This seems like a good time to share my two favorite obscure conspiracy theories, if any wants to see how 'science' + 'ideology' = proof of anything you want. Share yours if you got 'em.
The first are conspiracy theories related to National Security Study Memorandum 200 (NSSM200). Basically a banal 70's document warning that explosive population growth in resource rich countries leads to political instability which could disrupt the US economy and start wars. It then advocates increasing access to contraception as part of US foreign aid. (duh, I think to my self). Awesomely, this is the base for a lot of New World Order conspiracy theories about genocide, the most modern of which involve the Gates Foundation secretly deploying anti fertility vaccines and artificial pandemics (like AIDs and the Flu) to cause massive abortion, depopulation and genocide. (That clip comes from my favorite conspiracy lecture of all time, if you have time to skim through it it will melt your brain)
The second is fun with statistics. If you remember the William Ayers - Obama controversy from the 2008 elections, an offshoot of that that came close to the election is that Ayers actually wrote Obama's book Dreams from My Father. (The PDF at the end is great) Cashill basically uses literary statistics to 'prove' Ayers' book Fugitive Days and Dreams had the same author and Obama's campaign book Audicity of Hope is too different to be the same author. (A debunking by one of the statisticians Cashill first tried to use for this.) Amazingly, this got the support of Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT). Cashill is now selling a book with this and even more conspiracy theories.
So this is a pastime when I'm bored at work, thanks internet! Hope you enjoy.
Here's mine, it documents how the US government was behind the attacks on 9/11. It is called Loose Change and can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E3oIbO0AWE
ReplyDeleteThis hour and 20 min scare tactic video links various historical and political actions that happened ranging from the late 60's to days before that seem to string a convincing story of how certain people knew and permitted the attacks on 9/11. Now this is a tricky conspiracy because at some points I feel like it does a pretty good job of freaking the shit out of me. However, I realize that the only times if have been reminded of this video is when it has been late and the people watching it were drunk. I wonder how many o the other 5.5 views are from drunk college students trying to make sense of a horrible tragedy when it seems like we haven't been able to hunt down and capture the mastermind who we have thought to be behind it? Then I realize that humans seek to make sense of things and if one way is not working then people will seek to find another way around what may seem to be a random act of terrorism and create a vast spider web of facts that somehow create a new version of truth. I think the ingenious use of correlation is what makes these theories so alluring and yet for me it takes so much intricate movements that it makes these theories that much more infeasible in my mind.