Let’s go ahead and address the elephant in the room.

Her name is Candace Owens.

Mind you, she was not the first, nor will she be the last. Conspiracy theories have been around for thousands of years, since before the fall of man, actually, and they will most assuredly exist and thrive until the very end of time. For every big truth, there will be a flat earther/Jesus’ disciples stole the bodier/we never landed on the mooner/9-11 was an inside jobber/Charlie Kirk was murdered by Erika/TPUSA/Israel/The Mossad/Bibi Netanyahu/France/Egypt/Trump/Kash Pateler.

Why is not hard to figure out at all. Conspiracy theories variously bring the spinners of them fame, fortune, and influence, three things mankind desperately wants. The question, then, is not why, but how; how do conspiracy theories gain such easy traction and immortality?

There are several reasons.

To begin with, those trying to prove a thing or do a thing have a small, exact target to hit; they must land on the moon or produce the evidence to convict one single person out of eight billion guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The conspiracy theorist, though, does not need to aim at anything at all; they can, as it were, simply take a shotgun outside and hoist it up in any direction at all and pull the trigger again and again. The big and repeated noise draws attention without any concern of or need for accuracy. In fact, the big and repeated noise becomes a cheap substitute for proof, a “there must be something to what I am saying because there is constantly a lot of noise about it even if I am the one making all of that noise and getting others to amplify and repeat it.”

You see this a lot with the conspiracy podcast world. As I listed above, Candace Owens has, in fact, variously implicated Erika/TPUSA/Israel/The Mossad/Bibi Netanyahu/France/Egypt/Trump/Kash Patel for Charie Kirk’s death. Shotgun blasts over a microphone, no more, no less. While the state has to prove what one person pulled the trigger, she can blame all of the above and then add as many more as she likes to keep you off balance and unable to respond to it all.

Another reason conspiracy theories gain such easy traction and immortality is that they never have enough shame to stop when they get everything wrong, and their hearers have memories shorter than Dory from Finding Nemo. In November and December of 2019, one of the most famed and enigmatic conspiracy sources of all, “Q,” assured the world that the white hats/military had taken control, and that Donald Trump was going to remain President and everyone in on the steal had already been arrested.

Clearly, none of that happened; and yet, Q is still spouting off, and his/her/its drooling followers are still riding every mental short bus he sends for them day by day. Candace Owens, for her part, has the gift of utter shamelessness, sweeping aside everything she ever gets wrong (“Bibi offered them 150 million!… I never said 150 million!…” “I will debate you publicly any day you choose… nope, not gonna come, I will just do a live show during that time…”) and marching right along as if she speaks ex-cathedra.

Most people would be sheepish about that kind of thing; the conspiracy theorist never will. Most others would walk away from a person who does that kind of thing; the Doryesque “Just keep listening! Just keep listening!” followers will not.

Yet another reason conspiracy theories have durability of a roach is because they never, EVER go to where they must prove their assertion. Flat earthers do not lead expeditions to the supposed ice ring. The “We never landed on the moon crowd” obviously does not go to the moon to show that there is no flag or footprints. The “His disciples stole the body” crowd did not gather the troops and go find the body. O.J. did not do as promised and find his wife’s killer, and his mental love children, Candace and Co., will not go find who killed Charlie Kirk. The conspiracy theorist talks, period, for to do more than that would expose them to scrutiny when they fail.

Another reason for the zombie-like persistence of conspiracy theories, a sad one, is that governments and people in authority do often lie and cover things up, thus casting doubt on everyone in authority who tries to do things right.

One of the main things that allows conspiracy theories to survive is how willing people are to swallow entire mountains rather than the single, simple vegetable in front of them. By this I mean, conspiracy theories, especially those that surround huge things, would take perfect adherence from so many people as to render it utterly impossible. For the moon landings to be fake, literally millions of people would have to know it and forever hold to the fake story. For the flat earth, way more than that, even. For multiple governments and agencies and families and people and militaries from across the globe to be working together to kill one man and then cover it up would take astonishing coordination and adherence from so many and radically different people as to make it a miracle greater than the parting of the Red Sea.

No one, absolutely no one who truly thinks through that could ever buy such a tale.

Another hideous thing that allows conspiracy theories off the worst kind to survive is the macabre willingness of bad people to spectacularly savage and denigrate even the most pitiful of victims. Normal people would never do such a thing, so normal people become easy prey for the conspiracy theorist, because they do not believe anyone else would do such a thing.

A putrid pastor whose name I will not defile this post with recently claimed that all “supposed holocaust survivors” are paid actors, and that the holocaust never happened. That is clearly one of the most Satanic, filthy, vile conspiracies of all, and one of the vilest things any human being could ever say. But, having no shame and no compassion for people who actually lived through it, the claim will be made, just like happens often with mass school shootings. And again, since normal people would never do such a thing, normal people become easy prey for the conspiracy theorist, because they do not believe anyone else would do such a thing.

Last, conspiracy theories persist because the devil has so often been to the birthing room:
John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for HE IS A LIAR, AND THE FATHER OF IT.

The same devil that wove a conspiracy in the garden (“God and heaven are holding out on you, and I alone have the truth on this matter!”) does the same day after day after day. His goal is not so much to make people believe something false, rather it is through that to ultimately make them not believe anything at all. Weave enough conspiracy theories, and eventually people will say “Well, I don’t trust/believe any of them or anything anymore.” And that plays right into his filthy hands, since the one thing God prizes above all else is faith, belief.

In closing, let me say that I understand that some of you may be upset by what I have written. Please know that is not my intention, nor do I look down on any of you. Ultimately, we may always disagree on some of these matters, buy I love you anyway. My goal is not to hurt; it is to help, not to goad, but to guide.