Big Pickles

There is a radio show on NPR on the weekends called Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me which I highly recommend. It's hilarious. (If you're not interested in my political views, stop reading here and pretend this post was just to tell you about that show.)

Anyway, the host of the show, Peter Sagal, writes a blog which I only came across by accident today. And in this particular post, he says basically the same thing I said to one of my co-workers this morning.

Which is this: I wonder if people who believe in conspiracy theories think about everything else that would have to be true in order for their conspiracy theory to be true? In the case of Barack Obama, people are saying all sorts of things about how he is a secret Muslim or a secret supporter of terrorism or whatever other flavor of Manchurian Candidate is in vogue today, without stopping to realize what that would look like in the real world if it were actually true. (Do they?)

My favorite is the theory that 9/11 was an inside job. If it was, it would have been the greatest display of competence the Bush administration had managed to achieve, before or since. It just doesn't make sense that the team who manged to pull off something like that would bungle everything else they attempted so mightily. 9/11 would be their "we can put a man on the moon." Are you kidding me? We can pull off 9/11 but we can't plant a few WMD's in the Iraqi desert?

Peter Sagal put it very well, I think. Conspiracy theories thrive because for many people, the reality is intolerable. It is easier to believe in a conspiracy, no matter how unlikely and convoluted, than accept the facts as they are.

Labels: politics