Conspiracy Watch

1. Is Taylor Swift a Psyop? 

In the middle of digging into my neck muscles, G, my massage therapist, said something about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce being some sort of “psyop,” and that, somehow, they were involved in fixing the next Super Bowl, and, somehow, that was going to affect the next elections.

I must admit… although I’ve seen the word in print in the past year or so, I never bothered to find out what “psyop” means. From the context, I took it to mean propaganda. But, since G is one of my three favorite sources of conspiracy theory, I presumed she was seriously alarmed. So I promised myself that I’d consult with my two other favorite conspiracy theorists, my Pilates instructor and my barber.

But before I could do that, I saw this editorial in the WSJ.

I found the WSJ’s piece to be reasonable and even convincing. It is hard for me to take this theory seriously, but I do think the paper’s editorial board missed the target when they suggested that Vivek Ramaswamy believes, as my therapist does, that this “fix” is actually something that is being orchestrated by some left-wing group.

What Ramaswamy says is exactly the opposite of what the left means when they call something a conspiracy theory. It is a much more rational explanation of why people on both sides of the political divide come to believe in things that seem hard to believe in, and why sometimes those things turn out to be true.

I’ve made this same point several times in conversations and even in previous issues. But understanding it requires an IQ above, say, 110, which is well above the average IQ of most journalists and politicians.

2. Ballot stuffing? Just another conspiracy theory? Or the real thing?

If it can happen in Bridgeport, CT, why not elsewhere? Click here.

Trends in Wokeness

1. The Brave Comedy of Malik Elassal 

I’ve said it before. The best comedy is brave, brilliant, and also unifying. This young stand-up is testing himself in all three areas, and he’s doing pretty well. Don’t you think? Click here.

 2. Walls are unnecessary! Except, well, except maybe for…

An example of the sort of deep thinking that is the backbone of Social Justice advocates. Click here.

3. How is this NOT an extreme form of child abuse?

Click here.

4. Finally, some good news… Math may not be intrinsically racist! 

Unless you’ve been sleeping under a pile of NYT issues, you’ve heard about the recent claims that mathematics should be eliminated from grammar school and high school curricula because people of color, as a group, score poorly on math tests. In this case, the proposition is that teachers should not have to prove a base-level understanding of arithmetic.