HUDSON | Conspiracy theories abound even in Colorado | Opinion | coloradopolitics.com

It’s appealing to hope Colorado is insulated from the worst of conspiracy theology. We are, after all, better educated, more practical, better grounded, borderline pantheist and, let’s just say it, for the most part smarter than denizens of our crumbling industrial centers as well as scattered apostles of grievance infuriated by those who enjoy lives less precarious than their own. Until 2020, Colorado hadn’t elected a politician who might claim laser firing Jewish satellites were igniting wildfires to clear rights-of-way for high-speed rail projects. That’s crazy, crazy!

When we take a closer look, however, there are symptoms of insanity appearing across the Centennial state. At least two communities, including ex-urban Elizabeth, and likely others that went unreported have reacted to internet rumors of impending Antifa invasions. Burly residents wearing camouflage gear and toting powerful rifles have rushed to Main Street to defend against leftist guerrillas they were warned would arrive by bus. You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to detect how utterly preposterous these alarms were.

Set aside the fact that Antifa has no hierarchy, no treasury and no offices nor a discernible strategy other than spontaneous anarchy. What possible reason would there be for vandalizing the commercial strip in a community of a few hundred souls where their depredations would go unseen, unfilmed and unreported? Even Proud Boys are better organized and media savvy than that. Yet we are urged to believe Antifa is so clever, so psychologically adept and tactically malevolent that they can readily infiltrate patriotic rallies, rousing peaceful conservatives into a violent mob.

These claims feel like an embarrassing confession that right wing protesters are puzzlingly clueless and readily duped. False flag insurrection makes some sense in the chaos that characterizes a failed state where multiple militias are competing for political control. Under such conditions misdirection and confusion can serve a purpose. While American may soon splinter into multiple factions, we’re not there yet. Hundreds of rioters have been arrested since the Jan. 6 invasion of Congress and not one has proven an infiltrator.

Closer to home, El Paso County Republican Chair Vickie Tonkins suggested her party should recruit the “3% United Patriots” militia to safeguard its delegate assembly in Colorado Springs this past Saturday against a threatened Antifa invasion. Disregarding the fact that heavily armed security forces wearing full battle gear provide a bad look for democracy, what is the real chance leftist agitators might actually bother to disturb the deliberations of El Paso County Republicans? Tonkins narrowly won re-election while her challenger is alleging voting fraud. It sounds like intra-mural strife will do greater damage than anything Antifa could do.

It’s worth noting that El Paso county delivered Republican margins of more than 200,000 votes only a decade ago, often matching Democratic majorities in Denver. Last year they won by just 40,000 votes. A president who spent four years trashing our troops and their commanders as complicit in the deep state didn’t help in a military town. Polling finds Democrats expressing greater confidence in the military and intelligence communities today than Republicans.

Q-Anon’s fear-peddling nonsense is also percolating in Colorado’s political ecosystem. It flares up periodically, forcing adherents to disavow the “Democrats are Satan worshipping pedophiles who cannibalize children they kidnap” charges. The FBI was able to successfully identify the Russian hackers who meddled in the 2016 election and indict them by name. It’s hard to believe they don’t know precisely who the Q-Anon mythologists are. (Wired magazine reports their emails originate from a pig farm in the Philippines.) Since first appearing in 2017 Trump had little reason to unmask them. It is well past time to identify Q.

Following the Munich Conference in the 1930s, British historian John Gwyer observed that, “One is reluctant to think the average intelligence of mankind is really so low that it cannot distinguish between plain truth and fantastic falsehood.” Sad to say, a century later we’ve failed to make significant progress in this regard. I suspect it’s less a question of IQ than it is of willful ignorance.

Renegade Illinois Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, who voted for Trump’s impeachment and has formed a Country First PAC, explains, “Republicans must say enough is enough. It’s time to unplug the outrage machine, reject the politics of personality and cast aside the conspiracy theories and the rage.”

Following the insurrection on Jan. 6, I was not cheered by presidential historian Michael Beschloss’ observation that for democracies the best predictor of a successful coup is a recently failed coup. The deep state doesn’t scare me half as much as shallow thinking. Why is it that those who bleat the loudest about their constitutional right to carry firearms wherever they please object so vociferously to my right to disagree with them? That sounds a lot like cancel culture, just nastier.

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