Theories For the Lazy

Conspiracy theories are havens for the intellectualy lazy. What I mean by that is that many times, there are those who wish to prove a point and instead of proving it in a logical manner based on facts, they instead resort to conspiracy theories to uphold their point. This is, at the very least, laziness on their part. To illustrate this with an example, I remember reading a while back an article about the Iraq War, written during or shortly after the war. The article stated that if, for whatever reason, they found WMDs (weapons of mass destruction) in Iraq (which he doubted), then they would have been planted there by the Americans. In other words, this person, in his zeal to discredit the Iraq War, resorted to a "conspiracy theory" to explain away why WMDs would be found, if, in fact, they were found. (The fact that it is now shaping up to be an intelligence failure is immaterial to the case.) What is astounding is that this person did not resort to a theory to explain away a fact, but resorted to a theory in case a fact turned out to be true that would ruin his argument. What is even more astounding is that I did not read this on some website or in some blog. It was an editorial in the Toronto Star.