CONSPIRACY THEORY
When I was growing up in the United States, one of the best ways to destroy someone’s credibility was to accuse them of being a communist.
It didn’t matter that most people had no idea what communism was, they just associated it with being loyal to the Soviet Union and antiAmerican so they were sure it must be bad. And unfortunately for many actors, directors and writers who were neither of those things, the charges didn’t have to be proven to be effective.
I’ve started with that history lesson because ‘the red scare’ was based on a conspiracy theory that claimed the Soviets were trying to destabilise the free world by taking over the entertainment business. But the fact I’ve stuck the label ‘conspiracy theory’ on it, doesn’t prove it wasn’t true.
I certainly think it would have made sense for the Russians to try to do something like that considering how effective Hollywood has been at making the American way of life familiar to the rest of the world. Was that a capitalist plot?
I don’t know, but I am a big fan of conspiracy theories. These days, the term is used as a label to discredit arguments without the need to prove them wrong, just like the label ‘communist’ was used to discredit people during my childhood, so I don’t think we should dismiss them too quickly.
They are called theories because they are difficult to prove, but they are also difficult to disprove and they can be very handy if we want to try to understand events that don’t fit with the, ‘facts,’ we are given. Besides, if I, or anyone else who has nothing to gain, can think up ways to con the public, then why shouldn’t the people who would profit from those kinds of schemes be able to do the same? Isn’t that what marketing departments and advertising agencies are paid to do?
These thoughts were inspired, in part, by something that happened the other night after my partner and I played badminton with her son and nephew. The people we usually play with couldn’t make it, so we persuaded the boys to join us so we wouldn’t have to run around too much playing singles.
Neither of them had played a great deal before, and according to her son, he had never mentioned badminton in a social media message before that night when he let his girlfriend know where he was going. But the next time he looked at his Facebook page, he was bombarded by badminton equipment adverts. That made me feel like our phones are being used to keep tabs on us.
But the next day, when a local supermarket sent me an email with a web link to get my personalised discount coupons for the week, I decided that might not always be a bad thing. All were for products I regularly buy, so I chose two of them and felt pleased the efficient use of my purchase history was going to save me some money.
But when I went shopping, I discovered both products I’d chosen were out of stock, so now I think the vouchers may have been a conspiracy to get me into the overpriced store.