Sometimes it seems like conspiracies are everywhere, that there are shadowy forms moving behind the facade of the world, and nothing is really as it seems. For most of us this would be a sign that we’re losing control of our grip on reality and sliding into paranoia. For a select few, it’s just the way they view the world.
Conspiracy believers seem to be driven by a certain amount of self-loathing and a feeling of powerlessness which drives them to look for scapegoats wherever they can to blame for taking opportunity away from them and keeping them down, rather than accepting and acknowledging their own shortcomings and trying to do something about them.
Perhaps if we try to understand them and their beliefs we can avoid falling into the same trap and becoming like them.
The Nature of Conspiracies
Much of the time what looks like a conspiracy is just an appealing idea which gets picked up on by more than one person or group with similar interests, with no collusion or organization. The shortage of Nintendo Wii agame machines is not the result of a conspiracy, just of many different people wanting them at the same time.
Not all conspiracies are necessarily malevolent. The American Revolution started as a conspiracy and the Sons of Liberty were a secret, conspiratorial organization. Yet I’m pretty pleased with how their efforts worked out. I don’t even mind the fact that they were terrorists.
Conspirators are extremely unlikely to engage in nefarious deeds which are against their own best interests. Any conspiracy theory which requires them to do so for obscure motives is almost certainly wrong. Like minded people working together to accomplish something which they think is desirable is not necessarily a conspiracy. The Democratic Party is not a conspiracy and neither is the Council on Foreign Relations. You may not agree with their goals and objectives, but they’ve got as much right to pursue them as you do to oppose them.
The more individuals a theory requires to have engaged in conscious acts of evil, the less likely it is to be real. Secret conspiracies requiring the cooperation of entire races, nations or classes of people are extremely unlikely.
To do real harm, conspiracies need to be secret. If a bunch of people band together publicly to do something in the open they are a ‘movement’, not a conspiracy. Ron Paul supporters are not a conspiracy.
When you start to try to connect together wildly different groups as part of a super-conspiracy you know you’ve gone too far. WalMart is not in league with the Peace Corps to take over the world.
Logical Fallacies Common in Conspiracy Theories
Most conspiracy theories are established based on one of several common logical fallacies, which may appear to be true to the believer, but fail certain basic tests of logic and evidence. Some of the most common are:
That one conspiracy can be proven to exist does not prove the existence of any other conspiracies, even if they are superficially similar. (Proof by Example)
Even conspiracies are innocent until proven guilty. You cannot study a possible conspiracy from the starting point that it is a conspiracy and then start looking for evidence to support that assumption. The evidence should lead you to the conspiracy, not the other way around. (Existential Fallacy)
Simple questions don’t usually require complex or farfetched answers. When you burn the roast it’s more likely to be because you left it in the oven for too long than that orbital laser platforms fired on it. (Inductive Generalization)
The fact that a belief is shared by many does not mean that it is correct. At one point 72% of the American public believed there were active WMDs in Iraq. (Argumentum ad Populum)
Just because someone famous says something is true, that doesn’t mean it is. Mel Gibson is a great movie director, but he’s not a holocaust expert. (Appeal to Authority)
You cannot prove that a conspiracy is real by proving that there is no evidence that it is not real. (Argument Ad Ignoratiam).
Just because something happened after another event or in association with another event that does not mean that one thing caused the other. UFOs began to appear at about the time that televisions became popular. That does not mean that televisions cause UFOs. (Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc).
The fact that someone or some group benefits from an event does not mean that they conspired to cause the event. Lyndon Johnson benefitted from the assassination of John F. Kennedy. That does not mean that he conspired to cause it. (Argument from Benefit).
To absolutely prove the existence of a secret conspiracy your argument for the existence of the conspiracy must be the only one supported by all the facts. To have a valid conspiracy theory your association of events with a conspiracy must be more credible based on all the facts than any other explanation for those events, including any proposed by the suspected conspirators. The Burning Man festival is not a conspiracy and neither is the Bohemian Grove. (False Dilemma)
Mistaken Identity and Wishful Thinking
That an organization holds secret meetings, has a secret membership list or is joined by invitation only does not make it a conspiracy. Country clubs and sororities are not conspiracies.
When two or more famous or influential people meet together that doesn’t mean they’re hatching a plot or launching a conspiracy. Richard Nixon met with Elvis. That doesn’t mean he hired Elvis as an undercover DEA agent and faked his death.
There really are powerful groups that have agendas and want to influence events in the world. They are almost always proud of their agenda, state it publicly and think it is a good thing, even if you disagree. The Council on Foreign Relations has an agenda, but it’s not secret and it’s got nothing to do with uniting all of North America into a single nation. Conspiracies generally don’t have websites, magazines and PR departments.
If you can buy stock in it it’s not a conspiracy, it’s a company. Halliburton is trying to make money for its shareholders, not rule the world.
The Conspiracy of the ‘Ruling Elite’
The fact that the membership of a group is made up of the rich, powerful and influential does not make it a conspiracy. The NBA is not a conspiracy.
The ruling class doesn’t need to conspire together to seize wealth and power. They already have it. They don’t want your Honda because they already have a Hummer. If there is a conspiracy to seize power look for it to come from an angry and powerless group in society.
The more people who are involved in a group and the more prominent they are, the less likely it is to be a conspiracy. Have you ever seen a politician who wouldn’t like to win votes by exposing a conspiracy and being a hero?
The ruling elite want to keep the lower classes fat and complacent. They are not going to conspire to needlessly oppress or impoverish them. They want you working hard and making money for them, with plenty of food in your belly, a big screen TV to keep you occupied so you don’t plot revolution and a 401k plan so you don’t come begging at their door and trampling their hedges when you’re old.
Real Conspiracies
Yes, there are real conspiracies. They are usually composed of very few people with a strictly defined and limited goal and they can indeed be extremely dangerous.
McVeigh and Nichols conspired to blow up the Murrow Building. The 9/11 hijackers were part of one of the largest real conspiracies, probably involving scores of people and lasting for years. Given their ambitious goals and the number of people involved it’s a near miracle that they were successful.
Once a conspiracy is widely identified as a conspiracy it rapidly loses effectiveness and will either self-destruct, go public, or direct its efforts elsewhere.
When a suspected conspiratorial group lasts long enough to develop arcane rituals and an obsession with secrecy, that’s a sign that it is engaging in mysticism to compensate for a loss of real power. The Bohemian Grove is laughable and pathetic, not threatening.
The claims of individual members and former members of a group suspected of being a conspiracy should always be taken with a grain of salt, especially when addressing the group’s origins, history and purpose. Group members love nothing more than to inflate the importance, accomplishments and mystery of the group they belong to and former members love to get sympathy for being hunted by powerful enemies.
To refer back to the section on logical fallacies, the fact that there are real conspiracies does not mean that all suspected conspiracies are real.
Know Your Conspiracy Theorists
Just as you have to look at who would benefit from a conspiracy, you ought to consider who benefits from promoting belief in conspiracies. If someone is building a carer on promoting conspiracy theories he is the first person you should look out for.
One of the first things a conspiracy does is find some other group to accuse of being involved in a conspiracy in order to distract from their own activities and give their followers an enemy to unite against. So when you hear talk of conspiracies look closely at the real motivations of the accusers.
Conspiracy theories are classic examples of the ‘big lie’ principle in practice. The more outrageous and improbable they are the more likely those inclined to believe are to believe. They could never conceive of telling such a giant whopper themselves, so they assume that the most far fetched story must be true. It’s too outrageous NOT to be true.
More and more it becomes clear that conspiracy belief originates in a perverse form of populism where demagogues like Lou Dobbs and Alex Jones paint anyone who has been successful in business or politics as a criminal elite exploiting and dominating the rest of humanity. They play to the fears of those who feel weak, powerless and uncertain and offer them the strength of irrational confirmation of their worst fears in place of reason.
Conspiracy theorists are often very free with comparisons to Hitler, Mussolini, Nazis and Fascists when applied to the actions of government and business. Yet they are blithely unaware that they are responding to exactly the same arguments which motivated Hitler’s brown shirts in very much the same way.
Conspiracy promoters are often xenophobic and target particular groups which may or may not have actual power as the source of all the problems which good people (those who are part of their self-identified group) face. Jews have been a traditional target, but Catholics and immigrants have also been and remain popular targets.
Apparently once you accept one conspiracy theory it’s easy to accept others. Many conspiracy believers seem to have their critical filters turned completely off and rather than just believing in selected conspiracy theories they accept them all as real, accepting an entire sort of altered reality.
Belief in the mystical truth of the existence a conspiracy requires no factual evidence. It is in many ways just like a religion. When challenged, unreasoning faith can become dangerous fanaticism very quickly. Because their beliefs cannot be tested by logic, conspiracy theorists become especially strenuous in their defense and often prove utterly impervious to reason.
Many conspiracy theories are easy to dismiss as harmless. Who really cares if a handful of people believe the earth is hollow and full of mole men? But even the most seemingly harmless bit of fabulism can become dangerous when believers attempt to make it the basis of actions in the real world, such as medical treatment or a political movement. When actions are being taken which impact peoples lives, welfare and liberty it is incredibly dangerous to base those actions on a theory or a suspicion rather than on empirical reality.
Even worse, perhaps, is the role which obsession with conspiracy fantasies can play in distracting from real threats. A farmer who spends all of his time worrying about alien cattle mutilators and chupacabras may overlook an outbreak of hoof and mouth disease. Medieval doctors who leapt to the conclusion that Jews were conspiring to poison wells overlooked the fleas which were actually causing the Black Death. Similarly, if we spend all of our time worrying about the grand plans of the Rockefellers and Rothschilds we are likely to overlook the more immediate threats posed by petty tyrants closer to home.
Conspiracy is the thing from which some people loves and some one didn't at all wants to face any conspiracy.Because conspiracy hits several types of topic.Conspiracy (civil), agreement between persons to break the law in the future
Conspiracy (crime), agreement between persons to break the law in the future,in some cases having committed an act to further that agreement.conspiracy (political),a plot to overthrow a government or other power.
priyan
<a href=" [link to www.widecircles.name">] Wide Circles</a>
Anonymous Coward User ID: 464050 7/22/2008 6:05 PM
"McVeigh and Nichols conspired to blow up the Murrow Building."
No, actually the OK city bombing has been blown wide open, all you have to do is watch the original news footage from that day and the cops say, quite clearly, that a bomb went off INSIDE THE BUILDING AND THAT 3 MORE WERE FOUND INSIDE, ALL BIGGER THAN THE FIRST, THAT DIDN'T GO OFF. Then they stated that the bomb squad was in there taking them out. Now the official story says nope, it was just a single truck bomb. The truck bomb was just a diversion.
McVeigh and Nichols were just fall guys.
"and neither is the Bohemian Grove" a conspiracy. Well, where the fuck do you get that from? It's not a conspiracy? How the hell can you say that with Bonacci's testimony from the early 90's describing being sexually assaulted and being forced to have sex with a corpse in front of a giant stone in the woods of northern cali? An owl who's existence became public in the year 2000, many years after Bonacci's testimony. How did Bonacci know about the Grove in the early 90's? Why do the leaders of government and big business go there to sacrifice 'effigies' to their demon god, Molech the owl?
Not a conspiracy?
I could sit here and pick apart every single thing you posted on this thread OP, but I don't have time to deal with idiotic shills today like yourself.
You clearly work for either the US government or British government, as you are a disinfo agent. Clearly.
Anonymous Coward User ID: 467023 7/22/2008 6:26 PM
if you're going to quote someone's bullshit, you should tell us who wrote it and provide a link. the least you could do is put it in quotes. perhaps this was just out and out plagiarism.
"McVeigh and Nichols conspired to blow up the Murrow Building."
No, actually the OK city bombing has been blown wide open, all you have to do is watch the original news footage from that day and the cops say, quite clearly, that a bomb went off INSIDE THE BUILDING AND THAT 3 MORE WERE FOUND INSIDE, ALL BIGGER THAN THE FIRST, THAT DIDN'T GO OFF. Then they stated that the bomb squad was in there taking them out. Now the official story says nope, it was just a single truck bomb. The truck bomb was just a diversion.
McVeigh and Nichols were just fall guys.
"and neither is the Bohemian Grove" a conspiracy. Well, where the fuck do you get that from? It's not a conspiracy? How the hell can you say that with Bonacci's testimony from the early 90's describing being sexually assaulted and being forced to have sex with a corpse in front of a giant stone in the woods of northern cali? An owl who's existence became public in the year 2000, many years after Bonacci's testimony. How did Bonacci know about the Grove in the early 90's? Why do the leaders of government and big business go there to sacrifice 'effigies' to their demon god, Molech the owl?
Not a conspiracy?
I could sit here and pick apart every single thing you posted on this thread OP, but I don't have time to deal with idiotic shills today like yourself.
You clearly work for either the US government or British government, as you are a disinfo agent. Clearly.
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 464050
The early newscast during OKC were based on false information and shoddy reporting.
Paul Bonacci was a lying child molester. There was plenty of information regarding Bohemian Grove in the early 90's. It wasn't some big secret before the internet.
Any time someone says the government is involved in crime (drug running,murder,assassination,war crimes) they are labeled a "conspiracy theorist", this label comes from government agents running cover.
"Never let us tolerate outragious conspiracy theories, about the attacks on Septembe 11 and those who commited them"-George Bush, addressing the United Nations
0:32
Then there's the Nazis who defend the government. Sig Heil G&G
Anonymous Coward User ID: 461950 7/22/2008 7:07 PM
Any time someone says the government is involved in crime (drug running,murder,assassination,war crimes) they are labeled a "conspiracy theorist", this label comes from government agents running cover.
"Never let us tolerate outragious conspiracy theories, about the attacks on Septembe 11 and those who commited them"-George Bush, addressing the United Nations
0:32
Then there's the Nazis who defend the government. Sig Heil G&G
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 471965
Is G&G a Nazi because he thinks you should be put to death for disagreeing with the gov't, as he has posted in other threads?
Or because he advocates the deaths of more Americans
in an attack on Iran?
Okay, you may be right.
I find the name Guns & God to be deceptive,
because the God I know does not advocate death. TAKE BACK AMERICA
There is some truth to it. But here is the disconnect. Lower and middle class Americans are taught to "do it yourself," raise yourself up by hard work and dedication or education. If you succeed in that rat race, then you get some consumer goodies to enjoy at home alone or with your small nuclear family. Then once or twice a year you see your aging parents or maybe siblings and what not, maybe some cousins etc if you have a big family.
The upper classes are nothing like that. They know that the way to get ahead in their world is not hard work, education, and dedication. Those help, but what you really need is connections, connections, connections. You don't pay for consumer goods. You do off the books exchange of services with your other wealthy and connected and able friends at the yacht club or behind closed doors in the board room. You work your relatives too, not just eat their Jello Surprise at Thanksgiving. They are a source of jobs and labor. Etc. And guess what, it does operate like a conspiracy. You also network like crazy across the country and around the world, not just with a few local buddies to play cards or watch the game.
It is a major culture clash. The fallacy is thinking that the upper class people of the world are just richer versions of Regular Joe Six Pack with the same thoughts, aspirations, world view, and life strategies.
But part of the fallacy is this. Joe Six Pack in one form or another has been here forever. Elites do their thing and come and go. Society can actually profit from their activities. Even Joe Six Pack. Did Joe Six Pack benefit from the American Revolution Conspiracy? You betcha, in lower taxes, cheap land, etc.
Easter Week-end: Black mass/black Sabbath. To mock the death of Jesus Christ, a man is sacrificed on Good Friday. On Easter Sunday, known to Satanist's as unholy Sunday, a woman or man is sacrificed followed by three days of fasting and chanting. 19 - 25 Sacrifice preparation: kidnapping, holding and ceremonial preparation of person for human sacrifice.
April 19 Waco
About 80 Branch Davidians died, some from gunshots and others from fire.
April 19, 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing
one hundred and sixty eight people were murdered
Put that in your pipe and smoke it!!
That's just the tip of the iceberg as they say!!
Folk's who don't believe that there are conspiracies, are the one's who do no homework!!
___________
If it expects, or demands worship, it is not divine!!
Let the truth be told... though the heavens fall!
The opposite of bravery is not cowardice but conformity.
Nothing is more dangerous, than trying to give truth to people, who are stuck in their ways...
I am not bound by the laws of original sin.. I am one of the other people..
[link to www.paganlibrary.com]
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you! "The drive of the Rockefellers and their allies is to create a one-world government..., all under their control... Do I mean conspiracy? Yes I do. I am convinced there is such a plot, international in scope, generations old in planning, and incredibly evil in intent."
Congressman Larry McDonald, 1976, killed in Korean Airlines 747 that was shot down by the Soviets
I'm just a good American telling off bad Americans.
Quoting: Guns n' God
___________
If it expects, or demands worship, it is not divine!!
Let the truth be told... though the heavens fall!
The opposite of bravery is not cowardice but conformity.
Nothing is more dangerous, than trying to give truth to people, who are stuck in their ways...
I am not bound by the laws of original sin.. I am one of the other people..
[link to www.paganlibrary.com]
As America becomes more and more corrupt there will be more people like Guns n God. He has lost his moral compass and doesn't see how evil the things he promotes are. At this point he actually believes killing other people is a good thing. Freedom to him has become evil and tyranny good. Pay no attention to his insane ramblings.
Anonymous Coward User ID: 461218 7/23/2008 2:48 PM
I'm just a good American telling off bad Americans.
Quoting: Guns n' God
You're stealing what other people have written and you aren't even bothering to give them credit and offer links to their work. Are all "good Americans" like you so dirty?
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