracy Theories Have Shaped The Modern world and although I do not share Mr Aaronovitch’s Left wing politics I have to admit that he hits the nail right on the head with regards conspiracy theories. He put aside much of his own left wing thinking and produced a book that got to the heart of different conspiracy theories and why people became so attached to them. In the book he took on not just the Protocols and Stalinist propaganda but also other conspiracy theories that have had popularity at various times such as those of Roosevelt allowing Pearl Harbour to be bombed, the Hilda Murrell case, McCarthyism, the Kennedy Assassination and the death of Princess Diana. He busts these conspiracy theories wide open and in many cases provides solid information to show why the conspiraloons are and were wrong about these stories.

One thing that I gathered not just from reading Mr Aaronovitch’s book, but also from my own studies into the subject, is that conspiracy theories are not confined to only one side of the political divide. Both Left and Right have their own pet conspiracy theories and some examples of Left wing conspiracy theories are things like ‘White Privilege’, ‘White supremacy’, ‘Institutional Racism’. I call these things left wing conspiracy theories because they are claims with no real basis behind them. The idea that Western societies are governed by White privilege or supremacy or institutional racism can be readily proven to be false, at least where the Anglosphere is concerned. Despite the claims of so called anti racist activists who bandy these phrases and claims around, people are mostly hired and promoted on merit in both the USA and the UK which are the nations that are mostly tarred as ‘racist’ by these activists.

Whilst it may well be the case that things were different in the past, today’s world of business and public service is mostly colourblind. We don’t, as we had 50 to 60 years ago, have trade unions stopping Black migrants from working on buses nor do we have Black candidates for public office sidelined on the grounds of their skin colour. To a very large extent in the Anglosphere we have made true Martin Luther King’s dream that people are judged on the content of their character. Therefore it is fair to say that the three big claims made by the Left listed above are conspiracy theories. In addition to that a case could also be made that the various ‘phobia’ that the Left point to and decry are also a form of conspiracy theory as they posit the idea that people are not being treated equally because they are gay or women or Sikh or trans. Yes it was the case back in the 1970’s and to a lesser extent in the 1980’s that people would look askance at a gay person or a woman driving a truck or a Sikh doctor, but that is not the case today. We have, thankfully moved on.

If we accept the idea that making false claims of racism or sexism or anti gay or anti Sikh or anti Muslim prejudice are a form of conspiracy theory, then we need to ask why is this not damaging the Left as much as false claims made by those on the Right? The answer as I see it is that as the Left hold many of the levers of cultural power and also of political power. If you call out a false claim of ‘white privilege’ for example the Left will ‘send the boys round’ either in a meatspace form as with Antifa or in the form of an online bullying campaign designed to isolate the ‘wrongthinker’ and silence them or even using agents of the state to intimidate those who speak out.

The conspiracy theories of the Left to a large extent get a free pass from politicians, the mainstream media, the adminisphere and those in charge of cultural institutions such as the BBC, the art establishment and museums. It’s why fact free bullshit from the Left is treated as fact by broadcasters and newspapers and why fact based objections to leftist conspiracy theories end up not with the leftist emperor being shown to have no clothes, but with those who highlight the conspiracy theory punished.

Leftist conspiracy theories need to be tackled and disproven, of that there is in my view no doubt. They are helping to promote bad ideas that hurt people,that silence people, that make people fear voicing an opinion and which divide people into siloised ghettos based on race, religion, gender, sexuality, political viewpoint and how people choose to express themselves. Leftist conspiracy theories are particularly dangerous as they are often promulgated and used as basis for public policy. If we can see that the conspiracy theory of ‘Jews controlling the world’ which comes from the Protocols is bad because it was one of the factors that led to the political policy of the Holocaust, then why on earth can we not see how equally baseless ideas such as ‘White Privilege’, ‘White supremacy’, ‘institutional racism’ and all the various created ‘phobias’, are creating both division and hatred and could end up in some very bad places indeed?

However, there is a massive problem that needs to be addressed. Whilst many can see that Leftist conspiracy theories are just that, baseless conspiracy theories, they are backed up by the power of the Establishment which has taken on board leftist notions. If we on the Right and Centre Right are to take on and I mean here take on politically, the leftist and left inspired conspiracy theories, then we not only have to take them with facts, but also make sure that our own house is not infested with our own conspiracy theories. If we do not do this then all the Left needs to do is point to one of the many baseless conspiracy theories promulgated by some on the Right and use that to not only discredit those who push those theories but use it to attack Rightist ideas in general. After all it’s difficult to take seriously a person, even if most of the rest of their ideas and thinking are sound, if they are also promoting the incredible and difficult to believe idea that a former US President was the head of a secret paedophile hunting organisation, which is but one aspect of those who believe in and promote the Q Anon conspiracy cult. I tend to believe that President Trump was a great US President who did a great deal to advance not just America but also the Western world in general and stand up to the enemies of the West, but I really can’t buy into the idea that he was a divinely gifted champion in a war against ‘elite paedophiles’. There’s no evidence for that and it just does not make sense.

When it comes to the battle with the Left we are fighting an unequal battle with them. It is they who have the MSM, the adminisphere, cultural organs and others on their side whilst conservatives and those on the Right have just individuals, small groups and a lot of facts that the Left find extremely inconvenient.

It is because of this political imbalance that we must be careful not to leave what could be called either ‘hostages to fortune’ or weapons against us that could be picked up and used by the Left. We should demonstrate our correctness by not putting ourselves in positions where we paint targets on our backs that the left will shoot at. One way that we can do that is by calling out the conspiracy theorists on our own side as well as the conspiracy theorists on the Left side.

It is pointless and will be called hypocrisy, if we blast apart the bullshit of for example critical race theory whilst turning a blind eye to the Qanon types, the anti-vaxxers, the flat earthers, the Rothschild obsessives, the people who believe that space isn’t real, the people who believe that they are fighting Lucifer from their keyboards or the absolute lunatics who believe that Bill Gates invented multiple sclerosis (Fact he did not. MS type symptoms have been known about since 1300 and the disease was identified and named in 1868). We need as rightists to gain some gravitas and be seen as people to be trusted, which is difficult as the Left own or control nearly all MSM. But, we can’t do that until we expend the same energy as we put into countering leftist conspiracy theories on dealing with the knobwittery on our own side.

I’m not naive, I understand that there are many people in politics business and culture who are venal or stupid or malevolent. There are also people outside of these areas who are also what could reasonably be called wrong’uns. I’m also not saying that politics, business or culture should not be the subject of investigations by alt media or the common man or that malfeasance should not be uncovered. But there’s no point in a person or an organisation doing a massive investigation into a political figure or organisation and finding provable malfeasance and then shooting themselves in the foot by following on from a good and sound investigation with utter and complete bollocks.

I’m losing count of the times when I’ve seen an entity on the Right produce credible and well sourced information about a corrupt or at the least apparently corrupt public personage only to follow up with a tweet or a gab or any other social media post promoting some complete bullshit about how a Measles vaccine is some sort of New World Order mind control device. It is, to use an old British saying ‘spoiling the ship for a ha’porth of tar’. If we are to see a resurgence of the Right and the protection of the rights of the individual, and the encouragement of diversity of thought then we need to deal with our own nutcases just as harshly as we treat the nutcases from the other side. I despair when I see good people who have for example built a solid reputation in things like promoting free speech or uncovering genuine sexual exploitation gangs, going off the rails and reposting, without much thought as to the consequences, stuff that is nothing but fact free woo.

I’m a firm and passionate believer in freedom of speech. I believe that every individual has a voice and a right to make that voice heard. I want zero restrictions on speech based on whether or not someone finds certain words or opinions ‘offensive’. The only guide on whether speech should or should not be restricted is whether it is speech that credibly and immediately incites violence, everything else should be permitted and libel laws should be relaxed in places like the UK to a very great extent.

I want both the sane and the mad to be able to speak, not because of course because I agree with the mad, but by allowing the mad to speak, the sane will thereby be able to prove to others that the mad are indeed mad. It’s why I disagree with the idea of laws against things like Holocaust Denial as I want these nutcases out in the open where they can be challenged and defeated. Banning them from speaking doesn’t make them go away, it just allows them to fester in small, dark rooms where the sunlight of challenge cannot reach them. However, there is a world of difference between dragging the fraggles who promote fact free conspiracy theories out into the open and debating with them and challenging them and what too many are doing which is uncritically amplifying them.

So let’s get our house in order. Call out the fraggles. Promote honesty and facts and don’t give houseroom to those, such as the ‘Bill Gates invented MS’ types, who should really be in some sort of padded room.

More on this subject from F211

Conspiraloons in general

https://www.fahrenheit211.net/2013/01/29/you-were-doing-ok-right-up-until-you-said-new-world-order-and-then-i-stopped-reading/

Anti vax conspiraloons in Pakistan

https://www.fahrenheit211.net/2017/12/13/now-thats-why-pakistan-is-a-sthole-number-64-islamic-anti-vaccine-loons-condemn-child-to-life-of-disability/

Conspiraloons completely take over and discredit the London Yellow Vests group

https://www.fahrenheit211.net/2019/02/14/another-british-yellow-vest-washout/

Pakistani conspiraloons who believe that vaccinations are a ‘Jewish plot’ burn down a hospital

https://www.fahrenheit211.net/2019/04/25/now-that-s-why-pakistan-is-a-sthole-volume-107-islamic-anti-vaccine-mob-burns-down-hospital/

Conspiraloon who thought cell phone tower was mind control device gaoled for burning it down

https://www.fahrenheit211.net/2020/04/05/allergy-warning-this-post-definitely-contains-nuts/

Citizen Journalists should be a little more suspicious of what they are being told

https://www.fahrenheit211.net/2018/08/28/citizen-journalists-beware-of-whom-you-believe-beware-of-hoaxers-entryists-exploiters-and-conspiracy-theorists/

Brian ‘Agent Gibberish’ Gerrish and the Melanie Shaw case. No conspiracy, no secret court, no D notice just a mentally ill woman and those exploiting her.

https://www.fahrenheit211.net/2018/10/18/the-shaw-case-no-conspiracy-no-secret-court-no-d-notice-just-a-mentally-ill-woman-committing-arson-and-those-who-apparently-exploiting-her/