Category: Social Media

Conspiracy Theories

conspiracyThe world is full of conspiracy theories and they’re all bullshit.  The Masons didn’t start World War I.  Rockefeller and the Rothchilds didn’t organize the Stock Market Crash in 1929.  Aliens didn’t land in Roswell, New Mexico.  The Mafia didn’t kill Kennedy.  Neil Armstrong did walk on the moon, and — for God’s sake — Dick Cheney didn’t take down the Twin Towers on 9/11 for Haliburton or anyone else.  What a boatload of nonsense!

I have a friend who loves these conspiracies.  He saves them up to vex me.  He’s one of the smartest people I know, but he’s absolutely convinced that we’re being lied to by any number of secret societies and/or government agencies.  To be fair, in the age of Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, he’s got a point.  However, it’s a huge stretch from the Ministry of Finance fudging the unemployment numbers to the Illuminati keeping aliens in the basement of the White House.

Everybody knows that conspiracy theories can be a lot of fun when you’ve opened that second bottle of wine after dinner, but the next morning?  Please!  Here’s the deal.  Every single conspiracy theory works on the same set of assumptions.  So let me put them to rest.

1 — One doesn’t not find overwhelming scientific evidence on The Discovery Channel, A&E, Facebook, Twitter or some out-of-print book you bought at Goodwill.  Sorry!  Overwhelming scientific evidence is that mountain of totally boring crap that the world’s scientific community generally agrees on.  In any reasonable discussion, it is their expertise that takes precedence — not some guy on YouTube, who claims to be an eye witness.  And, BTW, just because you and your girlfriend agree it’s a scientific fact, that doesn’t make it so.  Actually, without serious documentation it isn’t even a fact.

2 — The mainstream media has not been either cowed or coerced into ignoring some of the greatest news stories of all time.  Use your head!  Kim Kardashian flashes her North West Passage on Instagram, and every news outlet from Malibu to Mars covers it.  The reason Fox, CNN, MSNBC, BBC and Al Jazeera aren’t going wall-to-wall on the Alien Autopsy is because there never was one.

3 — It’s not reasonable to believe that a secret society and/or government agency capable of harnessing the huge resources needed to perpetrate a vast, worldwide conspiracy will then make a series of stupid mistakes that point directly to their nefarious purpose – errors so glaring that a teenager with a Pause button can figure them out in less than an hour.  Or even worse, why would a secret society and/or government agency ever leave an array of clues which actually reveal their cunning plan?  That kinda defeats the whole purpose of having a conspiracy in the first place.

4 — Likewise, in the army of people needed to pull off even the simplest cover-up — from the original planners to the guy who makes the sandwiches — it beggars belief that not one person, in not one conspiracy, ever had a crisis of conscience and suddenly confessed.  The laws of anti-chance alone dictate that somebody, somewhere, got drunk one night and told their lover – or their mother what they’re doing in Area 51.  Imagine, the joint custody dad in the messy divorce, “Look kids, aliens!  Betcha mom and her fancy man can’t do that?  Who’s the coolest dad EVER!”

I could go on for pages, documenting every conspiracy theory ever known for the hopeless Swiss cheese it is, but a picture is worth a thousand words.  Check out this very short Ted Talks video from Rives.  It is the ultimate mini-documentary on conspiracy theories.

Seriously Trivial!

star warsHere are some things you probably have never thought about:

1 — If you Google “Star Wars movie mistakes” you get over 4 million different websites in 0.38 seconds.  I didn’t scroll through them all, but — wow!  I can’t even imagine the massive number of nerd hours it took to examine all 13 hours and 14 minutes of the Star Wars franchise, frame by frame, and create even one of these.  However, I have seen more than a few smug clouds enveloping the pompous asses who insist on discussing their particular Star Wars, Star Trek or Stargate discoveries.

2 — Rumour has it that the four Indiana Jones movies are chemically-induced hallucinations that Han Solo had when he was frozen in carbonite in The Empire Strikes Back.  As if?

3 — There is a fan theory that much of the Disney movie universe is connected.  For example, Elsa and Anna’s father, King Agnarr from Frozen, is thought to be Rapunzel (from Tangled‘s) mother’s brother.  Thus, when he and Queen Iduna were lost at sea, they were on their way to their niece Rapunzel’s wedding to Flynn Ryder.  Furthermore, the storm that sinks their ship off the coast of Africa is the same one that rejuvenates the land in The Lion King, plus the sunken wreck that Ariel explores in The Little Mermaid is that same ship!  Not only that but, Agnarr and Iduna survive the catastrophe, make their way ashore and eventually have a son — Tarzan — Elsa and Anna’s little brother.  This isn’t just idle chatter, like that Han Solo crap.  Much of it is backed up by some pretty substantial circumstantial evidence.

4 — There are hundreds of theories about what’s in the briefcase from Pulp Fiction, but the most enduring is it’s Marcellus Wallace’s soul.

5 — Millions of people want to believe R+L=J, and thousands and thousands of people are working, day and night, to find the clues that prove it.

6 — A lot of people think that originally, Gandalf the Grey, from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, had a cunning plan to use the eagles to fly Frodo, Samwise and The Ring directly to Mordor, drop the jewelry into Mount Doom and be back in The Shire by Second Breakfast.  Unfortunately, Gandalf unexpectedly gets his ass kicked by the Belrog in the Mines of Moria, and when he comes back to life as Gandalf the White, he’s forgotten all about it.  And, to many people, Gandalf’s last words to Frodo, “Fly, you fools!” is indisputable proof of this.

7 — I said all this to say we live in an age of relentless entertainment, and our society has become so abundant and benevolent that we can indulge ourselves in it, any time we please — for as long as we please.  Where once entertainment was an occasional escape from grim reality, to many people these days it is their greater reality.  And, like it or not, that has blurred the line between what we treat seriously and what is mere trivia.

We’re Killing English

words1We are killing the English language.  I’m not talking about government euphemisms or corporation obfuscation.  No, this is ordinary people taking ordinary words and choking the life out of them.  Let me demonstrate.

Old — Where did all the old people go?  Apparently, they’ve all been rounded up and taken to an over-the-horizon retirement community where they’re enjoying senior living.  (I have no idea what that is BTW, but it seems to involve a lot of golf.)  They specialize in being “78 years young” (See?  We can’t even say the word!) and will eventually be carted off to an Elder Care Facility where … uh … I don’t know.  But old people?  No.  We’ve got seniors and the elderly, but we don’t have any old people anymore.

Fat — Nobody’s fat these days, so unless you’re a supermodel, you have two choices — plus size or obese.  Which would you prefer?  Plus size makes it quite clear that you missed normal by at least 10 kilos, and the world has a special clothing ghetto for people like you, and obese?  Well, that kinda speaks for itself.

Brat — Let’s get real!  Not every obnoxious kid on this planet has a diagnosed disability.  Sometimes, they’re just brats, but if you want to get into a fistfight, mention the word.  It is amazing to me what lengths bad parents will go to, to avoid being called “bad parents” — including saddling their child with an incurable psychological disorder.

Stupid — “There’s no such thing as a stupid question.”  Think about this!  Of course there is, and they’re normally asked by stupid people.  The Law of Probability alone says half the population of this planet is stupider than the other half.  However, use the word to describe someone who is obviously in Group A and you’re liable to get your ass kicked.

Ugly — I truly believe that there are some people in this world who think that, if we don’t actually say the word, ugly people won’t know they’re ugly.

Died — When I was a kid, people died.  It was a harsh reality of life.  Then, suddenly, people quit dying and began passing away (like sugar dissolving in the rain.)  It’s a cute idea, but honestly, when someone goes headfirst through the windshield, “he passed away” doesn’t really describe it.  And, of course, these days, folks don’t even pass away anymore; they merely pass (as if it were a spelling test.)  The #1 preoccupation of literature, religion, philosophy and life itself, and we’ve reduced it to this bullshit?  How bland has our existence become?

This is the language of Shakespeare, Blake and Yeats — have some respect.  But the real problem is, as we continue to drown our language in mild, we’re starting to think that way and that scares the hell out of me.