If you think the news is fake, how bad do you think the histories are?
A conspiracy theory is like a tangled ball of yarn that a group of curious kittens unraveled, weaving an intricate web of mystery and intrigue—often chaotic, but usually at least a little bit compelling. Some are tales so mind-boggling that they make soap opera plotlines seem mundane, involving everything from secret societies to undercover aliens. They are the “whodunit” of alternative explanations, where the clues are often dubious, the logic sometimes stretches reality, and the endings are rarely satisfying.
In short, a conspiracy theory is a rollercoaster ride of suspense and surprise, where you’re never quite sure what’s fact, fiction, or just plain bonkers.
But a great many conspiracy theories do indeed end up being revealed to be true, and this is where real investigative journalism is needed.
Precedent
One of the most well-documented government conspiracy theories that was later proven to be true is the Watergate scandal. During the presidency of Richard Nixon, a break-in at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters occurred at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., in June 1972.
The break-in was carried out by men who were eventually linked to Nixon’s re-election campaign. The Nixon administration initially denied, then tried to cover up the scandal, but investigative journalism by The Washington Post and other media outlets eventually uncovered a vast network of political espionage, sabotage, and illegal activities conducted by individuals connected to the White House.
As the evidence mounted, it became clear that high-ranking officials, including President Nixon himself, were involved in the cover-up. This led to a series of investigations, criminal prosecutions, and high-profile resignations, including the resignation of the President himself in 1974.
The Watergate scandal is a prime example of a government conspiracy that was initially dismissed as a baseless theory but was ultimately proven to be true. It also serves as a reminder of the importance of a free press and the role it plays in holding powerful institutions accountable.
Let’s get a little spicier…
The existence of the MK-ULTRA program first came to light in 1973, when the CIA officially halted the project. Further details about MK-ULTRA were uncovered during a series of investigations by the U.S. Congress in the mid-1970s. In 1975, the Church Committee and the Rockefeller Commission both investigated the CIA’s activities, including the MK-ULTRA program, and exposed numerous unethical and illegal practices. These investigations brought the MK-ULTRA program into the public eye and confirmed its reality.
For 20 years, MK-ULTRA was a top-secret CIA program that was focused on researching mind control, chemical interrogation, and other forms of psychological manipulation. The project was initiated in response to concerns about the potential use of mind control by the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
The MK-ULTRA program involved conducting experiments on both animals and humans, often without the subjects’ knowledge or consent. Some of the experiments involved the use of hallucinogenic drugs, such as LSD, as well as other chemicals, electroconvulsive therapy, sensory deprivation, and various forms of psychological manipulation. The goal was to discover methods to control or influence human behavior for intelligence and military purposes.
Claims about MK-ULTRA were deemed conspiracy theories for nearly a generation, but they were ultimately discovered to be largely true. The CIA was ultimately subjected to new oversight and restrictions, and the U.S. government issued formal apologies to the victims of the MK-ULTRA experiments.
What about corporate conspiracies?
Tobacco Industry: Tobacco companies suppressed information about smoking’s harmful health effects for decades. They funded research that downplayed risks, manipulated public opinion, and lobbied against regulations.
Volkswagen Emissions Scandal: In 2015, Volkswagen rigged millions of diesel vehicles with software to cheat emissions tests. The scandal led to substantial fines and criminal charges.
Sugar Industry: In the 1960s, the sugar industry funded research to shift heart disease blame from sugar to fat. The Sugar Research Foundation even paid Harvard researchers to downplay the link between sugar and heart disease, promoting saturated fat as the main culprit.
Purdue Pharma Opioid Crisis: Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, marketed the drug as safe and effective for chronic pain, downplaying its addictive nature. Their deceptive marketing played a significant role in the opioid crisis, which has claimed thousands of lives in the United States.
What does this have to do with Bitcoin?
For years, I have advocated for the Bitcoin community to stand firmly against the inherent conflict of interest that exists when Bitcoin-focused developers, custodians, exchanges and other businesses take investment money from companies in the legacy payment, finance and banking economies. New York Life, CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) and Mastercard (NASDAQ: MA) aren’t trustworthy bedfellows with a distributed electronic cash system that seamlessly combines data and money, are they? Of course not! So, the fact that they pay the salaries (through Digital Currency Group) of the developers who issue soft fork changes to the Bitcoin Core repo should be a gigantic, glaring, blaring red flag that something has gone completely awry!
The wolves are all the way in the hen house!
We know for a fact that soft forks cannot be resisted. Despite campaigns touting that you can’t “change the code,” the fact is that the code changes constantly, and the way that it changes leaves a small blocker with two options:
1: Upgrade to the latest version to be able to validate transactions
OR
2: “Resist” the upgrade, and be unable to validate transactions.
There is NO OPTION to resist in any practical manner, which means there is no reason to run a node at all, and doing so makes a “node operator” nothing more than Maggie Simpson.
But instead of joining me to defend BTC, BCH and then BSV against the onslaught of Silicon Valley and old world finance, small blockers dance on bitcoin’s grave while calling folks like me a “conspiracy theorist” and focusing on non-news like the existence of the Lightning Sharks agency or Craig’s nefarious plan to spend a ton of money, time and reputational capital to stand up for deeply unpopular ideas as some sort of “scam.”
It’s tiresome, it’s nonsense, and I can’t wait until we move on to the era when today’s “crypto” influencers are laughed off of stages globally for being their unique mix of incompetence and malice for selling the bitcoin dream to the enemies!
Thankfully, there’s still rocks to look under, documents to inspect and facts to be revealed about the history of Bitcoin, Satoshi, the quiet coups, and the deep-seeded corruption that only Bitcoin can solve.
Eventually, the free independent press will pick this up too, and we will all be better for it.
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