How Deep Is the Rabbit Hole?
This weekend, the New York Times (NYT) revealed that the CIA has been deeply involved in Ukrainian politics for a decade, mucking around with politics and engaging in provocations against Russia. We already knew that from everything that non-mainstream commentators have been saying for years. It was reinforced by Tucker Carlson’s interview with Vladimir Putin just two weeks ago, an interview blasted for giving a platform to a bad guy.
Here’s the thing: what the NYT reported was not news. But it underscores a key theme of our times. The conspiracy theories of a mere fortnight ago are once again shown to be completely real.This just keeps happening. And on what topics? Essentially everything. It pertains to most subjects.
The signature issue of just a few years ago was the claim that the virus that causes COVID might have come from a lab leak. That claim was universally derided as a conspiracy theory. Then it turned out to be a fully credible claim, which everyone now admits. Top scientists have proven that all the denials were simply wrong.Then it pertained to masks, social distancing, the vaccine, and every other aspect of the policy response. The dissidents said that none of this would work but their views were heavily censored by major media and Big Tech. The people who disputed the policies that ruined lives worldwide were derided as “fringe” and crazy. But it turned out that they were entirely correct.
Then there were the people who observed that all mainline social media was being censored in cooperation with a shadowing network of government-backed nonprofits and universities. This claim was said to be nuts, a fantasy born of paranoia. Now we have ironclad proof that the “conspiracy theorists” were wholly correct all along.The proof is in the form of many thousands of pages of emails and other documents. The Supreme Court will take up the issue soon. Does this violate the First Amendment? The court had better make the right decision else we are truly toast.
Then there were the people who said that this wasn’t really about a virus. Rather, the virus was being used as a pretext for an industrial plot to impose a vast censorship regime on the planet, create health passports for everyone, enslave us all with central bank digital currencies, and bring a China-style social credit system to the West, complete with 15-minute cities.The people who said this were considered crazy until everything they said turned out to be true. There really was a nefarious plan to use the pretext of a virus to fundamentally change the way we live and work, with top-down planning and a full reset of the industrial order.
Then the conspiracy theorists said that the next excuse for continuing the great reset would be climate change. And like clockwork, there it was. The headlines went from drumming up fear of infection to whipping up fear of melting ice caps, parched lands, flooded coastal cities, and catastrophic weather events. It was truly one day to the next.Incredibly—and I still cannot get over this one—the very slogan “climate change” is sticking despite its obvious absurdity. Of course the climate changes. It’s called seasons. Vivaldi wrote a violin concerto about it and all ancient writing and painting address it.
To elevate “climate change” as a problem in need of fixing by the surrender of human rights and liberties is next-level trolling. It also allows the appearance of public consensus: conduct a poll to see if people are concerned about “climate change” and you will surely get the results you want.They truly do think we are all dumb as chickens. And yet it seems like they are getting away with this preposterous caper. It’s astounding.
Let’s take on another conspiracy theory: namely that the virus was deployed as an elaborate plot to subsidize and privilege digital business interests as opposed to old-fashioned physical ones. Well, one of the early papers pushing lockdowns, which got millions of views, was written by the head of an online learning platform. In addition, the lockdowns shut down small businesses and provided trillions for people to spend on digital platforms with delivery services.Another conspiracy theory turns out to be true.
Or consider the claim that Big Pharma used the crisis to push products that would otherwise never have been approved. It so happens that this product is an mRNA platform that allows subscriptions and quick printing of formulas to respond to any new pathogen, including that which is released by a lab.
Well, as it turns out, there is nothing untrue here either. This is exactly what happened. The misnamed vaccine required an endless series of boosters and even those didn’t work. In fact, each booster made people sicker than they were before. And yet the companies keep making the big bucks because they are fully indemnified against all legal claims that their products are harmful.
The evidence that all of this was deliberate—the full exploitation of the legal system to abuse the people and take their resources—is overwhelming. If you are of the mindset that most conspiracy theories are widely exaggerated, like I used to be, take a look at the facts of the case to connect the dots. It’s impossible not to believe the worst about these industries.
And what about the rumor that this entire thing was orchestrated by the national security state as a kind of digital coup d’état? It turns out that there is vast evidence for this thesis too. What is called “the blob” of the intelligence community was indeed involved at every step.
Let’s talk about the central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). A few years ago, people were talking about this long-term plot. It’s hardly long-term at all. It’s the ambition right now, as we know from several executive orders and statements from many elites in monetary and financial circles. These would allow programmable money that would take away financial freedom.
It’s no longer a question of whether some people want this but when they will move to try to impose this on the population.
Have you lost your naivete? I certainly have. The last four years have revealed the darkest of plots and schemes by shadowy elites. When Elon Musk took over Twitter and looked carefully at the personnel and code, he discovered that the company he bought had been working as an extension of the federal government. He flat-out said it: every conspiracy theory is true and then some.
At this point, we are all ears. Whatever trust we had in the main systems that operate society, government, and business has evaporated. I’m speaking not just for myself but for many millions of others. There is no longer much public doubt that the system is rigged. So far as I can tell, this new realization that has settled on the public mind is rather new. The age of innocence is gone. We have moved to a new age of deep suspicion.
This is new territory. Never before in the history of industrialized democracy has public trust in key institutions—and here I speak of government, medicine, corporate life, media, nonprofits, mainstream religion, and just about everything else—dropped to such low levels.
Two main questions remain. Just how deep is this rabbit hole? And what will be the consequence of such a loss of trust? We have no real historical precedent to speculate about either question. But this much we know from history. An elite that no longer enjoys the trust, at any level, of the public it rules cannot really expect long-term security for itself. What that looks like precisely we do not yet know.