We are social beings. As a result, depending on how much you value the opinions of others, what someone says about you can matter. Often, you've likely heard people negatively labeled as fringe conspiracy theorists. But what does that mean? Are conspiracy theorists paranoid lunatics or is it ignorant to claim that there aren't real conspiracies? Even recently, hasn't Wikileaks proved, again and again, that conspiracies are real and have real consequences? Wikileaks head Julian Assange wrote two essays on conspiracies - State and Terrorist Conspiracies and Conspiracy as Governance - and believes them to be real. (Although, he claims that 9/11 is not a conspiracy.) Jacob Appelbaum, the US face of Wikileaks, and a man who wears a t-shirt saying "Be the trouble you want to see in the world," helped create Tor, a free privacy tool to hide from what he claims is rampant government surveillance and repression.
Do you doubt that the US is trying to strengthen its authoritarian power? When government employees work in collaborative secrecy to the detriment of the population, isn't that a conspiracy? Why does their ethical code get to be different than ours? Isn't the censorship of organizations like Wikileaks another proof that a conspiracy exists? What facts and logic do you require to believe a conspiracy to be true?
FTA:
It is frustrating to be dismissed as a "conspiracy theorist" when the police state is becoming so obvious. It is unnerving to read the journals and accounts of Germans in the 1930s as they witnessed Hitler's raise and consolidation of power. Today I am seeing the same things and having the same thoughts and questions as they did...
But there are people now, who lived through it before in Nazi Germany, Eastern Europe, Cuba, and South America, who have seen the signs before. They are warning us, some are already leaving. Some of the very rich have already left. At the same time, the American government is increasingly making it difficult to leave with one's wealth. That too, is an evil omen.
The dismissal of conspiracies is usually not based on facts but on a general laziness to investigate and an unwillingness to be seen as weird. Holding the opinion of the majority is somehow comforting, but could very well be deadly in the end. The American Government's habit of manufacturing terrorist is an example of the problem...
After all the lies, all the crimes and misdemeanors, the scandals, the deaths, I am amazed at the American people's gullibility and trust in government and mainstream media. They have been so thoroughly indoctrinated into believing that loyalty to government is loyalty to country. Any criticism of its actions or policies is labeled anti-American. Sure, one group will hate the current administration or party controlling Congress, while the other group will blindly defend their party. It's always the people in charge that is the problem, never the system or institution. As long as my team is in charge everything is okay just as criticism of the opposing team is okay. It shows that we have freedom of speech. It's democracy in action. But God forbid questioning law enforcement, military actions, the war on terror, the war on drugs, or the banking system. Anyone who does that is an anti-American conspiracy nut.
On Dismissing Conspiracy Theories
DISCUSS!
Original posting by Braincrave Second Life staff on Dec 9, 2010 at http://www.braincrave.com/viewblog.php?id=400
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