Tom Walker at Max Speak about conspiracy theories and when they become believable:
A pattern of behavior emerges from events we know happened that makes conspiracy theories plausible. That pattern is one of conspiracy and cover up. Big, messy, documented plots that the media is only too eager to “put behind us” as quickly as possible. We wouldn’t want to undermine faith in our democratic institutions by actually examining whether they’ve been fatally corrupted, would we?
All those events are context that show only too clearly what kind of democracy the U.S.A. is today. As Paul Wolfowitz said, in connection with another regime elsewhere, “Think about it for a moment. When an auditor discovers discrepancies in the books, it is not the auditor’s obligation to prove where the embezzler has stashed his money. It is up to the person or institution being audited to explain the discrepancy.”
Well, think about: Watergate, Iran-Contra, Enron, Florida, Rehnquist. A signature modus operandi. It shouldn’t be up to the people of the United States to have to “prove where the embezzler has stashed his money” — or guess in which closet the skeletons are hidden. Not when the embezzler appoints the judges and the investigators. To paraphrase the Comandeer in Chief, “Fool me once, shame on me. but rarely is this question asked, is we getting fooled again?”