Conspiracy theories require ONE condition to even exist.

[Stinky The Clown]

An absence of the truth made apparant by an absence of credibility from the puported truthteller.

This gives no endorsement to any conspiracy theory.

[lvx35]

1. explain?

So who is the "truthteller" in all this? I'm confused.

[greyl]

4. bushco is the "purported" truthteller. nt

[lvx35]

5. Oh okay, I see what you mean.

So since Bush:

1) hides/stonewalls the evidence on something (9/11)
2) gives a set of facts which are known now to be false (dimishing credibility)

You basically get an information vacuum where the conspiracy theory has validity, mostly due the lack of credible contradictory evidence.

Makes total sense.

[Stinky The Clown]

6. The entire post is generic and relates to no specific conspiracy theory

No matter the conspiracy theory ...... mihop/lihop ....... lone gunman ..... pick one .....

If the public had faith in the official story (proffered by the 'truth teller') there would be no widely considered conspiracy theory.

The Warren Report was (and for some, continues to be) mistrusted by many.

The 9/11 Commission Report is mistrusted by many. Some think so because the commission itself was made to be limited in scope. Some think so because the commssion was seen as not being independent.

This thread is not to discuss any particular conspiracy theory. It is an indictment of a system that does investigations with certain paths of evidence closed to the investigators.

[lvx35]

9. yeah...

so a conspiracy theory gains validity in an evironent where contradicting evidence is either clearly tainted, or lacking. Correct?

[Stinky The Clown]

11. A conspricay theory thrives and grows in an environment of mistrust

When no one trusts the official story, then conspiracy theories are able to thrive.

[lvx35]

13. Yeah, which is really fascinating.

I've been studying Artificial Intelligence this quarter, and its fun to try and think about how people think....but here I think your totally right: The human mind will generall pick the best explanation that goes uncontradicted, and conspiracy theories tend to take that role when the government BS gets high.

[Lerkfish]

2. ? not sure I get your point.

[greyl]

3. That's silly.

Hitler was a bit of a conspiracy theorist in his own right.
Who were the "purported truthtellers" that he didn't trust?

[lvx35]

7. hehe. I guess those would be the ACTUAL truthtellers...

namely, the people saying there was NOT a vast jewish conpiracy to enslave the white race (or whatever) :D

[Stinky The Clown]

8. I'm not sure what you're saying he was a conspiracy theorist about?

If, just as an example, you mean his claim that Jews and gypsies and gays were responsible for every evil, that's not a conspiracy theory. It is hatred.

Again, I'm not sure what you mean.

[lvx35]

10. Hitler studied from the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.

Which is regarded to be the the granddaddy of a lot of modern "illuminati control the world" conspiracy theories. It is a supposedly "leaked" document by jews planing world domination. Henry Ford was also very motivated by the same text:

http://www.radioislam.org/ford/index.htm

[Stinky The Clown]

12. Okayfine

I guess I'm silly

[lvx35]

14. 'Insightful' is the word I would use...

...But then again there is that clown face in the sig line....;)

[IChing]

16. Just a bunch of silly people

"Whenever you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth".

George Bernard Shaw:
"New opinions often appear first as jokes and fancies, then as blasphemies and treason, then as questions open to discussion, and finally as established truths."

George Orwell:
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."

Ralph Waldo Emerson:
"Reform is affirmative, conservatism negative; conservatism goes for comfort, reform for truth."


"The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists." - J. Edgar Hoover

"The world is governed by people far different from those imagined by the public." - Benjamin Disraeli, Victorian-era Prime Minister of Britain

Just a bunch of silly people

[greyl]

17. No, you aren't silly.

The post was. ;)
It just needs to list more than one condition, and to not claim that the one already listed qualifies as necessary and sufficient condition for a conspiracy theory to exist.

[Greyhound]

15. True. Most folks can smell the whitewash (or is it the bullshit) and

in light of that, will come up with what they perceive to be more(?) plausible theories. Sadly, though there have been and are many sinister conspiracies, they are frequently ignored by the very people that would benefit most from understanding that they do, in fact, exist.