July 05, 2003
Conspiracies And Bigotry
The right gets a lot of mileage out of making fun of the left's "conspiracy theories" whenever the left implies there is a general hidden, coordinated movement against their interests. It's always been hard to counter these crowings, as conspiracy theorists have long been painted as loonies by the popular press.But it occurred to me that there is a way to explain it. It exists, without being a conspiracy, much in the same way that racism exists without being a conspiracy.
Racism clearly exists, and it manifests with similar symptoms all over the place: lower hiring rates, higher incarceration rates, lower pay rates, higher poverty rates, etc. These symptoms occur repeatedly even though it's an entirely different population in each place. No one seriously makes the claim that there is one committee that manages herculean efforts to keep the statistics out of balance throughout the nation. Yet, the effects are real and measurable, and the machinations are oftentimes mysterious and hidden.
When our population experiences an erosion of civil liberties, rights, and powers, we feel the variety of sources this erosion comes from. We see the restrictions being handed down from many different directions, we sense a coordination behind it all. And yet, it doesn't mean that there is a conference room powered with gargantuan scenario documents and spreadsheets. It can simply mean that a critical mass has been reached, where those in power happen to share a common interest against citizen power and civil liberties. They haven't entered into a secret society, they aren't members of a secret conspiracy. What they are, are bigots of personal liberty.