Friday open thread: Conspiracies do exist
As you know, I hate conspiracism. I loathe and abhor conspiracy theories. Promoting CT on this blog is one sure way to at the very least be subjected to a stern talking-to from either myself or Trevor.
For example, Atlantis. Discovery Channel has a new series on its lineup entitled "Hunting Atlantis", where intrepid non-archaeologists traipse around the world looking for proof of Atlantean origins. Let's make this perfectly clear: Atlantis didn't exist. It was a concoction of Plato in two of his dialogues, Critias and Timaeus, to highlight a philosophical point about the hubris of nations. It wasn't a story handed down from the Egyptians or the Sumerians or the damned Anunaki. It was an allegory, a piece of fiction—which is ironic, since in his Republic Plato has a very jaundiced view of poetry, whose lifeblood is allegory. Be that as it may, the Atlantis myth has been seized on in the modern world by conspiracy theorists, who range from relatively harmless people to the Nazis, who saw the Atlanteans as the progenitors of the Aryans; SS chief Heinrich Himmler funded expeditions to find evidence of Atlantis and Aryan origins. The myth of Atlantis is one example of how conspiracy theories do real-world damage.
However, as I've often said, that doesn't mean conspiracies don't exist. We're in the middle of investigating such a conspiracy in the January 6th insurrection, as news broke this week that the Trump regime both knew that its accusations against Dominion Voting Systems were baseless soon after Election Night, and that regime loyalists laid down facile legal reasons to support overturning the election results. As well, Steve Bannon confessed on his podcast that he conspired with the Trump regime to foment the insurrection in an attempt to cripple Joe Biden's incoming administration. Conspiracy theories rely on interpretation of evidence which can't be either proven or disproven, but just self-perpetuates. Real conspiracies are usually discovered and exposed, with no supernatural elements.
That brings us to the situation on the border with 15,000 Haitian migrants, who suddenly appeared in Mexico from their former homes in Brazil. How did that large number of people make it from Brazil to Mexico? Who paid for their transportation? In other words: cui bono? Who stood to benefit from causing this crisis which needed active intervention to take place? This isn't an exercise in conspiracism; these are questions which beg to be asked. As I tweeted the other day, this would be as if 15,000 Afghan refugees suddenly appeared on Israel's borders, when none were there three weeks prior.
Who benefits from causing a crisis on the border? Who benefits from having those images of mounted Border Patrol agents abusing the migrants? Who benefits? The fact that our immigration system needs major reform is immaterial; that's not the point of this episode. Somehow thousands of migrants got from Brazil to Mexico, when they hadn't made the journey before. How did they get there, and who got them there? And of course, at the same time that the journey north began, Donald Trump's minions from CPAC like Jason Miller were in Brazil up to we know not what. As a wise Cardassian said: I believe in coincidences. Coincidences happen every day. But I don't trust coincidences. Coincidences such as the ones I've just detailed require a lot of preparation.
We'll find out eventually. Real conspiracies usually can't keep their secrets. That's what separates them from conspiracy theories. Tin-foil hats not required.