Convergence and Unraveling

As ideas converge, theories often unravel.

A very smart man once told me, and many others present, that wild-eyed conspiracy theories are often the result of white racism. For example, "backdoor" theories about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 or those of a US Government plot to perpetrate September 11, 2001. The idea is, the Japanese (or Arabs) could not do such things alone and simply must have had help from with in.

After all, this smart man went on to say, none of these conspiracy theories had any evidence to back them up despite (in the case of Pearl Harbor) decades of searching and many, many books and historians making the case.

Today we see the emergence of a conspiracy theorist who breaks this mold (the "dissident", white, "other" hating). One Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In addition to what Tigerhawk shows us, the BBC shows that Ahmadinejad has joined the chorus of those who believe that vast numbers of people have died in Iraq.

Lastly, it is well known that, if not a holocaust denier himself, Ahmadinejad certainly promotes holocaust denial and subverts the most documented event in human history. Ahmadinejad says the holocaust"is a myth".

So, as those who believe that 600,000+ people have been killed in Iraq converge with those who deny that Arab terrorists conducted suicide attacks in NYC and those who deny the holocaust took place...the notion that white racism drives these conspiracy theories seems to unravel.

What then is causing different people in different places from different cultures to converge in this way? A hard question for sure.

All this said, there are clearly present day examples of racism driving conspiracy theories...but not the ones my very smart man was thinking of. Watched cable news in the last month? And it's not new. The final quote is fascinating from a philosophical sense:

"The whole notion of conspiracy theories and misinformation...removes personal responsibility,"