They are the people that arch a skeptical eyebrow during any and every mainstream news report. They set to blogging and posting memes within hours of massive social and political events and tragedies. They see foul play in every death of a politician or figurehead. They never accept any official story about anything. Ever. They are the conspiracy theorists. And many of them are radical libertarians, voluntaryists, or market anarchists, which poses a problem in the struggle to build a free society. Let’s look at why.
First, let’s start off with the good stuff. In my experience, conspiracy theorists are often highly intelligent folks. In some cases they are onto treachery before anyone else. They were among the first people to start asking questions about 9-11, and in the end some of the ideas that were written off as conspiracy theory ended up being true. They work hard to peel back the layers in big business practices and in many cases reveal some startling things happening in the world of crony capitalism. This sort of unwavering criticism and skepticism can be major assets to resisting statism.
At what point, though, do the above become a liability? Is there a point in which there is no more digging needed? In light of what the state does every day in broad daylight, are conspiracy theories even necessary?
Conspiracy theorists have a tendency to flash a massive flashlight on state treachery, but sometimes the light is so bright that it obscures everything. It becomes difficult to know what a credible claim is because the bright light of excitable skepticism makes everything questionable, even the conspiracy’s central claim itself. In fact, they can spend so much time constructing the narrative that they miss the forest for the trees. How many 9-11 Truthers have missed all the atrocities of the state in the years since 9-11 because of the obsession with their own narrative? Furthermore, if the narrative is so out on the fringe that it repels people from liberty and further entrenches them in statism, I don’t see how it can be a useful tactic.
If you have ever seen a link posted for a conspiracy theory and gone to the site you may have seen links embedded in the post, as well as links to “sources.” It is very common for the embedded links to lead to other pages on the same site, and for source links to lead to other conspiracy theory sites, which in turn loop around to each other. In affiliate marketing this is called a blog network within a specific niche. The blog network is owned by the same person, and acts as a support for their main money site. Google moves them up in the search engines because of links pointing to their money site (the idea is to click on their ad links). When these links are also shared by folks within the radical community, though, they are directing people to sites with no credibility, and are in effect helping to make the blog owner money. Nothing more. No net liberty is gained, and the credibility of the radical community takes a hit.
Going beyond the conspiracy theory business, there also seems to be an effort to simplify complex situations. This may seem counterintuitive given the fact that conspiracy narratives can be so complex, but their complexity reveals a desire to clear away any ambiguity. I personally believe that many members of the political class, especially within the state itself, believe they occupy good and virtuous organizations that are trying to make the world a better place. For example, I think President Obama is very aware that his drone strikes kill children, and I would even wager he is pained by that fact on a very real level. But this is what makes statism such a disease, and it is also what I think conspiracy theorists in the radical community are not prepared to deal with. In conspiracy theories we construct the devils we need in order to make sense of the madness of statism. Trying to wrap our minds around statist sociopaths that murder children for what they truly believe is the greater good is far more difficult. If it is really truth about the evils of the state the conspiracy theorist wants, then all they need do is go to CNN and look at all the atrocities carried out by the state in broad daylight. I would think ongoing war, economic oppression and police violence are enough to indicate that statism is a scourge on humanity and the planet.
In short, ditch the narratives. You don’t need them.
Last Agora on the Left 