“Hydra” – Why Ken’s Wrong

Hydra is Ken Wheeler’s term for an imaginary, elaborate, multi-faceted conspiracy theory he propagates on his YouTube channel. Find out why it’s divisive, dangerous and dysfunctional and why YouTube should de-platform the Angry Photographer.

In the past, we’ve focused on individual conspiracy theories under Things Ken’s Wrong About. This seemed more manageable for readers because it organized topics and recurring themes the Angry Photographer endlessly repeats into manageable units.

Readers have pointed out that this approach overlooks a larger issue. So, in this edition of Things Ken’s Wrong About, we’ll zoom out to look at the interrelatedness of the Angry Photographer’s assorted conspiratorial notions and why they’re destructive to society’s social fabric.

“Conspiracy” has become a very loaded word. On its own, the word simply means that two or more people agree to commit a crime together.

Belief That World Events Result From Secret Sinister Plot

When we use the phrase “conspiracy theory” it means something much more elaborate. It refers to a belief that major world events result from a secret, sinister plot by powerful hidden parties.

The phrase comes from an essay by philosopher Karl Popper called The Conspiracy Theory of Society. He argued that there’s a pervasive idea that the best explanation for major cultural events is that powerful conspirators manipulate these incidents from behind the scenes.

He strongly opposed this point of view, thinking it was overly simplistic. He pointed out that many of the negative events that take place in our world are unintended consequences of well-intentioned political and economic decisions.

Scapegoating, Persecution, Erosion of Freedom

Popper considered conspiratorial notions harmful to society. He showed how they lead to scapegoating, persecution of targeted groups and the erosion of freedom, openness and the rule of law for everyone.

As we can see throughout this site, Ken Wheeler subscribes to quite a number of interconnected conspiracy theories. Recently, he’s taken to calling his cluster of speculative fantasy tropes “Hydra.”

In Greek mythology, the Hydra was a multi-headed water serpent that Hercules slew as one of his twelve labours. The Angry Photographer has adopted the creature as a metaphor for his imaginary global web of diabolical deception.

Anti-Globalist Conspiracy Theories Have Long History

Anti-globalist conspiracy theories have a long history. There were always “wars and rumours of wars” and suspicions around the succession of rulers in the ancient world.

The modern thorny bramble of conspiratorial thinking has most of its roots in the French Revolution. Aristocrats in other countries scapegoated fraternities like the Freemasons, the Illuminati and the Jacobins for the overthrow of their established order.

Bankers were also major targets, particularly the wealthy Rothschild family. Conspiracists linked the Rothschilds to the revolution, falsely accused them of profiteering on Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo and continue to falsely villify their descendants to this day.

Baseless Speculation About Hidden Cabal

As the industrial revolution unfolded, the emerging global economy caused these false and bizarre notions to metastasize. Capitalism, communism, mass production and modernism all fuelled baseless speculation about a hidden cabal behind all this social dislocation.

Although it’s a shape shifter, in some ways Popper’s conspiracy theory of society is a single social movement, making Kentucky Ken’s hydra analogy unintentionally apt. It may rear its ugly heads in the guises of the New World Order, the Illuminati, the banks, QAnon, flat earth, flying saucers, anti-vaccination, climate denial or countless other variants, but genetically, these fantasies are all mutations of one contagion.

The conspiracy theory of society arises from mistrust. The one consistent trait that every version of the theory shares is a profound but unfounded suspicion of official or mainstream reports of major events.

Simple and Perversely Reassuring

Purportedly, hidden actors with evil intent spread these false official narratives. The conspiracy theory of society is simple and perversely reassuring compared to the so-called “official version” of the story.

This fanatical suspicion has a twisted emotional appeal for conspiracists. It provides a sense of righteous indignation, it gives believers a sense of superiority over the “sheeple,” it conforms to familiar patterns, and it confirms existing biases.

In that sense, the broader conspiracy theory movement is a throwback to our primitive past. The unevolved, dinosaur part of our brain prefers simple patterns and scapegoats to solving complex, multifaceted problems.

Hard to Itemize All of Ken’s Conspiracy Theories

It’s hard to itemize all the conspiracy theories Ken Wheeler mashes up into his Hydra fantasy and then spreads. As this site shows, a few of the broader themes are the New World Order, flying saucers, banking, public schools, Justin Trudeau’s parentage, the Military Industrial Complex, the Deep State, Nikola Tesla’s death ray, the pandemic, Buddha’s death, water and sewer treatment, land grabs, academic peer review, climate denial, gun confiscation, artificial intelligence, CERN and the Catholic Church, among many others.

Although we’ll continue to debunk them individually as new themes occasionally emerge, it’s important to understand the parental strain of the Hydra disease as well as its variants. Since cultural cohesion is the fabric of every society, anything that unravels public trust is an existential threat to that community.

When the Angry Photographer propagates these variations on the theme of mistrust through his Hydra notions, he fuels the deep divisions that have erupted in America and western society generally. This is part of what Franklin Roosevelt meant when he said “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

Hostile Foreign Powers Exploit Conspiracy Theory of Society

Hostile foreign powers have noticed the seismic rifts emerging from the conspiracy theory of society in the US, and they’ve enthusiastically exploited those weaknesses. US intelligence agencies have proven that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.

A Russian organization called the Internet Research Agency deliberately spread conspiracy theories throughout that campaign. The Internet Research Agency belonged to Yevgheny Prigoszhin, who also happened to own the treacherous military contracting firm the Wagner Group that assisted with the illegal invasion of Ukraine until he died in an unexplained plane crash.

Similarly, China has spread conspiracy theories about the pandemic’s origins. They’ve also used Twitter and Facebook to spread false rumours about human rights defenders, Taiwan, Hong Kong and other global issues.

Concrete Evidence of Exploitation of  Conspiracy Theories

These accusations against Russia and China may sound conspiratorial in themselves, but there’s a major difference. There is concrete evidence of this foreign interference from transparent, unbiased investigations. 

If we were to claim to know why Ken Wheeler spreads his Hydra nonsense, we’d be running afoul of Karl Popper’s observation about unintended consequences. We can’t claim to know the Angry Photographer’s intentions behind concocting Hydra and we can’t speculate on any connections or motives he might have without evidence.

We do know that many individuals have been exposed for deliberately disseminating conspiracy theories for their own financial gain. These include Alex Jones of InfoWars, Ron Watkins of QAnon and Ken Wheeler’s friend Simeon Boikov of the Australian Cossacks.

Mistrust, Paranoia, Scapegoating and Cultural Division

It’s also conceivable that the Theoria Apophasis host actually believes the Hydra nonsense he purveys on his YouTube channel. The mistrust, paranoia, scapegoating and cultural division he fosters may be the unintended consequences of his naivete and amateurish blunders.

Regardless of intent, the consequences are the same. Others who have gone down this path include Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos, Paul Joseph Watson, Laura Boomer, David Icke and even former president Donald Trump. 

YouTube Should De-Platform Ken Wheeler

They’ve all been de-platformed for spreading far less virulent conspiratorial nonsense than Ken Wheeler’s Hydra bunk. YouTube’s de-platforming of Ken Wheeler is long overdue. 

We encourage readers to report all of his disinformation to YouTube as often as they can to make this happen. We’d love to see our readers put us out of business by rendering our mission obsolete.

There’s strength in numbers.

Ken’s Evidence

Seriously. How It’s Going to Go Down

Warning: What is Coming and Proof

Their Endgame and Your Compliance

The Open Society and Its Enemies