A better explanation by John C. Street 

While I enjoy a good conspiracy theory as much as the next person, day in and day out I am incapable of maintaining the elevated level of paranoia required to be a true believer. Conspiracy theories are my hobby, not my profession; they’re fun, not essential. 

And, too, most of the conspiracy theories afoot nowadays are nearly as cast in concrete as some other canards of conventional wisdom so, as a proclaimed and practicing “Inquisitive Contrarian,” it’s just part of my nature to steer clear of the Kool-Aid bowl. Simply stated, I believe Napoleon Bonaparte was right when he advised, “Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence.”  

Once upon a time, for example, I had a friend who, in both word and deed, was attempting to assure himself a seat on the bench of what I have euphemistically referred to as the “Green Team.” He wasn’t ready for varsity competition but he wanted people to believe he was. 

Of course, in the early days of this friendship the mental maladies afflicting members of this “Team” weren’t so readily apparent to me and I wrote off his eccentricities as a function of his advanced academic status. In short, aside from his tendency to be parsimonious, he was … well, let me be charitable and say … an interesting friend. 

As time went by, however, it became apparent to me that, although he prided himself on being a “Sportsman,” he had precious few of the skills that moniker entails. He didn’t know, for instance, how to field dress a deer nor how to tie the proper knots to secure a fish hook to a piece of monofilament.  

And, left to his own devices, he hadn’t enough skill (or, apparently, common sense) to backtrack himself - in a fresh snow - to get out of the woods after a deer drive. I know these things because I actually did them for him a few times, including going to fetch him, nearly an hour after darkness fell, only to find him exactly where I had put him, “waiting for the drivers to pick me up.” 

These shortcomings aside, it took a decidedly unpleasant experience with him for me to finally recognize his malady. Without boring you with too many details, I attended a meeting one night during which this friend publicly eviscerated me for daring to question the dogma regarding a “consensus” in the scientific world regarding anthropogenic global warming. Having debunked that little tidbit of conventional wisdom many times, I was prepared to offer a response. I was not prepared, however, for the vitriolic, condescending manner in which this evisceration was delivered. 

“Here is a person who wants to be perceived as one of the ‘Green Teams’ best and brightest,” I thought to myself on the drive home that evening, “and he chose to use volume and vitriol rather than civility and common sense to make his argument. If he’s at all representative of the membership of some conspiratorial cabal that’s attempting to instill a ‘new world order’ through the exigency of caring for Mother Earth, that cabal is in deep doo-doo.”  

As unpleasant as this experience was, I look back on it now with gratitude; it helped me accept the fact that “Green Teamers” aren’t engaged in a malicious conspiracy, they are simply bereft of enough common sense to understand the depth of – and, consequently, the damage caused by – their incompetence. 

Lately, though, I’ve been trying to resurrect my hobbyist approach to conspiracy theories in an attempt to understand the objectives of the people who created and implemented the “Biodiversity Project”, the project that most of us know simply as the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Deer Management Plan. But I must confess, the evidence for a “conspiracy” is mighty thin. 

I’ve met several of the architects of the “Biodiversity Project” and have read the written words of all of them and, frankly, they remind me of nothing so much as my “Green Team” wannabe friend; academically well papered perhaps but mentally challenged in the common sense department. It’s hard to reach any other conclusion in light of the ill-flavored Kool-Aid they’re expecting deer hunters – and, by causal consequence, the economy of Pennsylvania – to continue swallowing. 

“Climategate” pulled back the Wizard of Oz’s curtain and exposed, not a bunch of conspiratorial Einsteins, but a group of charlatans who, in the words of one of their own, admitted that their primary goal was not the pursuit of honest climate science but rather to “save the world from capitalism.” (See, “Hasta la vista, global warming believers” at www.climatedepot.com)     

Likewise, “Deergate” has blown away the acrid smoke that has obscured the pseudoscience of “Biodiversity” and revealed - again, not the imagined conspiratorial Einsteins but - yet another bunch of charlatans more interested in commandeering the economic affairs of their fellow citizens than adhering to the basic tenets of science. (See “Deer mismanagement at www.acslpa.org)  

Some people may look at the “Deergate” documents and theorize that they are proof positive of some “malicious” conspiracy. 

But I, based on Mr. Bonaparte’s advice and my personal experience, think it can best be explained as unmitigated “incompetence.”