Welcome to a discussion about the upcoming 5th Revolution in the US, which I’ve titled the “Revenge Revolution.” For more about the Revenge Revolution and the author, Entry #1.  Periodically I write a “sense check” to assess whether a revolution in the US is possible or whether the entire exercise is based on a statistical aberration — i.e., a roughly 50-year cycle between major upheavals in the US. Entry #430 was the most recent “sense check.”

BEGIN ENTRY #462. I continue to be gob smacked by the number of supposed conspiracies promoted by seemingly educated people. It seems the more outlandish the scope of the conspiracy, the more credible some people consider the conspiracy.

Conspiracies have been around for years in the US and other countries.  One major difference now is the use of social media, which: (I) allows the conspiracy to be shared quickly among many people; (ii) has few checks re control of content and/or credibility of the claim.  Social media seems to have encouraged more conspiracies and even more outlandish claims.

Another factor is the dramatic decline in readership of credible, print media.  The decline has taken away the “sanity-check” guardrails for many former readers.  I shake my head at how many people I know who no longer get any news from print media, instead relying on cable or the internet.  These same people express concern about such issues as the dangers of using public Wi-Fi but seem to have few reservations about gathering “news” from questionable sources.

The topic of conspiracies has personal interest to me.  In the early 2000’s, there was a movie made, excuse me, an alleged documentary, titled “Who Killed the Electric Car?” During research for the movie, I was contacted by the producer. In addition to offering insight about the efforts of GM and other companies to develop and introduced a modern-generation electric car, I offered names and contact information of others in the industry who might be considered for interviews.

When I was filmed – in LA on the top floor of a building at intersection of Sunset Blvd and the 405 – it seemed apparent the producer had decided on a conspiracy theme and structured questions accordingly.  Apparently, my answers didn’t fit the conspiracy theory, because only a couple of short clips of my interview made the final edit. 

When I am asked if there was a conspiracy to kill the electric car, or when someone claims there was a conspiracy, my usual response is a bit of laughter and then an explanation. I like to remind people claiming a conspiracy is that those of us involved with the EV programs from different companies were either not smart enough or too naïve to have a conspiracy.   All the people from GM, Ford, Honda, Toyota and some electric utilities were trying to develop and introduced one thing – a competitive electric car to meet the California zero emission vehicle mandate. 

To conspiracy theorists such facts don’t matter. There had to be a conspiracy.  Tell me, just “Who Killed the Electric Car?”  (Interested in learning the real reason GM killed the EV1?)

Conspiracy theorists seem to forget that for a conspiracy to work only a few people can be involved.  And one thing we all know is people love to tell “secrets” to friends.  If more than a handful of people are involved, then the conspiracy soon becomes public information and infinitely more difficult to execute. 

Aside from the electric car, some conspiracies friends/colleagues have been touting of late include:

(I) 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center (always popular in early September) involved far more people than the public has been led to believe.  Depending on who’s promoting the conspiracy, the group involved was  broad-based, including key members from several countries.  In addition, the plan to destroy the Trade Center towers was in the works for at least a decade prior to the attack.  

According to some, the Towers were not only struck by planes but damaged by a nuclear blast underneath the towers and a nearby building. 

As proof the conspiracy theorists show pictures of the Trade Towers with commercial aircraft in the sky behind the towers.  Guys, stop and think just for a second.  One of the major flight paths to/from LaGuardia is not far from the Trade Towers.  Besides, adding planes to the background makes a picture of buildings more interesting.

More “proof” of the long-planned conspiracy is a picture from the late 1990’s of a high-profile individual whose watch has the hour hand at nine (9) and the minute-hand at 11.  Now, how could you not be convinced?  Hard to imagine but just suppose someone doctored the picture using Photoshop.  More proof is a poster for a ferry-ride around Manhattan.  Cost is “$9” and to the right of the $9 is a rendering of the skyline with the Trade Towers.  Now, how can you not believe?

More proof – the floors of the towers could not collapse in pancake fashion.  Because the pancake pattern is not possible, there had to be another “something,” usually not identified. The “proof” disappears after one talks to an architect about how the individual floors in the towers were attached to the exterior walls rather than to central posts.  When the joints holding the upper floors were weakened by the plane crashing and then the fire, the floors could collapse.  The weight of a single floor falling on another would exceed the strength of the joints on the lower floor and the floors would then collapse in pancake fashion.  Never mind logic, I know there was a broad-based conspiracy.    

(2) Covid and other vaccines are being promoted by the pharmaceutical industry, Bill Gates, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and who knows who else as a way to control the populace. You might not know this but there are RFID chips in the vaccines.  (Liquid chips, I guess.)  At some point the liquid RFID chip would be activated and signals sent that would turn those vaccinated into killers of other people, thereby reducing the number of people on earth.  Why take such action I don’t know.  Gates is 66 and Fauci past 80, so how will they benefit?  Conspiracy theorists often fail to cite a logical benefit.  

(3) The number of deaths from Covid was greatly exaggerated because doctors and hospitals made more money from Covid-caused deaths than other deaths.  At least this conspiracy provided some logic.  However, when I state that putting the cause aside, significantly more people died during 2020 and 2021 than would be expected (~3 standard deviations greater than the norm), I have yet to get a response.  Guess a lot of extra people just wanted to die early.

(4) Global warming is a hoax being promoted by governments as part of the broader plan to control the population.  The hoax is really impressive.  For example, those icebergs are melting not from the earth’s warming but because (my sarcastic logig follows) the socialist Democrats have placed blow torches under icebergs and glaciers to make them melt.  Why? The socialists Democrats are just jealous of all the Republicans who own seashore property.  The deniers of global warming have myriad reasons why it’s a hoax but never provide any scientific data.

(5) Evidence at Mar-a-Lago that inventoried Trump’s illegal retention of secret documents, and other classified material was planted by the FBI…and the list goes on and on.

The acceptance of the conspiracy theories and the refusal to accept the results of Biden’s election by a wide swath of Republicans does not bode well for the democracy and reinforces the likelihood of a 5^th US revolution.  What can be done to mitigate the negative effects of these conspiracy theories?  Stay tuned for ideas.  END ENTRY #462

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