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Conspiratology, paranoia, and bigotry

Skeleton Camera

15:45 / 14.05.04

This could go in several areas but the Head Shop seems to be the prime location...

There's a discussion waiting to happen amongst the Fetch controversy and now the "do Jews run the world" lockdown. Conspiratology, paranoia, bigotry - let's figure out the intersection. They are triangulated, ie, if you are paranoid you accumulate evidence of a conspiracy which then leads to the scapegoating of one particular group (Jews, Masons, blacks, old white guys, etc).

So is there any sort of RATIONAL conspiracy theory? Or is that an oxymoron? RAW is usually trotted out as a rational conspiracy theorist, and he is more of an anti-conspiracy theorist - DISPROVING the big conspiracy idea rather than encouraging them. And yet he acknowledges that "there are 25 conspiracies surrounding any real estate deal," or rather, many many many small conspiracies.

(Personally I go for the 'gear' model - that these forces, acting on their own initiative, form a chaotic paradigm that becomes a constructed and intentional conspiracy in the eyes of many.)

Is it then illogical to try and add these up to a large conspiracy? And, if one does begin to get into large-scale conspiratology, is there necessarily a bigotry involved? (Even against, say, Venutians) If so then conspiratology, and the paranoid-group mindset that it often sprouts from, can be seen a sort of anti-religion. That is to say that if humans have a need to acknowledge something bigger, they can do so as something to fight against. This much is known - but it's building a sort of anti-god, innit?

Ok, I'm running down, but do discuss. The Fetch thread and surrounding fallout have got a lot of energy moving. And given our cultural propensity for conspiratology it seems worth understanding.

19:39 / 14.05.04

every conspiracy theory is a unique snowflake.

david icke's "every single world leader are part of a race of shape shifting reptilian aliens" is interesting as modern mythology. what makes a person write books like that, and why do so many people beleive him? it doesn't speak well for the credibility of politicians.not "true" but still socially significant, if you ask me. realistically though, there are probably only a handful of world leaders who are actually blood drinking aliens

watergate was a definite proven conspiracy. there are many other proven examples from modern history. and speculation about the cia is reasonable because they have a long track record of proven(and admitted!) conspiracy, and because everything they do is secret, which fosters reasonable paranoia. the problem is you never know untill someone gets caucght.

even local politics is rife with conspiracy. my high school was closed, my comunity delt a devastating blow, because of a proven conspiracy where the superintendant of education for a rural county was being bribed. behind the scenes the paper trail led back through front companies to the ontario teachers union pension fund investors group, one of the most powerful capital block in the canadian economy. they defrauded the goverment and taxpayers for 21 million dollars, and sold the educations of four rural comunities out from under them when the front company (knowledge house) was allowed to go bankrupt after they took the money and ran.

so there you go. conspiracy effects your life everyday in practical ways that you might not even realize. these are murky depths and if you choose to venture into them my advice is: - dig up facts. not "theories". prove something. then tell everyone.

19:46 / 14.05.04

oh yeah, and the pension thing was never made public. the comunity is well aware of what happened but no one was ever held accountable. the superintendant is now a school principal in manitoba. if anyone is willing to help me research and prove all this with some good old fashioned investigative journalism, by all means, i could use the help. exposing conspiracies (rel ones) is a lot of work, but a lot of fun. heh heh heh...

21:44 / 14.05.04

I have to say that as far as conspiracy theories go, I give um pretty short shrift for the most part. Especially the ones where the exposer of the conspiracy, although being to all intents and purposes a - perhaps unbalanced (David Icke is such an easy target) - member of the public, has some kind of 'expert' analysis that all the actual historians and authorised experts have managed to mysteriously pass over. For example, there are already conspiracy theories saying that video of the American getting decapitated are faked, because, apparently, there isn't enough blood.

That said 'authorised' and normalised versions of history are not impenetrable, and are often open to analysis. And trusting the authorities to provide us with an accurate and truthful picture of what's happening in the world is probably a little naive at best. I'm sure everyone on here is familar with the Disinfo books, for example...

So, there are wackos out there with conspiracy theories which are basically just ways for them to justify and normalise their particular insanity/ bigotry.

And there is incisive analysis of the everyday deception and myths.

Generally speaking, if someone tries to link it all together into some kind of grand scheme to rule the world, supervillain style, its a good indication its a load of crap.

That said, my grandparents would say quite happily that Deir Yassin never happened, and reports of it all conspiracy. Illustrating how people seem attracted to this to provide them with the framework they need to justify their bigotry to themselves and the world.

And, as the thread in Switchboard shows, it can be quite an effective method of getting their point of view some attention it would otherwise not get.

22:30 / 14.05.04

At the risk of replacing one unreliable source with another Why we did go to the moon.

Or why not 'make your own Conspiracy Theory?'

Top Ten Conspiracy Theories

All Acting Regiment

11:45 / 15.05.04

What we have to remember is that throughout history, certain groups of people have not got on with each other. It's an unfortunate human reality but it is not impossible to deal with.
What people who say that the jews are trying to take over the world are forgetting is that while there msy well be a group of power hungry people who happen to be Jewish, there is also probably a group of power hungry people who happen to hate Jewish people.
Like at the moment, you can see we have conspiracies by America to kill all sorts of people and we have conspiracies by Al Qaeda to kill alll sorts of people. Really the only way of stopping these two bunches of nasty folk killing people isn't to say "I hate muslims" or "I hate americans"- it's to try and make everybody get along with eachother.
If that makes sense.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

09:30 / 17.05.04

Well, to make a conspiracy theorist you just take someone with crushingly low self-esteem and/or other actual diagnosable mental problems, take out the self-awareness to realise that there is something wrong with them, then wind them up and let them go.

I tend to discount most conspiracy theories as they need superhuman skill on behalf of the perpetrators but they work like religion, the facts are incredibly important, except when they disprove an idea, what people say is important except when they disprove an idea, etc. And as we've just seen, when you can actually point out that something isn't true, the one example that is true is more important than the ten, fifty, hundred examples that don't fit.

It may also be worth reading this article from the Observer at the weekend. All right, so the girl is young and naive, but each answer shows exactly what ignorance groups like the BNP work on, you can't help but think that if she actually went out and investigated things based on this interview she might turn her back on everything she's standing for at the moment.

17:06 / 18.05.04

'If that was true, I am sure my father would have told me,' she mutters. 'The Daily Mail seems sure that illegal immigration is causing terrible problems across the country. I am only 17. I can't be expected to know all the facts.'

Oh dear oh dear oh dear...

All Acting Regiment

20:30 / 20.05.04

It's despressing, but racism among white teenagers is high to say the least. It's the combination of teenage "look at me I'm cool" -ness with the outrightr racism that is truly disgusting.
Coupled with the fact that these days more and more teenagers onbly listen to music from their own culture, e.g. white nu metal kids who may well be 2down" with limp bizkit but would never listen to acrual hip hop because it is "scally", i.e. , black , music.

21:38 / 20.05.04

On a Barbelith Past, I started a thread on the conspiracy mindset - because it is a particular mindset. Individual conspiracies may be 'individual snowflakes', but I believe they have common features and (to a certain extent) common motivations.

There's always a Them, and They are invariably behind many elements of life which might otherwise appear random - coincidence, chance. As human beings, we have to tendency to believe in a just world in which everything is stable and orderly, and people deserve what they get. For those of us who fail to get what we (feel we) deserve, conspiracy theory is a seductively catch-all explanation. Clearly our failure is not due to our own lack of ability/application, but the result of an organised conspiracy ranged against us. Conspiracy theory is therefore protective of self-esteem, the fragile ego: it's not my fault I've achieved nothing in life; it's Them and Their machinations. In a wider sense, conspiracy theory protects us from having to contemplate the awful amoral randomness of existence. Tragedies that don't make sense can be made to make sense, simply through the assumption that They have had a hand in proceedings.

It's not difficult to see how conspiracies relate to paranoia and bigotry. All can be viewed as ego-protective coping mechanisms, albeit dysfunctional ones. All my misfortunes are not due to me; they're due to Them - although, in this case, the role of Them can be conveniently mapped onto 'the Jews', 'the Arabs', 'the asylum seekers', 'the homosexual mafia', 'the liberals' or 'the 12-foot shape-changing Annunaki lizards', according to taste.

16:25 / 21.05.04

"As human beings, we have to tendency to believe in a just world in which everything is stable and orderly, and people deserve what they get. For those of us who fail to get what we (feel we) deserve, conspiracy theory is a seductively catch-all explanation."

There seems to me to be some confusion over the term conspiracy theory.

Agreed, there are a huge number of crackpots out there who use the idea of conspiracy to explain their own perceived inadequacies. But they are more the vocal minority than the norm and have now overloaded the idea to such an extent that the very words conspiracy theory are synonymous with irrational thinking.

This is particularly depressing as there is a huge amount of serious academic research out there on topics that would be termed by most as conspiracy theories. In an attempt to reclaim the whole subject area, I've begun to use the term parapolitcs instead but this just leads to people asking me what I mean and I have to fall back on the C word anyway.

There are certainly rational conspiracy theories, they just don't get as much exposure. It is the more derranged theories that lead to bigotry and extemism rather than a subject such as Who Shot JFK? But doesn't fear and paranoia lead to isolationist thinking no matter what the topic?

23:04 / 21.05.04

In talking of the seductiveness of conspiracy theories, I wasn't aware that I was talking in terms of majorities or minorities...

Our Lady Has Left the Building

08:53 / 22.05.04

Ooh, I like 'parapolitics' and intend to use it in future wherever possible. But aren't you referring to the conspiracy theory that conspiracy theories have been demeaned in popular culture so that people will ignore THE TRUTH when it's revealed by the right nutbar? I think it's like 'gay' or 'anti-semitism', the strictly correct dictionary definition has been lost and we have to use the terms as they are generally meant these days.

12:31 / 22.05.04

"In talking of the seductiveness of conspiracy theories, I wasn't aware that I was talking in terms of majorities or minorities..."

I won't deny that conspiracy theories are seductive no matter how credible. However, I do think that there are degrees of credibility and that it is only those that are at the less credible end of the spectrum that require further justification for their adoption as fact.

"...aren't you referring to the conspiracy theory that conspiracy theories have been demeaned in popular culture so that people will ignore THE TRUTH when it's revealed by the right nutbar?"

I certainly think that those in authority work hard to control what people think. The public relations industry is dedicated to achieving this very aim. But I don't think there is a real conspiracy here. It's more due to human nature, traditional societal trust relationships and the pace of modern life. Serious conspiracy literature is complex and detail oriented and is hard work to understand. Most people don't have the time or inclination to evaluate everything they are told. It's far easier to accept received wisdom at face value than to challenge the mainstream.

For the curious, a good introductory guide to the subject is Robin Ramsay's Conspiracy Theories published by Pocket Essentials. Despite its size, it contains a lot of information and is a great springboard for further reading.