Are You A Conspiracy Geek?

Joan D’Arc Interviews Adam Gorightly
October 2, 2011
http://gorightly.wordpress.com/2011/10/02/am-i-a-conspiracy-geek

Joan D’Arc: If a geek can be defined as someone with very particular, highly focused interest in one subject, like a computer geek, for instance, would you embrace or deny your conspiracy geekness?

Adam Gorightly: I unabashedly embrace my conspiracy geekiness, aluminum foil deflector beanie and all! That’s what separates us conspiracy geeks from those boring “non-paranoids.” Furthermore, I contend that paranoia, at least to a certain level, is a good thing, because it heightens our awareness of things going on around us–things unseen and hiding in the shadows–that the “normal” non-paranoids among us are totally unaware of, numbed as they are by consensus reality. Of course, too much of anything isn’t good for you, and this is certainly true of extreme doses of paranoia, which can turn you into a walking basket case, if you let it (paranoia) escalate to the point where you’re afraid to trust anyone anytime, and you start thinking that someone’s watching your every move. Even if they are, so what? If you let “Them” make you overly paranoid, then they’ve won the battle. In this regard, paranoia can set you free and likewise enslave you. You just need to learn how to make paranoia work for you! Those are my words of wisdom to all conspiracy geeks.

Joan D’Arc: Can you, for instance, get involved in a romantic novel or other type of reading that’s not based on conspiracy theory? Do you think such an inability might mean you’re a conspiracy geek?

Adam Gorightly: I doubt if I could ever get into a romance novel, even if it had a conspiracy theme. But, yes, as I get older, I’ve grown to appreciate reading other stuff, and entertaining ideas that are not primarily conspiracy oriented. This wasn’t the case 20 years ago when I first got into the conspiracy/paranormal scene and it totally consumed my life, which wasn’t a bad thing, mind you. Conspiratorial geekiness opened up a whole wide world to me, and got me involved in writing and contributing to mags like Paranoia, SteamShovel Press, and The Excluded Middle, as well as introducing me to a whole bunch of like minded conspiracy geeks, who have made my life infinitely richer and wackier.

Joan D’Arc: If you admit to being a conspiracy geek, then, how and when did this happen to you? Where were you and who laid this curse upon you? Who’s fault is it?

Adam Gorightly: The key event that warped my brain and turned me into a conspiracy geek occurred in the mid-1980’s. While attending a community college in Northern California during this period, I happened upon a poster there that said something to the effect “The CIA Killed JFK”. This just totally blew my mind, at the time, as I had not previously been exposed to these types of ideas, or conspiracy theories. So I can pinpoint that event, seeing that wonderful little poster put up by who knows what wacko, as the very instant when I was first scratched by the werewolf of conspiracies, which turned me into the beast that now stands before you, frothing at the mouth and howling at the moon. And whose fault was it? Well, the CIA, of course…or whoever it was that actually engineered JFK’s assassination.

Joan D’Arc: And if there were a cure for conspiracy geekness, would you take it?

Adam Gorightly: Heck no, I wouldn’t let anyone inject me with such a vile “cure”. Haven’t you read about all the horror stories associated with vaccines that have appeared in articles in this very magazine? A “cure” for conspiracy geekness sounds like something from A Clockwork Orange or Orwell’s 1984. A drug to make us normal, numb, deaf to the many voices in our heads? That doesn’t sound like much fun to me.

Besides, chicks dig conspiracy geeks.