I’m Worn Out on Many Idaho Conspiracy Theories

A politician once asked me to describe “normal”. She was a liberal, and a lot of the people in her camp looked straight out of the bar scene in Star Wars. I had a ready answer. I had just attended a Law Day Mass, where the local Roman Catholic Bishop had defined the topic in his homily. Normal responses to the abnormal bring about physiological changes. When you confront something that isn’t right, you get a feeling in the pit of your stomach. We have a built-in alarm.

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It’s Goliath in the cartoon telling his master, “I don’t know, Davey!” You can call it anything from fight/flight to your conscience calling. All under the same umbrella.

We’re a people desperately seeking normal. The pit in my stomach is now about the size of a bowling ball. You don’t know how many times I’ve voted for change, and then crazy manifests. I feel I’m done with the establishment, but I’m let down by the alternative. At every level of government. Crazy makes for good theater, but when that’s all that’s left, well, like Rome, we’re in the final days of the Republic. Roman entertainments were bloody games. Ours is science fiction, politics as farce, and large men colliding on a gridiron. No wonder people rarely leave the quiet of home when they’re not working.

We’re exhausted. We see what’s coming, and it’s being unable to move on the tracks while a train that’s roaring is on its way. There’s a debt crisis, a housing crisis, and the fear of what’s ahead stalks the land.

Blaming the Man at the Top Is Easy, and You Put Him There

I voted for Donald Trump three times. He doesn’t have the answers. Let me qualify that. He may, but he doesn't have the time, and he often resorts to theatrics to keep us occupied and counter the dog-and-pony show the opposition uses to derail his plans. On the state level, people who claim they’re raging against the machine engage in theater by wasting time sniping at the opposition or wasting their own political capital by handicapping election contests in other districts. How about you concentrate on your own campaigns and drop the martyrdom storyline? All the talk about burning everything down is probably a good movie, but what comes next?

On Saturday, I saw a post online from a Facebook connection. I vaguely recognized his name, but I do know him to be a hardworking guy who doesn’t bother his neighbors. He was a vocal supporter of wholesale change among our politicians. At all levels. Now he says he’s done, and he just wants to be left alone.

Hannah Arendt, writing about the Weimar Republic, said that when there’s no confidence left in government and other institutions, people will start to believe all manner of things, many of which have no basis in fact or truth. She was writing about a time before the Internet and when mass media and entertainment were limited to radio, silent films, and some cabaret shows. Then people start looking for scapegoats when things go to hell.

It Appears We’ve Lost Our Collective Noggins

Speaking of the Internet, several people I know (many of whom I’d call friends) have spent the last few days posting a meme showing a map of the Caribbean Sea, claiming a boat from Venezuela couldn’t travel 1,000 miles to Miami Beach to deliver drugs. Of course, a simple map is all you need for an explanation, right? But it ignores the fact that the drug trade is diffuse, involving the work of several cartels working together. Has it ever struck you that a boat doesn’t need to make 1,000 miles? Maybe it stops at several ports and refuels. Maybe it drops off the drugs in Mexico, which then cross the Sonoran Desert. But that wouldn’t fit a conspiracy theory or simplistic explanation that fits your confirmation bias.

In one version of the meme, it says China provides the building blocks that become the drugs that are manufactured in Mexico and then shipped here. Okay, but since China has muscled its way into the racket, is it possible there are several places where drugs are mixed? Like it was before China got involved?

This isn’t an endorsement of the President’s policy, and I understand that some of you would prefer we instead bomb China, but launching World War III is probably the last option available. And while blowing up boats is dramatic and makes for great pictures on TV and social media, there may be other efforts going on that aren’t quite as dramatic. You know, like the efforts that have been going on consistently for the past 50 years.

Libertarians would call it a wasted half-century and a failure, but maybe the new approach is what was needed. The best alternative would be to have everyone stop using drugs and alcohol, but that would require a style of government we see in places like North Korea. I’m not buying it.

We need to get our heads together and be a little more discerning in life.  I gather most people here don't believe all conspiracy theories and believe the neighbor spouting them is a crackpot.