Ever notice how sometimes the very same people who proclaim that our government is completely incompetent and run by morons are the same ones who are convinced that this same incompetent government was able to pull off the greatest hoaxes mankind has ever seen? There’s something amazing in the conspiracy-addled mind that can hold these two inconsistencies together without noticing.
The thing that bugs me most about these government conspiracy theories are that they don’t make sense from a human standard. If the government really did have aliens hidden in Area 51, you’d think someone involved over the past 50 years would have revealed this, written a book, and became rich. That happens now with government secrets of a much smaller scale — you’d think with all the people who have to have been involved in this, someone would have produced some proof by now.
After all, our government is pretty bad at keeping secrets. It really is incompetent in many areas. And between the press and the internet and cameras everywhere and whistleblowers and insiders talking, we know a lot about what our government does. And that’s a very good thing.
Still the crazy ideas continue.
At least this mindset is an equal opportunity employer. There are conservatives who are convinced Obama was born in Kenya and liberals who are convinced we faked the moon landing.
This is not to say that there aren’t minor conspiracies going on all the time — especially concerning money, price-fixing, insider trading, and so on. But nothing on the scale of the “9/11 was an inside job” mentality or the “government wants to take all your guns and install a military dictatorship” delusion.
ventrellaquest.com 
“government wants to take all your guns and install a military dictatorship”
Because this “disarmament conspiracy” never happened in history, right? The threat of disarmament is a conspiracy theory? Get real. You snuck this in here like a gun control measure hidden in a healthcare bill. It doesn’t belong with the others. Just because YOU lumped it in doesn’t make it a conspiracy theory.
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And just because you believe it despite the lack of evidence doesn’t make it any real.
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Lack of evidence? Ok, whatever. You’re not paying attention then. Just pretend no bills were introduced by elected officials at various state levels attempting to make all firearms ownership illegal. (And many restrictive ones at federal level, too) It’s all there in public record. There are sharks in the water. Not a conspiracy at all.
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You’ve probably seen the PPP poll released a month ago on how many Americans believe certain conspiracy theories. http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2013/04/conspiracy-theory-poll-results-.html
The statistics are astonishing. It doesn’t help that Fox News regularly gives airtime to proponents of these theories. But what really alarms me is when members of Congress stand up and spout off these theories themselves. Voters actually elect these people to office? That’s what is most incredible of all.
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But they’re different sects. The government workers handling the aliens that invented velcro, changing Obama’s birthcertificate and domestic terrorism are special forces military, not congress or the DMV or FEMA.
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I think just like most things, the key is finding a healthy balance between extremes. Obviously we need to be vigilant about making sure elected officials are not overreaching their power, or engaging in corrupt activities. Most conspiracy theories have a nugget of truth at their heart which is then taken to an unhealthy level when speculation overwhelms fact.
When it comes to gun legislation, I can understand those who oppose further restriction and certainly some lawmakers have made proposals that would be unconstitutional and a government overreach. But, when it is insinuated that the US government is engaging in activities similar to the worst dictators of the 20th century in an attempt to disarm the populace and place us in FEMA concentration camps, then opposition has been taken to an unhealthy level.
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