A couple of days ago, I was sitting in a coffee shop reading my book. A fellow at the table next to me pointed at my Obama t-shirt and asked me what I liked about him. I struggled to think of what to say, not sure whether or not he was a fan or if he was trying to bait me. At first I thought he was going to challenge my knowledge of the president’s health care plan, but before I could say "yes we can," he revealed his true colours:
“You know he wasn’t born in the United States, right?”
And this was my first (and hopefully only) encounter with a birther, that fringe group of people that are trying to prove that Obama wasn’t born in the United States, and is therefore an illegitimate president. I’m not going to go into the specifics of this movement or provide a point-by-point rebuttal of their argument (read Kai’s excellent article on the birther movement instead). But I spent five minutes arguing with this guy, who also happened to be wearing a t-shirt that said “9/11 was an inside job.” After listening to him cite one ridiculous “fact” after another – about Obama and 9/11 - I had enough. I got up and left.
Arguing with a conspiracy theorist is sort of like arguing with a religious fanatic. They have little or no evidence for their views, but they hold such devotion to it none the less. You also have to consider the source. The guy in the coffee shop probably believes in reptilian, shape-shifting extraterrestrial humanoids for all I know. But I was actually furious. I couldn’t believe I let myself get into an argument with this guy. But then I’ve always struggled when it comes to arguing with conspiracy theorists. I used to be one when I was twelve. I believed aliens were among us, or working with the government, for what reason I have no idea. This was pre-X-Files even. Of course I grew out of that phase once the absurdity of it dawned on me (and The X-Files moved into its sixth season). Still, I come across conspiracy theories every now and again. My late uncle, God rest his soul, was a devout believer in a 9/11 conspiracy. Of course there’s more than one out there, and they range from the somewhat plausible, to the anti-Semetic to the truly bizarre. Here are just a few examples from the 9/11 conspiracy theories wikipedia page:
• North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) issued a stand down order or deliberately scrambled fighters late to allow the hijacked airplanes to reach their targets without interference. According to this theory, NORAD had the capability of locating and intercepting planes on 9/11, and its failure to do so indicates a government conspiracy to allow the attacks to occur.
• There are theories that 9/11 was part of an international Jewish conspiracy. One the more popular claims in these theories is that 4,000 Jewish employees skipped work at the World Trade Center on September 11. This was first reported on September 17 by the Lebanese Hezbollah-owned satellite television channel Al-Manar and is believed to be based on the September 12 edition of the Jerusalem Post that stated "The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem has so far received the names of 4,000 Israelis believed to have been in the areas of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon at the time of the attacks."
• David Icke argues that reptilian, shape-shifting extraterrestrial humanoids are responsible for the 9/11 attacks. According to Icke, a reptilian global elite is behind all things that occur in the world.
There have been efforts to debunk these 9/11 conspiracies, notably Popular Mechanics, but also from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology. And Obama’s birth in Hawaii has been confirmed by all the major news networks and the State of Hawaii even (whose governor is a Republican that voted for John McCain). This hasn’t stopped the media from reporting on it and it probably will never stop the conspiracy theorists. But I don’t think we should have to entertain their ideas and give them prime-time news coverage. Of course they have the right to believe what they want and publish it even, but does a major news network need to give airtime to whack jobs like Alan Keyes and Orly Taitiz?
Conspiracy theories also detract from legitimate criticism and scepticism. I don’t pretend to know every last detail about the 9/11 attacks, and there may even be some unanswered questions from that day, but to say that it somehow points to a wide-reaching conspiracy involving Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Big Bird, and whoever is far-fetched and unrealistic. Even if you believe that Bush had something to do with 9/11, you have to concede that at some point, the proof would have been leaked by now, as it has in so many other instances, i.e. Watergate. The U.S. is such a porous society that it’s highly implausible for a secret that big and that damaging to stay secret forever. All Nixon did was hire some guys to break into Democratic headquarters and it cost him the presidency. If Bush did know something about 9/11, his head would be on a platter by now.
The same goes with Obama, If he was born in Kenya, as this coffee shop moron said, you don’t think the two-year media scrutiny of his life leading up to his election would’ve revealed that by now? To hell with Jeremiah Wright. He wouldn’t have made it past the Iowa caucuses.
I guess conspiracy theories are entertaining, but it makes me think what a waste of time it all is. I don’t have a problem with people criticizing Obama for his policies, but his place of birth? Besides, anyone with common sense knows Obama’s a reptilian.
The problem with conspiracy theories is that they are not falsifiable Any proof against only lends more weight to the argument that a conspiracy exists. The more evidence you put on the table the more these people say that this is merely manufactured to delude us. It's a system that places belief before fact, like religious fanatics as you say. Of course there have been historical conspiracies: Watergate, Guy Fawkes, virus laden blankets distributed to native Americans. But we have proof of these as the acts of power hungry or bigoted people. That the world is run by a shadowy cabal is nuttery of the crunchiest order.