What drives the Conspiracy Theorists?

Now, before I continue, I must tell you that I love a good conspiracy. I find it fascinating to trace the minutiae of secret workings. But I do so through a lens called "skepticism". For, while I find these secret workings fascinating, I know in my heart that they are highly unlikely.

I found the link to this wonderful article at Michelle Malkin's blog. Here's just a choice section. (As Michelle says, printout the whole thing for a good weekend read.)

Recently, Rosie O’Donnell said on national television that she believes 9/11 was orchestrated by the US government.

Well, that’s why we went through the steps above. If you believe that the government lied about the moon landing, you can believe they lied about killing JFK. If they lied about JFK, then they can lie about chemtrails. And if they are willing to poison the entire population with aerial spraying, what are a few thousand people in four airliners and a couple of buildings?

Rosie O’ Donnell making such a claim on a major network is a national disgrace. The fact that much of the audience cheered and applauded is nothing less than a national catastrophe.

To her, and to her audience, it is taken as granted that the government is capable of such things. As if “the government” was operated by cyborgs grown in Haliburton vats, rather than by well-meaning and patriotic people that love this country.

"This is the first time in history that fire has ever melted steel," she said. This is a statement of such pristine and perfect idiocy that it surely must be emblazoned in stone across the entrance to the Physics Imbecile wing of the Moron Museum of Natural History. But mastery of physics and engineering requires some intelligence, some perseverance and some discipline: none of which are in evidence in this buffoon. Everything is a conspiracy to a mind this far gone. The 15 British sailors kidnapped at sea? All a plan by our evil (but incompetent!) government to get the next war it so desperately needs. “Gulf of Tonkin! Google It, people!” she said on national TV.

And I will, Rosie. I promise. As soon as I finish googling MAD COW DISEASE.

I will make the point yet again because I believe it is the crux of the issue: what kind of moral universe do you have to inhabit to be able to believe that your own people – airline personnel, demolition experts, police and security forces, faked witnesses and all the rest – are capable of such a thing? How much hate for your own society do you have to carry in order to live in such a desolate and ridiculous mental hell? What psychoses must a mind be riddled with in order to negate what was perfectly obvious and instead believe a theory of such monumental fantasy? How much pure constant hatred does that take?

What, in short, is the miserable black hole of self-loathing that drives a person like Rosie O’Donnell and millions like her?

[Emphasis in original.]

Indeed, that's the answer to the opening question. It is hatred. Hatred of responsibility. Hatred of morality. Everything bad is someone else's fault. I don't want to live within boundaries. To me it is simply not understandable.

For the record, here's what I believe:

• Yes, Americans really did set foot upon the moon six times.
• Yes, Lee Harvey Oswald shot John F. Kennedy.
• And Yes, the World Trade Center towers (as well as a wedge of the Pentagon) were struck by planes high jacked by Islamofascist terrorists resulting in their destruction.

I'm undecided about the Lock Ness Monster, the U.S.S. Pueblo, and K-129.