I really hate conspiracy theories. A lot of people assume I'd be into them, and sometimes I get a good chuckle out of them, but overall they annoy the crap out of me. They more often than not completely lack a logical sequence, even when some really good information is dug up.

The biggest thing that really pisses me off, though, is how much any non-mainstream idea, particularly those that are critical of "the system" (however it's being defined), will always be relegated to "conspiracy theory" by some people, regardless of whether there's any conspiracy involved, or whether or not the "theory" was something verifiable and even outright said by the government or corporations (insomuch as there's a difference).

Conspiracy theories are not deep, educated analyses of current events and politics, and to conflate the two is either completely stupid or the epitome of virulent anti-intellectualism.

Here's the straight skinny on conspiracy theories as I see them: Conspiracy theories serve the purpose of defense mechanism style denial for those people who can't outright ignore or deny the evil shit that's going on. Instead of honestly evaluating exploitative systems of oppression and the role of privilege in maintaining these systems (and thereby having to question the legitimacy of one's own privilege) the cause for the situations we're collectively in, or the atrocities performed by our culture, is projected on others, perhaps a nefarious cabal of "power elites", or even maybe by interdimensional aliens looking to suck our brain energy.

Note: those people who buy into conspiracy theories the most are middle class white males, i.e. those people with plenty of privilege.

Now, I'm not saying there aren't evil motherfuckers trying to rule the world. I say that there are a lot, actually. But I have no reason to pretend that they're trying to enforce one-world government and are all part of a crazy devil-worshipping cult. I can just point to the fact that we have a sick, disfunctional culture that's set up to centralize power. I don't need to insert more meaning than that to assuage my guilt.

And I'm not saying that aliens or other non-human humanoids aren't out there. They might be. I just see no reason to blame this culture's ills on them, and certainly no reason to assume ill intent on their part.