The information cycle. Cartoon of 18/02/2023 in CTXT
I open Tonter in the morning and find the staff talking about UFOs. I don't get where the pod is coming from. I suppose that in a while a guy who bends spoons with his mind and the new faces of Bélmez will appear.
It is difficult to identify the origin of the first conspiracy theories when a more or less extraordinary event or catastrophe occurs, but the truth is that it doesn't matter much either, they appear within minutes of any event.
There are deniers, magufos* and chronic conspiracists who attach their impossible theories to absolutely everything.
*Magufos: Slang expression to describe people who promote or trade in paranormal or pseudoscientific phenomena such as ufology, magic, telepathy, or conspiracy theories.
Glen VanHerck, a US Air Force general, was asked if he ruled out the extraterrestrial origin of the three flying objects shot down by fighter jets. He replied that he"did not rule out the presence of extraterrestrials or any other explanation". What do you want more, this is enough to excite the inhabitants of Magufoland even more.
Saying that and nothing is the same thing. It's a leading question to begin with. They could have asked him if he ruled out the Murcian origin of the objects and now we could have a headline of "Unidentified Murcian objects fly over the United States".
Nor does it matter that it did not coincide in time with the Ohio train crash that created a major environmental catastrophe that some are already calling America's "chemical Chernobyl".
and what's even better than a conspiracy? A meta-conspiracy.
So, the staff ends up bringing the aliens to Ohio to mix it all up, shake it up and serve it fresh until no one can identify who said what and when. Much of the digital media, instead of adding some sanity to these usual passing bursts of irrationality, took advantage of the occasion to scrape a few clicks by creating the typical dung that they usually release during the rest of the year.
And to make matters worse, it turns out that there is another sub-conspiracy within the meta-conspiracy which consists of ensuring that the media is hiding the Ohio thing by covering it up with aliens because potatoes while the news, videos and pictures of the train crash are all over the place.
Remember, attempting a rational dialogue with a conspiracist is a waste of time because, in the face of any evidence that dismantles their absurd theories, they will always pull out the invincible joker of the great conspiracy and you know that fantasy has no limits and needs no explanation.
