How government fueled a nation of conspiracy theorists
By Brian C. Joondeph | Commentary, American Thinker
They didn’t just lose the narrative. They lost the country.
Five years ago, suggesting that COVID-19 may have originated in a laboratory rather than a wet market could earn someone the label “conspiracy theorist.”
Discussing vaccine injuries could result in a post being removed from social media. Questioning prolonged school closures, forced masking, or vaccine mandates often led to accusations of being “anti-science.”
Today, many of those once-forbidden discussions have become part of public debate.
That doesn’t mean every alternative theory is correct.
But it raises an important question.
What happens when institutions repeatedly assure the public that they are unquestionably right, only to revise, retreat,...