Years ago, conspiracy theories used to be fun. I mean, there was the whole big phenomenon around some of them. Most of these continue, with the likes of the Bigfoot followers, the Loch Ness believers, the UFO watchers. In some cases, as in the UFOs, recent evidence may support many of these claims.
At any rate, the conspiracy theories of old were not hurting anyone. At least, not that I was aware of.
Today, it is a much different story. I’ll just get this part of the story out of the way. By the end of 2020, we saw all sorts of conspiracy theories in the news. Daily. Trump fanatics pushed the false narrative that the 2020 general election was stolen. Right-wing propagandists continued advancing the idea that China released the COVID-19 virus into the world as a bioweapon. There was a slew of anti-LGBTQ falsehoods that targeted school curricula and teachers.
Shall I go on? We had the endless shouts about the existence of Antifa as a violent communist organization. And let us not forget QAnon-related conspiracies. Everything from sex trafficking to the return of John F. Kennedy. And more. Falsehoods about the COVID-19 vaccine increased vaccine scares and hesitancy. Like. The vaccine was supposed to make me magnetic, to the point where I couldn’t walk through the kitchen without the silverware jumping from the drawers and clinging to my face and body.
Okay. Enough. Those conspiracy theories are of a different nature. They are hateful, harmful, and unwarranted. They are carefully constructed and aimed solely at harming people. Destructive and horrible.
But then. Then there are the others. The glowing others.
And I’ll tell you about this one today. Recently, a photo emerged on social media. According to the people who investigated the original, it has not been altered. The picture shows a man out of time.
It is an old photograph of an odd-looking fellow standing by a building. The photo, taken in the 1940s, shows him appearing to be using a cell phone. He stands out for wearing a lightly colored trench coat, scarf, and hat like no one else. And, of course, there is the matter of the thing in his hand, held close to his ear.
Social media exploded with comments about this guy. The time traveler busted.
The mystery dawns back to 1943 in Reykjavík, Iceland, where another suspicious character is seen around deployed US soldiers during World War II.
People on Facebook all posted their theories. Some dispel the cell phone idea, saying the guy had just been checking to see if his watch was working. One person suggested he was using a tobacco pipe and went to scratch his ear.
But his outfit is out of place. And it really could be a phone.
So there it is. The time traveler. One of those happy, no-harm-done conspiracy theories. The kind that warms your heart and gets your wander-nerve going.
So yeah. Call me. I’ll be back.
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“Everyone loves a conspiracy.”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code
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“The word “conspire” comes from the Latin com and spirare, meaning “to breathe together.”
― Sarah Kendzior, They Knew
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“Almost all people are hypnotics. The proper authority saw to it that the proper belief should be induced, and the people believed properly.”
― Charles Fort
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The good kind of conspiracy theory. Hello?
