Flat-Earthers. Young Earth creationists. Holocaust deniers. And now, WikiLeaks deniers.

Remember when kooky conspiracy theories used to be under the sole jurisdiction of poorly-designed websites with bloodstained Illuminati symbols in the background? Now you see them being peddled on mainstream news stations, spouting convoluted, contradictory messages that go all over the map, from this delusional lunatic babbling on CNN about how reading WikiLeaks is illegal, to this pants-on-head psychotic madman from MSNBC going on a manic 37-post Twitter rant about how Trump is collaborating with the Russians to deliver doctored leaks, basing his fantastical claims on nothing but his own wild imagination. “It’s the Russians! It’s the Russians!”

Hillary blames a Russian conspiracy for exposing her corruption. pic.twitter.com/Mdd8jhV7dX — RAMZPAUL (@ramzpaul) August 30, 2016

Somehow in the fevered hallucinations of these yammering bedlamites, it’s possible for the leaked documents to be (A) illegal to read, (B) completely fake, and (C) stolen by Russian hackers, all at the same time.

It’s hard to blame them for losing the plot at this point, though. I mean, the defenders of the establishment are really backed into a corner these days. Nobody’s buying their old “but Trump!” schtick anymore, it’s common knowledge that the corporate media is at the whim of the ruling elites, it’s undeniable that DNC violated their own Charter by colluding against Sanders, and the Pied Piper email confirmed that they rigged the Republican primaries as well. This has left them with no recourse but to either put on their tinfoil hats and blame the whole thing on an elaborate conspiracy by the Kremlin or to espouse the even nuttier position of attempting to cast doubt upon the unassailable integrity of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. Or admit they were wrong, but how often does that happen?

WikiLeaks has an untarnished, decade-long record of 100 percent perfect vetting of their sources, and everyone knows it. That’s why after the DNC leaks dropped, nobody bothered trying to deny anything; the DNC issued Bernie Sanders an apology, the officials involved tendered their letters of resignation, and the Democrats immediately began raving about Russian hackers to try and make everyone forget the whole thing. Assange told Mother Jones in 2010 that a full interdisciplinary panel of experts is set to the task of vetting each leak and investigating each source, and if there’s doubt, it’s thrown out. Assange has poured far too much effort, wisdom, and expertise into maintaining the integrity of his establishment for anyone to legitimately cast doubt upon it. They can try, but they’ll just sound demented.

Let's just leave this here; food for thought.. #wikileaks A photo posted by Dominick (@dinardodp) on Oct 17, 2016 at 2:41pm PDT

It’s been funny watching the talking heads on the news sweat and stammer as they realize their complicity in a coordinated assault on American democracy is gradually being exposed. Watch this unfortunate dingbat squirm as Glenn Greenwald brings up the revelation that CNN helped prep Hillary Clinton for a question on one of their debates. Guess what channel he works for?

Speaking of Greenwald, he’s written an article worth reading about another one of the screwball tactics these WikiLeaks deniers have been employing: pretending that the leaks are just normal political stuff and not newsworthy or interesting. Greenwald explains that whether or not a leak is “shocking” or “Earth-shattering” is irrelevant to its significance and importance; what matters is how it contributes to the goal of painting a picture for the public of what’s really going on in their world. I agree that this is a valid point, but I hasten to add that these revelations which WikiLeaks has been bringing to light are indeed shocking; no amount of establishment gaslighting is going to make me believe that a presidential candidate having the ability to control the media coverage of the election and manipulate both the Republican and Democratic primaries is something normal and uninteresting.

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” That’s a quote from some boring Shakespeare play, but it’s also something people say when someone’s resisting something with a frantic intensity that reveals their true intentions. When you hear all the talking heads and Correct-the-Record shills loudly trying to get you to look anywhere else but where you’re looking, the lady doth protest too much. Look there, because you may be sure it’s where the truth is.

Trust yourself, dear reader. Don’t doubt yourself just because confident-sounding people tell you to believe them in an authoritative tone. Be true to what you know is true, and never, never let them trick you into thinking you’re the crazy one when you’ve got all the facts on your side. Remember:

[Featured Image by Shutterstock]