Reality often departs us and the results are never good.
The first time I had heard the expression, “Occam’s Razor” was in the laboratory of Jeremy Knowles at Harvard. There was an outcome of an experiment that could be explained by different theories as to what happened. Jeremy invoked Occam’s Razor, which states that the simplest explanation is often the correct one. Today, we live in the age of Occam’s Bazooka, where the most ridiculous idea is the one peddled and most likely to be accepted.
The tragic murder of Charlie Kirk set off a relatively brief manhunt. Video and other evidence suggested that someone from an unguarded rooftop perch fired at the young father, killing him. The accused gunman was arrested near the venue in which the assassination took place. The rifle was found. He told his furry friend that he was the one who killed Kirk. And while the case must make its way through the courts, there seems to be a good deal of evidence tying Tyler Robinson to the crime.
I do not follow Candace Owens, but there are millions that do. She has the top rated unpromoted podcast on the web. While I don’t follow, I see a lot of commentary from people who listen to her. From what I understand, she has put forward several theories relating to the murder of Charlie Kirk. She has suggested that the Mossad was involved, or it was TPUSA insiders—including some who eulogized the young man—or alternatively, it involved the Macrons, with whom Owens has some legal proceedings. There have been Egyptian military planes and I saw that she claimed that Robinson was not on campus the day of the murder. Robinson seems like a pretty simple guy, one who was very competent with the rifle they found in his possession. Maybe he really is some kind of Secret Agent Man, with a short-wave radio in the basement and knowledge of seven forms of self-defense. Or, maybe he did it because of Kirk’s strong anti-trans position. Maybe he is the tip of some international plot or maybe he just picked up the gun and did the horrific deed alone.
The Washington Post tried to make a big deal about American forces apparently killing survivors of a first strike on a narcotics boat attack. One can find dozens of videos of Israel taking out Hezbollah members, sometimes with multiple rockets or bombs—for the simple reason that the first one did not get the job done. There was a top World War II submarine captain who fired on Japanese in the water. He was cleared of wrongdoing. Because the press and the left hate Donald Trump, they don’t accept the simple explanation but rather have to invent some pyramid of innuendo until it all comes crashing down. “Hegseth murdered people!” “Trump is losing a step!” “They’re hiding his MRI!” “Trump is giving illegal military orders!” It all fails eventually, but not before it does public damage and advance the Democrats’ cause to take back power. They always start with the end—hurt Trump and get us back in power—and then go forward and invent a turbid and implausible story to arrive where they wanted to be.
Occam’s Bazooka can be benign or perversely entertaining. At other times, it can be dangerous. Steve Witkoff met with Vladimir Putin this week, and the latter intoned that Russia is ready to go to war with Europe. Why would he say so? Because the Europeans have been making noises that their citizens should get ready to go to war and that their people stand to die on the battlefield fighting Russia. While there are different theories of why Putin attacked Ukraine, the simplest explanation is that he wanted to keep Ukraine out of NATO. He may also have wanted to give a little payback for the US using a color revolution to eject a leader who was pro-Moscow. There is little to suggest that Putin is looking to conquer other countries or even has the manpower and means to try. The Europeans immediately escalated a local skirmish with fairly clear goals—adding Ukrainian border regions to Russia—into a potential European conflict that will involve French and British forces going toe-to-toe with Ivan. Such talk can be dangerous, as we see that Putin is warning Witkoff that they are ready to fight the Europeans. Drop the bazooka and go back to the razor: the issues are quite local and right now Russia is in no position to fight a broader war.
In the past, truth was valued like gold. And no, the simplest explanation is not always the correct one. The sequence of events that brought down the Concorde—debris on the runway, too much fuel and weight, a cut tire, a piece of the tire hitting under a fuel tank, a shock wave with nowhere to go, etc.--are quite complex but appear to be correct. The problem we have today is that many people have no interest in getting to “the truth”. The case against Kirk’s killer should focus on proving that the accused actually killed Kirk and to find out if he had any partners in the crime. Unfortunately, there are people who have alternative goals and have dressed them on the whole story of Charlie Kirk’s murder. Scoring points, boosting ratings, getting even, showing supposed prowess—all of these features are added to the singular task of determining who killed Charlie Kirk and how the murder unfolded. The latter point could relate to failures in security and/or learning for future events.
Occam’s Bazooka is often the reason we have the problems we have today:
- In the past, it was obvious that a country was for its citizens’ benefit. Now through left globalist sophistry, citizens come in last.
- In the past, every dunderhead knew that boys were boys and girls were girls. Now, we have hyper-accredited doctors, teachers, and “experts” telling us that really the story is much more complex and that there are 230 “genders”.
- In the past, a version of the flu would have been allowed to pass through the population and become part of the annual viral background. Now we have our medical experts injecting us with chemicals that nobody can say for certain what they do. They invented rules like six foot separation and masks that had no usefulness but grew their power.
- In the past, people ate natural or lightly processed foods and were thin. Today, we eat foods that go through Ph.D. levels of processing and modification, and we all look like escaped beach balls.
While the simplest explanation is not always the right one, we live in an age where people make things intentionally complex and opaque for their own personal advancement. It could be money, political power, fame, recognition, settling a score—often what is said has nothing to do with “doing the right thing” but rather advancing one person at the expense of another. When one day Tucker Carlson interviews Tommy Robinson and the next day says that he does not know him and that he is a fraud, what is the agenda behind Occam’s Bazooka? Why couldn’t he say that they met in the past and he doesn’t agree with him? Why did he have to invent a fake story of not knowing him and of him being wrong versus the Pakistanis in England, many of whom where involved in terrible acts against white girls by the tens of thousands.
Today, truth is even more valuable than gold. There are places where one can buy a small piece of gold via a vending machine. The truth is often hidden, lost, contorted or held hostage. We have endless information in our palms, and it is harder than ever to know what’s right.
