On "conspiracy theories"

[chookie]

The smirkistas have been using this one a lot against anyone who dares speak against His Chimperial Majesty.

I think one of Mr Rove's strategies to hold onto the White House this year will be to have his trained monkey just stand there and smile when his Democratic opponent confronts him with this record -- because the facts themselves are insane, they are hoping that stupid Americans are going to think the Democrat is making this stuff up.

Here are some excerpts from an interesting look at this new use of "conspiracy theory" called Paranoid Shift." Highly recommended reading.
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/011004Hasty/011004hasty.html

"In his book, "Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower," William Blum warns of how the media will make anything that smacks of "conspiracy theory" an immediate "object of ridicule." This prevents the media from ever having to investigate the many strange interconnections among the ruling class—for example, the relationship between the boards of directors of media giants, and the energy, banking and defense industries. These unmentionable topics are usually treated with what Blum calls "the media's most effective tool—silence." But in case somebody's asking questions, all you have to do is say, "conspiracy theory," and any allegation instantly becomes too frivolous to merit serious attention.

On the other hand, since my paranoid shift, whenever I hear the words "conspiracy theory" (which seems more often, lately) it usually means someone is getting too close to the truth.

-snip-
Why is it so hard to believe serious people who have repeatedly warned us that powerful ruling elites are out to dominate "the masses?" Did we think Dwight Eisenhower was exaggerating when he warned of the extreme "danger" to democracy of "the military industrial complex?" Was Barry Goldwater just being a quaint old-fashioned John Bircher when he said that the Trilateral Commission was "David Rockefeller's latest scheme to take over the world, by taking over the government of the United States?" Were Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt or Joseph Kennedy just being class traitors when they talked about a small group of wealthy elites who operate as a hidden government behind the government? Especially after he died so mysteriously, why shouldn't we believe the late CIA Director William Colby, who bragged about how the CIA "owns everyone of any major significance in the major media?"
-snip-
A second major reason people won't make the paranoid shift is that they are too fundamentally decent. They can't believe that the elected leaders of our country, the people they've been taught through 12 years of public school to admire and trust, are capable of sending young American soldiers to their deaths and slaughtering tens of thousands of innocent civilians, just to satisfy their greed—especially when they're so rich in the first place. Besides, America is good, and the media are liberal and overly critical.
-snip-
Perhaps the biggest hidden reason people don't make the paranoid shift is that knowledge brings responsibility. If we acknowledge that an inner circle of ruling elites controls the world's most powerful military and intelligence system; controls the international banking system; controls the most effective and far-reaching propaganda network in history; controls all three branches of government in the world's only superpower; and controls the technology that counts the people's votes, we might be then forced to conclude that we don't live in a particularly democratic system. And then voting and making contributions and trying to stay informed wouldn't be enough. Because then the duty of citizenship would go beyond serving as a loyal opposition, to serving as a "loyal resistance"—like the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, except that in this case the resistance to fascism would be on the side of the national ideals, rather than the government; and a violent insurgency would not only play into the empire's hands, it would be doomed from the start."

[Blue_Chill]

1. I say talk about all the tin hat stuff you want

but unless you provide solid evidence to back your conspiracy theories up, don't be surprised if people write you off as nothing more then another conspiracy nut.

[frylock]

4. solid evidence.

where is the solid evidence that UBL or al-Quada are responsible for 911? Oh yeah.. the government and media said it, so it must be so. :eyes:

[Blue_Chill]

5. have you seen his tapes?

He may not have planned it, but his grinning face and kind words tell me he's involved. Regardless of how deep his involvement is, his support for terrorism is well documented. I'll be very happy when I see footage of his capture or death on TV.

[frylock]

9. i've seen the tapes..

I can't figure out which one I despise most; fat Osama, or thin Usama. I'm sure those tapes are legit though, and would hold up as evidence of his involvement in any court in the world.

[worldgonekrazy]

10. Do you remember Osama said he didn't do it?

He said he was glad that it happened, but he wasn't involved in it.

Isn't that interesting? Al-Qaeda is always quick to take credit for their..."achievements", because then they can recruit more people and raise more money from radicals.

So why didn't he take the credit on 9/11? I suppose it is possible that he knew the U.S. would come after him in full force (oh wait, we didn't), but I think it is because HE WASN'T INVOLVED.

[worldgonekrazy]

11. Do you remember Osama said he didn't do it?

He said he was glad that it happened, but he wasn't involved in it.

Isn't that interesting? Al-Qaeda is always quick to take credit for their..."achievements", because then they can recruit more people and raise more money from radicals.

So why didn't he take the credit on 9/11? I suppose it is possible that he knew the U.S. would come after him in full force (oh wait, we didn't), but I think it is because HE WASN'T INVOLVED.

[djensen]

2. "getting too close to the truth"

:tinfoilhat:

[frylock]

3. excellent commentary. thanks for posting.

[TolstoyAndy]

6. There's plenty of evidence

Plenty of evidence for everything he cites in this piece.
That's what's scary: it's all over but no one cares.

This is one of the best short summaries of the NWO shadow gov that I've seen.

[JohnyCanuck]

7. Another commentary on the same topic

From The Specatator

Believing in conspiracy theories is rather like having been to a grammar school: both are rather socially awkward to admit. Although I once sat next to a sister-in-law of the Duke of Norfolk who agreed that you can’t believe everything you read in the newspapers, conspiracy theories are generally considered a rather repellent form of intellectual low-life, and their theorists rightfully the object of scorn and snobbery. Writing in the Daily Mail last week, the columnist Melanie Phillips even attacked conspiracy theories as the consequence of a special pathology, of the collapse in religious belief, and of a ‘descent into the irrational’. The implication is that those who oppose ‘the West’, or who think that governments are secretive and dishonest, might need psychiatric treatment.

<snip>

In fact, it is the other way round. British and American foreign policy is itself based on a series of highly improbable conspiracy theories, the biggest of which is that an evil Saudi millionaire genius in a cave in the Hindu Kush controls a secret worldwide network of ‘tens of thousands of terrorists’ ‘in more than 60 countries’ (George Bush). News reports frequently tell us that terrorist organisations, such as those which have attacked Bali or Istanbul, have ‘links’ to al-Qa’eda, but we never learn quite what those ‘links’ are. According to two terrorism experts in California, Adam Dolnik and Kimberly McCloud, this is because they do not exist. ‘In the quest to define the enemy, the US and its allies have helped to blow al-Qa’eda out of proportion,’ they write. They argue that the name ‘al-Qa’eda’ was invented in the West to designate what is, in reality, a highly disparate collection of otherwise independent groups with no central command structure and not even a logo. They claim that some terrorist organisations say they are affiliated to bin Laden simply to gain kudos and name-recognition for their entirely local grievances.

<snip>

It is also odd that opponents of conspiracy theories often allow that conspiracies have occurred in the past, but refuse to contemplate their existence in the present. For some reason, you are bordering on the bonkers if you wonder about the truth behind events like 9/11, when it is established as fact that in 1962 the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Lyman L. Lemnitzer, tried to convince President Kennedy to authorise an attack on John Glenn’s rocket, or on a US navy vessel, to provide a pretext for invading Cuba. Two years later, a similar strategy was deployed in the faked Gulf of Tonkin incident, when US engagement in Vietnam was justified in the light of the false allegation that the North Vietnamese had launched an unprovoked attack on a US destroyer. Are such tactics confined to history? Paul O’Neill, George Bush’s former Treasury Secretary, has just revealed that the White House decided to get rid of Saddam eight months before 9/11.

Indeed, one ought to speak of a ‘conspir- acy of silence’ about the role of secret services in politics. This is especially true of the events in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. It is the height of irresponsibility to discuss the post-communist transition without extensive reference to the role of the spooks, yet our media stick doggedly to the myth that their role is irrelevant. During the overthrow of the Georgian president, Eduard Shevardnadze, on 22 November 2003, the world’s news outlets peddled a wonderful fairy-tale about a spontaneous uprising — ‘the revolution of roses’, CNN shlockily dubbed it — even though all the key actors have subsequently bragged that they were covertly funded and organised by the US.


I believe in conspiracies

[Gato Moteado]

8. WOW!

the only thing i can think of that he missed was the bush connection to the hinckleys.

great article! thanks for posting!