What's wrong with believing in conspiracies?

[p_p_man]

All governments carry them out so they do exist...

Unless you think that countries are run in a well organised and straightforward manner.

The only group of people I've ever come across who truly believe that are Right Wingers...

But that's why they're Right Wingers - keep the staus quo, change nothing, and everything will be alright in the end...

ppman

 

[HeavyStick]

Some conspiracies are one thing, but to blame a "shadow government" for the height of speed bumps to prevent minorities access to premium health care is a bit of a stretch.


Read my first sig quote.

 

[sunstruck]

The problem is they are never what you think they are. Either they are far more complicated than you believe or far more simple.

 

[Temptress_1960]

Some conspiracies are one thing, but to blame a "shadow government" for the height of speed bumps to prevent minorities access to premium health care is a bit of a stretch.

Ha! That's what THEY want you to think.


(yes, I'm joking)

 

[Lost Cause]

I'm convinced...

That my parent's conspired to prevent my conception, but I wiggled through the barriers! Muhahahahahahahahahah!

*At age 4, my dad taught me how to swim. It was real easy after I got out of the burlap bag!

 

[Lancecastor]

CONSPIRACY - 18 U.S.C. 371 makes it a separate Federal crime or offense for anyone to conspire or agree with someone else to do something which, if actually carried out, would amount to another Federal crime or offense. So, under this law, a 'conspiracy' is an agreement or a kind of 'partnership' in criminal purposes in which each member becomes the agent or partner of every other member.

~~~~~~

Conspiracies of all kinds, from the criminal to the inane & childish, take place most everywhere all the time.

Most often the people who become angry, agitated, upset or personally insulting to the messenger when you try to talk about the possibility of and/or evidence in support of a conspiracy often turn out to be part of the conspiracy itself, be it through misfeasance or nonfeasance.

Lance

 

[Don K Dyck]

Why??

I understand that about 30 East Coast universities run courses on what is commonly referred to as "World Conspiracy Theory" . . . the information has been available in many different places for quite a while, just waiting for somewbody to compile it.

But then, world history is not a matter of diverse, unrelated events . . . corporations have forward planning on multiple scales out to 50 years, so why wouldn't the plans of such corporations, following the precepts of capitalism, be considered by some as a "conspiracy"?

 

[70/30]

X Files was popular during Clinton---I guess Reagan and GHWB provided the buildup for the public. Now we are back in an accepting mindset---the popularity of conspiracy will return but maybe it has to be the next administration...January 2005...the truth is again revealed...we have to give producers enough time to look through and find a cast after reading the SEPT11 report.

 

[p_p_man]

CONSPIRACY - 18 U.S.C. 371 makes it a separate Federal crime or offense for anyone to conspire or agree with someone else to do something which, if actually carried out, would amount to another Federal crime or offense. So, under this law, a 'conspiracy' is an agreement or a kind of 'partnership' in criminal purposes in which each member becomes the agent or partner of every other member.

On the History Channel yesterday, showing Watergate, the classic statement of a man who believes himself above the law...

Nixon: "Yes but if the President does it, it is not a criminal offence" - (not verbatim).



ppman

 

[Mellon Collie]

Nothing really, as long as you retain some of your sanity.

 

[celiaKitten]

Nothing really, as long as you retain some of your sanity.

Just some, right? Because too much sanity tends to make me feel insane.

 

[Johnny Mayberry]

The problem with conspiracy theories is that they often miss the little conspiracies that really exist. The WTC attack(not terrorism, but I digress) wasn't some huge conspiracy, it was a small one. Our reasons for wanting to invade Afghanistan are pretty obvious too. The basic thing is, you don't have to look high or low, just 'follow the money'.

 

[Mellon Collie]

Just some, right? Because too much sanity tends to make me feel insane.

But of course, all things are good - in moderation.

 

[A Desert Rose]

There is nothing wrong with believing in conspiracies as long as you know they really are out to get you, pal. And that's no joke.

 

[p_p_man]

But of course, all things are good - in moderation.

...including self denial...



ppman

 

[corruptor1971]

PPman, you just know it pains me to agree with you. JEEZ, I can't believe I am saying that!!!! . Governmental conspiracy is why they need a majority. We all know the word politics is derived from the greek language and means 'the art of being able to make someone do something with words'!! or close to that anyway. This in itself would suggest the necessity of conspiracy as inertia created by a large group of people requires an equally large force to change it. I also have to say it...........Blair conspiracy to take UK into the United States of Europe, it is so blatent and see through if it was not so serious I could laugh!

 

[District Line]

PPman, you just know it pains me to agree with you. JEEZ, I can't believe I am saying that!!!! . Governmental conspiracy is why they need a majority. We all know the word politics is derived from the greek language and means 'the art of being able to make someone do something with words'!! or close to that anyway. This in itself would suggest the necessity of conspiracy as inertia created by a large group of people requires an equally large force to change it. I also have to say it...........Blair conspiracy to take UK into the United States of Europe, it is so blatent and see through if it was not so serious I could laugh!

The word politics is not derived from anything like that at all. You are mistaken, you are getting it confused with rhetoric.

With regards to Europe, you are equally ill informed, you are getting it confused with the Rupert Murdoch conspiracy to keep us out.

 

[ullr]

All governments carry them out so they do exist...

Unless you think that countries are run in a well organised and straightforward manner.

The only group of people I've ever come across who truly believe that are Right Wingers...

ppman

EXCEPT for anarcho-capitalists (who are often mis-identified as right-wingers)! Who definitely don't believe that "countries" (or governments) are "run in a well organised...manner."

But then, neither do they confuse the people in a country with "governments."

--Orson

 

[SINthysist]

I'm in on the conspiracy.

p_p_'s hit it on the head now.

He's absoulutley correct about the Right and conspiracies. Only the Rabid Right is capable of enough group-work, trust, and sharing to engage in conspiracy. The left tends towards one man/woman rule...

Even the enlightened Trotskyites look to one man and not a movement or ideal!



Guten Morgen RED!

 

[p_p_man]

Re: Re: What's wrong with believing in conspiracies?

EXCEPT for anarcho-capitalists

Never heard of them...

ppman

 

[ullr]

Re: Re: Re: What's wrong with believing in conspiracies?

Never heard of them...

ppman

because they're "damn radicals"-- but well-represented among these people in your town,
http://www.libertarian.co.uk/

Elsewhere
www.samizdata.blogspot.com

--Orson

 

[SINthysist]

He's used to us identifying ourselves as Libertarians. He just dumps us in with the bible thumpers due to reduced binary capacity brought on by advanced old age and a taste for the grape...

Just like we don't distinquish between Democrats and Communists...

 

[Hamletmaschine]

Consiratorial thinking is a legacy of the anti-Semitic fears that sprang up in the wake of the Crusades. In the 11th and 12th centures, persecution and socially sanctioned violence began to be directed, through established government, judicial and social institutions, against groups of people defined by general characteristics such as race, religion or way of life; and that membership in these groups in itself came to be regarded as justifying these attacks. The victims would not be just Jews, but Muslims, "heretics," homosexuals, witches, even lepers.
The sacrificial frenzy often involved conspiracy theories, a mechanism used by those in power to spread fear among the lower and middling classes in order to legitimate the desire of those in power to eliminate the competition.

The more things change . . .

See R. I. Moore's The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Power and Deviance in Western Europe, 950–1250.