I'm often suspicious of the culture surrounding conspiracy theories, because it feels like a sort of gnosticism. I also just find the idea of an all-powerful global elite to be rather incredible.
That doesn't mean it's not true, just that it's beyond my current conceptual horizon, and that horizon has shifted in recent years.
As all of us. What I thought was possible had shifted quite a bit darker in the past four years. I didn't expect the American people to let the lockdowns control them as much as we saw.
Same here. Covid lockdowns and vaccines really shifted my conceptual horizons towards cynicism.
Ask yourself: is it desirable, possible and likely to compromise those in the highest leadership roles to manipulate as you please, play multiple sides and advanced your goals?
If the answer is yes, then perhaps there's something to it.
I think there are many different cases where those in power can and do manipulate a situation for their own gain at others' expense. The bridge I find hard to cross is believing that it's all orchestrated by some cabal rather than elites just capitalizing on chance events.
Many people acting separately but with similar intentions could appear organized.
True.
And they don't need to be organised like some textbook Organisational Behaviour case study.
They only need to be more organised than the masses.
They can backstab, cheat, sleep on the job, and do bowls of cocaine and still keep power as long as the masses are kept distracted and divided.
This is more along the lines of what I find believable. There are plenty of crooks, they're not exceptionally well-organized, but many have similar interests and are a step ahead of the public.
It can be except that gnossis is attempted to be kept secret, so in many cases, conspiracy theory stuff doesn't fit that strict definition. If you have some dude saying "I've figured it all out," that's almost certainly gnostic.
