if you want to tamp down on conspiracy theories, you stop lying. When people know that you are lying to them, they come up with reasons as to why. Those reasons might be spot on. But they also might be wrong and the product of an overactive imagination. But if you had not chronically lied in the first place, there would be no alternative explanation needed.
So the first and most important strategy in combating conspiracy theories is this: Don’t lie.
It’s kind of funny that many Democrats are shaking with impotent rage at some of the conspiracy theories that are going around. The problem is, many of those theories have turned out to actually be true (see: JFK). Additionally, many leaders (especially Democrats) routinely engage in obvious lying, and then they are disparagingly irritated when people produce outlandish ideas and theories as to why.
Well, you freaking know how to stop this! Just stop lying…
Joe Biden’s recent public cancer diagnosis is a case in point. You know for a fact that this is not a new condition. You don’t get to such an advanced stage of cancer in a day or two. And Joe Biden long had regular evaluations by the best physicians available. Prostate cancer is extremely easy to detect, and the accuracy is almost 100% from a blood test and a physical examination. This is something you make the first-year medical students do…
Yet they lied to us about it. How long has this cancer been going on? How has this affected his ability to function? Why was it important to him and his handlers to have this diagnosis hidden?
These are all very pertinent questions. And because the facts very obviously do not match the reality on the ground, people come up with explanations that may or may not be accurate. That is NOT a sign of a mental illness. That is simply an attempt to explain what is being observed.
And if you don’t like it, then start telling the truth.