Remember the days when there were three television networks, when you could fill up your gas tank for $15 and when Guy Fieri was just a homophobic, talentless, annoyingly “stoked” tween named “Guy Ferry” rather than a homophobic, talentless, annoyingly “stoked” television mogul? Ah yes, it was a simpler time. I’m also old enough to remember when political conspiracy theories, however ridiculous they seem now, possessed some small layer of believability — as if a team of experts were working really, really hard to construct a plausible narrative based on their own paranoia and obsessive desire for attention. Whoever they were, they were craftsmen. Insane craftsmen.
I remember when it was perfectly reasonable to suggest that the CIA and the Pentagon were involved in the assassination of President Kennedy, or when they said the moon landing was filmed by Stanley Kubrick inside a Hollywood sound stage because it was easier than actually going there.
But you’d think in the internet age when it’s really easy to debunk the truly ridiculous theories via a universe of information a few clicks away, the conspiracy theorists would work even harder to come up with better ideas than the hooey they’re churning out these days. Instead, modern conspiracy theorists tend to be malicious, stupid and, too often, racist.
It probably doesn’t help that the man who’s most responsible for marketing in this crap, Alex Jones, is an escaped mental patient who happens to know a thing or two about business models. If he hadn’t made a career out of this stuff, he’d surely be institutionalized but, instead, he’s become the Walt Disney of Conspiracy Schlock. [continue reading here]