What If Agent Scully is Really the Good Guy?

So I just finished binge-watching season 11 of The X-Files and reflected on my changing feelings about this show and its characters. To be sure, I was a devoted fan during its original run, watched the two theatrical films - own both of them on DVD - and I was looking forward to its season 10 revival in 2016. I was curious, though, if the revival could be pulled off effectively given how every sensible person today should be leery of anyone calling himself a conspiracy theorist. Can conspiracy-believing Agent Mulder still be seen as admirable in an age where conspiracists are propagating offensive nonsense like "crisis actor"" theories and their most visible public representative is a bloviating charlatan like Alex Jones?

It was interesting to see that at the start of the season 10, the show was kind of aware of this. The Internet conspiracy theorist character (Joel McHale) appeared to be the sort of unhinged nut a writer would create if they tried to pay homage to Alex Jones. One couldn't help but completely side with Scully in the scenes where the McHale character unspooled his claims of far-reaching, all-powerful cabals and their diabolical plots. The show could have taken a fascinating opportunity to examine the dark side of the conspiracy culture and conspiracy entertainment itself. It could have made a more pointed commentary about when we cross the line between healthy skepticism of authority and a delusional world of post-fact fantasies so much of American culture is sinking into.

As of this writing, there is still no word from Fox about whether the show will be renewed for a 12th season. The ratings for Season 11, after all, have been declining. Could the reason for this be that viewers, too, are coming to realize that conspiracy theorists are no longer the good guys?

Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Conspiracy Theorists

I am quoted in this article about a new study into the psychology of conspiracy beliefs. It's fascinating to read that insecurities kindled in people from the time they are infants will shape their predisposition to believe in fantastic, irrational, and unrealistic claims of massive conspiracy theories later in life. These findings are not surprising, though, as a growing body of research has been affirming that people who tend to be the biggest fans of the most outlandish conspiracy theories are also those who feel the most powerless, alienated, and insecure. "Individuals with anxious attachment are preoccupied with their security, tend to hold a negative view of outgroups, are more sensitive to threats, and tend to exaggerate the seriousness of such threats," the study says.

Raising well-adjusted children who are given adequate feelings of security and control in their lives might be a good start to help keep us from raising another generation of kids who will believe that the Earth if flat, that LBJ, J. Edgar Hoover, the Dallas police, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, aliens, oil billionaires, Elvis Presley, Oliver North using a time machine, Frank Sinatra, and John Wayne shooting from the grassy knoll killed JFK.

Moreover, as I argue in the article, the educational system needs to do its part in teaching logic, critical thinking skills, and media literacy skills to help young people deconstruct the messages of paranoia hucksters like Alex Jones and the flat Earthers, to understand all of the underhanded and unethical communication tactics conspiracy theorists use to convince the gullible and unwary of everything from "crisis actor" conspiracy theories to the fantasies of the anti-vaccination crowd.

I incorporate such exercises in the class I teach about conspiracy films and American culture at Saint Peter's University. In their semester projects, students need to manufacture their own conspiracy, creating one using tactics such as the reverse scientific process to cherry-pick facts that support preconceived notions, inaccurately assigning causality between unrelated variables, and launching all manner of character assassinations against one's critics. Once students can see how easy it is to create vast conspiracies where none exist, they should hopefully be able to recognize all the flat Earth theories, Moon landing hoax theories, and 9/11 Truther claims for the simple parlor tricks they are.

Anyone Still Think Conspiracy Theorists Are Heroes?

So this was certain to happen within hours, if not minutes of a tragedy like the Parkland, Florida mass shooting. The conspiracy theorists peddling their "false flag" scenarios are flooding the internet with claims about the shooting being a hoax and the victims and survivors being crisis actors. Some kind of a sinister "They" are behind the shooting to enact gun-control laws and take away our freedoms and advance the agenda of the Illuminati and the "globalists" and the "international bankers" and so on and so forth.

I'm fascinated by just who exactly "they" are supposed to be right at this moment. In the aftermath of the Colorado theater shooting and the Sandy Hook massacre, "they" were the liberal minions of Barack Obama, with Obama supposedly masterminding and pulling the strings behind the killings to advance his gun control agenda. But how about now? With Donald Trump in the White House and Republicans holding the legislative power at the moment, can this conservative power in Washington also be a part of this shadowy, malevolent "them?"

Oh, wait a minute, "they" control everyone, right? Conservative, liberal, libertarian, everyone. They pull the strings from the Bohemian Grove and Denver International Airport and Area 51 and the meetings of the Bilderberg Group. OK, got that. Sure! Conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones have exposed all of that. Gotcha!

Actually, making sense of these sorts of demented fantasies is similar to sitting down and trying to discuss logic with the inmates of a lunatic asylum. But at least the ever more critical coverage of the conspiracy subculture by the media is becoming somewhat heartening, like in this piece on CNN. No longer do these people seem to be ignored as goofy, colorful, and ultimately harmless group of cranks who exist on the fringes and harm no one. Their maliciousness and utterly shameless sleaze is finally being called out for what it is.

The appeal and the dark side of conspiracy theories

A few weeks ago I was quoted in this Urbo.com article on the truth behind conspiracy theories. Like the most deranged of belief systems, there is just a tiny enough reality, a bit of plausibility at the core of conspiracism to explain why half of Americans believe in at least one conspiracy theory. While I had long held that conspiracy theorists, even the most demented of them, still served some small positive purpose in our world - their most irrational and unproven claims at least functioning as a symbolic inspiration to stay skeptical of authority - today I am wary of anyone who uses the term "conspiracy." In light of the theories claiming that mass shootings are "false flag" attacks and climate change is the creation of a vast global hoax perpetrated by scientists, most of conspiracism today is the home of charlatans and opportunists out to make a quick buck off the gullible.

The People Vs. O.J. Simpson

I was recently interviewed for this Smashd article about the ongoing fascination with the O.J. Simpson case and the new FX miniseries it inspired. I think that the miniseries is one of the best things on television today, with Fox's limited-run revival of The X-Files right behind it and followed by the network's Lucifer series. But check out the article here about how the Simpson case retains its relevance in the racially charged world of the Ferguson riots and Black Lives Matter movement.

Smiley Face Killer in New Jersey?

No, a nation-wide network of serial killers has not struck in New Jersey. Check out this article I was recently interviewed for about the "Smiley Face Killer" theory and how the recent drowning death of a Hoboken man in the Hudson River was immediately attributed by some to a conspiracy of serial killers being protected by the police. Of course, I'm not much surprised by how the conspiratorially inclined will want to believe in this. Any major - or even minor - event these days almost immediately inspires accusations of conspiracy. Although this particular conspiracy sounds so much like the debunked Satanic underground conspiracies of the 80s and early 90s that I'm dismayed that more than a tiny handful of the pathologically gullible will want to believe it. Just like the Satanic conspiracies, the Smiley Face Killer theory alleges that there's a nation-wide network of serial killers working together and that a vast conspiracy within law enforcement is keeping it all covered up. Sounds like something that would make for a really cool movie - sounds a bit like the 80s Sly Stallone flick Cobra - but not particularly believable in the real world.

The Walking Dead Returns

Fan behavior, and especially fan anger, should be of ongoing concern to media producers of all types, especially TV showrunners. I was interviewed for this Detroit News article about The Walking Dead and the fan outrage over Glenn's fake death. Check it out here.