Internet-fuelled conspiracy theories have plagued US politics over the last year and made voters on both sides of the aisle appear to be reactionary maniacs. But conspiracy theories can also be fun. And the entirely benign saga of red lights flashing in the windows of the second-floor residence of the White House is about as fun as these things get.
GIF source: Fox 35
A livestream of the White House went viral last night in certain corners of the internet when strange red lights were seen strobing in the windows for almost 17 minutes. White House spokespeople and the Secret Service offered no comment on the cause of the phenomenon, so the internet did what it does and served up some wild speculation. No one seemed to nail a really good joke about the situation, but the general strangeness of the situation was enough.
The most ubiquitous theory was that it had something to do with Russia because of the colour red. Others joked that Trump was blowing off some steam with a club night. Maybe the orb from Saudi Arabia was brought home by the administration? Dark occult rituals were certainly a possibility. There’s a movie from 1977 called Red Light in the White House, could it offer any clues? InfoWars told everyone they were being unreasonable with their nutjob reactions. And by far, my favourite hypothesis is that Trump was being treated with light therapy for his dementia.
But none of those scenarios are likely to be true. The most reasonable explanation has been that we’re simply seeing the reflection of a nearby emergency vehicle’s lights in the windows. Here’s a video of an ambulance in Washington DC. Let’s go to the GIFs for further analysis. Enhance:
White House:
Ambulance:
Yeah, different playback rates aside, it definitely appears that those emergency light patterns could line up. Thanks for the memories internet.
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