The Obama Conspiracy

So of course you've heard of the rumors swirling that Obama's a "secret Muslim" or that he and/or his wife are radicals. Peter Sagal made a very insightful point of all of the things that would need to be true for an Obama conspiracy to be real, for instance:

...all the sensible, centrist, often bipartisan things Obama did do (eg. the bill to tape interrogations in Illinois) the hundreds of thousands of dollars he he helped hand out via the Annenberg Challenge to things like literacy programs, et. al, were all mere cover for his true, as of yet unenacted agenda.

The problem here is that those who believe the conspiracy never think that deeply about it. Instead they concern themselves with the worst possible scenario. It's like thinking someone you haven't seen in a while is dead, even though most likely they're alive. All you'd have to do to prove it is give them a call or realize that as long as you've known them they've never been... dead. If your mental curiosity is low and your susceptibility to worry is high you'll think they're dead, and that Obama's a secret radical, but you won't question the rationality of your beliefs.

(via kottke.org)