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| Image by Michael Knoll from Pixabay |
This is a weekly column consisting of letters to my perspicacious progeny. I write letters to my grandkids — the Stickies — eventual selves to advise them and haunt them after they've become grups and/or I'm deleted.
Trigger Warning: This column is rated SSC — Sexy Seasoned Citizens — Perusal by kids, callowyutes, or grups may result in a debilitating meltdown.
"You can convince yourself of just about anything when you want to believe a conspiracy theory." -Brian Stelter
Dear Stickies and Gentlereaders,
I've got some shocking news America. An awful lot of the news media engage in the practice of what I call purple journalism (yellow journalism on drugs).
From my glossary:
Purple Journalism: Journalism as currently perpetrated by many news outlets that claim to be professional, unbiased, and factual. In reality, they are partisan, prone to sensationalism, and motivated primarily by the bottom line.
Worse yet, many outlets...
{You have a keen eye for the obvious sir!}
I was next going to say, before being rudely interrupted, that many media outlets are apparently part of the deep state but...
{For what it's worth, paranoia strikes deep. Into your life, it will creep...}
But (and that's a big BUT) like many alleged conspiracies, as I've written elsewhere, the term conspiracies of convenience more accurately expresses what's going on. And by the way, fading Boomer cultural references are my job.
{Please forgive me.}
Conspiracies of convenience (COC) form when there's money and/or power to be had which often leads to the formation of groups of special interests, deliberately or spontaneously, that scratch each other's backs with no collusion necessarily necessary.
Unlike conspiracy theories, which are by definition usually impossible to prove or disprove (which is part of the fun), a COC is, more often than not, obvious to any individual with a modicum of intelligence.
This brings us to <insert menacing fanfare here> The Deep State.
{I was starting to wonder...}
The deep state is both a conspiracy theory and a conspiracy of convenience.
The billionaire George Soros is named as a player in many a deep state conspiracy theory. He filled his money bin by pulling some seriously shady sh... shtuff. But he's since given a lot of it away to all sorts of good causes which would seem to be indicative of just a man with a guilty conscious.
However, he's also currently (in)famous for funding the political campaigns of several "woke" district attorneys that are helping to trash certain cities by not prosecuting this or that "minor" crime or the rapid release of thugs in the name of social justice.
Tell us, Batman, what's he really up to?
On the other hand, we're knee-deep in conspiracies of convenience, many so blatantly obvious that you could easily make the case that they're more like socially acceptable corruption than conspiracies.
Many people call the hooge and ever-expanding administrative wing of The Fedrl Gummit the deep state. I refer to the thousands of unelected bureaucrats charged with applying and administering encyclopedia-sized bills.
These laws are composed by another division of the deep state that everyone's aware of. I'm referring to the thousands of lobbyists, lawyers, other bureaucrats, consultants, etc. who also work to get your congressperson to vote yea or nay on bills without ever having actually read them.
This is what a conspiracy of convenience looks like, a whole bunch of people scratching each others... backs on the down-low and the members of the purple press filtering the story (if they don't deliberately choose to ignore it) through an ideological narrative.
(In their defense, photo ops, attending lunches and meetings with the usual suspects, keeping a weather eye on the next round of elections, and not passing budgets — balanced or otherwise — keeps congresspersons very busy. They even occasionally fly home to meet the folks.
Now, as for the deep state behind the deep state...
{Yes! A real conspiracy theory at last!}
No.
I'm talking about the spies, and politicians, that are supposed to be on our side.
They're not supposed to cover for Uncle Joe's clearly corrupt son who was so wasted he forgot about a computer that he used as an electronic journal documenting his bizarre life — with pictures.
Our professional spooks are not supposed to sign a letter declaring it to be a Russian covert opp and then say — never mind — two years later.
The purple press is not supposed to bury the story and then say oops — two years later.
The purple press is not supposed to virtually ignore the recent revelation that our current Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, was possibly the mover and shaker behind the bogus letter.
Go a'googlin', enter "blinken behind letter declaring laptop to be russian info," or something like it, and discover how little coverage the story is getting by prominent news outlets.
My conspiracy theory? We've been programmed to accept blatant government corruption as just another day in the Swamp. Move on folks, nothing to see here.
Poppa loves you,
Have an OK day
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