22 November 2018
The other day, a guy at work told me he was thinking the Earth might actually be flat and wondered if I’d looked into it.
No shit—I’m not joking.
Unfortunately, he’s not alone. Flat Earthers actually appear to be growing in number. Meanwhile, Republicans insist a measurably changing climate is merely a hoax. Some doubt the moon landings and claim 9/11 was an inside job. Creationists and Young Earthers are convincing schools to doubt science. We believe vaccines are dangerous, secret groups of businessmen run the world and the murder of school kids at Sandy Hook was a false flag operation. Most recently, some say the California fires were started by government lasers from space. It goes on.
Happy Anniversary to The Culture of Conspiracy!!
On 22 November 1963, fifty-five years ago, today, Lee Harvey Oswald fired three bullets at President Kennedy’s limousine in Dallas. Forty-eight hours later, Oswald would be murdered and we’d never trust government again. The subsequent Report of the Warren Commission would only raise our doubts about what happened in Dallas. Then Vietnam, Nixon, Iran-Contra and other exposed cover-ups proved there was more going on than we knew. They could be up to almost anything.
Jump to today. Even the president says we can’t believe judges, reporters, the FBI, CIA or our own eyes. We are awash in nonsense. Our compass spins and we can’t get a bearing, so we become susceptible to stupidity and, suddenly, I’m standing in front of a Flat Earther for the first time in my life. You really aren’t prepared for that, by the way. Trust me.
Conspiracies are easy. Nothing is demanded of them. They only need to fill in a few holes, give us someone to blame and make us feel like we know what’s really going on, so we feel less vulnerable and less afraid. It’s enticing. I get it.
I had some favorites, JFK in particular. I couldn’t believe Oswald did it. Not alone, at least. But, the evidence—although incomplete and imperfect—aims at the least-satisfying possibility: Oswald, a pissant loner with a crappy rifle, killed Kennedy. All by himself. Coming to terms with that meant I had to abandon the conspiracies I preferred. But, so be it, if I really valued truth.
I had a good friend explain to me the freedom of giving yourself permission to be wrong—gloriously, fabulously, completely fucking wrong—about even the most important thing you ever believed in. That sounded difficult, but turned out not to be—not if one is more committed to truth than being right, anyway. It’s a small but significant shift in perspective and, he was right. It’s liberating. True freedom.
Anyway, just watch out. Be prepared. They’re out there. So, if someone reveals himself to be a Flat Earther on you, be ready with a spit-take.
–Michael Lane
