There is a theory that...
...conspiracy theorists are credulous fucktards who would walk over a cliff if you told them there was a sweet shop hidden just below the edge, and whose sole purpose in their otherwise empty futile lives is apparently to clog up the bits of the interweb that aren't already chock full of kittens, cocks and tits with paranoid join-the-numbers nonsense.

Oh, wait a minute, that's not a theory, it's a fucking fact.
(Harry Webshiter Spiggley biggley bog., Fri 2 Dec 2011, 13:19, 12 replies)

that's what they want you to think.

( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Fri 2 Dec 2011, 13:19, closed)

Seriously though,
when there's a group of people with a lot of de facto power who realise that they can get away with abusing it with impunity - are they going to? Fuck yeah. Be honest with yourself, you would too, wouldn't you?
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Fri 2 Dec 2011, 13:25, closed)

Of course I would!
If I became Supreme Lord High Protector of Great Britain and Her Dominions, not only would I accrue vast wealth to myself but there are untold numbers of people I'd have executed, not merely startlingly large numbers of individuals but whole sections of society. Fortunately, the likelihood of my achieving absolute power is on a par with my becoming Pope Webshiter I.

That's not a conspiracy, though, it's a fact of life. You may as well decry the conspiracy of foxes eating chickens.
(Harry Webshiter Spiggley biggley bog., Fri 2 Dec 2011, 13:32, closed)

It's a conspiracy when their motives are secret.
The reason you are not in such a position of power is fairly obvious now.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Fri 2 Dec 2011, 13:35, closed)

I think Conspiricay Theorist is a term often used to discredit astute investigative journalists. To deny the existence of conspiracy is as bad as blindly accepting all conspiracy theories.

People are inherently selfish. Selfish behaviour leads to dishonesty. Group dishonesty becomes conspiracy. history dictates that not all conspiracies are theoretical.

Personally, I find Conspiracy Theories to be rather entertaining. They help pass time and can lead the mind down some creative avenues, which is where many of them were spawned from in the first place. The nature in which they cross pollinate and respawn is akin to folklore and I believe they are a valid cultural outlet.

Just my 'pinion.
(Demis CousCous, Fri 2 Dec 2011, 14:15, closed)

It's certainly telling,
the methods of control and surveillance that recent technological advances have given to those in authority ought to be enough to give anyone the heebie-jeebies. A certain degree of paranoia is perhaps a positive thing.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Fri 2 Dec 2011, 14:50, closed)

That's just good old-fashioned corruption
To be a conspiracy theory, it needs a certain pinch of utter mentalness about it. Somethign to do with Lizard People, or the postman hearing your thoughts...
(Godwin's Lawyer is more evil than Hitler, Fri 2 Dec 2011, 14:23, closed)

It's corruption when individuals pursue purely selfish individual agendas of dubious legality.
It's a conspiracy when a significant group within the government pursues a covert agenda or ideology.

Does this latter ever happen? The people who say "well maybe in other places, but not in this liberal democracy" might think of themselves as rational skeptics, but personally I think of them as naive, and I think we massively overestimate just how democratic our own countries are compared to those that get a bad press in our own media.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Fri 2 Dec 2011, 14:46, closed)

Corruption isn't just an individual activity
You can have fully corrupt states where 'significant groups' as well as individuals pursue their own agendas for profit/power; ie systematic corruption. Just look at Soviet Russia.

No-one is denying corruption exists; certainly, the more advanced the democracy, the more subtle it will be, but it will always be there (Power corrupts, after all). To make the leap from simple corruption to conspiracy theory requires some kind of 'plot,' not just an agenda -doing it for the sake of personal/shared profit is merely an agenda. 'Plots' tend to be more...well, mental, for want of a better word. Faking the moon landing. Controlling the entire world's currency. Putting stuff in the drinking water. All plots, all mental, all leaps of imagination.

Corruption exists - but conspiracy theories? Flights of fancy, every one
(Godwin's Lawyer is more evil than Hitler, Fri 2 Dec 2011, 15:58, closed)

It's not just for personal/shared profit though,
sometimes it's for ideology, especially nationalist ideology.

See for instance www.newamericancentury.org/
I wish that site was a piss take.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Fri 2 Dec 2011, 16:55, closed)

But it's hardly a secret conspiracy when they have a whole bleeding website about it, is it?
'Conspiracy' implies secrecy, but PNAC is hardly news, it's been around for years, and I'm surprised you've only just stumbled across it now.

I emailed them back in 2003 during the run up to the Iraq War saying that we Brits weren't going to take that sort of thing lying down and that we were setting up the Project for the New British Century, which would consist of lots of men sitting around in tweed jackets drinking tea and smoking pipes and plotting to achieve Full Spectrum Dominance - just as soon as the funding was agreed, and subject to feasibility studies, and provided the supply of tea held up...etc. etc.

Never heard back from them.
(Harry Webshiter Spiggley biggley bog., Sat 3 Dec 2011, 0:20, closed)

Well said that man....
....Reality exists
(Colonel Blink is now officially a pretentious prick, Fri 2 Dec 2011, 20:09, closed)