Do you believe any conspiracy theory at all?

however, trying to discredit critics of the status quo 'conspiracy theorists' because they don't accept the LIES of the overlords is a massive dud, as it encourages an uncritical acceptance of Bush-Blair propaganda.

Some interesting events that lend credence to conspiracy theories -

the Gladio scandal in Italy (CIA ships arms to shady Italian far-right group; shady far-right group carries out Italy's worst terrorist atrocity)

Nixon invading a south east asian country without anyone noticing

the annual Bohemian Grove get together of powerful white men (witness the secret film taken by Jon Ronson).

and others.

I wonder do Bildergurgers and Trilaterals ever have FITES over which group really rules the world?

i like the 'Moon landing never happened' conspiracy, and Roswell fascinated me for years but that was always pretty silly. all the conspiracies seem to revolve around the US and to a lesser extent the UK (well, just the UFO things like Rendlesham and Bonnybridge i guess) by and large.

There is also a similar annual or semi-annual get-together in Canada somewhere which is off limits to the media and features politicians and rich business leaders. The way I found out about it, ironically, was through the CNN website, which informed that the meeting was occuring at the time, but there was nothing to say, as usual.

Working where I do and doing what I do for the past three years has made me aware of a lot of things I wasn't really prepared for. The WMD Iraq thing was a particularly nasty surprise, but I can honestly say that I think the vast majority of the people working for the government are no different from people everywhere and there's no reason to assume automatically that we are keeping shit secret because we are actually working AGAINST the people. In fact if you look at how much most of us get paid the very idea becomes thoroughly absurd.

There is something to be said for the idea that you shouldn't trust any man of a certain age of a certain color with a certain amount of money from a certain place - this goes for all countries and all governments everywhere throughout history, though, and is not specific to western politics in the least (I realize this last paragraph is fishy).

In college I happened upon the "Secret Society" that ran things - they called themselves the 'Scarabbeans' and I think that's actually something you can Google - later I learned of other similar groups like The Machine at U of Alabama or Auburn or some such (yes they really called it that and yes they committed arson and other dirty deeds) and similar groups at nearly every other large state or private institution you'd care to name. I fully believe that these groups are where people make the connections that get them senate seats and board positions later in life, because I've seen it and I've seen the alumni with their dirty little good-ol'-boy get-togethers. It is some incestuous shit to behold.

My issue with all of this is not the sheer inefficiency of it all; I simply despise the idea that decisions are made in what is supposedly a democratic free-market society that are kept hidden from view and things are justified on grounds that have nothing to do with the real goal. Plus, I want to know where they keep all that goddamned Nazi gold.

It's amazing. There is no way to speak clearly on ILX.

Still, I collect conspiracy theories like some folks collect snowdomes or antique post cards.

Good point!

Of course, this is what I want you to believe.

I remember having heard of a study on public librairies that was showing by using a mesuring tape how books on whack shit like conspiracy theories, ufo abductions, angels, astrology, the occult etc were taking much more space than books on science and critical thinking... I thought about the kind of culture I wanted to live in and from there decided to stop consuming/diffusing info like that even as fluffy entertainment, if it can't sustain a scientific investigation.

I'm willing to listen to almost any conspiracy theory involving the CIA and coups/assassinations/etc

You should listen to people who call it history instead of conspiracy theory, search historian zinn for an example.

Who are you referring to?

Also, I think it's worth noting that I say 'conspiracy theory' without any value judgement on the terms implied. Overthrowing Allende was a conspiracy, and until the last decade, a theory.

Its true. States/Munipalities are switching to digital voting machines. The company that makes them refuses to allow anyone to see the source code for them - thereby making it impossible to figure out if they work correctly. Who owns the company? A republican congressman!

>I don't know how else I can rationally explain Israel, etc. Seems
>interesting that two key advisors to the Bush government are Israeli
>citizens.

>Who are you referring to?

I am assuming Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle. Its all perfectly true that the Israel lobby owns congress. Last week, Bush did something right for once and criticized Israel for missiling Hamas leaders. Then congress chewed him out on it, and within 24 hours Bush changed his mind.

I never believed the lone gunman theory until I read 'Cased Closed' by Posner (or Pozner?). I highly recommend it.

I try not to be too elitist about people who do believe them. I think lots of people believe in conspiracy theories because they're living in one - closed door meetings, not getting the "memo", one day someone's working in the office and the next day they're gone, etc. It keeps people from thinking about the environment they're really living in.

The signal-to-noise ratio on the events of 22 Nov. 1963 is so awful these days that it's probably impossible now to determine what exactly happened. And if anything, whether Oswald acted alone or not is really secondary to the macro-level political forces that benefited from the assassination. That's the more important topic than the stupid grassy knoll.

i think they were invented by the [insert cabal of choice] to fuck the left up

Don DeLillo to thread!

Beyonce didn't actually give birth to her baby & wore a prosthetic pregnancy belly instead.

I do not believe any.

No

For example: Oklahoma bombing, ... Fluoridated water...

I don't think there is any mysterious conspiracy behind it, but I have come to believe that flouridating the public water supply is a fairly crazy-stupid way of realizing the benefits of flouride upon tooth enamel. It has simplicity, but it makes dosing a totally wild crapshoot with some people getting x100 more than other people and it dumps tons of flouride into our rivers. ftr, fish and flouride don't get along well.

There has to be a saner way. But wait! There is one! Make dental care a public health benefit. smdh

tim mcveigh had a few accomplices, so oklahoma city was a 'conspiracy' by definition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su-ZAW4ENu4&spfreload=10

O_O

Er. What are we supposed to be seeing here?

yeah, i didn't want to say... there's a picture of what appears to be the Nuremberg disaster on the wall, but I don't see the WTC?

the painting after the Nuremberg one

Hindenburg u louts

Surely its another picture of a famous maiden voyage disaster? I can't think what though.

my best guess wd be it's the building from Towering Inferno

apparently there was a fire at WTC in 1975 but try googling that shit without wading thru the psychoweb

towering inferno would make total sense, in sticking with the freshly built design flaws etc.

interestingly The Hindenburg was made within twelve months of The Towering Inferno

Hindenburg u louts

― pro war Toby Keith songs would rub you the wrong way (imago), Thursday, 5 February 2015 12:27 (1 hour ago)

lol

The Towering Inferno had a secretary named Hindenburg, but the Hindenburg's secretary was named Nuremberg.

Maybe not the tread for this but not sure where else to put.

Was thinking about Centrism, (and tangentially about Epstein), and how centrists generally are not predisposed to conspiracy theories of any kind (leaving aside whether they are 'true' or not). Russiagate probably the biggest exception as a largely centrist fuelled story but in the main centrists seem more likely to see the world 'as is', perhaps with being 'the adults in the room'

I wonder if this will change as they've lost a good deal of primacy (in a similar way to how 'Remainiacs' became radicalized over Brexit after losing primacy in media landscape)

I firmly believe the 1999 Moscow apartment bombings (c.300 dead) were part of a false-flag operation, which led to the elevation of their man Putin as president, his surge of popularity and ultimately his consolidation of power.

Feel like a lot of people believe that.