Conspiracy Fodder
People wonder why conspiracy theories thrive for so long.
The simple answer is "Because things keep happening to support them."
No matter how thoroughly the object of a conspiracy theory attempts to offer evidence to the contrary, all it takes is one action to start things all back up again.
Take, for example, these two stories that could suggest hostile and semi-covert (and definitely untoward) action by forces with a national government. Each one is from a different country but, oddly (possibly) deal with the issue of supposedly free speech and/or First Amendment protection.
One is conspiracy fodder due to things that could just be coincidence. In order to link it to the conspiracy-theory-at-large, there is some supposition that must go on. Mainly that the government statement as to what happened is an outright lie or fabrication. The really sad thing is, it's really easy to believe that it was, indeed, a government action to silence a voice of dissent.
Kremlin critic shot in Ingushetia
Magomed Yevloyev, owner of the ingushetiya.ru site, was a vocal critic of the region's administration.
The Russian prosecutor's office said an investigation into the death had been launched, Russia media report.
A post on Yevloyev's site says he was detained by police after landing at the airport of the main town, Nazran.
The website owner was taken to hospital but died from his injuries.
Reports quoting local police said Yevloyev had tried to seize a policeman's gun when he was being led to a vehicle. A shot was fired and Yevloyev was injured in the head.
The second story features a much more blatant conspiracy inducing set of actions. In this case, actions that fall within some interpretation, if not the generally accepted spirit, of a law on the books. The conspiracy lies in the twisting of that law to propagate actions that forward an agenda of a group that has considerable power (and, for what it's worth, a whole lot of other conspiracies and proven mis-steps tied to them already).
Massive police raids on suspected protestors in Minneapolis
Protesters here in Minneapolis have been targeted by a series of highly intimidating, sweeping police raids across the city, involving teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets. Last night, members of the St. Paul police department and the Ramsey County sheriff's department handcuffed, photographed and detained dozens of people meeting at a public venue to plan a demonstration, charging them with no crime other than "fire code violations," and early this morning, the Sheriff's department sent teams of officers into at least four Minneapolis area homes where suspected protesters were staying.
Both of these incidents are far from isolated occurrences. Even with the temporal separation from other such events, the scars and suspicions they grate upon immediately resonate with a large number of people. People who feel they've already been taken advantage of. People who are actively looking for explanations to otherwise incongruous, odd or downright unexpected actions.
Conspiracy theories thrive until all the propagators of them have distinct personal experience that proves to them either the situation behind the perceived conspiracy has changed or that the initial perception of a conspiracy was incorrect. Neither of those conditions are met very often.
And with that, I leave you to wonder on your own...
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