The People Who Create Conspiracy Theories - Your Opinion?

[Mr Prime]

We live in an age of moral relativism where 'old school' rules are now ignored so apparently everyone is equal. A professional degree awarded journalist is now given equal status to bloggers like Guido Fawkes who is one 'anonymous' peddler of opinion. As such people give their thinking time to those who don't really deserve to be taken seriously. More importantly there is much money to be made from theories, particularly in a nation with a strong paranoid streak like the USA. How many times have revised editions of 'Loose Change' appeared? Each one making more money. No buyers question whether the fact it keeps getting revised means it's amateurish rubbish.

 

When I see people on here saying 7/7 and other events since are government creations to control us I am both amused and alarmed that people can be that paranoid.

[Longcol]

I think that conspiracy theories stem from a desire to feel like the world is ordered and controlled. I know you didn't want to go into specific conspiracy theories but I can't think how I could explain exactly what I mean without an example, so here goes:

 

Take 9/11. It is a very scary idea that a small group of people with relatively little funding and numbers were able to pull this off, and it demonstrates that the world is chaotic, and that no matter how well you can plan for the worse, horrible things can always happen to you. So instead they choose to believe that the powers that be (in this case, the US government) orchestrated the whole thing, and in fact everything is controlled, unpredictable horrible things don't really happen and the world is a slightly less scary place.

 

I think a similar desire for the world to be ordered and controlled not scary and chaotic also lies at the base of religion, and I'm sure many will agree that a committed conspiracy theorist behaves very similarly to a religious fundamentalist in when debating.

 

Agree - and naturally all the mainstream media are part of the conspiracy - despite loads of evidence to the contrary eg BBC exposing the Iraq WMD dossier as being "sexed up".

[Mr Prime]

Agree - and naturally all the mainstream media are part of the conspiracy - despite loads of evidence to the contrary eg BBC exposing the Iraq WMD dossier as being "sexed up".

 

Yes, an inverted snobbery prevails where some 'suit' like Paxman or Michael White can't be trusted but some faceless wally who models himself on 'V for Vendetta' sat in his attic is like totally cool man.

[Joe9T]

I think conspiracy theories arise out of questionable or debatable situations or occurances where the establishment in particular refuses on being forthwith with showing ALL the evidence and the truth to quell any doubts.

[emmysdad]

You are right about the many conspiracy theories surrounding events such as JFK, 911 7/7, the gulf of tonkin, bay of pigs, the military industrial complex, reistag, USS liberty, operation northwoods.. the list goes on and on.

Governments have in the past used false flag events to further their own agenda or the agenda of a lobbying group which has the power to make kings.

Is it a coincidence that a year before 911 a neo-conservative think tank contaning many of the future staff of the bush administration and relatives of the man himself, laid out plans to conquer the middle east but conceded that getting the public support would be difficult to quote, "absent some catalising and catastrophic event like a new pearl harbour". This a year before 911. Is there any wonder there are theories about the event?

All those who scream "troll" or post tinfoil hat comments are frightened that their cosy world has been exposed as a scam and as a concequence fight to keep order.

[Mr Prime]

You are right about the many conspiracy theories surrounding events such as JFK, 911 7/7, the gulf of tonkin, bay of pigs, the military industrial complex, reistag, USS liberty, operation northwoods.. the list goes on and on.

Governments have in the past used false flag events to further their own agenda or the agenda of a lobbying group which has the power to make kings.

Is it a coincidence that a year before 911 a neo-conservative think tank contaning many of the future staff of the bush administration and relatives of the man himself, laid out plans to conquer the middle east but conceded that getting the public support would be difficult to quote, "absent some catalising and catastrophic event like a new pearl harbour". This a year before 911. Is there any wonder there are theories about the event?

All those who scream "troll" or post tinfoil hat comments are frightened that their cosy world has been exposed as a scam and as a concequence fight to keep order.

 

Your agenda's are becoming boringly clear. Bush did not blow up the twin towers, end of. Anyone who believes they did has serious problems and should see a counsellor. Al Quaeda delivered Bush a propaganda gift. In the absence of 911 they would have had to rely on their corporate media friends to manufacture consent. Just the kind of people straining to take over the BBC's job as the centre of information in this country and whom you seemingly have a conspiracy against too. "Yeah it's government brainwashing man...pass the spliff".

[Tony]

Governments have in the past used false flag events to further their own agenda or the agenda of a lobbying group which has the power to make kings.

Citaton please.

Is it a coincidence that a year before 911 a neo-conservative think tank contaning many of the future staff of the bush administration and relatives of the man himself, laid out plans to conquer the middle east but conceded that getting the public support would be difficult to quote, "absent some catalising and catastrophic event like a new pearl harbour".

Citation please.

[purdyamos]

I think a similar desire for the world to be ordered and controlled not scary and chaotic also lies at the base of religion, and I'm sure many will agree that a committed conspiracy theorist behaves very similarly to a religious fundamentalist in when debating.

 

 

A point I've made many a time.

 

And it's fascinating in a way, because we get to watch the whole process of mythologising and the twisting of contemporary accounts & facts into incredible new 'truths' from the new religion's birth, so to speak. Quite a privilege!

[Smithster]

I started a thread a year or so ago about this very subject, and I've just dug out my opening post....

 

Put yourself in a hypothetical situation here - bear with me...

 

Imagine you are the head of a huge organisation, let's just say for arguments sake you are the president of a large and powerful country. You do something, to further your own political agenda, and this something involves you carrying out something that your voters will never, ever accept. This act may be to murder one of your opponents or somebody that is willing to testify against you in a lawsuit. It might be that you set up something which you can blame on your enemies as a precursor for going to war, and the only way you can gain the support of your electorate is to carry out some horrific act which you can blame on someone else, or allow someone else to carry it out for you but refuse to prevent it.

 

Now, you know that some people will question your official account of what happened, or will pick holes in the sham 'investigation' that you carried out in order to satisfy the public demand for justice or closure. In an ideal world, what would be the best possible defence against these people? How would you stop them from gaining any public credibility?

 

The answer? You simply label them a 'conspiracy theorist'.

 

The world has engineered a situation where the mere mention of the term 'conspiracy theorist' conjures up an image of spotty, overweight, middle-aged, internet nerds who spend 18 hours a day sat behind their computers thinking up new alternative theories to historical events; images of stressed out, paranoid individuals who dare not even go out in public in case they are followed and mysteriously disappear. Society dictates that these people are to be ridiculed for even daring to believe that what they are spoon-fed by the media and the government may not be all it seems.

 

I have noticed frequently on this forum that there are many people who so readily label others as conspiracy theorist nutters, and that because they have certain beliefs about one particular subject, they must therefore believe that the world is actually just a computer program and is controlled by super-intelligent mice from another dimension, or something along those lines.

 

My question is this: Why is it socially unacceptable to question the things which shape our society? In my view it is the people that blindly accept everything at face value that should be ridiculed and socially outcast - not the other way around.

[Joe9T]

Smithster....well said mate!