Why people believe conspiracy theories

[SDuderstadt]

http://scienceblogs.com/denialism/2007/07/why_do_people_believe_in_consp.php

[noise]

1. "There is no doubt people conspire to break the law"

This is again a mistake. It's the conflation of a criminal conspiracy with a conspiracy theory. They are different. There is no doubt people conspire to break the law. The difference between the Iran Contra conspiracy and say, no-plane 9/11 conspiracies lies in the fact that there is actual real verifiable evidence of the former.

The difference between Iran Contra and 9/11 is the unwillingness of the so called mainstream media to broach the issue of corruption. So let us not pretend that the media would have exposed 9/11 related corruption if only the evidence pointed to it. The evidence did indeed point to corruption. That corruption was buried by secrecy and investigative panels unwilling to do a proper job. It is important to note that one Lee Hamilton was involved in the investigation of Iran Contra and 9/11. This is clearly a guy who doesn't believe the public has a right to know about government corruption.

[SDuderstadt]

2. "the evidence did, indeed, point to corruption"

Great. Then you should have no problem proving your claim.

[apocalypsehow]

4. I wouldn't hold my breath....

[noise]

5. It's been posted over and over

For example the Dina Corsi thread. There is the issue of Alec Station withholding information about al Qaeda terrorists from the FBI. Author Lawrence Wright wrote that this was tantamount to obstruction of justice in the USS Cole investigation.

[apocalypsehow]

6. The "Dina Corsi thread" *directly* contradicts the notion of a "conspiracy," and point squarely in

the opposite direction: bureaucratic in-fighting, turf-protection, and disorganized keystone-cop type intelligence gathering.

Some "conspiracy" that was....:eyes:

Please try again.

[SDuderstadt]

7. Please provide a cite for...

your Lawrence Wright claim.

[noise]

8. It's from his book The Looming Tower

I will find the exact quote and add it to this post.

In the meantime feel free to post the link for any Dina Corsi interview. Or any interview with Alec Station chief Richard Blee. That way we can hear in their own words why they acted as they did.

ETA:

From the hardcover version of The Looming Tower:

Because there was a preexisting indictment for bin Laden in New York, and al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi were his associates, the bureau already had the authority to follow the suspects, wiretap their apartment, intercept their communications, clone their computer, investigate their contacts--all the essential steps that might have prevented 9/11. (pg. 330-331)

Soufan wondered why money was leaving Yemen when a major operation was about to take place. Could there be another operation under way that he didn’t know about? Soufan queried the CIA, asking for information about Khallad and whether there might have been an al-Qaeda meeting in the region. The agency did not respond to his clearly stated request. The fact that the CIA withheld information about the mastermind of the Cole bombing and the meeting in Malaysia, when directly asked by the FBI, amounted to obstruction of justice in the death of seventeen American sailors. Much more tragic consequences were on the horizon. (page 329)

Then the CIA chief drew Soufan aside and handed him a manila envelope. Inside were three surveillance photos and a complete report about the Malaysia meeting-the very material Soufan had been asking for, which the CIA had denied him until now. The wall had come down. When Soufan realized that the agency and some people in the bureau had known for more than a year and a half that two of the hijackers were in the country, he ran into the bathroom and retched. (page 362)

[Octafish]

9. Thank you for posting that.

Obstruction of justice in the deaths of more than 3,000 people would make most anyone retch.

[apocalypsehow]

3. Excellent OP. The article he quotes from absolutely nails it here:

"This fits with the observation that conspiracy theories often mutate over time in light of new or contradicting evidence. So, for instance, if some new information appears to undermine a conspiracy theory, either the plot is changed to make it consistent with the new information, or the theorists question the legitimacy of the new information. Theorists often argue that those who present such information are themselves embroiled in the conspiracy."

I have seen it over and over and over and over and over and over again.

[johnnie]

10. Nothing was ever a conspiricy

1. the act of conspiring.
2. an evil, unlawful, treacherous, or surreptitious plan formulated in secret by two or more persons; plot.
3. a combination of persons for a secret, unlawful, or evil purpose: He joined the conspiracy to overthrow the government.
4. Law . an agreement by two or more persons to commit a crime, fraud, or other wrongful act.
5. any concurrence in action; combination in bringing about a given result.

Even 9-11 was carried out by one person.

[SDuderstadt]

11. No one is claiming there is no such thing as...

a conspiracy.

[Kalun D]

12. Because

so many of them have, in the long run, proven to be true

[SDuderstadt]

13. Really?

What percentage do you think that might be?

[TatonkaJames]

14. In my opinion it is because...

we can look back at our imperialistic nature and see what countries we attempted to control
by placing leaders of OUR choice in them. When there's an uprising, like the Iranian hostage
crisis, we blame the Iranian people, but we don't think about the Iranians who were tortured
or killed under the Shah who we placed there. Then we're told lies about why it happened.

We can see it today in Iraq and Afghanistan. We put two of the biggest criminals in charge of
those countries. We hand them billions of dollars to fix electricity and they use it for personal
use.

If we were an non-interfering nation we probably wouldn't have many conspiracies to talk about.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[Stanchetalarooni]

17. Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean there isn't a grand conspiracy.

“Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.” Woodrow Wilson