Why Donald Trump has proven the conspiracy theorists have got it all wrong

 When I was a wee nipper, my favourite program was Gerry Andersons UFO. I loved the idea that there was a secret organisation with bases on the moon and a hige military infrastructure that no one knew existed. It sparked a lifelong interest in the subject. I had assumed at the time (around 1969/70) that by now, humanity would have reached the stars and made contact with Alien civilisations. I used to read all manner of books and magazines on the subject. This was to some extent futher encouraged by my Dad, who was a WW2 bomber pilot and was also fascinated in unexplaonable ariel phenomena. He'd not seen such things, but knew people he trusted who had. Hiss view, based on his experience as an officer in the RAF was that all manner of things that were difficult were covered up. There are still plenty of files that have not been released from the period for reasons of national security. I can understand some of these. For instance, papers related to the Manhatten project, where the US developed nuclear bombs are probably best kept secret.

This convinced me that there was all manner of dodgy conspiracies going on. When the internet first became popular, I trawled for all manner of weird and wonderful tales. There is so much stuff out there, that is real and verified and totally unexplainble, which hints to conspiracies. My favourite is the fact that there are traces of Xenon-129 on Mars, a product associated with nuclear weapons. There is plenty of plausable evidence that Mars once had a civilisation and it was destroyed by nuclear war. There is also plenty of other plausable explanations why this is a load of old cobblers. The truth is that until we acutally explore the planet properly we can't be certain. I am always highly suspicious of scientist who given mundane explanations for such issues, when it is clear that they are speculating in the same way the conspiracy theorists do. 

But I have to say my interest in conspiracy theories has waned to some extent. Not because I believe the official line on UFO's, the Kennedy Assassination, The Bermuda Triangle, Atlantis, etc. The reason is because it is impossoble to get to the bottom of any of it, With AI, there is no such thing as a trusted source. To categorically prove anything, we need evidence and if it can be mocked up and forged by a bored 7 year old, to a level that can fool experts, is it worth worrying too much about?

When I was a kid, conspiracy theories were entertaining diversions for people like my Dad, who had inquisitive minds, knew a bit about the subjects and were prepared to read a lot. Dad would get books by authors such as Eric Von Daniken and devour them. Sometimes he'd summarily declare them "a load of old cobblers" as he'd find the riddled with obvious errors. Others fascinated him. Being familiar with firearms, the details of how JFK was shot fascinated him. His view was that it was highly unlikely that Harvey Oswald shot him. The theory that America didn't land on the moon was just raising its head around the time Dad passed away. He explained to me exactly why it was cobblers. The USA was in a Space Race with the USSR. By the simple process of triangulation, the USSR would have spotted the Yanks were cheating and would have humiliated them. The RAF used triangulation to bomb Berln, it is a relatively straightforward concept.

But now the conspiracy industry is different. People do their research on Google and Youtube. They generally know nothing of the technicalities of the subjects. All you need is a plausable story and a reason why the information needs suppressing to build a conspiracy theory that will fly. Conspiracy websites. When I first started looking at the net for UFO stories, I found a wonderfully entertaining site called rense.com. I'd check it every day for the latest stories. I doubt I've looked at it for ten years. But I did as I put this together. It still has some of the stuff about evidence of nuclear war on Mars, but little of that is new. Most of it concerns conspiracy theories about Donald Trump, Israel, Ukraine and Covid.

I guess I realised fairly quickly why I stopped looking at such sites. The more I look, the less interested I become. What I have come to realise is that the whole thing has become an industry. In truth, much of it is click bait, trying to lure people into buying 'alternative' therapies by undermining trust in qualified experts. It seems to me that the whole UFO issue etc, is simply a gateway to lure people in. Once in, they are bombarded with information suggesting that if you follow treatments prescribed by doctors, you will get cancer and die, and you should be taking various suppliments instead.

The other strand is that there is a dark governmental conspiracy, leading us all towards doom and destruction. What shocks me most is the fact that a cursory glance at the history of the last ten years completely debunks this notion. I have come to the conclusion that criticising Donald Trump is a complete waste of time. I don't believe he has a clue what he has doing, or even why. Many have pointed out the continual U-Turns and shifts in position. I don't believe he's ever consciously made a U-Turn or changed his position, as I don't believe that he can actually remember what his position was previously. He simply looks as the situation as it is today and makes a simplistic decision based on current facts. I believe his advisors are either too scared or to lazy to point out the contradictions. I suspect that they know the best way to get on is to simply tell him he's a genius. One of my favourite clips on Youtube was a chimpanzee with a machine gun and a bunch of paramilitaries. They are all laughing and joking, until the Chimpanzee finds the trigger and starts shooting them. 

If there is a dodgy cabal that was pushing for Trump, I suspect this is the situation they are now in. Much of the mantra of Conspiracy Theories centres on a "New World Order". If there is, it has gone spectacularly wrong. Both Ukraine and Iran have shown that tanks, fighter planes, etc are so last century when it comes to warfare. The new game is cheap drones The US economy has, for nearly a century, been geared around the arms industry, where the USA is second to none. Trillions have been spent on all manner of fancy weapons, yet Iran is thwarting them, with drones etc, which they are knocking up for peanuts. Russia is learning a similar lesson. You can have the fanciest weapons in the world, but if they are the wrong weapon for the battle you are fighting, you will lose. France learned this with the Maginot line. The USA learned this in Vietnam. Both the Russians and Americans learned this in Afghanistan. But the same mistakes are made repeatedly. 

So who is makinhg money? The answer is obvious. The people who make and sell weapons. They do not want a 'New World Order'. They want a level of managable chaos, with safe havens to spend their cash in. Sadly the mundane truth about the Conspiracy Theories I see, is that they are actually a conspiracy to get people who have enquiring minds, to go down rabbit holes and get lost, whilst the rich men who sell weapons watch the cash roll in, and young men die, without a clue as to what they are really fighting for. 

I wrote a number on the subject in 1982. It is still true.

Why depopulation theory is bonkers and the WEF are not out to pauperise us

 The wonderful, whacky world of Twitter and the Social media seems to have started a pandemic of bonkers theories. Two of the most interesting is that the one that there is a massive conspiracy that involves getting rid of 95% of the worlds population and leaving only the mega rich and a few lackies to wait hand and foot on them. Another is that the World Economic Forum (AKA WEF) are coordinating all this and will do it by ensuring all of us are pauperised. These theories can seem quite compelling based on what has happened over the last few years, but when common sense is applied to the process of assessing their claims, it all starts to fall down.

Firstly, lets consider who would be orchestrating the plan? Well it is the rich and powerful. This is the big weakness in the idea of depopulation. Think about it logically. What is the point having lots of money and lots of power, if there is nothing to spend the money on and no one to exercise power over. It's all very well imagining the super wealthy living in big glass domes, protected from radiation, poverty and famine, but the whole point of being rich is the ability to visit swanky restaurants, punch above your weight with far more attractive sexual partners, visit the best resorts, stay in the best hotels. Once the workers are gone, then there will be no nice food, as there will be no one to harvest and transport it. There will be no one to unblock your bog when it blocks, no one to mend the fuse when it flips, no one to service the Bentley, no VIP enclosure at LeMans, no doctors, nurses and cleaners to look after you when you get ill. What is the point of being super rich, if you live on ten year old tins of sardines and the bog is blocked.

The reason we have out of season strawberrys, Wagu Beef and Kiwi fruit is because we have a massive population, which provides the infrastructure to deliver it. Most developed countries are seeng falling and ageing populations and economies are only propped up by immigrant workers. China is about to be overtaken by India as the most populous country, as China has had population limiting policies for decades. It's economy has been highly successful in this period. This has been done by encouraging people to have less children. A centralised communist economic planned economy can do this. In the UK, our indigenous population has also fallen, but we've kept things running by encouraging immigration. Brexit has affected this and we now have labour shortages and an ageing population with massive structural imbalances. As the rich and powerful tend to be older, it is in their interests to have younger people to do the work, which is why the establishment does not really want imigration controls to work.

The richest and most powerful don't give a damn about us, but they are lumbered with us, if they want a decent diet, good sports, music,TV and Radio and nice holidays. 

As to the idea that the WEF want to pauperise us, abolish small business and pauperise us, I am sure that many of the more cerebal types in the organisation do think that the fact that you can't control human behaviour is a terrible thing. The problem with dealing with human nature means that all such schemes end in failure. All Empires fall. When you push people too far and the inequality gets too bad, people revolt. Anyone who has read history books will know this. The idea that we will all have only electronic cash that can be deactivated and no shops to rob, because all of the produce will be in warehouses is all very well, but there is an old maxim that when the people miss three meals they riot. When revolutions happen, they usually don't end well for many of the most well off. It's all very well having a gated house, with a well stocked larder, but when the mob comes, who will the blokes you pay a pittance to guard you side with? The reason the UK is prosperous is because we've had trades unions that fight for the rights of working people. As people get better pay and conditions, they have a vested interest in obeying the law. If obeying the law stops delivering, then you get problems. 

I run a small business and I've noticed that recently there has been a lot of talk on Twitter about the WEF wanting to stop people running companies such as mine. It is undoubtedly true that the past three years have been tough, but it is also true that economic activity is picking up in the music sector and we have made a small profit this year so far. Banks only make money, when people have money. If we are all in debt, the whole system collapses. There is also talk of a 'great reset', where all the little guys get wiped out and the super rich take the lot. The problem with this is that when things crash, those with the most cash lose the most. In most stock market crashes, the most wealthy still take a hit. Their wealth means most can ride it out, but invariably some come unstuck big time. Make the wrong call and all of a sudden you are back on the slag heap with the rest of us. The conspiracy theorists think the WEF will coordinate this so that their rich benefactors will be spared, but as Harold MacMillan said, and Vladimir Putin found out this week "Events dear boy, Events" can derail the best plans of the cleverest people. 

I have no doubt that the many of the richest, cleverest people would shaft us all if they could, but unless they are insane, they should see it's a zero sum game. If you wipe out the music business, then there will be little or no new quality music to enjoy. If you shaft family run restaurants, you will only have bland chains, if  you block independent food growers and wholesalers, you will be left with tinned sardines. The world is not perfect, but if you are rich and powerful enough to attend WEF summits, you are doing alright. Attending these from a bunker in Slough by Zoom as the world burns is not an attractive proposition and I know very mega rich people who go on retreat in trappist monastry's for a holiday, which is what their life would be like in their bunkers after the world burns.

Humanity has  one saving grace It is that the mega rich and powerful are vain and narcissitic, so they find it hard to work together. They are far more interested in shafting each other than they are in shafting us. 

I suspect that the the WEF plans ultimately unfold, we'll see a world that is a lot better for them and just about good enough for the rest of us that we don't kick off. If the plebs started to starve, then we'd all kick off and there is no guarantee how that would end as esperate, hungry people don't make rational decisions and don't care and the powerful know that only too well.

But hey what do I know, I only run a studio in Mill Hill.