There is a general rising concern across the nation about the vulnerability of different aspects of our infrastructure. The supply chain, the power grid, and even the food supply are under close observation, especially with recent events dragging these soft targets to the headlines. Is there some grand conspiracy to cripple the country and create not only a food shortage but snarl the supply chain and send us back to the dark ages?

Let’s start with supply chain disruptions and the transportation of chemicals and other dangerous materials. At this point, the American people are fairly familiar with supply chain issues. During the pandemic, it became par for the course to not be able to purchase half the things on the grocery list. Vast sections of empty store shelves became a normal sight. Our railway and trucking have gotten back on track, though the recent chemical spills caused by trucks overturning and the horrible train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, should be prompting not only a look at the safety and maintenance needs of these essential supply chain connectors but also the threat their vulnerability poses to the American people.

Is the East Palestine imbroglio a bid to force the people into a 15-minute city and take their land from them and let it be an unpeopled nature preserve? That’s one theory. It doesn’t help counter such theories that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed the information on vinyl chloride just 11 days before the toxic burn-off. Frankly, since COVID, trust in the federal government is at an all-time low, especially with things that were touted as conspiracy theories, such as the Wuhan lab leak theory, proving to be likely true.

Then there are the food supply concerns — from skyrocketing egg prices to the many rumors of fowl being destroyed due to fires at plants to an outbreak of avian flu. There have been enough of these to cause alarm. However, it seems that maybe this is a case of a perfect storm of accident and illness. Compound the egg prices with the baby formula recall and the baby formula shortage, and it does give one pause. Could these fires and recalls be part of some animal rights activist plot? Probably not.

Then there are the anonymous attacks on power substations throughout the U.S. These are particularly soft targets because all it takes to knock one off the grid is a bad guy with the right gun. According to The New York Times, sniper shootings taking out substations has been a strategy since 2013. The media also blame the subsequent attacks on far-right white supremacist groups while ignoring the similar actions of far-left ecoterrorists whose goals are the same — the collapse of society.

Frankly, all of these incidents regarding the transportation of chemicals, the food supply, the power grid, and the series of unfortunate incidents that seem to be plaguing our nation might be frequency illusion, also known as the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon. However, it couldn’t hurt to take steps to harden these essential workings of our economy and infrastructure.