Nah, I don't agree on the drug angle. Seems too much like a Red Herring considering how eagerly it's pushed by the mainstream media in both news and fiction. Something for the masses to focus on to divert attention away from all the documents still classified with more tangible findings.
Think of it from the state's perspective: Better to focus on the dead-ends that mean very little rather than the very real results such studies might have produced. It's sort of like the Conspiracy Conspiracy, where deliberately wacky conspiracies, like Flat Earth or Moon Landing Hoax is heavily focused on to discredit conspiracy theories as a whole, regardless of tangible evidence and/or admissions that it's happening, like Operation Fast and Furious, Operation Sea Spray, Room 641A, Bohemian Grove, and my personal "favourite" Operation Northwoods, among plenty of others.
Even the term Conspiracy Theory was itself popularised thanks to US alphabet agencies (IIRC, it was the FBI, but it could have been the CIA, I can't quite remember at the moment), specifically to discredit people who "crazily believe that people are conspiring against them", despite the fact that that's exactly what happens all the fucking time. Leaks and that are mostly meaningless when everyone thinks the people who talk about these things are all crazy and untrustworthy. "It's just a bunch of conspiracy theories, no reason to take it seriously", and all that jazz.
And as for government becoming more cult-like, don't even need to discuss those elements, just look at the growth and upturn of statism and people that have used politics as a replacement for their lack of greater purpose in life. Once upon a time it was commonplace to suggest all politicians are scum, but now you must preface that with The Other Side first so that people know you don't want your team to be taken down too. Ironically enough, it could be argued that loyalty to the state has changed at an inverse rate to that of general patriotism, which has generally seen a decline over the years. Cults are nothing without their followers, and the governments of the world these days have a lot of devout worshippers.
Nah, I don't agree on the drug angle. Seems too much like a Red Herring considering how eagerly it's pushed by the mainstream media in both news and fiction. Something for the masses to focus on to divert attention away from all the documents still classified with more tangible findings.
Think of it from the state's perspective: Better to focus on the dead-ends that mean very little rather than the very real results such studies might have produced. It's sort of like the Conspiracy Conspiracy, where deliberately wacky conspiracies, like Flat Earth or Moon Landing Hoax is heavily focused on to discredit conspiracy theories as a whole, regardless of tangible evidence and/or admissions that it's happening, like Operation Fast and Furious, Operation Sea Spray, Room 641A, Bohemian Grove, and my personal "favourite" Operation Northwoods, among plenty of others.
Even the term Conspiracy Theory was itself popularised thanks to US alphabet agencies (IIRC, it was the FBI, but it could have been the CIA, I can't quite remember at the moment), specifically to discredit people who "crazily believe that people are conspiring against them", despite the fact that that's exactly what happens all the fucking time. Leaks and that are mostly meaningless when everyone thinks the people who talk about these things are all crazy and untrustworthy. "It's just a bunch of conspiracy theories, no reason to take it seriously", and all that jazz.
And as for government becoming more cult-like, don't even need to discuss those elements, just look at the growth and upturn of statism and people that have used politics as a replacement for their lack of greater purpose in life. Once upon a time it was commonplace to suggest all politicians are scum, but now you must preface that with The Other Side first so that people know you don't want your team to be taken down too. Ironically enough, it could be argued that loyalty to the state has changed at an inverse rate to that of general patriotism, which has generally seen a decline over the years. Cults are nothing without their followers, and the governments of the world these days have a lot of devout worshippers.