Darkness at Noon

 

A leftist friend posts a link to a page from Rolling Stone magazine saying that the upcoming solar eclipse is breeding conspiracy theories on the “far right.” The article is behind a paywall. But the first “conspiracy theory” cited is the only one I’ve seen elsewhere: that the eclipse is a sign of the “end times.”

Why is it that I only ever hear these “far right” conspiracy theories from the left? They never show up on sites the left calls “far right”: The Daily Wire, Steven Crowder, Small Dead Animals, Rebel News, True North, Mark Steyn. Only on the left; yet labelled “far right.”

I suspect left-wing journalists trawl the internet for improbable claims, and when they find one, arbitrarily label it “far right.” Because, after all, anyone who disputes the familiar dogmas on anything is by their definition “far right.” 

The association of the political right with finding signs in the sky significant is surely dubious on any other terms. This is, in a word, astrology. The Age of Aquarius, the Axial Age, and all that bit. Is New Age on the far right now? Has anyone told Marianne Williamson?

It is also clearly not a conspiracy theory. People cannot conspire to move the stars and planets.

The fundamentalist Christian concept of the “End Times” is not a conspiracy theory, either. God is not a conspiracy, by definition; there is only one of him. “Conspiracy theory” is now simply used, just like “far right,” to tar and dismiss any claim or idea disliked by the left.

And speaking of End Times, what makes Protestant fundamentalism either political or specifically “far right”? Only that they dissent from the dominant opinions of folks on the left about life and the universe. Not political issues—except that, to the left, everything is political. The left is intrinsically totalitarian.

For what it is worth, I cannot see a solar eclipse as a special sign from God; except in the sense that all nature speaks of him to us. Although rare, it is as predictable as a celestial clock striking eleven. If God wants to send a warning, I expect some violation of the laws of nature to make the source and urgency clear. 

And as to the end of time, nobody knows the day or the hour. It will come like a thief in the night.

The solar eclipse may have some mass psychological effect. It may make people ready to believe improbable things.

The Single Bullet

 

Because humans are herd animals, like dogs, our instinct is to defer to authority, and assume that those in power are smarter and more honest than we are. We see this in the Stockholm syndrome when people are kidnapped. Of course it also applies to authorities and governments in general.

Every now and then, the curtain gets ripped away.

It was torn badly in 1963 when JFK was assassinated. Just about everyone felt it did not smell right. Conspiracy theories abounded. The young at least briefly adopted the slogan “question authority.” And widely bucked the call to fight in Vietnam. Trust was lost.

Over time, this settled down, at least to a large extent. In Sixties terms, we all sold out. For one thing, Oliver Stone’s movie “JFK” came along, and was so unconvincing in its claims that, intentionally or not, the entire enterprise of questioning the Warren Commission findings was discredited. The cool kids weren’t supposed to believe in “conspiracy theories” any more. Blaming the CIA for anything domestic was “tinfoil hat” stuff, compelling evidence of mental illness.

That alone should make us suspicious—whenever a given position is ruled out of public or polite discourse, it is probably because it is inconveniently true.

Now even the JFK assassination is hot again. Now people are again asking questions. Because recent events have caused another collapse in trust in the government and in authorities generally. I think a bigger one than we saw in the Sixties.

In light of the draconian Covid lockdowns, the fixing of the primary process in the US, the Chinese election interference in Canada, the Epstein affair, the lies about the vaccine, the attempts to silence free speech, to shut down truckers and farmers, the lawfare against Trump and the obvious persecution of protesters on January 6 in the US and the Freedom Convoy in Canada, the charge that the “Deep State” actually staged a silent coup in 1963 sounds plausible, even likely. 

We all know nefarious things are going on. How far do they extend?

And how, short of revolution, do we re-establish social trust?

Conspiracies

 

The flagpole at my local school.

A friend who originally emigrated from Pakistan laments that, over the past few years, his eyes have been opened: at the higher levels, Canada is no better than Pakistan. Our leadership is corrupt. His Canadian dream was only an illusion. 

His companion, Canadian-born, says the sudden appearance of “gay-pride/transgender” flags on public buildings everywhere looks to him like the swastikas appearing in Germany with the rise of the Nazis. They announce the power of an authoritarian political ideology. You will obey.

Did I mention that these two guys are gay?

They think we are doomed; that there is no way back. The best we can do is try to survive.

Who would have thought, a few years ago, that the following conspiracy theories would look plausible:

That the 2020 US election was rigged.

That the past two Canadian elections were rigged.

That the Canadian prime minister and the US president are in the pay of China.

That the Canadian government would try to control the media.

That “Canadian health care” would become a euphemism for murder.

That “Eyes Wide Shut” was a documentary? That there are pedophile rings involving the participation of the rich and famous? When a film came out about the fight against pedophile rings, there would be an effort to suppress it?

That “drag queen story hours” for children would not just be permitted, but made mandatory?

That the CIA shot JFK. Maybe RFK? Maybe MLK? How about John Lennon? One former CIA operative has confessed to killing Bob Marley. Has the US effectively been run by a dark cabal since the 1960s?

That we were all forced to inject ourselves with an experimental vaccine that had not been properly tested.

That the pharmaceutical companies are prepared to suppress effective medicines for the sake of profit.

That some conspiracy can have enemies suicided at will, even within a high-level prison, and then can prevent an investigation.

That UFOs have been real all along; but the government has been suppressing this fact. 

That the FBI is engaged in such activities as suppressing news for partisan political purposes.

That there is a conspiracy between government, the media, and big tech to impose censorship and control the news.

And on it goes.

Given that last one, that news is being suppressed, all conspiracy theories now become plausible. We  know there are conspiracies. We know we are not being told the truth. Which conspiracies are real is anyone’s guess. There can no longer be any public trust in our institutions.

My own thoughts are still optimistic. I think we are seeing the thrashing about of a beast in its death throes. Social media makes conspiracies harder now to conceal, and we are beginning to see behind the curtain. At the same time, a depraved ideology that traces roots back to the 19th century, variously known as postmodernism, relativism, critical theory, existentialism, fascism, or the New Left, is reaching the point of reductio ad absurdum, slipperly slopes being real and really slippery, and the common people are beginning to see how mad it is. 

And the convoys are coming.

I still believe there is a way back, and the future will be better than the past.

Just Sayin'

 

Death is beautiful. Death is your friend.

You know what’s funny? If the Trudeau government planned to create a Fascist dictatorship, they would be doing exactly what they have been doing over the past few years. Buying out the established media. Refusing to allow other reporters at their press conferences. Imposing censorship on the internet to silence independent voices—Bill C-11. Shutting down peaceful protest with aggressive police force. Freezing the bank accounts of those who supported it, even in a minor way. Briefly, but an abject warning against any thoughts of organized opposition in future. Trying to force everyone to carry an app on their phone, allowing them to be tracked at all times. Going after truckers and farmers, the two groups most difficult to control—because of their mobility and self-sustainability. The sudden shift in Ontario at least to voting machines, which have proven so problematic in the US. The introduction and expansion of assisted suicide, giving government power to kill, perhaps ridding society of what Hitler called "life undeserving of life." Now the plan to ban almost all firearms under the guise of “assault rifles.” 

Funny too how it is now forbidden to speak in public of conspiracies. “Spreading conspiracy theories” is now justification to have you silenced or banned online.

Heck, that almost looks like some conspiracy is at foot. Otherwise, what’s the problem?

We even know of a number of strange activities lately that almost look like conspiracies. The Balenciaga ad promoting child predation. The La Maison Simons ad promoting suicide, and actually featuring the blue whale image used by online serial killers. The mystery of Epstein’s island, his client list, and his assisted suicide. The suppression of information on the laboratory origins of the COVID virus, the strange government resistance to talk of possible treatments, the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story; the “Russia hoax,”… Frogs really were being turned gay.

If you were a conspiracy theorist, you’d almost think there was something going on here.

It’s all an amazing set of coincidences.

Conspiracies

If you don't know what this image means, I'm not telling.

Everyone on the left is currently deeply concerned about “QAnon.” My friend Xerxes points out that it is a conspiracy theory, and conspiracy theories are not rational.

He is right, but not in the way he thinks. QAnon is apparently in itself a conspiracy theory. But getting agitated about QAnon is also a conspiracy theory, considering QAnon a significant factor. Yet people on the left apparently do. In a recent poll, those on the right listed their chief concern as illegal immigration. Those on the left listed their chief concern as people on the right.

Funny that I only ever hear of QAnon from the left. On the right, nobody is interested. The same was true, a little while ago, of “Pizzagate.” Nothing about it on the right; the left was all over it. Or the “alt-right”: same thing. Entirely a discovery, if not an invention, of the left. Or “anti-vaxxers.” Definitely started on the left, with figures like RFK Jr. Or “white supremacists.” According to the left, everybody but them is a white supremacist. The term is never used on the right. Or "dog whistles." People on the left keep hearing them, but imagining they are for the right. People on the right never hear them.

In other words, “QAnon,” the “alt-right,” and “white supremacy” are conspiracy theories—in that they really exist almost entirely in the imaginations of people afraid of them. The reality is probably in each case a few kids blogging from their basements, and probably being misinterpreted or misquoted at that. You could probably conjure up an infinite number of such conspiracies on any conceivable subject with a little Googling.

Most if not all of leftist politics seems to be based on conspiracy theories. One is the concept of “patriarchy”: that men, throughout the ages, have been conspiring to oppress women. Or the Marxist concepts of “ideology” and “hegemony.” Marxism, very like Gnosticism, holds that most or all of what we think of as reality is actually invented by rich capitalists to maintain their control. Or the idea that “white people” have invented not just the USA, but Western civilization in order to suppress “people of colour.”

The larger a claimed conspiracy, and the longer it is claimed to have continued, the less plausible. Because people are people, and are not good at keeping secrets. Yet with “patriarchy,” “white supremacy,” or Marxist “ideology,” the left has gone as far as possible: conspiracies embracing the entire world since the first written records.

Pettipiece: “Ancient Gnostics believed that the world we perceive is, in fact, a prison constructed by demonic powers to enslave the soul and that only a small spiritual elite are blessed with special knowledge — or gnosis — that enables them to unmask this deception.”

Striking, surely, how closely that describes the claims of the left, since at least Lenin’s “vanguard of the proletariat”; if not to Rousseau and the French “romantic” revolutionaries.

Why do people keep believing in conspiracies? In part, because some conspiracies are real: ask Julius Caesar. Ask Adam Smith, who observed that, if any two members of the same trade got together, the conversation would inevitably turn to possible collusion in restraint of trade.

But more broadly, and for the bigger, less plausible conspiracies, it is because of a loss of belief in God.

People need meaning. We are born with an empty God-sized hole in our hearts. With God, you have meaning. Without God, you have paranoia.

As G.K. Chesterton observed, “people who do not believe in God will believe in anything.”