The thing that gets me is how none of these explanations make any sense in the context that we were on our own for three years. No one's doing an act for three years, especially with nobody to troll. No government is paying foreign agents to talk to each other. And like you said it's very self-centered, almost to the point of solipsism, like my opinion is so important that people are concocting these elaborate ruses to try and fool me, as opposed to the idea that... people just think differently than you? Just an utter unwillingness to consider that anyone might exist who doesn't fit neatly into one of the two mainstream American cultural boxes. Social chauvinists tbqh.