A quick article on conspiracy thinking

Ahh, conspiracies. How else to show how much smarter than everyone else you are than by seeing through the lies they all swallow? So why is it becoming so much more popular to believe in the truly unfounded? For a quick thought on it this essay brought to you by Boing Boing.

Boing Boing: Essay: The Conspiracy Boom, by Jay Kinney

The Conspiracy Boom Why is nothing what it appears to be anymore? By Jay Kinney Say what you will about conspiracy theories, they are unlikely to go away as long as real life, courtesy of the daily news, keeps tossing us events that seem like, well, conspiracies.
[snip]
The official explanation of 19 al-Qaida-linked terrorists is, after all, a conspiracy theory of sorts, though its proponents would say that it isn't a theory -- it's a fact. Similarly, those in the 911-Truth crowd who are certain that the World Trade Center buildings came down due to "controlled demolition" -- not fire from burning jet fuel -- don't think they are selling a theory either. As far as they are concerned, "CD" at the WTC has been proven, it is just that everyone else is ignoring the evidence. And so it goes.

Does it have anything to do with the Age of Endarkenment? Check this essay to compare and contrast.

The age of endarkenment | Science | Guardian Unlimited

The enlightenment was a beautiful thing. People cast aside dogma and authority. They started to think for themselves. Natural science flourished. Understanding of the real world increased. The hegemony of religion slowly declined. Real universities were created and eventually democracy took hold. The modern world was born. Until recently we were making good progress. So what went wrong?

The past 30 years or so have been an age of endarkenment. It has been a period in which truth ceased to matter very much, and dogma and irrationality became once more respectable. This matters when people delude themselves into believing that we could be endangered at 45 minutes' notice by non-existent weapons of mass destruction.

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