My Great Awakening

[L Verge]

I admit to being a fan of such shows as Criminal Minds, Law and Order, NCIS, and others. Last night, I was catching up on a 2017 episode of Criminal Minds and had an epiphany because it was devoted more to analyzing a crime than in portraying the horror of it -- and all of a sudden, I realized that they were dealing with the same situation that we have been dealing with here: a community of conspiracy theorists who manipulate past and present events to attempt to convince folks that all of our lives and situations are controlled by government and certain elements of society.

All of a sudden, the word "truthers" was used. Merriam-Webster Dictionaries define the word as a noun: one who believes that the truth about an important subject or event is being concealed from the public by a powerful conspiracy.

But it is not flattering to be called a "truther." The term originated, as far as anyone can tell, to characterize people who embraced alternative explanations for the Sept. 11 attacks.

Recent Examples on the Web
These Shazaam truthers were all riffing off one another, giving each other subtle suggestions to form a false narrative that exists in their minds.
— Brian Resnick, Vox, "We’re underestimating the mind-warping potential of fake video," 23 July 2018
Alex Jones, the shouty man behind InfoWars and a Sandy Hook truther, took to Twitter at the start of last week to try and incite more fear amongst his fanbase.

While this source traces the term to 9/11, we certainly know that conspiracy theorists have been making news since the 1930s, since Roswell, the Kennedy assassination, and now they are heavily into the Sandy Hook shooting - which they believe was a staged event and that no deaths occurred. There are talk shows devoted to these theories, lawsuits stemming from Sandy Hook where parents of slain children have been harassed tirelessly, and of course a multitude of sources online. Name an event, and they have a theory.

In another posting yesterday, I quoted John Adams regarding "facts." Last night's show on Criminal Minds had another excellent quote from Daniel Patrick Moynihan (which I'm paraphrasing): "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion; however, no one is entitled to his own set of facts."

In verifying that quote, I did find reference to two other men having said words to the same effect: ... proceedings of a Senate Intelligence Committee in 1980 attribute the identical quote to James R. Schlesinger (at p. 110), possibly made during the course of 1973 Congressional testimony. Also see Bernard Baruch, who said "Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts." in the January 6, 1950 issue of the Deming (New Mexico) Headlight