Ongoing Conversation With A Conspiracist Friend

Dear A,

Thanks for your email.

Although I thought much of what I relayed in my recent message -- concerning evidence and motive -- also applied to many of the concerns in your recent letter, I will soon comment on that letter. 

An aside... 

I was struck - even flabbergasted - by your comment, "I will reply to your comments which I think are worth discussion (except for the motive stuff)." 

What?!? "Except for the motive stuff?!?"

Although Chris Hedges, like all of us, has flaws, I think he and I are correct in prioritizing what we "know" about the essential toxicity of Cowboy Capitalism and that we rightly refrain from indulging the distraction of conspiracy-thinking, in large part because such thinking has never resulted in a "revelation" that "changed the world," and -- even if conspiratorial fact-finding were to demonstrate some "epochal concealment" -- an overwhelming majority of "consumer units" would not give a shit. (A recent poll showed that a majority of Americans would not care if Trump nuked North Korea. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/08/would-america-care-if-trump-nuked-north.html )

In effect, fixated focus on the elaboration of conspiracy theories has the hallmarks of "academic exercise," excercises that appeal to people who enjoy "solving mysteries" and "righting wrongs," but, in the end, conspiracism is still an exercise that is intrinsically incapable of "the revelatory transformation" that "true believers" expect of "the masses."

You can prove EVERY conspiracy to the satisfaction of God Himself, and der volk won't care.

Der volk want to be lied to.

In the absence of Falsehood, their identity dissolves - a fate worse than death.

Pax on both houses: Is Ortega Y Gasset The Most Important Modern ...

paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/03/is-ortega-y-gasset-most-important.html

Mar 12, 2017 - Alan: I must mention a singularly important book by 20th century Spanish philosopher, Jose Ortega y Gasset, "The Revolt Of The Masses." ...

Jose Ortega Y Gasset's "Rebellion Of The Masses" - Pax on both houses

paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/04/jose-ortega-y-gassets-rebellion-of.html

Apr 10, 2017 - Image result for pax on both houses trump makes shit up people cheer ... 20th century, Jose Ortega y Gassett's "The Rebellion of The Masses.".

Under the sway of Cowboy Capitalism, citizens have been transformed into Pavlovian "consumer units" for whom ego-centered pleasure-seeking has displaced "The Common Good," "The General Welfare"  and the very idea that there should be a "Social Contract." 

These meta-level issues are central... not the secondary-and-tertiary "data, facts and information" that can be marshalled around "particular cases" - as important as those cases may be. 

If first principles are askew, everything goes to shit. 

The Common Good.

The General Welfare.

A Social Contract.

The fundamental "transaction" in Cowboy Capitalism is that "the makers" produce goods (including a disproportionate number of goods that are destructive of individual integrity), while at the other end of the transaction, erstwhile citizens "consume" these goods, almost all of which immerse them in one-or-another of The Seven Deadly Sins. 

The inevitable outcome of consumerism is as happy as looking for love in a brothel.

The ubiquity of consumer units -- all of them carefully crafted by Cowboy Capitalism -- recalls Ivan Illich's observation that "price has replaced value" and so, the ever-expanding purchase-of-personal-satisfaction drives people ever deeper into their "pleasure domes" where they "let rot" all the "participatory behaviors" that build Social Capital without which all is lost.

It would not be surprising if you react negatively to my phrase "the indulgence and distraction of conspiracy thinking."

But please set that aside -- just take it out of the equation -- and instead focus my larger, categorically-"other" observation that The Problem (at least politically and economically) is plutocratic destruction of society's fabric propelled by the consumer-seductions of Cowboy Capitalism. 

Against this backdrop, I am convinced -- by the evidence -- that political energy and political effort are much better spent building convivial institutions in our local communities while doing everything in our power to undermine plutocratic structures. 

As I see it, the default inclination whenever this two-pronged plan of action is absent, is "spiritual" linkage with conspiracist Donald Trump and addlepate Alex Jones whom I consider an inimitably vile man even if his broken clock is right twice a day. 

And finally, as the maraschino cherry atop this dessert, we find Trump, Jones et al reinforced by right-wing anti-Semites whose ranks are grossly over-represented in conspiratorial circles. 

I encourage you to poke around "The Thinking Housewife's" blog to see how a very smart, well-educated woman is simultaneously enthralled by conspiracism and anti-Semitism because these two phenomena tend to be intrinsically linked. 

I realize that your ready response may be to say "I don't believe that." 

But I do believe "that." And I find it exceedingly ugly: these Siamese twins represent clear and present danger for holocaustal destructiveness and generalized obliteration of open society in favor of tribalized factionalism. (Back at University of Toronto, McLuhan predicted re-tribalization, and although many thought a return to our "tribal roots" would be "just what the doctor ordered," McLuhan himself saw it fraught with danger.)

"The Thinking Housewife's" blog is located at http://www.thinkinghousewife.com/wp/ 

I will add that "Housewife" is often insightful -- not infrequently very insightful -- when, for example, she discusses the centrality of family in any sane society. 

But it is also true that "good Christians," like "good Germans," are very often fine, upstanding burghers in the narrow confines of family, church and neighborhood, but once they leave "the parish" (which is to say their "parochialism") they often make ALL the wrong choices.

Paz contigo

Alan 

Compendium Of Pax Posts: Persuading A Loved One That His Conspiracism Is Mostly Crazy
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/08/compendium-of-pax-posts-trying-to.html

My Friends' Devoted Conspiracism Is As Crazy As Trump's Birtherism. What To Do With Lunacy?
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/07/my-friends-devoted-conspiracism-is-as.html

Harvey/Irma Hurricane Conspiracy Reveals The Idiocy Of Most Conspiracism
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/09/harvey-and-irma-hurricane-conspiracy.html

Ongoing Correspondence With A Conspiracist Friend Re: The "Staged" Slaughter At Sandy Hook
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/09/ongoing-correspondence-with.html

"More On The Newtown Massacre": Professor David Ray Griffin And The Swamp Of Conspiracism
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/08/more-on-newtown-massacre-professor.html

"Who Killed Sister Cathy?" Tom Nugent

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/08/who-killed-sister-cathy-tom-nugent.html

How Rochester, New York Detective Fantigrossi "Leaned On Me" To Identify The Wrong Man
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/08/how-rochester-new-york-detective.html

The Thinking Housewife's Conspiracism: Exploring The Falsehood

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-thinking-housewifes-conspiracism.html

Discussion With 9/11 Truther Friend About Epistemology, Belief, Certainty And Purpose

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/05/discussion-with-911-truther-friend.html

The 9/11 Truth Movement: Where Does It Lead?

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-911-truth-movement-where-does-it.html

"More On The Newtown Massacre": Professor David Ray Griffin And The Swamp Of Conspiracism
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/08/more-on-newtown-massacre-professor.html

Conspiracy Thinking, The Death Of Shared Identity And The Collapse Of Common Purpose

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/06/conspiracy-thinking-death-of-shared.html

"Crisis Acting": A Standard Conspiracist Hoax That Supposedly Reveals Hoaxes (Snopes)
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/07/crisis-acting-hoax-that-supposedly.html

The Daily Show Goes To Trump Rally To Hear Conspiracy Theories: They Are Not Disappointed

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-daily-show-goes-to-trump-rally-to.html

"More On The Newtown Massacre": Professor David Ray Griffin And The Swamp Of Conspiracism
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/08/more-on-newtown-massacre-professor.html

Trump Resurrects Clinton-Foster Murder Conspiracy

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2016/05/trump-resurrects-clinton-foster-murder.html

On Thu, Nov 16, 2017 at 12:16 AM, AM wrote:

Hi Alan: 

Yes I know Chris Hedges and have for years. He has written remarkably about things he has witnessed in Palestine. He is one of the favorite writers of my friend and pastor in Seattle, RL.

But not of mine.

Although I like most of what he says he does not get to the root of the problem or the source of the issues as I see it. He has not the courage .

The fact that he is wary of conspiracy theories does not recommend him to me: it is, of course, just what is wrong with him, one of his major failures. He does not look at or investigate any of them.

How can he have an opinion on any of them?

You wrote me just a while ago a short note to let me know you had received my letter and would be responding soon. 

I answered to thank you and hey, no problem take your time.

Then I received your next email which was a reply to something I had written long time ago. 

Can you take the time to respond to the points of evidence in the letter for me? And even your thoughts about my reply to your first responses re 4 points of evidence. 

I welcome your comments and replies. It seems to me you are unfamiliar with the evidence I am putting forward.

It can even help me weed out any misconceptions I might have.

Karl Popper claimed that the purpose of scientific investigation was to put a proposition to the test, to try to make it fail.

I welcome your comments in this spirit. 

The email you responded to (sent quite while ago) wasn’t really meant as evidence.

It was more like unsettling questions about the official narrative, guilty demeanor that causes one to dig deeper to eventually find the substantiated evidence.

I will reply to your comments which I think are worth discussion (except for the motive stuff) later, but I would rather stay for now on the points of evidence that I have sent in the letter.

Here is the Church of What’s Happenin’ Now.

I wrote this out for myself last week just to try to get it straight. 

Apparently indictments from Robert Mueller are coming out today that may include Hillary and others:  a whole host of people 

We”ll see.

On Nov 13, 2017, at 7:32 AM, Alan Archibald <alanarchibaldo@gmail.com> wrote:

Except the arguable exception of 9/11, virtually all other conspiracy theories make extraordinary claims 

that are not born out by extraordinary evidence.

"Tears In Sutherland Springs," Frog Hospital's Fred Owens Tells His "Inside Story"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/11/frog-hospital-returns-to-its-roots-in.html

Dear A,

I encourage you to explore my a.m. post about Chris Hedges. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/11/video-chris-hedges-americans-are-living.html

Hedges is as insightful -- and informed -- as any "public intellectual" in America. 

In terms of our ongoing discussion about conspiratorial thought, I will mention that Hedges is "very wary of conspiracy theories."

In itself, Hedges wariness is just another "view" in a welter of opinion.

However, Hedges has a comprehensive view (historical, cultural, religious...) coupled with remarkable life experience that render him singularly un-beholden to Official Stories, particularly Official Stories rooted in The United States of Barbaria.

Wishing you well.

Pax tecum

Alan