Continuing my last writing about conspiracy theory religions, I'd like to write about the amusing and outright ridiculous levels to which conspiracy theory religion can go.
Conspiracy theory believers can be roughly categorized into two groups: Passive believers, and activists.
Passive believers are those otherwise normal everyday people who mostly live their lives as anybody else, but who have been deluded into believing a conspiracy theory using all the tricks in the book to fool them. They might tell about it to their friends and relatives, but that's about it. They don't actively seek to spread their delusions to others beyond that.
Then there are conspiracy theory activists. These are like the street preachers of many religions and cults, who actively seek other people to preach their religion to them. This activism can range from literally preaching on the streets (or eg. organizing "protest" marches etc.) to ranting on the internet (in personal websites, blogs and public forums), to writing and publishing books, going to the TV (most effective when the believer is already a TV celebrity) and so on.
There's a wide range of conspiracy theory activism, all the way from people who try to sound as calm, rational, intelligent and academic as they can, to those who are outright aggressive (mostly verbally, but in some cases even physically, crossing the line between what is legal and illegal behavior).
It's the verbally aggressive conspiracy theory activist which amuses me the most.
The picture of a conspiracy theorist wearing a tinfoil hat, believing in the secret "New World Order", black helicopters, supersecret governmental special forces whose mission is to further the goals of the NWO secret government and eliminate all opposition and so on, might seem like an overused cliché. However, there really are a number of very vocal conspiracy theorists who are like this (except perhaps for the literal tinfoil hat) and even worse.
These people are 100% convinced, without any doubt whatsoever, that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an inside job of the American government, which was just the latest and most visible act in a long history of the secret NWO government running everything behind the scenes. This secret government does not hesitate to kill people to further their goals, and they will eliminate all opposition quickly and efficiently.
Yes, there are people who believe exactly that, and more. Very vocal people. People who preach this eg. on radio and TV shows, printed publications and all over the internet.
These activists see themselves as forming a small but ever-increasing resistance force whose mission is to expose and undermine the goals of this NWO secret government.
The reason why this is extremely amusing is that these people loudly preach how the secret government has no hesitation in eliminating anybody who they feel as a threat, yet these vocal conspiracy theory activists can freely express their theories in all media for years and years.
If there was a secret government running things behind the scenes and eliminating anybody who threatens to expose them and their secrets, and if they have the means and motivation to do so, why are these conspiracy theorists still alive and preaching their theories to the world? These conspiracy theorists openly claim that they are exposing all the darkest secrets of the secret government for everybody to see, while at the same time claiming that the secret government eliminates anybody who does so.
Many of them don't see the contradiction here. Some of them might see the contradiction, and try to explain it with some handwaving (which in itself usually contradicts their own claims that the secret government eliminates all people who expose their secrets).
So which is it? The secret government does kill people who they feel are a threat, or they don't? Empirical evidence, ironically provided by the conspiracy theorists themselves, shows that they don't eliminate such people. Thus the conspiracy theorists are dead wrong, and they are themselves the (literally) living proof of that.
Yet these people still continue to proclaim their crazy theories regardless of this. That is what makes them so amusing.
But of course, what can you expect from people inebriated with religion? At least not consistency and logic, that's for sure.