The Only Valid Conspiracy Is My Conspiracy

I've decided that I'm through with Digg.  Now, I've never been one to keep quiet about my issues with specific aspects of the site, particularly the user comments.  (The exact quote I used was "reading Digg comments makes browsing Slashdot at -1 seem like a source of rational of discussion in comparison.")

However, as of today I am officially stating that I am through with Digg.

So what finally did it?  Well, the short answer is: this story.

The long answer (you knew it was coming), is that it's a number of things, culminating with that story, but that can mostly all be described using a single word: tin-foil.

There's seems to be a belief that runs through a vocal segment of the Digg community that seems willing to believe any hare-brained conspiracy theory that arises, so long as it conforms with their views.  (Although it has died down in recent months, witness the former prevalence of links to various sites run by Alex Jones as an example.)

Thoroughly debunked UFO sitings?  Shadowy cabals of bankers that control the US through the Federal Reserve (and are responsible for the death of JFK)?  9/11 was an inside job?  Media stories critical of Digg being obviously blatant misrepresentations of the facts in an effort to make Digg users look like an unruly mob?  (Trust me, Digg users do a pretty good job of that last one on their own.)

I guess I'm just tired of the hyperbole and wild theories.  So when said story showed up, I found it just tiring that the same people who would scoff at the Clinton death wish (a wonderful piece of total bunk), swallow the image of Karl Rove as some Godfather-like mastermind pulling the strings behind a massive army of goons as just too much.  (Hell, and it's not even like I like Rove or anything of the things he represents.)

Maybe I'm just getting tired of conspiracies everywhere.  Don't get me wrong, I adore some them — the more ludicrous the better.  (There's a copy of Jon Ronson's Them: Adventures With Extremists sitting on my bookshelf, just begging to be read.)  I just would rather read them when I'm in the mood to read them, not on what's supposed to be a aggregation of actual news.

So, to the world's largest experiment in hyperbole, misdirection, and groupthink: ciao!  I'm sure I'll miss you just as much as you'll miss me.