All effective conspiracy theories have some merit. I think that's what makes 
them effective. Like good fiction, the micro expressions of deception, con-man 
tactics, inference to the best explanation, creation myths, and the 
positivist/generative component of science, conspiracy theories rely on truth 
in a fundamental way. My favorite examples are math proofs of things like 1=0. 
It seems to me they're focused examples of Tarski's (and Gödel's) result, which 
essentially say you can't prove something's true from *within* the language 
being used to prove that truth.

There definitely *is* a deep state or, the term I prefer, an "administrative 
state". And I'm grateful for that *infrastructure*. Just like I'm grateful for 
the bench scientists at the FDA and the employees at the counter of the DMV. 
That bureaucracy is not merely good because it achieves good things. It *is* 
civilization. It's our extended phenotype. It's flat out contradictory to love 
things like sports cars and space ships but hate things like building codes, 
DMV queues, and mask mandates. We are the termites and the administrative state 
is our mound.

The trick lying at the bottom of all critical thinking is to continually back 
off a bit and see if/when one's little trip down any given logical rabbit hole 
... zoom out a bit and see if it's reasonable. That's where we (especially our 
idealistic/wacko friends) end up failing.

On 12/17/20 12:52 PM, Gary Schiltz wrote:
> Kind of makes you wonder if the "deep state" conspiracy theories have a bit 
> of merit.
> 
> On Thu, Dec 17, 2020 at 3:29 PM Marcus Daniels <[email protected] 
> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
> 
>     I do wonder what work will look like after most of the small businesses 
> fail.
> 
>     "Didn't respond to police presence" -> "Didn't listen to the boss."
> 
>     "Hey where did Jamie go?   Last time I saw him was at that meeting.."

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