Stupidity Is the Moist Potting Soil and Warm Sunlight in Which Conspiracy Theories Grow

Jerrold, an old acquaintance, sent me this video yesterday, which made claims including these:

WHERE YOUR TAXES GO – ILLEGAL ALIENS – from the L.A. Times

95% of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens.

Over 2/3’s of all births in Los Angeles County are to illegal alien Mexicans on Medi-Cal whose births were paid for by taxpayers.

Over 300,000 illegal aliens in Los Angeles County are living in garages.

Less than 2% of illegal aliens are picking our crops but 29% are on welfare. 

Me: Hmmm. 300K illegals in LA living in garages. Whose garages? 2/3 of all births in LA are to illegal moms?  Does that seem possible? Only one in 20 murder warrants is not for an illegal alien?  Illegal aliens get welfare, even though they’re barred from it?  Can you point out where in the LA Times this was published? I would seriously like to see it.

Jerrold: It was from 2002.

Me: Doesn’t that make it even less plausible?  Btw, I was living in Los Angeles County in 2002, and I’m quite sure that neither my neighbors nor I had illegal aliens living in our garages.  We would have noticed the smell of Modelo and tamales.  You may want to fact-check this.

Jerrold: It was a hoax.  Please see this.

(end of conversation)

This is remarkable for two reasons:

1) If I had been stupid enough to send something like this, only to have it immediately (but politely) repudiated, I would have been gushing with apologies.  Jerrold saw no value there.

2) More importantly, Jerrold is a college-educated guy about my age, who’s had a nice career selling software, I believe.  Where on Earth did all this stupidity come from?

I’d be lying if I said I’m not alarmed.