In What We Trust?

I. Many Such Cases I used to be what you'd call a progressive for most of my life. No, really. Growing up in the '00s and '10s in Armenia, that was a far bolder stance than it was in the West. I grew up on Harry Potter, like many a millennial did, so in my senior year of high school I tried to organize a Halloween party — like one does. I know, I know, how risqué of me. But naturally, I was labeled a radical Satanist or something, and it never materialized. I was an A student, so it didn’t hurt my reputation much. But it did something else — it radicalized me. While I was baptized as a child, I grew increasingly distant from the Armenian Apostolic Church and Christianity in general. In pursuit of spiritual enlightenment, I dove into philosophy, religion, mysticism, and esoteric literature. My older sister, who shared some of those interests, worked at a bookstore, so I had a steady supply of reading material even before the internet took off here. Eventually, I got into Wicca and new-age spirituality — like one does. Many such cases. So there I was: long hair, messenger bag, alternative music playlist, and even more alternative beliefs. All of it was shunned at best and taboo at worst. Naturally, I decided to study theology — to explore the unknown. Unfortunately, the faculty turned out to be a covert seminary under Church control, and free thought was as welcome there as it is in woke culture today. II. Arrow on the Knee Then came the army — two years of mandatory service. I faced some reality, touched some grass, and got a lot more real. With my focus back on this world rather than the ones beyond, I became an atheist on a crusade (the irony) against religion in government and education. The Church being in bed with the oligarchy and the pro-Russian puppet government made it easy to see where the rot was. That shift pulled me from show business — I’d been working with my director friend on music videos — into politics. Eventually, I joined the Civil Contract party, which led the Velvet Revolution of 2018 and came to power. A war, a pandemic, and three elections later, it still holds it. The separation of Church and State is in full swing as I write this. So, mission accomplished, yes? III. All Apologies Well, here's the thing: I'm not writing all this so y’all know about my undeniably hip past 😎. I'm writing it as a backdrop to the real topic — conspiracies. As a once-spiritual atheist, I was always on high alert against them. Many of my old new-age peers sincerely believed, among other things, that aliens walk among us. My new atheist peers — myself included — would mock my old new-age peers for that. I had zero tolerance for weird shit like that. So when a woman I liked and respected told me — during an otherwise benign discussion with my director friend — that there’s a big liberal conspiracy, I went into denial so hard I could see the pyramids (no aliens sighted). The talk got ugly; we never spoke again. What did she tell me? She said — and I paraphrase, since it was a decade ago — “These liberal ideas like gay rights and race-critical stuff are a ploy to take power. They’ll make you tolerant so you won’t anticipate the strike. They’ll come after your children and turn them against you. They’ll make them abandon their religion, their country, and their gender. And they’ll do it so they can control them.” My response was: “WTF are you talking about? I'm already tolerant. There’s no great conspiracy. Kids can choose what they believe in. There’s nothing wrong with no countries and no religions either. (Howdy, Lennon?)” I’d like to take a moment to apologize to her — because she was right, and I was wrong. That error, shared by me and many of my new atheist peers, nearly cost us our civilization. IV. Know the Enemy Because there was a conspiracy to brainwash the children. There was an assault on our institutions. And there was a denial of reality. These weren’t some nutty conspiracies — this was happening, and still is, in real time. As an atheist, I was happy to see Christianity’s decline in the West, hoping science would step in to explain the hows, whats, and whys. But what took its place was an unholy alliance between communists, anarchists, and Islamists — the three old enemies of the West combining in a covert, cowardly attack to destroy it. And they were smart about it. First, they took the schools and academies and utterly discredited them — obscuring research for political reasons, brainwashing generations of our brightest children, and replacing objectivity with ideology. From failing to recognize reality to employing people like LaWhore Vagistan as professors , the damage to science and society alone is unfathomable. Then they infiltrated the public sector, using laws and policies to silence those who dared to cross the line. Finally — and most effectively — they weaponized society itself, deploying cancel culture to achieve total control over everyone. Those are old tricks from failed communist states and backwater Islamic societies, modernized for use against the West. And they got frighteningly close to winning it all. If that bullet hadn’t missed Trump, or if Musk hadn’t bought Twitter, the outcome could’ve been catastrophic. V. War Never Changes But with the battle won and the war in seemingly capable hands, my focus turns again to conspiracies. Our crusade against religion — in the name of science — replaced the old faith with a new, far more dangerous one. And make no mistake: the Woke is a religion. The Bible in schools was replaced by gender theory books for kids; the priesthood was replaced by DEI officers; the original sin was replaced by “privilege.” They even have rituals now — kneeling, acknowledgments, confessions. And with the crescent ears of radical Islam peeking through, it's far more destructive than Christianity ever was — at least after the Reformation. But the climb to victory is steeper this time, because they’ve managed to discredit science itself. People calling themselves scientists, professors, philosophers, doctors — all caught lying, cheating, obscuring, denying reality for their anti-scientific cult. Now we see the fallout: people skeptical of everything science says — from vaccines and nutrition to, once again, aliens walking among us. And can we blame them? A doctor who lies about men getting pregnant or IQ distribution in racial groups for “moral reasons” can just as easily lie about a vaccine causing autism or a food being harmless. If these people won’t trust us with data, why would they trust us with knowledge of extraterrestrial life? Or worlds beyond ours? Or gods among us? Why would they? --- VI. Constant Vigilance So where do we go from here? The same way as ever — straight ahead to infinity, eyes wide open, full of hope and skepticism, confident in truth’s inevitable victory but vigilant toward the enemy in the dark. We were foolish to discard all conspiracies, nearly as foolish as those who believe in all of them. We know better now. Stay curious.