The Noble Lie

I peek into the MSNBC news at least once a week to see what most people are thinking and talking (repeating) about. It's been getting stranger and stranger lately. The stories seem to alternate between the uncovering of "Yet Another Real, Terrifying Bush/CIA Conspiracy" to "Group of Wacko Conspiracy Therorists Claim X," with the usual people making the usual sweeping psychological dismissals: these people are small-minded fools who can't accept the fact that history unfolds randomly and accidentally.

Lately, the conspiracy theory taking the heat is the "Birther" movement, the (admittedly pretty dodgy) claim that Obama is an illegitimate president because he does not have a birth certificate. Don't confuse Birthers and Truthers (the derogatory term for those who don't buy the official 9/11 conspiracy).

The ranks of "conspiracy theorists" have swelled over the past decade to the point where it's finally becoming mainstream. First-tier alternative media like AlterNet and Rolling Stone devote some serious copy to conspiracy-bashing now. AlterNet has run a couple of articles debunking the Georgia Guidestones ("that's not a Rosicrucian conspiracy, that's just good advice!") and Wired recently ran a story about the mysterious "new" Air Force facility known as HAARP.