The Shrine

I was reading an article about how Tyler Hamilton (teammate of Lance Armstrong) came out with a book saying like when he joined the US Postal Service team Lance Armstrong told him the EPO and the other drugs are in the fridge next to the coke, and there's probably some guy wearing a cloak that has all kinds of syringes that you'd need.

Now it's true doping is rampant in cycling but if it was that rampant the US Postal Service Team probably wouldn't get out of stage 1 without being caught. I mean just looking at all the guys getting caught would suggest you can't possibly get away with being completely stupid if you were indeed cheating.

And yet the crazier the conspiracy theory, the more likely it seems people will believe it. After all the Moon Landing conspiracy theory is pretty popular too, and I think someone said that the amount of hush money/secret service guys needed to keep everyone quiet about this would easily exceed the cost of actually landing on the moon. In fact I bet if Hamilton outlined a plausible scenario, probably no one would actually believe him. As described, the situation he has is crazier than say if in the NBA people go to locker room and took one of those Metal Gear Solid 4 syringes that can apparently recover from any kind of wound, because at least the NBA (or any pro sports) don't test people on a weekly basis.

I think there's a new book out on the Osama Bin Laden raid and it's also totally contradictory with all known facts and I think that's why it's going to sell really well, too.

Conspiracy theories are popular because people are always looking for someone to blame; and the bigger the person, the better. No one wants high press things to be the result of something simple and logical when there is the possibility of something twisted and sensational; no matter how implausible.

There are a lot of conspiracy theories surrounding celebrities; fairly frequently too. A few that pop into mind are Christopher Walken murdered Natalie Wood, Courtney Love murdered Kurt Cobain, and Suge Knight arranged for Tupac Shakur to be murdered; "coincidentally" the later two being somewhat popularized by the same person (Nick Broomfield).

Stuff like Courtney Love killing Kurt Cobain is trivially easy to dismiss, because the evidence of murder is implausible/silly, and the evidence that it was suicide is fairly complete. You don't even need to look further in that the "murder weapon" was purchased by Kurt Cobain; or that if Courtney wanted Kurt dead, she wouldn't have saved his life just a few weeks earlier after he took a fatal-level dosage of pills and alcohol. While shocked, none of Kurt Cobain's closest friends were surprised by his suicide; and many of his friends dislike Courtney Love, and would never cover for her. Yet, if you go into any youtube video of a Courtney Love song or interview, you have those Conspiracy Theorists writing "Courtney killed Kurt Cobain." and similar things. There is even a market for this one conspiracy theory; a former detective named Tom Grant who made a living off of this conspiracy theory.