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Friday, October 20, 2017

The Thinking Housewife's Conspiracism: Exploring The Falsehood

Image result for pax on both houses conspiracy"


Alex  Jones'  Mis-Infowars:  7  Bat-Sh*t  Conspiracy T heories

Dear Laura, 


Recognizing that both of us cannot be right (at least not in our diametrically opposed views of Sandy Hook and Las Vegas), I am adding this preface.

Notably, criteria for "wrongness" (or "rightness") often distill to which investigator uses intellectual rigor, painstaking epistemological method, self-criticism and "evidence" most carefully. (Nor does it hurt to be free of absolutist belief systems.)

Although the following link refers only to photographic and videographic evidence, your interpretation of photographs and "how people look and react emotionally" seems much too eager to "cut yourself whatever slack you need" to morph many pieces of purported "evidence" into the evidence you need to support your position. 

For Twenty Years I've Argued "The Obvious": Seeing Is No Longer Believing


Although it is a sidelight, it does not enhance your epistemological/evidentiary "case" that you won't even watch "Who Killed Sister Cathy" because, as I suppose (and please correct me if I'm wrong), you believe that clergy formed prior to Vatian II could not be complicit in murder, or "anyone" who would produce a documentary that questions the integrity of Catholicism, is, ipso facto, a biased source hell-bent on slagging The Church. 

I will return to these points later, but for now I want  to ensure that our examination of evidence begins with a discussion of what constitutes credible evidence.

"Evidence" does not emerge from harboring a personal conviction that people "should" laugh or cry in accordance with your own inclinations to laugh and cry. When people are under duress, stretched on an emotional "rack," and called upon for media interviews and other public appearances, only God knows how they'll respond. (There is also the matter of Homeland Security being clever enough to orchestrate "crisis acting hoaxes"at regular intervals but not being able to hire actors who stick to the script.)


The following text was written weeks before the introduction above:

 Alan: Everyone "on the left" knows that the "Las Vegas Strip Shooting" -- like firearm carnage in the past (and future) -- reinforces public support for The Second Amendment.

 As soon as "news" of the Las Vegas slaughter hit the airwaves, a collective groan rose from The Left: "Here we go again! More guns. More stashed ammo. More American idiots prostrating themselves before their real savior, Wayne LaPierre."

It makes immeasurably more sense to speculate that Trump orchestrated the Las Vegas shooting to boost flagging gun sales than to suggest that these supposedly "crisis acting hoaxes" are geared to undermine The Second Amendment.

 Every mass murder strengthens The Second Amendment.

 Every mass murder results in the purchase of more guns and more ammo.


For contextualization, here is an excerpt from your blog:

October 4, 2017
GEORGE WEINBAUM writes:
This is the most absurd mass shooting story ever. If Stephen Paddock killed 59 and wounded 527, that’s 586 “hits.” If he was firing a weapon “full auto” he would be very lucky to get a “hit” for every five rounds fired. More likely one hit in 20 rounds fired. Using five, I get 2,930 rounds fired. Supposedly, 223 and 308 rounds were fired. For simplicity sake, let’s assume they were all 223 rounds fired from 30-round magazines, I find Paddock had to change magazines 97 times. All this in 10 minutes? He changed magazines 9.7 times per minute? Could an Army Ranger or Green Beret do that?
How many magazines did the Las Vegas (LV) police find in the hotel room? Remember, the magazines had to have been loaded BEFORE the shooting began. How many spent shell casings did the LV police find?
This story is unbelievable.
         We await a new “Warren Commission” investigation of this incident.
Laura writes:
It strikes me as deliberately implausible. Message: “We don’t care if you know.” These con artists are laughing. It’s black magic to them. They are casting spells.
But it is no more implausible than the Sandy Hook shootings, in which no parents complained that their mortally wounded children were not taken to the hospital or demanded to see their bodies. It was entirely staged and no children were killed.
No commission could handle all the fake shootings. But it won’t happen anyway. An occupied government does not hold commissions about its wrongdoings. The whole idea is absurd.
— Comments —
Call Me Jorge writes:
Thought you might find this of interest:
The shooting began at Las Vegas massacre earlier the publicly understood.
Look for gun muzzle flash not on the 32nd floor (18 sec – 19 sec & 26 sec – 35 sec).
From Zero Hedge:
“Look at this. You look at the weapon obtaining the different amounts of tannerite available, do you think this was all accomplished on his own, face value?” “You got to make the assumption he had to have help at some point, and we want to insure that’s the answer. Maybe he’s a super guy, super hero–not a hero, super–I won’t use the word. Maybe he’s super — that was working out this out on his own, but it will be hard for me to believe that.” “Here’s the reason why, put one and one–two and two together, another residence in Reno with firearms, okay, electronics and everything else associated with larger amounts of ammo, a place in Mesquite, we know he had a girlfriend. Do you think this is all self-facing individual without talking to somebody, it was sequestered amongst himself. Come on focus folks these type of investigations have been occurring in the last few years and we have to investigate that.”
– Clark County Sheriff Lombardo –
Deliberately Unbelievable?
You betcha ya.
Laura writes:
Thanks.
I am still inclined to believe no one was killed.
Here is a clearly staged photo of a victim (Immodesty Warning!!!). Deliberately pornographic, just like the movies. Why are there no medical personnel tending to this woman? Obviously some time has elapsed as most people have fled, plenty of time for many, many emergency workers to be there and obviously there is no danger of further shooting because people are standing around. Why are so many people just standing around? You telling me, no one in that crowd is a nurse or EMT or someone competent in First Aid who could help this woman? And who, pray tell, is cool and calm enough to take this professional-looking photo? Huh? Who is callous enough to work on this photo instead of helping this woman? I mean, everyone knows that at the very least you apply pressure to bleeding wounds. Besides, it is extremely unlikely that someone in real life would hug a person who has been gravely wounded in that way. You could actually kill someone doing that. Also, for the record, emergency workers take someone who may be dead to the hospital. They do not just leave a mortally wounded person on the ground to be mauled in pornographic poses by her sick boyfriend. They cannot always tell if someone can be resuscitated. And, um, where is the blood? Do you know the average human body contains 5 liters of blood? Very messy.
Positively reeks of staging by filthy, small, reptilian minds.

Alan: The following question is rhetorical: Have you ever spoken with a pre-Vatican II confessor about you eagerness to slag the parents of Sandy Hook children? Or about your unshakeable conviction that the Las Vegas Strip shooting was staged by "filthy, small, reptilian minds?"

 A speculation...

If you had opportunity to discuss Sandy Hook or Las Vegas with any pre-Vatican II "Doctor of the Church" -- Thomas Aquinas, Catherine of Siena, Augustine, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nanzianzus, Hildegard of Bingen, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Francis de Sales -- are you unshakeably confident that even one of them would approve your denigrating treatment of people who might, in fact, be bereaved? Actually aggrieved.

 Since traditional moral theology counsels Catholics to "err on the side of caution," are you confident that any of "the doctors" -- or any pre-Vatican II-trained confessor -- would approve your presumption of parental collusion and consequent eagerness to vilify the "putative" parents?
Aquinas, Trump, Truth... And "Alternative Truth"

 I am a latitudinarian fellow but I do not see a believable justification for your attacks on families that might -- just might -- be bereaved. 
Often, Stinginess And Cruelty Are Christianity's Paradoxical Effects

If you made your "best case" to every Doctor of the Church, I think all their eyes would still pop. 

 Of course, there is no reason why you "should" believe Doctors Of The Church. 

 None of them are imbued with infallibility.

 That said, I think it more likely that the papal declaration of infallibillity was itself a "conspiratorial" attempt among Vatican careerists to restore waning belief in "church authority" which throughout the 19th century was being eroded by ever more dependable miracles wrought by Science and Technology. 

 For every miraculous cure worked by a "saintly intercessor" or a "revered relic," there are now millions, if not billions of (predictable) miracles daily, all of them wrought through The Certainty Of Science. (Over half of Americans 45 or older rely on daily prescription medication.)

The great Cambridge scholar (and devout Catholic) Lord Acton (most famous for his "dictum" - http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/09/power-tends-to-corrupt-and-absolute.html) also argued that pending ratification of "Infallibility" at the First Vatican Council would be a terrible heresy, certain to corrupt the church "from the top down." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dalberg-Acton,_1st_Baron_Acton#Religion_and_writings

 What if he was right and contemporary corruption in The Catholic Church did not begin with Vatican II but with Vatican I?
Jesus Was A Jewish Fabrication To Colonize The Religious Psyche Of Goyim | made w/ Imgflip meme maker
To my knowledge, the above meme is not true.

However, in the absence of incontrovertible evidence that Jesus ever existed, the hypothesis that Jesus was created as a clever "colonization device" first occurred to me a dozen years ago. 

Except for the 27 books of the New Testament, 25 of which were written by practicing Jews, there is only one collateral historical reference to Yeshua's existence: the Romano-Jewish historian Josephus (writing after the Temple's destruction in 71 A.D.) who mentioned 'hearsay accounts" of the crucifixion. (Josephus also referred to James "The Just" as Jesus' "brother.") https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus_on_Jesus

Just because something is "possible" (or even"plausible") does not justify representing "possibility" and "plausibility" as Truth.

Almost always, representing "speculation as truth" relies on 1.) inconclusive evidence, 2.) the denial of evidence contrary to one's own thesis, and 3.) a milieu of innuendo... all of which are more damaging to the individual psyche and The Body Politic, than brazen, in-your-face mendacity that can be easily disproved. (Or perhaps I should say that this sort of egregious mendacity used to be "easily disprovable" until American conservatives canonized "fake news," "alternative facts" and bone-deep denial. )

Innuendo, "confirmation bias" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias - and the accumulation of evidence that is favorable to conspiracy-thinking (while routinely ignoring or glossing evidence that contradicts conspiracy) is emotionally satisfying and - not surprisingly - creates a "community of true believers" which, in turn, generates additional emotional satisfaction and confirmation bias. 

Did you ever watch "Who Killed Sister Cathy?" Or did your ideological blinders oblige you to slag it "sight unseen"? 

And if you slagged it sight unseen, what does that say about your epistemological method and your willingness to examine evidence without an intervening ideological lens. 

Yes, I know you believe The Church - at least as you validate The Church - is "absolutely right."

And consequently, your dismissive treatment of (supposedly) "heretical evidence" is not only mandated but blessed.
Image result for simone weil quotes

Notably, this intricate process of contemporary epistemological degradation does not even result in consensus among conspiracists themselves. 

 Consider.

The endlessly ramifying assertions concerning any particular conspiracy remind me of The Book Of Revelation which every "conservative" "Christian" is absolutely certain s/he interprets correctly... when a mere glance at 2000 years of "apocalyptic" exegesis reveals a sprawling swamp of "self-certain" views, most of which contradict one another. 

Paradoxially (and "the profoundest truths are paradoxical") the most confusing book in the entire Bible is the Book of Revelation, yet every Tom, Dick and Henrietta KNOWS exactly what it means. " https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Revelation#Interpretations

In my experience, conspiracists are unusually prone to see their own personal view as "so close to God's Truth" that there is no need to "quibble" over equally self-certain views of other conspiracists, views that often diverge from one another as radically as alternate universes.

Whatever conspiratorial evidence does exists, does not - in fairness to Truth - justify self-certainty about conspiratorial conclusions. Ni mucho menos...

The other day I heard an NPR interview with a woman who was dedicated to "a good cause."

When asked where her strength lay, she said, "I need to believe that my convictions are true."

The key word here is "need." 

Personal "need" can just as easily contradict Truth as coincide with it.

Still, there is no question that "faith can move mountains" just as there is no question that 18 year old Adolf Hitler (a cradle Catholic) was homeless in Vienna and that the ardor of his beliefs transformed him from a homeless n'er-do-well to a leader who came within a hair's breadth of conquering Britain, and, had that happened, the rest of Europe... and quite likely Russia (as gateway to The Orient). 



 All value systems distill to belief.

But we ignore "the need" to believe.

We ignore the psycho-spiritual self-protection (a subset of "survival instinct" and, in the case of Christians, "salvation assurance") which forces us to believe those premises that comprise the cornerstone of our individual credo. 

To be clear about my own core beliefs... "I believe that love, manifesting as compassionate service to other human beings whether they deserve to be loved or not, is the essence of all good."

Make no mistake. 

The inevitable interaction between personal belief and "knowledge" comes down to epistemology and whether we have the intellectual rigor (and the intellectual courage) to probe epistemology honestly; to suspend our comfortable (or at least comforting) certainties; to question our presumptions and suppositions; to admit that the actual nature of God is mysterious and quite likely unknowable; in a word, to realize we might be wrong.

Tryanny's Best Kept Secret: It's ALL About Epistemology
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2016/12/tyrannys-best-kept-secret-its-all-about.html


As mentioned in my previous email: I am friends with many physicians and registered nurses across the United States and Canada. 

And not one of them -- NOT ONE! -- would put up with "crisis acting hoax." 

They would "spill the beans" faster than you can say "Save us St. Philomena!"

It is parsecs beyond preposterous that hospitals which supposedly treated "the wounded and dying" in Las Vegas would "play along" with the kind of intricately orchestrated hoax you repeatedly allege.

I know these people. 

And I know how they would react if called upon to "sign off" on massive hoax.

They would say - with gusto - "No F___ing Way José!"

Consider these inter-related issues:

1.) Motive.

The supposed  motive behind "firearm carnage hoax" is to sour Americans on Second Amendment Freedoms. In fact, firearm carnage has the opposite effect. Support for unfettered Second Amendment Rights SOARS after EVERY mass murder. 

Note well: Lack of plausible motive is a hundredfold more meaningful than any of the minutiae on which you predicate your conspiracies -- e.g., people do not smile or cry on (your) cue and therefore they must be participating in a hoax. (Whoa Nelly!)

People in grief and under duress do many unexpected, unpredictable things. 

Unpredictability is a frequent outcome of psychological torment. 

Consider "Stockholm Syndrome." (To me it is clear that many traditional and traditionalist Catholics are prey to an analogous phenomenon which I call "Vatican Syndrome.")

The Patriarch Abraham And Trans-Millennial Stockholm Syndrome


Kidnapped By A Narcissist: The GOP's Stockholm Syndrome

As for the lack of gory photos... 

If you were present at the site of an unfolding mass murder, I do not envision you lingering to take photos. I see you running away as fast as you can and as far as you can. 

Yet you have no hesitation assuming that others will do what your own reflexes prevent you from doing. 

You "project" when convenient. 

And you don't "project" when inconvenient.


Image result for burning the candle at both ends
Best Pax Posts On Psychological Projection And "The Shadow"

2.) People "spill the beans." As my friend Byron says: "A secret can be kept by no more than two people and even then secrecy is greatly enhanced if at least one of them is dead." If we count all the folks present at the mass murder "hoaxes" you allege, there are at least "thousands" of people who must be "in" on the secret. Yet none of them - not one - has ever, not even on their deathbed, "spilled the beans." (Then there's the matter of "screening" people to participate in a theatrical hoax. Some people would declare themselves ready to participate and "keep their mouthes shut" just so they can "spill the beans." 

 I would. 

 In a heartbeat. 

 I suspect you would too - maybe faster than I. 

 Americans are such cantankerous people that I think there would be more "candidates" for "crisis acting" who would get involved specifically to "spill the beans" than for any other motivation, or perhaps even when all other motivations are taken in the aggregate.  

Two New Surgical Residents Talk About The Carnage They Dealth With In The Wake Of The Las Vegas Shooting

A Doctor's Guide For Hospitals After Mass Shootings: Dr. Camilla Sasson Knows From Experience

InfoWars "Take" On The Vegas Strip Shooting
(Alan: The InfoWars video linked below is beyond embarrassing - its purported "evidence" laughable. In this "exposé," Alt-Right journalist Laura Loomer would have us believe that her exclusively-acquired "internal memo" from MGM CEO Jim Murren informs MGM employees, including employees at The Mandalay Hotel in Las Vegas, that he will match their donations to a "known terrorist organization." WTF?!?)

Then, we have this Snopes probe of the "crisis actor" who, supposedly, keeps showing up at scenes of carnage on both sides of the Atlantic.

HOGG NEVER ADMITTED HIS FATHER WAS RETIRED FBI | made w/ Imgflip meme maker

"Crisis Actors Uncovered?"

Social media rumors claim the same girl, a "crisis actor," was seen crying at tragedies in Boston, Aurora, Oregon, Sandy Hook, and Manchester.

Snopes

***
Alan: Before reading Michael Moore's comments on gory photographs, google the key words "head blown off" and ask yourself whether authorities would not conceal photos of Sandy Hook victims and persuade parents not to view their children's bodies. 

Interview with Michael Moore, Morning Edition 10-9-2017

Moore: I just want to tell you this, because I unfortunately had to view photos like this of other shootings. And when that kind of bullet from that kind of gun is used at close range, I don’t know how to put into words how to describe how horrific it looks. Probably the best way to describe it is what a couple of the parents said after the shooting, which is, the only way they could identify the bodies of the children is by the clothes that they dressed them in that morning. So think about that. And the sick nature of the killer, [Adam] Lanza. It appears that he killed each of them with the first bullet, because he was very close. But he pumped up to 11 bullets in each of their bodies. That’s according to the coroner’s report. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/michael-moore-sandy-hook-no-562002

Image result for trevor noah fake news

Trevor Noah Calls Out Facebook, Google For Spreading Fake News About Las Vegas Massacre

The ‘Daily Show’ host is fed up by social-media sites’ lack of accountability when it comes to spreading ‘fake news.’


Ah! Those Homeland Security Crisis Actors... At It Again! | made w/ Imgflip meme maker
Alan: Within hours of ANY firearm massacre, the internet is crawling with detailed descriptions of "warning signs" that show how the "supposed carnage" was actually attrributable to Homeland Security theatrics.
Notably, it is impossible for these deranged conspiracists to believe that mass gun carnage even might be real.

"What If Government Actively Promotes Conspiracy-Thinking To Sideline Political Activists?" | What If Government Actively Promotes Conspiracy-Thinking To Sideline Political Activists, Thus Preventing Them From Accomplishing "The Good" | image tagged in conspiracy thinking,activism,wheel-spinning,futility | made w/ Imgflip meme maker

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The Christian Doctrine Of Damnation... 
And The Destruction Of Christ-Spirit

"My Gripe With Christianity"

Prelude as Postlude

"It's The Other Guy!" I Am White, Christian And Blameless | made w/ Imgflip meme maker

There is no notable instance of a vast conspiracy imbued with epochal importance whose purported "revelation" has been incorporated into the warp and weft of sociopolitical normalcy.

Never.

The largest "revealed conspiracy" I have found (that is now admitted by historians) is the systematic rip-off of oil-rich Osage Indians by white Christians.

Largely Forgotten Osage Murders Reveal A Conspiracy Against Wealthy Native Americans
(Yes, "White Man Speak With Forked Tongue.")

In my view, the failure of any purportedly "vast conspiracy" to gain mainstream traction is because The Core Conspiracy -- from the very onset of civilizataion -- The Conspiracy from which all others (real or perceived) manifest as secondary and tertiary derivatives, is Plutocracy's Seizure Of Resource And The Pervasive Manipulation Of The Masses To Ratify That Seizure. 

To those who live on the top-side of the one-way mirrored-glass ceiling that hides them and protects them, Trump's presidency is a plutocratic orgasm, a sigh of collective relief that the dimwits have been bamboozled once and for all.

The 1% has finally persuaded "the silent majority" to elect -- and now to continually applaud -- the morally putrescent billionaire in The Oval Office, a man who has spent his life ripping off The Working Class and The Middle Class while taking advantage of illegal immigrants, including his current wife.

Married Couple Say Trump Defrauded Them Of $36,000.00 But Will Vote For Him Anyway

Image result for pax on both houses, trump university cartoon still voting for him


To dwell on 9/11, or Sandy Hook, or FDR's (supposed) "false flagging" -- or any other purported conspiracy -- is to remove oneself from the only real fight, the only real conspiracy: i.e., "Big Money's Determination To Take It All," and in the process of that ongoing insult to The Common Good, to relegate increasingly unnecessary workers to the iron jaws of Social Darwinism, leaving them adrift in The Heartlessness Of Cowboy Capitalism where as many as possible will "die young" after living obligatorily brutish lives during which they will kill, according to deadly plutocratic orchestration, as many of one another as possible.

 Image result for pax on both houses, the 1

Plutocracy: Same As It Ever Was. (What's Different Now Is That The Secret Is No Longer Kept)

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