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1/ Conspiracy theories are for those who don't understand how systems function, so they cling to the idea of evil forces behind the scenes, when in fact, most awful things that happen happen because the social structures within which we operate contribute to various outcomes...
2/ Sadly, American culture is so hyper-individualistic, it is easier to think of everything (good and bad) as flowing from either good or bad people, rather than social systems and structures that are far more complex...
3/ And unfortunately our schools don't really teach systemic thinking, or encourage people to have a sociological imagination. So it's easier to blame false flags and a "pending gun grab" for mass shootings, rather than look at the mental health system or violent culture...
4/ It's easier to blame an inside job for 9/11 than think about the way that U.S. policy sowed the seeds of hostility among the forces that became al-Qaeda. And some other conspiracies are easier to believe than to simply accept that sometimes awful things just happen...
5/ ...over which we have no control. And that lack of control is scary to people, because it means awful things could happen to us too. So to such folks as this, uncovering the Wizard of Oz is a way to feel less at risk...if we can just ID the bad guys we can deal with them!...
6/ But the irony is, the people who believe in conspiracies NEVER end up feeling safer or less at risk, despite "unmasking" the wrongdoers...it just makes them feel more uneasy, as the rings of the conspiracy grow outward...
7/ And conspiracy theories always proliferate at moments of major social transformation over which people feel powerless. Which is why they are common among culturally/economically insular communities, bc those folks feel the world passing them by, leaving their folkways behind..
8/ Ultimately one struggles to balance compassionate understanding of the systemic source of the absurdity (on the one hand) with a realization on the other that these people are dangerous to democracy and social cohesion, and mostly can't be reasoned with...
9/ Fundamentally it becomes necessary to create systems of education and responsible media that help minimize this kind of inanity on the front end, rather than hoping to clean up the mess on the back end. Because once you're down that rabbit hole, you're likely gone...
10/ And of course all of this is made more complicated by the fact that in history there have been certain conspiracies, if by that we mean, a plan between two or more people to do x, y or z thing for their own pernicious ends...I mean, these things have happened...
11/ The first people who enclosed land & said 'this is mine,' & used force to take & keep it no doubt conspired to that end w/other powerful people. So the system of private property begins conspiratorially. But now it's a full blown system w/its own logic, not requiring Oz...
12/ Even when things have a "conspiratorial" root, after a while, auto pilot kicks in, and even though there are individual bad actors who make things worse, the system is the real thing to focus on.
