Turtles all the way down

After a week of protests calling for the state to be “reopened,” Kentucky reported on Sunday its highest single-day increase in coronavirus infections. And an Ohio resident who pronounced his state’s stay-at-home order “bullshit” has died of the coronavirus.

The paranoid style in American politics is never at a loss for explanations: another layer of theorizing can always be added to support a rickety conspiracy theory. It’s turtles, or theories, all the way down.

So it’s easy to imagine what the paranoid style — the really, really paranoid style — might make of these deaths: government operatives mingling in the crowds sprayed a chemical on protesters to sicken them and further brainwash the citizenry into believing that the coronavirus is real; government operatives targeted the Ohio resident for speaking out. Or, if you prefer something more outré — the infected protestors and Ohio resident are really “crisis actors,” who serve to further brainwash, &c.

And it’s all in preparation for martial law, coming soon. And it’s turtles all the way down.