The fact of the matter is that you don't need to believe in idiotic pop culture theories like Illuminati, Jewish Bolshevism and reptilian men. Those are all straw men and have no credibility.
On the other hand, conspiracies have been an essential part of politics and history for a very long time. The only way you could possibly deny this is if you're ignorant of politics, history and how military intelligence works.
One most not underestimate the capability of malice. Hanlon's razor does not apply to politics, as FDR famously said. The authorities have conspired to and actually committed countless acts of lunacy and horror, like a plot to nuke the moon (Project A119), a large scale false flag terror plot (Operation Gladio) and the second Gulf of Tonkin attack, which was a false flag that kickstarted the Vietnam War. The last one was actually executed and the NSA declassified the docs years ago.
NSA surveillance is hardly new. You can even see it (jokingly) referenced in Sneakers, which dates back to 1992. Before Snowden, we had ECHELON, Total Information Awareness, Presidential Surveillance Program, Room 641A and closely related: the FBI's DCSNet.
So, here's a quick idea. Instead of insulting conspiracy theorists who voice perfectly reasonable doubts, let's actually praise them and try to voice their concerns, rather than going with official stories and pretending everything is like clockwork.
It's absolutely disturbing how well people have accepted that the government works for their benefit. What bullshit.
The outrage over the NSA disclosures was well warranted, but the surprise goes to show you just how much people, even those who should know better, are asleep and little more than cattle (sorry for the arrogance, but I feel it's deserved here).
Conspiracy theorists are not loons. The only loons are the ones who think everything is just fine and are legitimately surprised the NSA is spying on them. Did you forget the Clipper chips already?
Fucking please.