Defending Government: The Conspiracy Theory Attack
"The Government Would Never Do That!"
One of the defensive routines of government is to create surrogate organizations to defend or, at least, obfuscate its future actions. It is unclear if governments learn from each other or if this routine is endemic to all governments, as they seek to grow their power. In the west, the traditional surrogate is the media. The New York Times, for example, has always backed the growth of big government. In the East, the surrogate target is usually the educational system. Lenin’s Communist Party took over the schools fairly rapidly, indoctrinating millions of the former Tsar’s youth. Likewise, Chairman Mao’s government did the same.
Pro-government support comes in two forms, as it would for zealous support for any political cause: active verbal support for big government oriented leaders and policies, and mass criticism or mocking of forces that stand in opposition to big government efforts. One of the major attacks is the claim that any opposition to what big government may do in the future is a “conspiracy theory,” conjured up by uneducated crackpots who sit on the political fringe. The conspiracy theorist label is meant to demonstrate that this person is unhinged, uneducated and whose comments may be dismissed out of hand.
While it is true that persistent conspiracy theories about government adverse actions are often false, many forecasts, opinions and observations of government power seeking have come true. It was reported in the early days of the global pandemic that what is now called the Covid-19 virus originated from a lab in Wuhan China. Anthony Fauci’s contention that Covid came from the environment and was something he held for quite some time. Senator Rand Paul received emails that detailed facts that give the impression that Covid came from a Wuhan lab that was indirectly funded by US government institutions. Prior to the Paul releasing the emails, many in the media decried Republican and conservative criticism of Fauci as perpetrating conspiracies. Many on the political right believed that the US government spread Covid on purpose, a conspiracy theory that is doubtful. We now know, as far as I can tell, that Covid was created in a Chinese lab, supported by US government institutions and was leaked unintentionally.
So why all the pervasive accusations of conspiracy theory? The best time to eliminate the government’s ability to take nefarious actions is in the early stages, prior to developing the requisite political momentum to normalize it. Established practice or decisions take time to get decisions makers to understand the action, as well as make important political calculations and take action. If a nefarious undertaking gets interrupted early, politicians will abandon it and it will die. Conspiracy theory accusations of whistleblowers, actual journalists (not merely government enabled main stream media talking heads) and concerned government employees is an attempt to relegate them to the fringe, while political momentum is being built.
One example is the Department of Homeland Security’s Disinformation Board, which is widely heralded as a government censorship organization, despite the clucking of the government’s own media. As the Biden administration was creating it, independent news outlets such as Racket News and The Intercept touted this as a major violation of the First Amendment right of free speech. The organization was eventually shelved due to backlash from Republicans and independent journalist organizations. Meanwhile, the unified government surrogate response came in two forms: 1) critics unjustly claimed that the government was doing something wrong and is, thus, a conspiracy theory or 2) right-thinking people simply did not understand the government’s good intentions.
Once we understand how government manipulates speech and truth in its quest to protect the American people, but also its inexorable growth in power, we are in a position to more credibly evaluate what the government is actually trying to do. We should consider how the infrastructure that government builds today would be used in the future. How would we hold the government accountable in case they start to put political, legal or, God forbid, military pressure on citizens for illicit purposes. In order to hold government accountable, we must understand their playbook for power. We can start with understanding the conspiracy theory criticism, why it is being used and, more importantly, which political ideology uses it the most.