One of the things that is interesting about reading conspiracy theory is that much of what folks think is conspiracy is really many people acting in concert to make or protect their money.
I think that there is something that happens, a phenomenon that happens around a conspiracy theory, where if you believe in a conspiracy theory, then every critique of that theory is simply more proof that the conspiracy exists. And I think that that's something that goes on in the person of Donald Trump.
The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theory, is that conspiracy theorists believe in a conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is actually chaotic. The truth is that it is not The Iluminati, or The Jewish Banking Conspiracy, or the Gray Alien Theory. The truth is far more frightening - Nobody is in control. The world is rudderless.
I believe conspiracy theories are part of a larger conspiracy to distract us from the real conspiracy. String theory.
Everything is a conspiracy. People kind of demonize the word. But a conspiracy is when two people get together and do something. So, if more than one person does something, it's a conspiracy. The revolution was a conspiracy, Iran Contra, Watergate.
I would not call myself a veteran conspiracy theorist. Or an obsessed one. I pretty much peaked on the whole conspiracy theory thing in the '60s, with the grassy knoll, who really killed JFK, and who ordered the hit on Lee Harvey Oswald.
I really wish there was some big brother conspiracy theory. I just think it's the ignorance of trying to make a dollar. That's what the networks have done and will continue to do. If anyone doesn't think that this is about making money, then they're crazy.
I do love a conspiracy theory myself, but I'm more of an alien, mermaid sort of conspiracy girl.
But in answer to your question about the conspiracy angle, I think that any historian worth his salt, and this is where I fault Stephen Ambrose and a lot of these guys who attack me - not all of life is a result of conspiracy by any means! Accident occurs alongside conspiracy.
I tend to be very skeptical and judgmental. I'm not really a conspiracy theorist, but I'm more likely to believe the people that speak about a conspiracy, or are convinced of conspiracies in the government, than the people who have 100 percent faith in the people who are running America.
There can be a conspiracy, but the presence of a conspiracy is actually not an excuse for conspiracy thinking.
For reporting a scientific finding, I was called a 'conspiracy theorist.' Only in America is scientific analysis seen as conspiracy theory and government lies as truth.
The play of Hillary Clinton is to do exactly what she did with Whitewater, with the conspiracy theories about Vince Foster's suicide, with the conspiracy theory that Clinton Foundation donations somehow went to the Russians to open a Nickel mine in Canada, this is all nonsense. This stuff has been going on for 30 years.
Everything's a conspiracy and everything's not a conspiracy. You could look at this planet and go, "This is all a conspiracy. God made this to test us to see if we'll use the nukes." You can let your mind believe anything.
It's no accident that there is a nexus between Trump, Roger Stone and Infowars and Alex Jones. It's very much an Infowars presidency in many ways. The President is a conspiracy theorist. He has reliably touted conspiracy theories. It's a core part of how he processes the world epistemically. That is deeply, deeply dangerous, and disturbing.
I just think too many nice things have happened in string theory for it to be all wrong. Humans do not understand it very well, but I just don't believe there is a big cosmic conspiracy that created this incredible thing that has nothing to do with the real world.
Human beings are pattern-seeking animals who will prefer even a bad theory or a conspiracy theory to no theory at all.