The Art of Theoretical Science

And why it's important to question "official reports."

Photo by Dave Hoefler at Unsplash

Within the article, the reader will gain the following insights:

• What Theoretical Science is

• The origins of the term “conspiracy theorist”

• How Theoretical Science makes you sharper

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I’m a theoretical scientist.

I trust that I coined this term because, according to Webster’s Dictionary, there’s no such thing as a “theoretical scientist.” So I can be the one that lays claim to coining the term theoretical scientist. 

Webster Screenshot

But what exactly is a theoretical scientist? What is theoretical science? To understand this term, we have to look at each word individually.

Theoretical is the adjective of the word “theory,” which is “a plausible or scientifically acceptable general principle… offered to explain phenomena.”

A scientist is one who studies science, and science is “knowledge or such a system of knowledge concerned with the… world and its phenomena.”

Anyone can study science. There is no monopoly on who can be a scientist.

You don’t need to go to a university to be a scientist or to theorize. Anyone can be a scientist because anyone can study and observe natural phenomena and theorize possible conclusions.

So I am a Theoretical Scientist, and here’s why you should be one too.

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The Modern Warfare of Propaganda

It’s essential to practice theoretical science in today’s modern era because we’re exposed to propaganda daily, yet we’re unaware it even exists.

To start, did you know it's legal for propaganda to be used on the American Public?

To understand the gravity of this, we need to understand what propaganda is - which I discuss in a previous article - but in short, propaganda is getting an individual to think or act in a certain way.

From Wikipedia¹, we read the following:

Propaganda in the United States is spread by both government and media entities. Propaganda is carefully curated information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread, usually to preserve the self-interest of a nation. It is used in advertising, radio, newspaper, posters, books, television, films and other media.

Propagandists may provide either factual or non-factual information to their audiences, often emphasizing positive features and downplaying negative ones, or vice versa, in order to shape wide scale public opinion or influence behavioral changes.

My goal is that the reader really and truly understands that corporations and governments all over the world want their populations to think a certain way and they use propaganda to do so.

Just last year, Canada was using propaganda on it’s own citizens and to go a little further back in time, propaganda is what Hitler used in Nazi Germany. Funny fact, during WWII, the Allies use of propaganda was so effective that even Hitler was impressed²:

“But it was not until the war that it became evident what immense results can be obtained by a correct application of propaganda. Here again, unfortunately, all our study had to be done on the enemy side, for the activity on our side was modest, to say the least… For what we failed to do, the enemy did, with amazing skill and really brilliant calculation. I, myself, learned enormously from this enemy war propaganda.” (Adolf Hitler)

Propaganda is a fact of life. We may or may not agree with it, but it is what it is.

Governments and corporations want people to think about certain things in a specific way. This reality needs to be fully understood and grasped.

Now, if we’d like to be able to think for ourselves, this is where the art of theoretical science comes in.

There’s an MIT study we’ll discuss shortly, but it’s important to note that during the most propagandized event in recent times, the pandemic, we’ve seen terms such as “conspiracy theorist” and “misinformation” thrown into the public’s zeitgeist.

To truly understand these terms, we must know where they came from.

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The Conspiracy behind Conspiracies

In the 60s, it was reported President JFK was assassinated by a lone gunman who shot him in the back of the head. This was the beginning of the television news era, and CBS’s Dan Rather reported to the country that the official reports stated that Kennedy was shot in the back of the head.

Later, however, footage captured by a civilian recording the President at the time of his assassination was released. The footage shows the President being shot in the front of the head.

This was a big deal, and Americans began to ask, “what happened?” and questioned the official story.

It’s said that the CIA then came up with the term “conspiracy theorist” for those who questioned the official report. From Wikipedia, we read the following³:

The term "conspiracy theory" is itself the subject of a conspiracy theory, which claims the term was popularized by the CIA in order to discredit conspiratorial believers, particularly critics of the Warren Commission, by making them a target of ridicule.

In his 2013 book Conspiracy Theory in America, political scientist Lance deHaven-Smith suggested that the term entered everyday language in the United States after 1964, the year in which the Warren Commission published its findings on the Kennedy assassination, with The New York Times running five stories that year using the term.

And so, there lies a topic of discussion. Should we trust the official report and narratives, even when we witness contradictory events?

This is why we must understand propaganda and realize that propaganda is an aspect of our everyday reality.

The question we must ask ourselves is, do we want to believe the propaganda given to us, or do we want to have some thoughts for ourselves?

This is why it’s crucial to be a theoretical scientist.

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War on Independent Thinking

Currently, the United Nations - in what appears to be an attempt to stop independent thinking - has waged war on “conspiracy theorists” and “misinformation.”

On the one hand, this seems fair. But it begs the question, should people be told what to think? Or should they be provided the information and allowed to come to conclusions?

You would think the latter, but it depends if the public can come to an accurate conclusion - which also depends on the education they received.

So in an attempt to essentially make it easier for the population to identify what’s factual and what’s not, we have visual aids like this to help you know “what’s real” and “what’s not?”

But ironically, what happens is that individuals do have questions about some of these official narratives. For example, did we go to the moon? Why can’t we go back? Etcetera, etcetera. Questioning is a normal human thought process but goes against the propaganda machine.

So now the individual has a choice: should I accept the official narrative or look to answer these questions?

If the individual chooses to go down the investigational route, this is the route of the theoretical scientist, and this is the best way to go.

According to an MIT study, individuals who display this theoretical, inquisitive mindset are sharper, more confident, and more robust. By understanding and answering their questions, they’re better informed.

For background, the study looked into “antimaskers,” and here’s what they found about the group⁴:

[Researcher] Jones says the antimask groups’ “idea of science is not listening passively as experts at a place like MIT tell everyone else what to believe.” He adds that this kind of behavior marks a new turn for an old cultural current.

“Antimaskers’ use of data literacy reflects deep-seated American values of self-reliance and anti-expertise that date back to the founding of the country, but their online activities push those values into new arenas of public life.”

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Where do we go from here?

Currently, our society is bracing for a looming recession and inflation that will affect our economy and livelihoods.

Do we want to go with the official reports being told to us? Do we want to go with the propaganda telling us what the following years will be like?

Or do we want to take a more active approach to understanding our reality and say, “hey, based on this information, I’m going to teach myself what I need to know. I’m going to be in charge of my reality.”

That’s ultimately what this is about, taking control over our future.

However, we should address those outlandish conspiracies and for that, let’s discuss Alex Jones.

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Those Conspiracy Theorists

Alex Jones is what’s known to many as a conspiracy theorist. And yes, there are baseless conspiracies (e.g., “Mars Colony”). However, if you study Alex Jones, people have identified him - and QAnon - as controlled opposition.

A controlled opposition is similar to COINTELPRO, which was “a series of covert and illegal projects actively conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting domestic American political organizations.”

One of the best-known COINTELPRO operations was the assignation of Fred Hampton, which was in the movie Judas and the Black Messiah.

But regarding Alex Jones being a controlled opposition agent, we read the following from Reddit user bandy0154:

Like many others Alex was the first place I heard about the idea that 9/11 wasn't what the govt said it was. I believe that he is using a technique similar to a frequent guest of his, David Icke.

They talk about real problems in the world, actual good information that people need to be aware of.

They [then] proceed to make themselves look as foolish and insane as possible, Alex with his insane ranting and shouting stuff like "assemble patriots, we are under siege!" and David with his absolutely absurd reptilian theories.

The desired effect is to make people who discuss these important issues look like lunatics, and it is working pretty well.

Unfortunately, Alex is where many individuals go when they want to question. A much better source would be The Corbett Report.

One thing about this propaganda warfare is that it uses media to engage with us. The media tool can be immensely damaging, and multiple documentaries, such as the Social Dilemma, have even called out its dangers.

However, media is a part of our reality. To truly understand it, we can start with Corbett’s discussion on how the media shapes our thinking, which shapes our world and ultimately shapes our reality.

That’s what this is about. That’s what Unorthodoxy is about. This is why we practice the art of theoretical science. So that we can be the ones who theorize about the phenomena that we’ve observed, and then we can take action on what needs to occur.

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Questions to Think On

1. What topics have you been told that you think are a bit fishy?

2. What other ideas do you think you may have been misinformed about?

3. Can you identify any areas of life where propaganda may have affected you?

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Like Unorthodoxy and want to help make it even better? Give me feedback, point out factual errors or typos, or send me topics to address.

1. Propaganda in the United States | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_in_the_United_States

2. Academy of Ideas | https://academyofideas.com/2013/10/introduction-to-propaganda/

3. Conspiracy Theory | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory

4. MIT Study | https://news.mit.edu/2021/when-more-covid-data-doesnt-equal-more-understanding-0304