Dear Patrick,
Thanks for your email.
Here is my bottom line on conspiracy thinking:
Conspiracism ALWAYS works to the advantage of the right-wing.
This is true even on those relatively rare occasions when there has been an actual conspiracy.
Name one major conspiracy theory whose "revelation" is now universally agreed upon.
I cannot name one, and I doubt you can.
The upshot of conspiracy thinking is the delusional belief that when "The Real Truth" gets out, it will transform humankind's consciousness and we will finally embark The Golden Age.
Instead, conspiracy thinking contributes to the rampaging matrix of irrationality in which everyone's opinion trumps demonstrable truth and The Whole Thing goes to hell. (I should add that not all truth is demonstrable.)
Beyond the particulars of "this, that or the other conspiracy," the sloshy, infinitely-opinionated Swamp of Conspiracism has perched us on the verge of another Dark Age in which Reason is largely replaced by rampant, ever-ramifying speculation mostly based on bullshit fobbed off as "alternative truth."
Consider: “The Catholic Church is in crisis because the enemies of Christ plotted organized efforts to place a pope for Satan on the Roman Chair of Saint Peter. […]It has been a slow, patient plan to establish a Satanic revolution with the pope as puppet” https://wherepeteris.
Or, how about this?
Given the depth and breadth of anti-Semitism, what's to prevent popularization of a conspiracy theory that "The Jesus Story" was a Jewish hoax to intellectually-and-psychologically "colonize" Europe and people of European descent? Surely, you know how smart, clever and devious those dirty Jews are! (Never mind that Jesus himself was an observant Jew.)
To quote Trump: "Many intelligent people say..." "Lots of smart people are telling me..." "Dr. Birx is looking into the injection of disinfectants to cure coronavirus..." "Why is Obama hiding his birth certificate?" (If you haven't seen this Birx-Trump video clip, it's priceless! https://
It is not a dismissable coincidence that Malignant Messiah launched his campaign on the foundation of birtherism, and then - years later - when he finally disavowed his trumpery, he dismissed it with a simple 32 word declarative sentence. https://www.
But by then the damage was done.
Indeed many a-holes on the right still believe Obama is a Kenyan-born Muslim.
24 Outlandish Conspiracy Theories Donald Trump Has Floated Over The Years
https://www.businessinsider.
https://www.businessinsider.
I encourage you to riffle through the following links.
"Compendium Of Best Pax Posts About Conspiracies And Conspiracism"
http://paxonbothhouses.
"Conspiracy Thinking, The Death Of Shared Identity And The Collapse Of Common Purpose"
http://paxonbothhouses.
The Original And Enduring Conspiracy
https://paxonbothhouses.
Alan
PS I have little doubt that all over the world governments are researching biological warfare methods. And if somebody's experiment did get loose, what doe that mean? In this instance it means that people -- even many of the dunces -- are now fed up with boom-bust capitalism and have begun to normalize "Socialized Democracy" (as I prefer to call Democratic Socialism). Furthermore, Trump is much more likely to be turned out office. I mean.... Do the math. How bright can capitalist flunkies be to devise an "occult" microorganism whose most evident effects are to lay waste Cowboy Capitalism. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that a new uncontrollable, untreatable pathogen is going to fuck up everybody - and everything. I have a masters degree in biological science (more scientific training than Francis Boyle) and it's "duh-obvious" to scientists that you can't create a pathogen with a pre-fabricated cure. Rather than fall prey to the ideological diversionism of yet another conspiracy theory, let's buckle down and do something about what we know rather than give the masses another bauble to distract their attention into a domain where there is probably very little or "nothing at all." And if there is something, what can be done about it - relative to what can be done through more mundane political channels like Bernie Sanders normalizing Socialized Democracy?
The "beauty" of conspiracism is that you can "kick any can down the road" eternally because there is no agreed upon "knowledge base," and furthermore conspiracism itself represents such epistemological degradation that all the political energy that could be spent working on demonstrably real issues, is diverted into speculation masquerading as demonstrable Truth.
What if conspiracism itself is a conspiracy to distract and disable people who would otherwise be effective political activists?
"Compendium Of Best Pax Posts About Conspiracies And Conspiracism"
http://paxonbothhouses.
"Conspiracy Thinking, The Death Of Shared Identity And The Collapse Of Common Purpose"
http://paxonbothhouses.
The Original And Enduring Conspiracy
https://paxonbothhouses.
http://paxonbothhouses.
"Conspiracy Thinking, The Death Of Shared Identity And The Collapse Of Common Purpose"
http://paxonbothhouses.
The Original And Enduring Conspiracy
https://paxonbothhouses.
Pax
Alan
PS I have little doubt that all over the world governments are researching biological warfare methods. And if somebody's experiment did get loose, what doe that mean? In this instance it means that people -- even many of the dunces -- are now fed up with boom-bust capitalism and have begun to normalize "Socialized Democracy" (as I prefer to call Democratic Socialism). Furthermore, Trump is much more likely to be turned out office. I mean.... Do the math. How bright can capitalist flunkies be to devise an "occult" microorganism whose most evident effects are to lay waste Cowboy Capitalism. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that a new uncontrollable, untreatable pathogen is going to fuck up everybody - and everything. I have a masters degree in biological science (more scientific training than Francis Boyle) and it's "duh-obvious" to scientists that you can't create a pathogen with a pre-fabricated cure. Rather than fall prey to the ideological diversionism of yet another conspiracy theory, let's buckle down and do something about what we know rather than give the masses another bauble to distract their attention into a domain where there is probably very little or "nothing at all." And if there is something, what can be done about it - relative to what can be done through more mundane political channels like Bernie Sanders normalizing Socialized Democracy?
The "beauty" of conspiracism is that you can "kick any can down the road" eternally because there is no agreed upon "knowledge base," and furthermore conspiracism itself represents such epistemological degradation that all the political energy that could be spent working on demonstrably real issues, is diverted into speculation masquerading as demonstrable Truth.
What if conspiracism itself is a conspiracy to distract and disable people who would otherwise be effective political activists?
On Mon, Apr 27, 2020 at 4:30 AM PO wrote:
I am not a big conspiracy theorist... The overt illicit activities of my government are enough to keep me busy. That being said, Francis Boyle, law professor emeritus U of Ill. Urbana, a renowned international law expert and advisor for our legal team, offers quite a mouthfull here, implicating UNC researchers in a covid19 conspiracy....
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