I found the lead OpEd piece in yesterday's Deseret News, entitled "Howling at the Moon," ironic.  The piece is about the way conspiracy theories can come about and specifically about the various theories that NASA faked the moon landings.  The piece begins:

It's easy to come up with a new conspiracy theory. Just think of an event or a big institution, add in a hated (at least by some) group of people and throw in a suspicious motive for good measure. Greed usually will do, but sometimes the need to cover up or save face works better. Mix it all liberally with large doses of "evidence." You can find this in a lot of convenient places. Generally it will be in the form of truth that easily can be manipulated to mean something else.

Slap it all together on a web site or a talk radio show or any other public forum and presto! Next thing you know, honest, intelligent people are scrambling to do what is nearly impossible -- prove beyond a doubt that something didn't happen.

Americans are good at this. That's why so many people believe the United Nations is out to take over the world, the Oklahoma City bombing was really the work of federal agents and the Deseret News has purchased the Tribune.

I could add a few more things to their list. 


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Last modified: Thu Oct 10 12:47:20 2019.