Lone Prairie

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The crazy conspiracy is ruining all the good conspiracy.
www.julieneidlinger.com

The crazy conspiracy is ruining all the good conspiracy.

A spoonful of sugar makes the rat poison go down.

Julie R. Neidlinger
May 9
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Sugar + Rat Poison = Not Sugar

“All the crazy conspiracy theorists are ruining all the good conspiracy theories,” I grumped to my friend.

Some conspiracies are true.

All a conspiracy needs is two people to conspire to do something. Every time I get a coupon for something free, it ends up being a conspiracy. It’s highly illogical to assume that conspiracy theories aren’t or can’t be true simply because someone denigrates them by dismissing them as mere conspiracy theories. Of course people with power and money and something to lose are conspiring. It’s what people do.

And, as it turns out, the past couple years saw quite a few conspiracy theories true.

But then you get some really weird stuff that I won’t link to here. Everything from politics to cannibalizing brain hormones and flat planets and faked this and that—all kinds of claims.

Nothing makes it easier for people to dismiss true conspiracy theories than having the false ones propped up alongside them.

But these past two and a half years on the internet have been spectacular, and it’s gotten so much worse. I’ve taken a few swings (and misses) here on this blog at trying to wrap my head around the weirdness out there. I’ve spent time in forums and lurked in Telegram groups reading comments and emerging completely baffled, wary about linking lest I snare someone else into weirdo land. People who I walked alongside in 2020 and 2021 as some of the pandemic scheming was made public have wandered off into places I can’t possibly go.

I have never before struggled so hard to put words to something. How do you write an essay about what you can only gape at? How do you structure something which defies logical structure?

“For starters, I’m burned out on it all,” I said in a conversation with several people who were involved in politics. “There’s too much weird conspiracy stuff woven into everything.”

“But I really do believe there is a deep state,” one replied.

“Yes, sure,” I said. “I wouldn’t disagree that there have and are people in power who pull a lot of strings and that has an impact over the long-term. But some of the conspiracy out there has gotten so bizarre that you can’t tell what’s true and what isn’t.”

Which lead to commentary on disinformation and false flags and hence, why I’m burned out on it all. Everyone claims to be the purist while their arch nemesis is a deep state plant using psy-ops, and all you have is he-said she-said and a GoFundMe page to support who you think is telling the truth.

Holy cats, are people tipping over the edge.

Some of it is true, to be sure. And it is definitely ugly. The FOIA drop of the 55K+ pages of Pfizer mRNA vaccine documents is shocking, and people are only getting started digging into that. The FOIA requests of Fauci and Collins’ emails, among others, surprise no one who tried to say that was going on. The Wuhan revelations about the lab and the genetic markers in the viral protein strands, the predicted increase in excess deaths and insurance and funeral industry data from 2021, and on and on and on…yes. Heck, Obama spying on Trump’s campaign and the Russia collusion hoax and Hunter Biden’s laptop? No surprise there, but it’s lookin’ like that was true.

Some of the conspiracy theories are true.

But some are just ridiculous. And some have so little truth that knowing them does more damage than the truth in them can overcome. You pour a little rat poison in a big bowl of sugar and mix it up. Yeah, that’s a bowl of mostly sugar, but would you still eat it?

That’s the trap with conspiracy. Mostly true. Someone who’s been mostly right. You get a lot of partly true and mostly true and been-right-before and it seems true and you end up with people wandering away down strange paths and wanting to argue with you for saying the word “globe" or being excited that the Apollo 13 command module can be seen in Hutchinson, Kansas because low and behold, those are all part of conspiracy theories.

If you’re not offending some intersectional woke race-baiter, you’re lighting up a conspiracy theorist.

And sometimes that conspiracy theorist is you, because there’s always someone on either side of you who thinks you’re off their preferred mark.

This is why we relegate ourselves to talking about the weather.

Except that is also part of significant conspiracy theories.

I really love Jesus. He made it so simple, and it’s even more brilliantly simple now, in light of all the confusion and deception that will continue to increase: keep your eyes on the Lord, because he is the Truth.

Not the latest conspiracy. Not the latest scandal. Not the latest attempt to fight spiritual battles with physical means.

You don’t have to worry about which conspiracy theories are true and which aren’t, because God is in control and knows and it’s not your job to figure it all out. Just keep yourself in the Word. It’s the only way to get through, at this point.

Sorry, but you’re not smart enough to know what’s true and what’s a lie on your own. You need the Holy Spirit in you, and that only comes from following Jesus.

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Cheryl Ruffing
May 9Liked by Julie R. Neidlinger

"I don't know what I know, I only know what I think." —George MacDonald, "At the Back of the North Wind"

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Jim Wetzel
May 12Liked by Julie R. Neidlinger

" ... wanting to argue with you for saying the word “globe" or being excited that the Apollo 13 command module can be seen in Hutchinson, Kansas because low and behold, those are all part of conspiracy theories."

I had to look that one up -- the Apollo CM being in Hutchison, Kansas, that is. That museum it's in looks interesting. Next time I head west to visit my little brother, I might have to allow for a day's detour and check that place out. How it gets tied into a conspiracy I don't know, of course, but I'm sure the theorists find a way.

Saying "globe?" I'm guessing you've had encounters with flat-earth folks. I have, too. It's fun for a few minutes, but ultimately, an unpleasant way to waste time.

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