I wrote in Suspending Disbelief,
Bill Whittle wrote (specifically with regard to chemtrails, but in an article responding to truthers, JFK conspiracists, and the moon “hoax”),
I think it’s high time — and way, waaaay past high time — to start pushing back against these kinds of diseased philosophies and the fact that they are getting traction because no one seems willing to point at them and go:
and today I implemented that very plan. A business acquaintance recently moved to Israel. Another acquaintance was describing the high-pitched tones they’d experienced during a phone conversation and speculated that the CIA was involved. I don’t know the politics of the guy who moved to Israel – his wife is Israeli, so the move was personal, not any kind of political statement – but I know the politics of the guy I was talking to. He’s very anti-Bush and reasonably far to the left. (I make it a point to say both of those things, because as I’ve written numerous times, I’m fairly anti-Bush, but I’m also pretty right-wing.) But the idea that the CIA chose to monitor this phone call is ludicrous. So I told him to stop drinking the Kool Aid and that of course the CIA has no interest whatsoever in him or in the guy who moved to Israel – it’s a completely ridiculous idea. Especially when a perfectly rational explanation – that Skype was having some kind of glitch – was available. He dropped the subject immediately. I may not have changed his mind, but he’s a smart guy, and maybe a bit of pushback, rather than the polite, non-committal response I used to greet those kind of statements with, will give him pause for thought.
Am I risking losing an acquaintance I’m fond of? Sure. But on the other hand, if he’s going to be a complete lunatic, it’s not such a loss, is it? I’d rather try to help him than let things devolve to the point that I’ll be glad to see him go.
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