S1E1 - Is this podcast part of the conspiracy?

This first episode of Conspiracy Theories Debunked is going to be kind of a preemptive strike against the conspiracy theorists. You see, if you study conspiracy theories, you'll see a pattern. A pattern in the way conspiracy theorists deal with critics. A pattern that, once you see it, may help you identify conspiracy theories in the future. But if you are listening to this show, you've probably already seen it. You've probably even been a victim of it. It's a sort of ad hominem attack. When a conspiracy theorist encounters a critic, they don't argue with facts. Because they don’t have any facts. Instead they will immediately attack the critic. This is pretty common in arguments. But there is something special about the way the conspiracy theorist will do it. At some point conspiracy theorists will inevitably claim that their critics can't be trusted because they are an agent of the conspiracy.This recycled meta conspiracy is what I'll be talking about today.But first I want to talk about the format of the show because it might be a bit confusing for folks. Despite this show's name my primary purpose here is not to debunk anything. My primary purpose is to entertain you. Debunking is only a secondary objective.You might be wondering why I would do this. And I'm sure I'll receive criticism for this. Actually, I'm sure I'll receive lots and lots of criticism about every aspect of this show.But, I'm doing it this way based on the advice of a certain magical nanny and because people don't like boring stuff. If I really want to help fight this epidemic of foolishness, I first need to get people to listen to me. It doesn’t really help our situation if I make a dozen dry and dull episodes that nobody listens to. If I want to reach people, if I want to change minds, if I want to inoculate them from this kind of thinking; I'm gonna need a little pizzaz and spectacle. I need to entertain people. As Mary Poppins says, "A Spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down".So, the normal format of this show will be pretty much the following. Episodes will be split in two parts. The first part of the episode will be me explaining a conspiracy theory, as best I can, from the perspective of the true believer. I'll be saying lots of strange things that I don't actually believe. I'm doing this because it will be more entertaining and ultimately more listenable. As I said I'll be doing this as best I can. One of the problems we encounter when talking about conspiracy theories is that almost always there is no single authoritative version of the theory. While we may talk about this conspiracy theory and that conspiracy theory, in reality each one contains many many variations within it. That’s one of the things that makes these theories so resilient. Even if you could definitively debunk a particular theory, true believers would just adopt a slightly different version. This problem becomes even worse when you observe how conspiracy theories cross pollinate and evolve.So again, I'll be doing my best to explain these theories. But, it's going to be tough and I'll probably explain it in ways that you don't like. Just try to remember that I am not attempting to tell you the authoritative end all be all version of any conspiracy theory. I'm presenting a version that I want to tell. A version that I think is entertaining and representative of what I've seen in the wild.The second part is where I'll be doing the actual debunking. Although, I've got to be honest. When writing these scripts, this has proven to be difficult. The difficulty hasn't been in refuting the logic and evidence of these conspiracy theories. The difficulty is in the persistent lack of logic in these theories. Wild and unsubstantiated leaps of logic are a signature motif of conspiracy theories. And the evidence used to justify these theories usually isn't actually evidence at all. At its best, it is just circumstantial evidence that on its own proves absolutely nothing. At its worst, it is unverifiable secret evidence that only the conspiracy theorist has access to. But I'll do my best and hopefully you'll like it.So enough with this rambling preamble and let's start talking about this episode's conspiracy.On this episode, I'll be talking about a conspiracy theory that does not exist yet but one that inevitably will come into existence.And that theory is that this podcast and its host are part of "The Conspiracy".Conspiracy Theories Debunked with Jason Rigden is not what it seems. Jason Rigden is actually a secret agent of the conspiracy. He might even be an alien himself. He probably is good friends with Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro. He definitely is on George Soros's payroll. He is secretly a communist that hates America and Apple Pie. Many researchers have speculated that he doesn't even exist at all. That he is an artificial composite personality created on a Quantum Computer network controlled by the shapeshifting reptilians of Zeta Reticulum.He claims ...