Dishonest Government and Conspiracy Theories

We live in the age of conspiracy theories. We have the malignant 'No one died at Sandyhook Elementary' or for that matter at any of the mass shootings in the last several years, theorized by kooks who persecute the families of the victims calling them frauds and actors, claiming that all these events have been staged by Obama in an attempt to take away everyone's guns. Or the latest - Obama had Scalia killed. To my personal favorite - 9/11 was perpetrated by the government.

Now this one is a whopper. They would have us believe that agents of the government in the weeks leading up to the world trade center attack, skillfully placed thousands of explosive charges on every level of both buildings of the twin towers, site unseen. Then they had the hijackers fly the planes into the exact levels of the buildings, just above the explosive charges, without setting any of them off prematurely. Then they ignited these charges, one floor at a time, perfectly timed to cause the buildings to collapse on themselves. Oh never mind there were no explosive retorts heard by anyone. They back up their claims with highly scientific 'proof ' like jet fuel burns at a temperature well below the melting point of structural steel. Wow instant scientists - except of course forgetting structural steel becomes like molasses at jet fuel burning temperatures and would lose its ability to support the weight of the structure. It doesn't need to melt - just needs to bend to its breaking point - oops.

I'm not surprised that there are people who feel that an hour spent on the internet transforms them into structural engineers and scientists. I'm not surprised at people needing conspiracy theories to fuel their ignorance, paranoia, hate. What I am surprised at is the number of otherwise 'intelligent' people who go along with this tripe. But then again let’s look at what we are dealing with, our government, the history of its truthfulness with the American people and then maybe we can get an idea why these theories abound.

I believe, as do many, that Chaney is capable of rationalizing the death of 3000 innocent Americans in order to shore up and win support for hegemonistic agendas abroad - for the 'greater good'. He is capable of ignoring terrorist warnings; he might even be capable of abetting terrorists in non-traceable ways - probably without their knowledge - if it served his purposes. He's just that kind of guy. But orchestrating this? – the government just isn’t that good.

Unfortunately, we have a long history of such in our leaders. We were mislead into escalating the Vietnam war by President Johnson after congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which gave Johnson legal justification for deploying US conventional forces and the commencement of open warfare against North Vietnam, in response to what has since been found to be a fabricated attack on US naval forces by North Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin. Nixon and Kissinger lied about bombing Cambodia and Laos and the continued bombardment of North Vietnam - killing an estimated 2-4 million Vietnamese civilians in our name – all the while denying it. Reagan sold weapons to our enemy Iran to win hostage release while illegally supporting rebels in Nicaragua with the Iranian gun sale proceeds - this even after the rebels had been accused of raping nuns and other atrocities.

I could go on. People not trusting our government to be truthful, or even ethical, even about the big stuff, is well deserved and goes a long way to explaining the proliferation of modern conspiracy theories.

Says a lot.