The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

In 1945, General Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.”

I don’t believe in conspiracies or their unsupported theories, but don’t get me wrong; they’re interesting to imagine and certainly not a small challenge to create. However, 95 percent of these fictitious revelations won’t or can’t work due to the lack of one essential ingredient: secrecy. Theories such as “the landing on the moon was faked”; “the CIA killed JFK and put 9/11 together”; Oswald still being alive, and shooting laser beams to start fires in Southern California, are all ludicrous theories and completely impossible because of the frailty of humans and their inability to keep secrets.

Humans talk, or in today’s society, they leak information. Most of these fantasies, depending on their complexity, require many people with unlimited time to create.

There are certain theories that seem plausible because the foundation of the theory is real and existing. Take cancer research and the vastness of its organization. Some believe there’s a cure for the disease, but that the pharmaceutical industry is holding back these cures for infinite financial gain. This may seem plausible, especially coming from such a greedy industry, but the theory is not at all feasible because of the element of secrecy. Another plausible conspiracy could be the origin of the COVID virus; did China plant this virus deliberately? Again, plausible, but way too many people are involved to keep this a secret.

Of all the various industries, one stands out that has the potential of fulfilling the definition of a plausible conspiracy: that would be the news industry. Could you believe a scenario where an industry having only one product was conceived from one simple business plan? That plan is based solely on the principal of maintaining sides through division. If the news empire could have a universal business plan it would read “Maintain the Divide.”

No individual colluded with another to create this industry; an argument occurred and an opportunity for profit was exposed to entrepreneurs. Two sides to anything requires judging, judging requires opinion, and opinion creates division. The news industry feeds off division; their only goal, their only concern is to maintain the divide. Having two sides somehow coming together and compromising on issues is not in the best interest of this industry.

They must ensure that there’s always another side.

A conspiracy theory is defined as, “a belief that some covert, but influential organization is responsible for a circumstance or event.” Is the news industry an influential organization? Does this industry disseminate truthful news and unbiased opinion? Are the resultant effects divisive?

This theory is absolutely plausible because secrecy is not required; they control what you know and the secrets you get to know. There’s no fake news, but there’s fake opinion on both sides of the political aisle.

Do you think the media could actually manipulate politicians into maintaining this divide? As stated before, the pharmaceutical industry is greedy, but they are saints compared to the news industry. Why does anybody on either side of the political aisle buy any of this? They are dividing us for their own economic gain; without us watching and listening to their divisive rhetoric, their ratings would be in the toilet. Hannity, Lemon, Cuomo, “The Great One,” and other bloviators such as “The View,” Limbaugh, and Cooper would all be looking for work, or better yet, may be having to learn how to work like the rest of us.

The American people as a whole need to understand what partisanship is: It’s the one word used to describe why the Democrats were motivated to impeach Trump, and the same word used to describe why the Republicans voted to acquit him. Partisanship is not what the framers intended. It’s too narrow-minded and limits common sense. Your representatives and the media want you just where you are, and the further you move right or left, keeping you off center, maintaining the divide, the better it is for them. What happened to our republic?