RALEIGH — In the emerging online world of the “Blogosphere,” some nomenclature and conventions are beginning to take hold. One that I’ve noticed recently is the reference to the “tinfoil hat” whenever a political argument prompts one of the participants to cite a conspiracy theory.
The derivation of the term is telling. The “tinfoil hat” refers to the notion that you can block the space aliens/government agents/Freemasons from using special rays to read your thoughts by the liberal application of tin foil to form a protective helmet around your noggin.
Of course, this is just an unfounded rumor. Take it from me, aluminum foil is what you want to go with.
In any event, the term of art is sometimes abused, typically when someone is losing an argument and decides to try to make his opponent look ridiculous by intimating a loony conspiracy theory where none is believed. But as you will find from even a brief excursion into the more interactive corners of the Blogosphere, there are more than enough real conspiracy nuts to keep legitimate “tinfoil hat” references coming.
I’ve decided today to inaugurate our first official award here at Carolina Journal Online. It will be given occasionally, on no firm schedule, when circumstances warrant it. Those circumstances will consist of a North Carolina political debate in which a silly conspiracy is alleged. The person doing the alleging will receive the “Carolina Journal Tinfoil Hat Award,” complete with statewide recognition in the form of a “Daily Journal” column suitable for framing.
The first recipient of the award is Stephen Dear, an activist with People of Faith Against the Death Penalty. Dear is one of the lead promoters of the idea that North Carolina should enact a two-year moratorium on executions during which the state would initiate a study of the fairness and equity of capital punishment. I happen to think this would be a gross miscarriage of justice. I believe that there are egregious murders for which the death penalty is the only just punishment. I also believe that capital punishment serves to deter at least some crimes, particularly the murder of rape or other crime victims (without the prospect of execution, a rapist who would go to prison for a long time anyway if caught has every incentive to eliminate his victim — likely the only potential witness). And I don’t understand why a moratorium is considered a prerequisite for studying the application of the death penalty. One can occur without the other.
But I also admit that no system of human design is perfect, that the application of the death penalty is serious business and deserves serious and ongoing scrutiny, and that some are so appalled by the prospect of error or by the state acting as executioner in the first place that they place a high moral value on stopping the practice. I respect their intentions, if not their judgment.
In Dear’s case, he wins our inaugural Tinfoil Hat Award not for advocating a death-penalty moratorium but for making the risible claim in a recent Associated Press story that a spate of executions scheduled in North Carolina this year reflects a conspiracy by law enforcement. They are trying to hurry through the executions, Dear said, because “the powers that be are afraid of the moratorium movement.”
Well, where to start. First, if all the scheduled executions are carried out this year, it certainly will be the most in North Carolina since capital punishment was resumed in 1977. But what we are talking about is six executions. The previous “record” was five. At numbers of cases this low, we aren’t talking about a trend. We’re talking about a pure coincidence. This is really a non-story, so there’s no need for a conspiracy to explain it.
Plus, who’s afraid of the moratorium movement? I sense no fear among the majority of North Carolina politicians, officials, and citizens who continue to support the death penalty. Whatever momentum is behind the moratorium movement falls short of being enough to turn the idea into law, I suspect.
Finally, how would such a conspiracy be carried out? The death penalty takes a very, very long time to administer (thanks to endless appeals by death-penalty lawyers who are often themselves part of Dear’s movement). It’s difficult to imagine how the 2003 “spike” in executions could have been engineered, at least not due to recent judicial action.
So, allow me to congratulate Stephen Dear for a well-deserved Tinfoil Hat Award. Please feel free to suggest future honorees. After all, I can’t be everywhere all the time to detect every citation of a conspiracy.
Or can I?
Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation and publisher of Carolina Journal.