Now more than ever, we hear the terms "conspiracy" and "conspiracy theorist" trotted out whenever an individual questions a media or government narrative. The words themselves come with an awful lot of emotional and unstated baggage: crazy, unfounded, baseless, lunatic. And worse, we are told that those who engage in talking about – and presumably, therefore, amplifying – these so-called conspiracies are a danger to democracy. They put us all at risk.
If the last few years have taught us anything in our ongoing political education, it's that conspiracy theories often turn out to be accurate, while the accepted narrative is, in fact, often a conspiracy.
David Icke
David Icke
Consider for a moment British author and renowned conspiracy theorist David Icke. Icke has been much maligned for his views and is considered little more than a laughing stock by most news outlets in Britain. Yet, he is often proved right despite the mockery.
For many years, Icke talked about Jimmy Savile, a BBC television presenter and friend to Queen Elizabeth II. He publicly accused Savile of being a prolific child molester and a sexual predator on a grand scale and the BBC of helping to cover up his crimes. Crazy stuff, right? Icke was labeled a conspiracist and shunned by the media – until after Savile's death.
When Savile died in 2011, the floodgates opened. More than 300 accusations were made public, and a wide-ranging investigation covering 14 police jurisdictions ultimately proved Icke right. The BBC's upper management insists that the numerous complaints never reached their lofty ears. Yet, they still saw fit to pull an investigative journalism show that was looking into the allegations.
Not to be forgotten so soon, Icke has for many years written and talked about how enforced vaccination, likely at the behest of Bill Gates, would soon be upon us. This topic is very much de rigueur, but Icke was making this case more than five years ago. He was again branded a conspiracy theorist, and once again appears to be correct.
The COVID Numbers Conspiracy
And what of COVID-19? Without going too deep into the weeds on this topic, one aspect has come to the fore in recent months: the numbers.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson decided in late October to put the nation back under lockdown. He did so based on figures from the Office of National Statistics (the apparent gold standard), which released data showing the incidence of COVID in the community had more than doubled during the early part of the month. The conspiracists were out in force, claiming that either the numbers were a lie, mistaken, or misunderstood by those in government who make the decisions.
These foil hat wearers were derided, maligned, and even blocked on social media for questioning an official government narrative. And then new figures were released by the ONS, which, in fact, demonstrated that the incidence rate had increased by a small fraction only.
The ONS explained that one set of data was partly based on modeling, and the other on recorded information. So perhaps not the fault of ONS, but certainly someone in government with the PM's ear had gotten something very wrong, indeed.
Did the so-called conspiracists get an apology? Were they finally lauded for their clear thinking and analytical capabilities?
The Great Reset
Perhaps one of the more prominent conspiracy theories making the rounds right now is that of The Great Reset. This concerns a globalist effort to reinvent society, get rid of capitalism, and move towards a future that its operatives claim will be wonderful yet many see as dystopian terror. But does it exist?
On the very same day, The New York Times ran a headline stating: "the baseless "Great Reset" conspiracy rises again," the World Economic Forum ran a story on its own project named The Great Reset: Building Future Resilience to Global Risks. As Brit polemicist Paul Joseph Watson says, it seems that it is only a conspiracy theory when someone passes negative comments.
And what of the Russian Collusion Hoax? Because a hoax is what it was. The idea that President Trump was in league with Vladimir Putin, or that Trump was somehow answerable to the Russian Premiere because of troubling kompromat appeared on every major news network for years after his election. Even today, leading Democrats use this narrative, referring to an investigation that concluded Trump had done no wrong. Yet millions of Americans called it right even when the dominant media and political classes were telling us the Dodgy Steele Dossier was solid gold.
The Impossible Vaccine
Let's not forget the swaths of media personalities and politicians like Joe Biden and expert doctors – including Doctor Anthony Fauci – who said the idea that the U.S. would have a vaccine before the end of the year was "impossible." Who was engaged in a conspiracy? President Trump, who called it absolutely right, or the thousands of naysayers who mocked and ridiculed?
The point here is that when those in power push a narrative, there's usually a reason. As Saint Augustine wrote: "The truth is like a lion; you don't have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself." A narrative is pushed because it is so rarely the actual truth. It may be a truth or a subjective truth, but rarely the whole truth – which is why it demands scaffolding from sycophants eager to push their own special brand of the truth.
Perhaps it's time to dismiss the idea of following the herd and, instead, seek the truth wherever it leads us and down whatever dark path it may take. Embrace your inner conspiracist because time and circumstance may just prove you the victor.
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Read more from Mark Angelides.
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