Could It Be? Do You Need Proof Like Me? Let’s See…

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

As I sit in my Kailyard I often wonder about the future.

History is a curious affair. You would think that we would settle upon the truth and reality of it all with hindsight, but we don’t. Perpetual arguments arise regularly as people convinced that they are being lied to continue to tell us “sheeple” that we ought to “do our research” whilst they would struggle with an index in a dictionary.

At this time of year in both the US and in the UK, we get the release of historical documents which are a testimony to the past. Official and classified documents are released into the public domain. Once again, those who know, those who think they know, those who think they know more than others know and those who don’t know what they know tell us all about them and use them to lay claim to utter nonsense.

I was thinking about this recently when sending myself down a whole YouTube Sovereign Citizen rabbit hole, when up pops the news that thousands of unedited government JFK assassination files are being released.

This is the mother load of all conspiracies.

Now, here is the thing. I have not done my research. I am not sure who shot JFK. Having listened to a podcast about the assassination of his brother Bobby Kennedy, I am increasingly convinced that there was no conspiracy against the Kennedys. I am convinced because in this podcast, the empirical facts were looked into by someone who thought there was a conspiracy but ended up realizing that there was not – or at least the leaps of faith required to prove it go beyond reasonableness.

But what does ma heid in, nips ma brain, rips ma knitting, is the absolute and total faith that conspiracy theorists have in their own beliefs and the total contempt that they have for others.

And I mean contempt.

I have had heads shaken at me, mutterings under the breath and the legendary, you are so naïve thrown out at me.

Up close and personal, they are often nice and serious people. Some have even done enough work on their topics that it can spur a decent enough debate, but the fact is that, foremost, debates with them are a complete, total and utter waste of time.

Now let me be clear. I do not accept that official accounts are always accurate. In the United Kingdom we have had Bloody Sunday and the Hillsborough Tragedy as evidence that the authorities lie. But what I do not accept is the leaps that come from somebody on Tik Tok, YouTube or the internet saying this is so just because…

I like debate; I also like evidence.

There is a clear difference between skepticism and disbelief. There is a complete difference between questioning and arrogance. And for most conspiracy theorists they cross the line.

What they also do is make $Millions from the gullible.

Many years ago, a doctor suggested a link in the UK between the MMR vaccine – measles, mumps, rubella – given to young children and autism. It was based upon a scientific study. It led to a huge number of people refusing to have their children vaccinated. Infection rates rose and whilst I am unaware of any child dying as a result, it was a massive political hot topic.

Of course, every immunization specialist came out to debunk the claim and were castigated as liars and abusers.

Andrew Wakefield, the man behind this conspiracy theory, started a mission. It continues to this day. The scientific study was of 12 children and the claims he made have been proven as lies several times over. He was struck off by the General Medical Council as a doctor and is not allowed to practice as a medical doctor in the United Kingdom anymore.

It was possibly the best career move he made as he has accrued a fortune out of his claims, lived with a super model for some time and tours the globe peddling his nonsense. Of course, he has the training and the knowledge to slay me in a debate, and he also uses the weapon that people in conspiracy theories use all the time – the very law they claim is not theirs…

They try and sue.

To date he has not been successful suing anyone. Why should he be? Whilst he maintains his innocence and directs anti vaccine films and gets invited to speak at like minded symposiums, he is lauded, applauded and feted with cash. Who wants to risk all that in a courtroom?

How shall history judge him? I hope with hindsight, perhaps in a chapter written by a parent who was convinced by his theories and who had a very sick child as a consequence, in a book where all the profits go to vaccinating the world against conspiracy theories…

A view from the new Kailyard or, how you look over there,  from over here…

(Kailyard n. a cabbage patch, often attached to a school of writing – the Kailyard School – a genre of overly sentimental and sweet Scottish literature from the late 19th century where sentimental and nostalgic tales are told in escapist tales of fantasy, but here we seek to reverse it by making the Kailyard Observations of effective invective comment from that looks not to return to the past but to launch us into a better future by the one Donald worth believing…

Does my heid in, nips ma brain, rips ma knitting – a consequence of an irritation that holds little or no interest nor value for the person who is being forced to hear it…

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