Alexander Leach: Editor
Bob wrote his column on conspiracies last – those convoluted plots where everyone is lied to and controlled by sinister secret groups. People who think the moon landing was faked; people who think Elvis is still alive; people who really want to see what’s in Area 51 (we already had a bunch of people try to get in in 2019, though running like Japanese cartoon characters didn’t work. Don’t ask me to explain, it’s an internet thing).
Conspiracies often blame the government. People don’t like the parties we voted for at the best of times, even if we actually voted for them, and it’s even worse when things go wrong. Half the time something goes wrong and people are quick to blame the governing body for the error.
Though honestly, a lot of the times that’s warranted. We’ve been in and out of lockdown so many times at this point it’s hard to not think that if we’d just stayed in lockdown, everything would be fine, but Doug Ford kept having to make us all go back to work and make money. Cheryl Gallant had to make a speech in parliament not-so-subtly lacing anti-Semitic terms and language into her speech about “infestations”.
Even recently, Westmeath had controversy regarding its Cenotaph; an unannounced Council Meeting with a rushed vote to cancel the movement despite the massive cost of doing so came with editorials claiming Council ulterior motives regarding outdoor bathrooms. While they didn’t cross the line into conspiracies, it was certainly emotional.
I mean, people are still gonna vote for her. The County seems to run Blue no matter what happens, which doesn’t sit well with me but I try not to make this paper more political than it has to be.
A vast majority of conspiracies wind up being openly anti-Semitic. Secret ruling elites, for example, are heavily based on a lot of stereotypes of Jewish people being rich and having lots of secret control over the world (which of course lets them justify all kinds of violence towards them in response). Stories about ‘lizard people’ secretly living as humans and controlling the world is allegedly tied to anti-Semitic belief as well.
In the end, most of these conspiracies tend to be bizarre and counterproductive. We can just try to verify what we can, even though there’s so much now.
It’s my job and I still struggle with it.
