Basic Instructions by Scott Meyer for December 19, 2022

A lot of people believe that there is a small group of shadowy people who control everything in the world. This isn’t a fear. In fact it’s a subconscious desire. Belief in conspiracies comes from the same place as belief in gods – the human need to reassure ourselves that the world is ordered. But the scary truth is that there’s nobody in charge…

A shadowy conspiracy being less frightening than the true state of affairs is the best explanation I’ve yet heard for why so many people believe in conspiracy theories.

This sounds like my conversation at Thanksgiving, but without the eloquence of Scott Meyer.

My conspiracy theory is that a lot of conspiracy theories are lies made up by a real conspiracy in order to discredit the true conspiracy theories.

Conspiracists believe there are a number of secret rich people who are controlling everything.

They somehow ignore the known number of rich people who are controlling everything.

And this corollary: Big Brother is NOT watching you.

No one is.

You’re BORING!

The bigger the secret, the more holes it leaks out of. Growing up in Los Alamos, we learned just how badly kept that particular secret had been.

Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly difficult to discern between a conspiracy theory and a spoiler alert.

The complete lack of evidence is proof that the conspiracy is working.

Its just my opinion but I think that if somebody’s been running the world for the last 200 years, they’ve done a very good job of it. Do even conservatives want to go back to 1820?