Western Standard - Political Agendas Derailed by Conspiracy Theories

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 0.97

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 1.00

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 0.96

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. 0.75

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 0.96

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. 0.92

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." 0.83

00:04:57.820 Microsoft Mechanics

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00:05:16.180 www.bc & garder Uh. T 입kt.

Western Standard - October 10, 2024

Political Agendas Derailed by Conspiracy Theories

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