911 and 77 (21)
What makes a conspiracy theorist laughable or laudible is not the extreme, outrageous or bizzarre nature of his or her theory nor the fact that he or she may be almost alone in believing it to be true.
There is only one factor which decides the matter and that is simply whether or not the theory is actually supported by the evidence.
Often it is the case that conspiracy theories are so called because of the momentous meaning they would have if they were actually true. In such cases this means that the rejection of them, by means of ridicule, is driven by emotional, fear probably, fear of the truth most likely, not reason.
It is human nature that rather than face this momentous meaning which is naturally a very difficult task itself, it is far easier to castigate the conspiracy theorist. This is often done by ridiculing them or by questioning their sanity or both at once. This insulting and mocking of the conspiracry theorist is often in the guise of good humour and reasonable behaviour although it does have to be questioned if it is ever good humour or reasonable to do that idiotic kind of thing.
It is not a hallmark of a wise person, or indeed any fair minded person, to dismiss any theory that explains some momentous act other than by a careful and honest examination of the theory which means looking at the evidence rather than highlighting and concentrating on it's strangeness as a pseudo rational method of dismissing it as nonsense.
In fact strangeness is not meaningful when it comes to judging the validity of a theory - conspiracy or otherwise. The saying "Truth is stranger than fiction" comes to mind.
The duty we have as intelligent and right thinking people is to be respectful of another person's opinion or theory, conspiracy or otherwise, unless, of course there are other very good reasons, not emotions, for dismissing it as nonsense.
Paul E. Coughlin, February 2007
SaneThinking.com
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