Yeah…nah. Here’s what I think is happening instead. I haven’t wanted to say this, but there is a problem with organized Skepticism even more than conspiracy theories. My claim is that from hard evidence NOT ONE of the following is an extraordinary claim: The CIA not only gathers intelligence but kills people, violates rights, gaslights and evades scrutiny and oversight. The U.S. hides bioweapons programs. The U.S. engages in regime change through charity and aid programs. We in the U.S. medically experiment on our own citizens without consent. We run drugs. The DOJ and FBI are actively and flagrantly obstructing justice. Putin easily kills people outside Russia. We conspire and use academics for sheepskin washing our dirty work. U.S. newspapers actively avoid reporting stories about which the U.S. population is desperate for information. They also carry extremely non neutral biases. We actively conspired to hide open and obvious presidential dementia. And by extension, there are massive conspiracies at every level below that one. At a mind boggling level. There are Special Access programs that are about real and/or fake NHI/UFOs Etc. ———— The last thing we need is skeptics telling us the bar for such conspiracies and/or governmental accountability requires extraordinary evidence. Somehow the skeptics have it totally wrong. After Watergate, Iran-Contra, COVID, Church/Pike committees, etc. these are no longer extraordinary claims to raise. They are ordinary claims. I have no idea whether Lindsay Graham died of natural causes. But I can tell you the difference between a skeptic and a scientist looking at the claim. A skeptic’s first move is to lurch for the budding conspiracy and try to pull the idea of foul play off the table first and then to require a mountain of evidence to consider such a thing. A scientist firmly grabs the skeptic’s hand and forces him to put the hypothesis back on the table and says “Uh, you’re not in charge here. There’s a history…and I’m going to need to see something other than reference to null hypotheses, William of Occam and Carl Sagan…because that’s not how science and investigation works.” Time for extra scientific skepticism to die I think. Covert operations and conspiracies are difficult enough to document as it is. We don’t need skeptics as self appointed referees.