The World of Conspiracies: You're Born a Fool
Bruno Corzino"We're born stupid," but then we train ourselves methodically. The conspiracy theorist , on the other hand, is the one who one day realizes that the world doesn't work as he's been told. And instead of laughing along with the crowd, he remains silent and begins to ask "why." The problem isn't ignorance: it's the arrogance of those who call it "critical thinking" while reciting the news from memory. True stupidity isn't believing in a conspiracy, but believing there isn't one. And that authority, whatever it may be, is always right. (Introduction by the Publisher)
Now, one might say I'm being too harsh on the sleepy ones, the "useful idiots," the sheep, or whatever you want to call them. That I paint a world in black and white, where there's a clear divide between the doddering and the aware. You'd certainly be right, and that's why I want to clarify. Obviously, there's no clear distinction; a person can be aware of one aspect while blindly seeing or passively accepting another. Or the same person can live in a state of drowsiness for many years, only to be "opened" by a particular event (or events). This is what happened to me, and it inevitably happens to everyone, since we're born immersed in a sea of layered lies, conventions, and family and social traumas.
And that the priority is survival, as well as emulating our parents, our circle of friends, colleagues, etc. We spend most of our energy and time working to survive and thrive. Therefore, we often have no time left to reflect, ask questions, and seek information. Because these activities, absolutely necessary to counter the mechanical repetition of incorrect behaviors and ideas, require both time and energy. So, all that's left is to continue repeating and obeying, unaware of being immersed in manipulation, just as a fish is unaware of water.
In other words, no one is born "awake." We are all born "asleep," immersed up to our necks in the filth of mechanicalness, of imitating others without reflection or will of our own, of repeating the lies of the "official truth" of the moment and defending them tooth and nail. Some are fortunate enough—or unfortunate enough—to find themselves in situations (always traumatic and painful, because in comfort one sleeps) that jolt them into becoming aware of something or other they had never "seen" before. That said, my negative feelings toward sheep are not alleviated, especially given the amount of violence and pain they, due to their ignorance and stupidity, inflict on others.
One day, I drove an old college friend to exasperation when, having recommended a book to him, he told me he wouldn't read it because the author didn't have a degree in biology but in anthropology. To which I replied that perhaps it was best to read it first, take note of the content, and then judge whether it was valid or not. Filled with anger, he replied that no, he could only read a book written by someone with a degree in the given topic because he "didn't have the qualifications" to understand the subject and therefore could only believe what someone recognized as an authority in that field wrote. Stunned by the idiocy of this position, a discussion ensued that actually exhausted this man. Pushed to the limit, at a certain point he dropped his mask and made an absolute confession: "Critical sense is knowing that the truth is what people with the qualifications conferred by authority in that field say ." For me, it was an epiphany because finally, here, naked and raw, was the crux of the matter. The desperate cry of a compromised person who derives all his personal importance (and therefore his chance of survival) from belonging (even if only in his imagination) to the group of "those who have studied," the self-described "intelligent." Without that "title," without belonging and the support of the group, he feels worthless, he feels like he's dying, like a child left alone by his tribe in an inhospitable forest where he can't survive. There, that's the whole point, the thousand intellectual masks to cover a simple cry of need rooted in the deepest layers of the psyche and childhood.
Moreover, even Wikipedia quite honestly calls the censorship that ensures content aligns with the current official narrative "authoritative control." "Critical sense" thus becomes simply adherence to the group's norms, and this without even laughing at the obvious irony. The paradox continues, because, obviously, the person who uses the term "conspiracy theorist" and puts on a tinfoil hat to mock and bully, but doesn't know where it comes from or why it was invented, considers himself the intelligent one, while the stupid one would be the one who asks the question and finds out. Being part of the group of "the intelligent" or "good" ones therefore has no connection with the actual intelligence or morality of the individual's actions, but only with their adherence to taboos and the narrative of the group's authority. He may also be an imbecile and a horrible person, but through his loyalty to the doctrine and his bullying of those who dare to question it, he gains the status of “intelligent” and “good.”
A brilliant and very good man, in the fight against the enemies of the flock, commits a scholar to a mental hospital for daring to say that washing your hands before performing an operation is a good idea (Sammelweiss), commits suicide for someone who, despite being a national hero, goes against the sexual morality of the moment (Turing), and fires another world-famous individual from his job because his ancestors belonged to the wrong religious faith (Schrödinger). The bullying and violence perpetrated by those who feel compelled to defend their flock are constant and endogenous. The saddest thing is that the followers of the common narrative, not caring about anything outside of it, fail to even notice how the scholar is fired and vilified, how the neighbor loses his job and is barred from public places because of his beliefs, and how the suicide was not a dangerous enemy but simply someone who dared to ask the wrong question at the wrong time. For him, all this doesn't exist, since his social group and the news he follows (obviously) don't report it.
