What is the cause of conspiracy theories?

Despite what some may think, conspiracy theories are not a recent phenomenon. “The belief that some secret but influential organization is responsible for an event or phenomenon,” as defined by dictionary.com, has been around for centuries. Often swirling around assassination attempts or other disasters, an alternative explanation is offered for the cause of the event, too often fueled by the distrust that has resulted in the lack of credibility by the mainstream media.

In this politically charged atmosphere, where everything is agenda pushed, most people are sick of feeling manipulated and being told half a story. They know when they’ve been had, and once the real truth comes out, usually months later, the skepticism, to believe future reports, which sound implausible, begins to rise.

Just within the last few years, the media has reported on a myriad of stories, which turned out to be false or completely made up. One example was the 2019 case of Jussie Smollett, centered on the accusation of his having been attacked by Trump loyalists, who tied a noose around his neck, claiming that Chicago was MAGA country. Almost from the onset, nothing held up, and, in the end, it was clear that what began as a racist allegation was simply a ploy to become relevant and garner sympathy. Yet, the media ran with that hate crime hoax story for weeks.

Since this latest assassination attempt on former President Trump, a great many conspiracy theories have been floated, one of which was suggested by antisemitic conspiracist Jon Minadeo, founder of the Goyim Defense League, who claims that “Jews tried to assassinate Trump!” 

While Minadeo is completely discredited, due to his reputation as a notorious white supremacist, others have also speculated that the shooting had been the work of Israeli intelligence in the hope of replacing Trump with another candidate “who would support Gaza/West Bank Annexation and the expansion of the war into Lebanon and Iran.” It was Trump who, back in March, said that, “Biden is putting Israel in danger. David Friedman, campaign surrogate for Trump said, “It is important for Israel and her neighbors, as well, that Israel win this war, and the U.S. is not going to micromanage the war. They’re not going to tell Israel how to win.”

A stark difference in how the Biden/Blinken ever-changing policy has attempted to do its best to hamstring Israel, at every turn, whether to withhold needed weaponry or to publicly criticize the manner in which Israel was choosing to fight a war, in accordance to the special rules that were constantly being set for them. 

Other theories are that this assassination attempt was merely a false flag set up, designed to garner sympathy, thereby changing the trajectory of the race. While it surely seems to be doing that, how is it possible that a bullet, which ended up grazing Trump’s ear, might not have ended up killing him altogether, because any unexpected head movement, could have easily resulted in his death. Who would take such a chance, just to make sure that Trump wins? One would have to be an extraordinary marksman to guarantee no significant damage. Does that sound like the work of a 20-year-old whose profession was a dietary instructor?

The problem is that after a preliminary investigation of what took place, there remain many unanswered questions as to who was principally in charge of security – local enforcement or the Secret Service. Why was a rooftop, within close proximity, left unsecured? Why were the warnings of spectators, who noticed the shooter climbing onto the roof with a gun, unheeded? Why was there a time lapse in neutralizing the shooter? Many other puzzling questions have arisen, as a result of the public’s expectations, when it comes to the security of political candidates, especially one who is as hated and vilified as Trump, depicted as worse than Hitler.

With so much being reported about the “deep state,” comprised of unelected government officials who have supposedly taken matters into their own hands, bypassing the will of those who were elected by the people, what are we supposed to think?

Given recent revelations, which have emerged about the FBI who has also been accused of concealing and suppressing so much information, on a variety of subjects, all of which should be disclosed to the public, it’s no wonder that conspiracy theories take on a life form. 

When you’re left in the dark, having no way to know what is really happening, the mind begins to formulate all kinds of possibilities, some of which are very plausible to those that are completely laughable. If you’re not creative enough to come up with a conspiracy, not to worry, because someone else will do that for you.

Case in point, one former Green Beret and Special Forces sniper took to TikTok to claim that this assassination attempt had to be planned, because, as he says, the Secret Services goes out, well ahead of time, to scope the area in order to do a security assessment, making sure that the sniper team will be able to prevent anyone from taking a shot at the president. He says that these areas are heavily guarded, but from all we saw, the area wasn’t heavily guarded at all, nor is there any evidence that security teams had done an assessment weeks before. 

Since Donald Trump is not the current president, and given that the Secret Service director, Kimberly Cheatle, a Biden appointee, seems to have been very remiss in how the security at this event was handled, it’s plausible to believe that many protocols were neglected.

Reacting to what appears to be poor management on Cheatle’s part, House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote on 𝕏: “The American people deserve to know the truth. We will have Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle and other appropriate officials from DHS and the FBI appear for a hearing before our committees ASAP.”

While that will surely happen, what we cannot know is whether the FBI and DHS will be forthcoming as it concerns what really took place, because, up until now, hardly anyone believes that sworn testimony before Congress, automatically yields the unvarnished truth, especially when given by those two agencies. To the contrary, most of the time, we are left with more speculation than clarity.

And that is exactly what fuels conspiracy theories. For lack of truth, honesty and the ability to believe our leaders, the media, and those who run around with all kinds of alternative conjecture, we are left to believe what sounds most credible, given the minimal information at our disposal. The irony is that lately, many conspiracy theories, have ended up being the real story!