Conspiracies or what?
I have an innate dislike of conspiracy theories, and the often woolly thinking or unquestioning acceptance of those that promote them.
But, even stripping away the more extreme assertions of the committed conspiracist (such as that the world is run by a secret cabal of Zionists, or that our world leaders are actually aliens in disguise intent on wiping us all out) its becoming increasingly difficult to debunk some of these theories simply on the basis that they allege a conspiracy.
For the unpalatable truth cannot be ignored that “cover-ups” do occur - which in essence is simply what most conspiracy theories are alleging.
We know they’ve occurred in the past, generally to mask the blunders, mendacity, avarice, or criminal doings of politicians and other public figures.
And there’s no reason to suppose that such cover-ups are going to stop any time soon.
Therefore, are we as wise as we’d like to think ourselves when we trash the words of conspiracists out of hand, without even bothering to subject their claims to close scrutiny?
Laying aside my prejudices I have in fact spent time exploring some of these theories, and a quite surprising fact emerges.
Very often the extent of what’s being alleged is that there has been some sort of cover-up, and many of these theories do little more than pose serious questions that do actually deserve an answer rather than the prevarications and ambiguities that are so often laid on the table by “official sources”.
Another suprising fact that emerges is that there do indeed seem to be many inexplicable “anomalies” in the “official explanations” of certain events - significant anomalies that warrant (and in some cases cry out for) explanations that are simply not forthcoming. So what gives?
As a consequence of which, I’ve now introduced a page on the main Tilting at Windmills site devoted exclusively to some of the more credible conspiracy theories (consists mainly of brief explanations and links to original sources).
By all means take it with a pinch of salt, but not too big a pinch!
