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    Conspiracy theories Archived Message

    Posted by margo on August 18, 2020, 5:34 pm, in reply to "Mick you forgot your other bed-fellows"

    There sure is a bunch of 'conspiracy' non-sense out there - as you list, Adamski. Often quite America-centric subject matter, but whatever.
    This blatant non-sense is often utilised to conflate with other subjects, the better to smear by association. The pejorative force of the 'conspiracy theorist' label comes from ad-hom attacks on others' personalities - implying their thinking is laughably irrational.
    This non-sense can also be as a strawman to hustle discussion into muddy corners, from which everyone emerges looking icky. The old 'flat-earther, nutjob, reptile' list is sometimes used to ring-fence official narratives from scrutiny.

    Leaving aside the silly guff, not all conspiracy theories are nonsense. The fact is that humans do conspire.
    Proven conspiracies/collusions started off as theories or hypotheses, before a critical mass of evidence proved the conspiracy facts:

    -- remember the conspiracy theory about sex abuse/blackmailing ring amongst celebrities and power players? Eventually became conspiracy facts, as journalists looked closely at Saville, Epstein, Guiffre and Maxwell and a conspiracy of silence that had endured for years;
    -- Guardian, for years, said ridiculous conspiracy theorists imagined a secret US grand jury had empaneled and was seeking to get Assange to America. (This was to deny that Assange had had legitimate reasons to seek and gain political asylum). The conspiracy was eventually revealed by the US jury itself, when it finally showed its hand with the 18 indictments and extradition play, etcetera....
    and the UK part in the conspiracy - stalling the Swedish investigations to keep Assange in legal limbo for years on end - was revealed when a journalist found the emails via FOIA request.
    Previous Message

    From Michael Parenti's "Dirty Truths":

    "Almost as an article of faith, some individuals believe that conspiracies are either kooky fantasies or unimportant aberrations. To be sure, wacko conspiracy theories do exist. There are people who believe that the United States has been invaded by a secret United Nations army equipped with black helicopters, or that the country is secretly controlled by Jews or gays or feminists or black nationalists or communists or extraterrestrial aliens. But it does not logically follow that all conspiracies are imaginary.

    "Conspiracy is a legitimate concept in law: the collusion of two or more people pursuing illegal means to effect some illegal or immoral end. People go to jail for committing conspiratorial acts. Conspiracies are a matter of public record, and some are of real political significance.

    "The Watergate break-in was a conspiracy, as was the Watergate cover-up, which led to Nixon’s downfall. Iran-contra was a conspiracy of immense scope, much of it still uncovered. The savings and loan scandal was described by the Justice Department as “a thousand conspiracies of fraud, theft, and bribery,” the greatest financial crime in history.

    "Often the term “conspiracy” is applied dismissively whenever one suggests that people who occupy positions of political and economic power are consciously dedicated to advancing their elite interests. Even when they openly profess their designs, there are those who deny that intent is involved.

    "Those who suffer from conspiracy phobia are fond of saying: “Do you actually think there’s a group of people sitting around in a room plotting things?” For some reason that image is assumed to be so patently absurd as to invite only disclaimers.

    "But where else would people of power get together – on park benches or carousels? Indeed, they meet in rooms: corporate boardrooms, command rooms, in choice dining rooms at the best restaurants, resorts, hotels, and estates, in the many conference rooms at the White House, the NSA, the CIA, or wherever.

    "And, yes, they consciously plot – though they call it “planning” and “strategizing” – and they do so in great secrecy, often resisting all efforts at public disclosure. No one confabulates and plans more than political and corporate elites and their hired specialists.

    "To make the world safe for those who own it, politically active elements of the owning class have created a national security state that expends billions of dollars and enlists the efforts of vast numbers of people.”

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