Western Standard - October 10, 2024


Political Agendas Derailed by Conspiracy Theories


Episode Stats

Length

5 minutes

Words per Minute

210.8057

Word Count

1,112

Sentence Count

97

Misogynist Sentences

5

Hate Speech Sentences

2


Summary

What's the deal with chemtrails and pedophile rings? Conspiracy theories have long been around, but the idea that they re part of a grand conspiracy to control the weather and poison citizens seems to be gaining ground in the minds of people across the political spectrum. Is it just another conspiracy theory? Or is it something else altogether?


Transcript

00:00:00.000 I wonder who's controlling all that weather that's making this happen.
00:00:04.240 Who on the big weather gods has been fixing it so Alberta's getting nice weather and Florida's
00:00:09.040 getting beaten on? Why, it must be the chemtrails, right? Yeah, I'm going to start on that, guys,
00:00:13.640 because I'm getting sick of it. Look, political gotcha games are one of the favorite tactics the
00:00:17.920 hysteric left likes to use to try and paint conservatives as crazy. One of the best gifts
00:00:22.780 a conservative politician can give an opponent is to appear to embrace fringe conspiracy theories.
00:00:28.160 Recently, Alberta Premier Daniel Smith stepped in it when she appeared to lend credence to the long
00:00:32.720 discredited chemtrails theory when she answered a question at a town hall meeting. Smith never said
00:00:38.600 the chemtrails theory had any validity or that people should be concerned, but she answered the
00:00:42.640 questioner as if it was a legitimate question worthy of discourse. She really should have just dismissed
00:00:46.540 it. It was an act of being polite to a person who doubtless was genuinely concerned, but it didn't
00:00:51.140 do the Premier of Albertans any favors. The new scroll was taken up for days with legacy media members
00:00:55.840 being aghast. I mean, Andrew Coyne, of course, hotly said, Premier Loon, he loves saying that about
00:01:01.840 Smith. And of course, they implied that Smith was an adherent to kooky chemtrail theories. The Premier
00:01:06.760 then had to waste time and energy clarifying and explaining where she stood as her comments were
00:01:11.400 taken out of context and they spread like wildfire. So what's the lesson here? It's a simple one.
00:01:17.280 Don't give time to bloody conspiracy theorists. Look, look at the chemtrail thing and think about how
00:01:21.460 unreasonable it is. The chemtrail conspiracy theory assumes that all those jet contrails you see in
00:01:25.920 the sky are actually chemicals being sprayed to control the weather and to poison citizens.
00:01:30.100 For this conspiracy to work, one must assume that every commercial pilot, airline mechanic,
00:01:34.260 baggage handler, and even that pretty flight attendant is in on it, as well as every government
00:01:38.840 in the world. It's completely absurd. It's rather easy to debunk the theory. There's plenty of sources
00:01:43.360 online which lay out and lay terms how water vapor, and that's all it is, from aircraft exhaust
00:01:48.060 condenses at high elevations in certain conditions. There's plenty of photos from World War II showing
00:01:52.620 contrails as aircraft fought during the Battle of Britain, which kind of debunks those claims that
00:01:56.740 these are our new phenomena. Of course, those pictures might have been edited, right? That 1942
00:02:01.580 Photoshop. I'm confident that our Air Force veterans of World War II weren't part of any grand conspiracy
00:02:06.420 to modify the weather. If they were, I wish they would have made it a little better for our January days.
00:02:11.160 The ready facts countering chemtrail theories are lost on the adherence of the conspiracy theory,
00:02:15.940 though. To try and debate with them is just to invite a barrage of anecdotes and links to websites
00:02:20.260 that share their odd worldview. And they also like moving the goalposts into a discussion of cloud
00:02:24.880 seeding practices, which is something else altogether. No, chemtrails are only one of the
00:02:29.820 many of the conspiracy theories throwing around. Of course, a troublesome and pervasive trend that's
00:02:34.000 emerged lately among conspiracy theorists has been the allegations of organized pedophile rings.
00:02:38.180 They believe that most aspects of the world are run by networks of pedophiles who traffic our children
00:02:43.660 and presumably molest them, even apparently in pizza parlors. It's bizarre and it's repugnant.
00:02:48.260 In Alberta, there's one social media activist with a surprisingly large online following who claims
00:02:52.520 that Alberta Health Services is actually a secret pedophile ring, and that news outlets who refuse to
00:02:56.560 report on his nutty allegations are part of the conspiracy. It's more than a little offensive, and I suspect he's
00:03:00.840 going to be facing a nasty civil action pretty soon if he doesn't shut the hell up.
00:03:05.340 Pedophiles do exist, and they're disgusting, and there are some vile networks that trade in children.
00:03:10.920 They have to be exposed, charged, and incarcerated at all costs. That doesn't mean there's thousands
00:03:15.880 of organized pedophile rings, though. As awful as child molesters are, thankfully, they aren't as common
00:03:21.260 as some conspiracy theorists would like us to believe they are, and they tend to be loners.
00:03:26.120 I think part of it's an effort to make their villains appear as odious as possible, or at least
00:03:30.560 you don't have to quell questioning of their views. They like to shut down debate by saying things like,
00:03:33.700 oh, so you're okay with pedophile rings. No. But instead of letting them drag you into their perverse
00:03:38.880 discourse with statements like that, what people in politics or outside of politics should do is
00:03:42.820 just disengage and ignore them. There's nothing to be gained in trying to reason with them.
00:03:47.280 A popular saying today is yesterday's conspiracies are today's realities.
00:03:50.840 In a couple cases, that's true. In most cases, oh, yesterday's conspiracies remain as goofy and
00:03:55.260 unproven today as they ever were. They just have better websites. Just because some historic
00:04:00.140 conspiracy theories have proven to have some merit, it doesn't mean the other conspiracy theories are
00:04:03.820 valid. Since there's hundreds of theories out there, some are going to manage to have some merit to
00:04:07.920 them now and then. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. We have some real issues to deal with,
00:04:12.620 and our politicians can only focus on so many of them at a time. Indulging conspiracy types doesn't
00:04:16.780 pacify them, and it only distracts from serious business. Just ask Conservative Party of BC leader
00:04:22.120 John Rustad how much he enjoyed having to deal with the fake issue of 5G telephone networks spreading
00:04:27.120 COVID-19 when he should have been campaigning. Woke activists and legacy media, they won't relent,
00:04:32.300 and they're going to keep trying to trap Conservative politicians. But why make it easy for them
00:04:35.600 by dipping into the realm of conspiracy theories? Now I know I've invited a barrage of emails which
00:04:40.100 will link to favorite conspiracy theory sites. I'm not going to respond to any of them. I'm just
00:04:44.720 going to forward them to my masters among the little lizard people who control the media.
00:04:48.400 more than your notes to bumble GDP in the meantime and makes a big 1993 story video.
00:04:53.000 So wait even though to open forward posters with any of your images, face代 number one of them and
00:04:57.400 lerini."
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