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Townhall reports: "President Biden has not been seen since his bombshell announcement on Sunday informing the nation that he will not be seeking reelection. The news came as a surprise to most of his staff, who found out along with everyone else on X. The note itself has fueled even more suspicions given the signature didn’t appear to match previous ones. Frank Biden, one of Joe Biden’s younger two brothers, told CBS he hopes to enjoy the president for 'whatever time we have left.' And some are reporting he experienced a medical emergency in Las Vegas, which 'official' fact-checkers were quick to report is a conspiracy theory. It’s in this context that we have to revisit what else the mainstream media claimed was an 'unfounded conspiracy theory' just last year."
Let's take a look at what NBC News said last October about "conspiracy theories."
Be informed, not misled.
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In October 2023, NBC News published a report titled, “Republicans float a quiet conspiracy theory that Biden won’t be on the ballot.”
NBC said this:
President Joe Biden announced in April that he is running for re-election. His campaign and its fundraising entities have a combined $91 million in the bank, and he has hired key political staffers to help helm his 2024 re-election campaign.
He has no serious opposition that threatens to kick him off his party's ballot.
So he will obviously be the Democratic nominee for president, right? Right?
Though no incumbent president has declined to seek a second term since Lyndon Johnson in 1969, there is an unfounded conversation among a faction on the political right that goes something like this: Democratic power brokers will intervene at the last minute to replace a weakened 80-year-old Biden with someone else as the party’s nominee.
The idea, centered largely on the thought that Biden is too old and not sharp enough mentally, is that there's a secret plan to replace Biden due to his health or other reasons by amorphous illuminati-type forces within the Democratic Party. It is not a mainstream thought within the Republican Party, but it has maintained a persistent foothold among a relevant chunk of the GOP base taking their cues from some party officials who continue to toy with the idea.
Townhall says: "This article pointed to chatter about Gov. Gavin Newsom or former first lady Michelle Obama as replacements, but now that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi threw her public support behind VP Kamala Harris, it’s 'game over'-- talk about an open convention is done and Harris will be the Democratic presidential nominee."
Conspiracy theories are sometimes not conspiracy theories.
An example:
The first lady who ran the country.
Conspiracy: A stroke rendered President Woodrow Wilson incapable of governing, and his wife surreptitiously stepped in.
The truth: Wilson did suffer a debilitating stroke towards the end of his presidency—but the government felt it was in the country’s best interest to keep things quiet. The public didn’t learn about the stroke for months, during which time his wife, Edith Wilson, was making most executive decisions. Despite Mrs. Wilson claiming that she acted only as a “steward,” historians who have analyzed the Wilson term in office confirm that for well over a year, Mrs. Wilson was effectively president.
Another example:
Conspiracy: The Dalai Lama is a CIA agent.
The truth: Perhaps the reason the Dalai Lama is smiling in all those photos has something to do with the six-figure salary he pulled down from the U.S. government during the 1960s. According to declassified intelligence documents, he earned $180,000 in connection with the CIA’s funding of the Tibetan Resistance to the tune of $1.7 million per year. The idea was to disrupt and hamper China’s infrastructure.
And another example:
Conspiracy: With the advances in technology, the government is using its vast resources to track citizens.
The truth: In 2016, government agencies sent 49,868 requests for user data to Facebook, 27,850 to Google, and 9,076 to Apple, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a major nonprofit organization that defends civil liberties in the digital world and advises the public on matters of internet privacy. You’ve probably also heard that your computer camera could be used to spy on you—there is a real likelihood that someone is watching you.
Then there is this example:
Conspiracy: A secret society that rules the world—the Illuminati—and the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) are in cahoots.
The truth: We’re here to tell you that a link does, in fact, exist. Of course, that “link” is actually a hyperlink (i.e., an electronic link between two Internet sites). If you type Illuminati backward—Itanimulli—into a web browser, you will land on the NSA website.
The Reader's Digest published these examples in 2020. They were updated in 2024.
Takeaway
The Left thrives on labeling anything they don't want you to believe as a "conspiracy theory."
On the other hand, there are always those who seek to mislead with half-truths and outright lies
We are inundated with misinformation in today's world.
How do we navigate this swirling ocean of information?
Some thoughts for biblical Christians:
- Psalm 119:105: "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, And a light unto my path."
Turn the light of God's Word on the path before you begin to walk down the path.
- 1 John 4:1: "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world."
Examples of discernment.
The more we practice hearing and obeying the Spirit in our lives, the more we can discern the Spirit in anything we read, hear, see, or do as being good or evil. Be discerning.
Here are some examples of discernment in the Bible:
- 1 Kings 22:19–23 and 2 Chronicles 18:18–22: Micaiah discerns that a lying spirit is responsible for a false prophecy.
- Jeremiah 23:16-22: Jeremiah perceives that the false prophet's message is not from God.
- Acts 5:3: Peter is aware of the deception of Ananias and Sapphira.
Remember, the devil often presents himself as an angel of light because he is always seeking whom he may devour.
Also, remember, "Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world" (I John 4:4).
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful. Be Confident.