All Plots Move Deathward
A train derailment; a satirical film; the conspiracy theories spawned therefrom
I’ve been watching the information coming out about the Ohio train derailment with interest. Some dire warnings and conspiracy theories have been advanced, and I’ve spent quite a bit of time researching the claims, as any self-respecting conspiracy theorist would do.
At the basis of my consideration is the fact that the fallout from this chemical explosion will likely have drastic and negative impacts on the region’s agriculture. The Ohio River Valley is a major food-producing region, and having the soil and water full of vinyl chloride can’t be good for future crop output. Since the Powers that Shouldn’t Be have told us with their own mouths that they intend to all but halt traditional farming practices in favor of urban vertical farming, insects, and lab-grown meat, I’m automatically sympathetic to any claims that they might have done something to hasten their agenda.
Here’s what I learned.
A meme that’s been circulating:
Most of the conspiracy claims I’ve seen align with what’s in this image, so I started by researching these claims.
Let’s go through the claims one by one.
White Noise
I watched White Noise to see what all the noise was about.
It’s an interesting film featuring a regional chemical explosion caused by a train derailment. This is not the whole basis of the movie’s plot, but it was a weird coincidence. Also, this movie was not filmed in East Lebanon, as some people are claiming. It was filmed in Ohio, but at locations on the other side of the state from where the train derailment occurred.
Although the movie’s plot is as loose as a mumu on a broomstick, I did appreciate its thematic explorations around the old human condition—which the film puts down to a simple case of Fear of Death. It also nicely satirizes academia, news media, and groupthink, and it delivers a number of delicious lines of dialogue, such as:
All plots move deathward.
and:
I’m tentatively scheduled to die. It won’t happen tomorrow or the next day, but it’s in the works.
and:
Everything is fine and will continue to be fine, as long as the supermarket doesn’t slip.
White Noise is based on an absurdist satire novel of the same name by Tom DeLillo. The book was written in the 80s and the original story had the train derailment in it, as well as the “airborne toxic event” caused by the chemical spill from the train. It was optioned for film in the early 2000s, and production began in 2016. The film premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in August, 2022 and was shown in select theaters before being released on Netflix in December of 2022.
It’s a suspicious coincidence, but if this movie was made for predictive programming, it certainly would be a case of “truth is stranger than fiction.” I do not think the movie has any direct association to the real-life chemical explosion.
That doesn’t mean it’s definitely not indirectly related. The closest I can come to a conspiracy on this bit of evidence is that perhaps someone at the top levels of the authoritarian death cult saw the film, was struck with a lightning bolt of inspiration, and decided to do a re-enactment for funsies.
That’s not outside the realm of possibility, and, in fact, such things have happened before, like when the atomic bomb was invented by a physicist obsessed with a fantastical instance of the device in an H.G. Wells novel. But suffice it to say that the timeline of this story’s existence and the film’s production is just too long for it to have been planned in advance for the purpose of predictive programming.
There is one rather eery line in the film that feels a bit on the nose. It’s the one thing in all my research on this topic that gave me pause, made me think…maybe there’s more here than what’s on the surface? Ultimately, I decided it was too far-fetched considering the timelines, but I’ll let you be the judge. Here’s the line:
Why do we think these things happened before? Simple. They did happen before. In our minds, as visions of the future.
So far, it seems what we have here is not a conspiracy. It’s just one and a half coincidences in a plume of smoke. On to the next claim.
MyID
In 2022, the East Lebanon Fire Department partnered with a health data company called MyID to provide services to the community. Residents were encouraged to sign up for the program.
This is not a “digital tracker” or any kind of device related to breathing problems. It’s simply a QR code that is printed on a wallet card or bracelet that will easily direct paramedics to your medical history in the case of an emergency. (More info here.)
This clearly has nothing to do with anything. It seems like the conspiracy theorist behind this meme just started googling “East Lebanon Ohio” and deemed whatever random hits that came up to be clues in a vast conspiracy. It reminds me of Q-Anon “research,” and I wouldn’t be surprised if it came from intelligence agencies as part of their disinformation campaigns to keep people confused and distracted.
But what about that funny business with the EPA? That’s got to be the smoking gun, right?
EPA Changes Toxicity of Vinyl Chloride?
It was hard to figure out exactly what this statement was referring to, but after poking around the internet for a couple of hours, I found two possible sources. The problem is that neither of them holds up to the claim in any way.
The EPA issued some suggested changes to its regulations on vinyl chloride factory emissions in 2020. This change applies only to industrial facilities and has nothing to do with chemical spills during transport. This change occurred in 2021, not 2023 as the meme suggests. But the real kicker is that the allowable emissions were actually reduced from previous standards. So, no connection there.
Where are they getting this, then? What the meme may be referring to is a rumor spread by an article that appeared on several alternative news (and non-news sites) referring to a a “change” in the CDC’s—not the EPA—toxicology profile for vinyl chloride.
In fact, there was no change. A revised version of the toxicology profile was created in January and is open for comment from the scientific community until May 2023. This is a standard practice. As new research comes out about toxic substances, their profiles are updated after a period of public comment.
In this particular case, the revisions do not alter the permissible levels of vinyl chloride that a person can safely be exposed to; they include updated information about the health effects of exposure, based on research that has come out since the last revision in 2006.
Here’s the only thing in the document that could possibly be what the meme is referring to, but—spoiler alert—the meme draws a stupidly wrong conclusion.
What this figure indicates is not any alteration of the standard for safe exposure levels to vinyl chloride, but what health effects have been observed in humans and/or animals at each exposure level. So the meme not only has the wrong 3-letter agency, but the author is confused about how to read a graph.
So that’s about it for the “inconvenient timeline” referenced in the meme. As far as I’m concerned, two out of three of the data points do not line up at all, and the third (the film) is on shaky ground.
If there’s a conspiracy here, the evidence hasn’t been found yet.
Two conspiracy theories I absolutely, wholeheartedly subscribe to:
Democide is a thing. Governments kill their own people, conspire to kill their own people, have been caught many times conspiring to kill their own people, and suffer no pangs of remorse about it. These facts lead me to treat any claims of government involvement in tragedies and catastrophes such as the Ohio train derailment with serious consideration and open-mindedness. However, there has to be overwhelming evidence. There have been plenty of events that have met this bar (ahem, Covid). I’m still open to further and better proof, but as far as I can see at the moment, the train derailment is not one of them.
We live in a petri dish of disinformation schemes concocted by intelligence agencies and other major political interests for various nefarious purposes. Some of these are official narratives wrapped around blatant lies, and others are conspiracy theories. These carefully-crafted conspiracy theories are promulgated through shadowy sources on the internet and airwaves to hoodwink the rightfully distrustful fringe thinkers into saying crazy things. The more crazy things we say, the more we can be painted as fools and enemies of society. It’s in the Powers’ best interest to influence conspiracy theories in the direction of Crazy Town.
Here’s how this works:
A big news story comes out where, according to official sources, a tragedy has occurred and people have been injured or killed.
Here comes the army of internet researchers, to google every single person and place name involved in the story to see what they can come up with to tie it all up into a conspiracy theory.
These researchers take whatever facts they can find about those people and places and try to bend them to fit a conspiracy narrative. Even if it doesn’t fit. Especially if it doesn’t fit.
Viral articles are produced, memes are made, and rumors get repeated over and over again by millions of people who haven’t bothered to look into the claims.
My thing is, I don’t think all of these internet researchers are basement dwelling nutjobs. I think some of them are agents of the Powers that Shouldn’t Be. So think twice and research all claims!
My prayers go out to the people affected by the chemical spill. Regardless of whose fault this is, it’s a major tragedy. This is going to detrimentally affect the health of the people living in the region for a long time, not to mention the wildlife and agriculture.
It’s a good time, also, to remember that a tragedy like this—whether planned by the government or just a big accident—could happen to any of us at any time. It makes you grateful for what you have, and reminds you of the impermanence of everything. That line of dialogue in White Noise wasn’t wrong. All plots move deathward. All lives move deathward. Let’s enjoy it while it lasts.
Thank you for reading!
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-Starr
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Thanks for this article. There is so much real evil going on, brought to us by those who rule over us, I tend to believe any story that ascribes more evil to them without doing the due diligence you advise and practice. Grateful for the call out as it reminds me to not be taken advantage of and to slow my roll.