The Seditious Dementia of Conspiracy Theories

[roo_ster]

America the Treacherous:The seditious dementia of conspiracy theories.

By Jonah Goldberg

There is a virulent form of unpatriotism festering in America today. Like an algae bloom that deprives life of oxygen, it starves democracy of the air of reason. It now thrives on what we call the far Left, but like a dead zone off the coast, it moves with the tides.

I am referring to the seditious dementia of conspiracy theories, the death of faith not in some mere administration or Congress but in America itself.

Havent you heard? The U.S. government blew up the World Trade Center. Oh, sorry, thats not right. The planes did knock down those buildings, but the White House was in on it. Oh, no, sorry again, thats not what happened. It was the Jews. They razed it without leaving any fingerprints  save for the 4,000 Zionist co-conspirators who were tipped off in advance  in order to frame the peace-loving Muslims of al Qaeda. (Those crafty Hebrews are always coming up with clever ways to make Islamic fanatics look bad, like getting blown up.) Bin Ladens admission that he did it? Well, of course. Hes in on it.

Presumably, Bushs demolition experts applied the same expertise to the levees in New Orleans. Thats another theory in wide circulation today thanks in no small part to Spike Lee, who gave it a fair airing in an HBO documentary.

The metaphysical, ontological stupidity of all this defies rational rebuttal. It would be like proving I didnt have unicorn for dinner in late December of 1987.

Heres a question: How is a president willing  and able!  to bring down the World Trade Center, murdering nearly 3,000 Americans without inspiring a single whistle-blower or attracting a solitary eyewitness, somehow morally or logistically incapable of planting some exculpatory WMDs in Iraq?

As for Spike & Co., what took Bush so long? Why wait for a hurricane? Oh, how he must have yearned, his men and equipment long in place, to cleanse America of the Big Easy. Oh joyous St. Katrinas Day! And yet, Bush failed to plan for the aftermath in a way that wouldnt defenestrate his poll numbers.

Stupidity isnt the right word for these dark imaginings, because some of these conspiracy theorists are very smart people. Nor is it fair to say they are all left-wingers. Indeed, two prominent 9/11 conspiracy theorists  Morgan Reynolds and Paul Craig Roberts  worked in Republican administrations and have strong conservative credentials. And let us not forget that in the 1990s, sweaty fingers pointed right-to-left. Under Clinton, it was the United Nations  with its satellite office at the Rose Law Firm  that imposed order with its fleet of black helicopters.

Conspiracy theorist isnt quite right either. These are priests of the Church of Conspiracy, a heresy of Gnostic heresy which holds that man is the ruler of history, the demiurge of all events that befall us. Powerful and unseen forces lurk in the shadows. The conspiracy theorists know theyre out there, even as the enemys name changes almost daily: Big Oil, capitalists, Republicans, or perhaps those eternal pullers of mankinds puppet strings, the Jews.

The masons of dementia build upon a bedrock of one absolute truth: Bad things happen, and someone must be responsible. Upon this bedrock they pile convenient and selective facts like bricks. Contradictory facts are clever lies. When Popular Mechanics debunked 9/11 hokum, the immediate response from conspiratorialists was cover-up! and CIA front! because in this perverted faith, denying the ultimate truth must be proof of a lie.

This rough beast slouches toward sedition because it assumes not that our leaders are knaves or even mere criminals, but that they are murderous Supermen with no loyalty to nation, decency or law. Our Constitution is a fraud, a charade for the rubes some of us naively call citizens. If you disagree, youre either fool or in on it. In his 1964 essay, The Paranoid Style in American Politics, Richard Hofstadter demonstrated that this fever of the mind is as old as America itself and its outbreaks flare up across the ideological landscape. What is so sad and frightening is that this diseased thinking is reaching epidemic proportions. More than a third of Americans believe the U.S. government was likely to have been involved in 9/11.

In the past, when these outbreaks occurred on the political right, liberal hand-wringers fretted about incipient fascism and rising McCarthyism. Today, the best we get from them is a bemused and sterile chuckle.

©2006 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

This is pretty much my opinion WRT the Tinfoil Hat Club.

Charter Member of TFHC (with side "points" to disrupt the radio transmitter the gov't implanted in his fillings):


Recommended Wear of TFH:

[client32]

More than a third of Americans believe the U.S. government was likely to have been involved in 9/11.

I find that hard to believe.  1/3? Really?

[The Rabbi]

Goldberg?
Obviously an agent provacateur.

But I've seen posts here demonstrating fundamentally the same mentality.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

More than a third of Americans believe the U.S. government was likely to have been involved in 9/11.

I find that hard to believe.  1/3? Really?

Really.  A recent poll claims 36%.

[client32]

Ok, I did some searching.  I found an article that comments on where the poll is from: http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=CONSPIRACY-08-02-06

More than a third of the American public suspects that federal officials assisted in the 9/11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them so the United States could go to war in the Middle East, according to a new Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll.

[Twycross]

Hmmm... From the link posted by client32:

The level of suspicion of U.S. official involvement in a 9/11 conspiracy was only slightly behind the 40 percent who suspect "officials in the federal government were directly responsible for the assassination of President Kennedy" and the 38 percent who believe "the federal government is withholding proof of the existence of intelligent life from other planets."

Kinda makes you wonder whether this is really as big as it sounds.

[Ben]

I wonder if the entire 36% are made up of guys like this.

Warning: Once you read it, you can't unread it. Proceed at your own risk!

---------------------------------
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=22545_The_Mind_of_a_Truther#comments

The Mind of a Truther

Its How I Spent My 9/11 Vacation, Truther-style, penned with great effort and sincerity by Treez: Im back! - FearBush Forums. (Hat tip: ChenZhen.)

Reprinted in full because, well, its just so freaking hilarious that it should be preserved for all time.

    Well, the day started at 4 a.m. when me and my boy got up to catch the 5:52 a.m. train to NYC from Philly. We arrived at Penn Station in Manhattan at 7:15 a.m.. As soon as we got up to ground level, 2 other dudes our age came over to us to bum a ciggerette. They noticed our custom T-shirts(as SOOOO many people did throughout the day) that we had gotten airbrushed the day before in Philly. Black T-shirts with Investigate in cursive writing accross the top of the shirt, then below that, a huge 9 and next to that the two towers forming an 11. But the dudes obviously didnt read above the 911 where it said investigate, and the one with the dreadlocks looked at us in utter confusion and asked yall dont REALLY beleive terrorists brought those buildings down, DO YOU? Hell no dawgs, thats why it says INVESTIGATE. After realizing we were both citizens of Reality, we stood around and talked for a few minutes, smoked our Newports, then parted ways.

    Great start to the day. Then we flagged a cab, got in, told him Church and Fulton and we were off to ground zero. He dropped us off a few blocks away because traffic was blocked off for a few blocks radius of GZ. We walked up to GZ and arrived around 7:50 and began looking for fellow black shirts, which werent hard to find. The 9/11 Truth Movement all wore black T-shirts that said Investigate 9/11 on the front and had some other stuff on the back including a link to the LooseChange website. But immediately they started taking notice of me and my boys custom T-shirts and asking us to pose for pictures. I mustve posed for at least 10 pictures if not more, the shirts were a huge hit. Then a lady with a microphone came up and asked for an interview, and we agreed, but I just let my boy handle the interview and answer her questions.

    Everyone was just standing around and there was a guy assembling a huge sign consisting of two huge wooden poles and a banner stretching between them. The banner said 9/11 was a US Black Op on one side, and USA did 911 on the reverse. Needing a helping hand, he just said out loud any 9/11 Truth people can give me a hand?. Since I was standing right there, I offered my assistance in holding one of the poles while he stapled the banner together. After the banner was erected, I guess that I was automatically assigned to holding one of the poles.

    I guess during the process of putting up the sign, the Truth Movement had been told to relocate, because I looked around and suddenly the black shirts were no where in sight. Then the hate began. Some Jew looking dude in a suit came up to me and asked where are you from? I said PA, and he said you should go back to PA, ahole and walked away. It took me by suprise, and I started laughing, I thought about saying you should go back to Israel but instead just shouted to him you have a nice day too sir and smiled. Then some lady walked by the huge sign and said something dimented about you guys will pay in hell. Easily laughed at. Then as Im holding up the one end of the sign, I felt the sign being literally pulled down, lol, and looked and some idiot had grabbed the other pole and was wrestling to pull it down, I kept my end up and the cops grabbed the flaghead (literally, he was wearling a flag bandanna) and the other guy got control and the sign was back up.

    Then some guy in a brown trechcoat with a notepad came up to me and asked if he could ask me some questions. I said sure. Whats your name? I gave him a fake name, then he asked who I was with. I told him I was with the 9/11 Truth Movement, he asked what that was and I told him its a loose knit group of people from all over the country who have unanswered questions about 9/11 that the official story doesnt answer and that we want a new, serious investigation into the attacks by people who arent biased like the original committee. He was about to ask another question, but I was approached by a police officer who said that we had to relocate with the sign. So we began walking up Church street carrying the sign. At one point I had given my end of the sign to my boy to carry and was walking along with them. Some lady came up and said something about ahole this or that, I said Maam, were not the ones being disrespectufl and hateful, were only asking question, like why did WTC 7 fall down? She walked away mumbling about aholes.

    Anywayz, that was the most hectic it got, the walk up the street, we were feeling the hate big time, all the suits and ties were pissed at us for questioning things, they hate Arabs so bad that anyone asking questions that might lead to Arabs not being responisible might as well be Arab. Disgusting, and to think that these are the same type of people that worked in the towers and were killed who I travelled from PA to speak up for, its sad.

    Anywayz, we were led by the police up to Trinity and Cedar. At Trinity and Cedar, the entire park there was full of black shirts, throughout the day, Trinity and Cedar became known as Camp Freedom, because it was nothing but the Truth Movement there.

    So were holding this big ass sign on the pavement at Trinity and Cedar, and one of the best moments of the day for me happened. A police officer approached me and said I think you guys are doing a great thing, I support you guys. I dont think you are the bad guys at all, like I said, yous are doing a good thing here. But I need you to take down that sign because its a crowded area and if it were to fall, people could be injured. I said no problem sir, and thank you for the kind words. Then I told the dude whos sign it was that the cop said it had to come down because of the safety concern, he protested, but I put my end down and went into Camp Freedom to mingle with the other Truth members.

    So Im standing there with my boy, and I look over, and I notice Corey Rowe (one of the guys who made Loose Change). I said Corey Dylan!! then corrected myself...yooooooooooo Corey Rowe, whats up!! he shook my hand and said thanks for showing up and complimented me on my shirt. Then me and my boy went to this place called Pinnina Bread or something to get some food. When we came back to Camp Freedom, we started talking to these other dudes (the boy my age was from NYC and his dad was a firefighter that got his lungs *expletive deleted*ed up working at ground zero) and he said that Alex Jones was there. So I started looking for him (Alex). And there he was.

    Now, the worst moment of my day happened. I went up to Alex, and said Alex, could I get a quick picture taken with you? He said he had to make a phone call real quick, I said hey take your time man. So boom, he got off the phone and came over to me. I told my boy to get ready to take the picture. Me and Alex shook hands for a few seconds and then we parted ways.

    I was happy and wanted to smoke weed now, so me and my boy took a walk and found an empty alleyway to smoke in. Then when I was lighting up, my boy started freestyling and said I hate to see how Trees hearts gon be breakin/ cuz him and Alex parted ways before the picture was taken

    What he just said sank in and I said NUH UH!!?!? STOP PLAYIN!!!!! He had taken too long bringing up the camera options on his cellphone and didnt get the shot!!!!! I was pissed at him, for a long time. Still kinda mad at him. After we smoked, we walked by a bar and I said he had to buy me a double of Jack Daniels for *expletive deleted*in my picture up, so we went in the bar and got a little buzz on. Then we headed back to Camp Freedom at Trinity and Cedar. Word was that at 2 pm, after they finished reading the victims names at Ground Zero, Alex was gonna go down and speak on the megaphone at GZ. So me and my boy went to get something to eat.

    When we came out, the boy I seen earlier that told me about Alex said yo, youre boy Immortal Technique is here somewhere, hes down by Ground Zero. This wouldve made up for the lost Alex Jones picture, but I never ran into Imortal Technique. Anywayz, we chilled in Freedom Park for an hour or so before 2 pm came and we headed to GZ.

    By now, the flagheads rolled out and the 9/11 Truth Movement controlled Ground Zero. The police showed up with big rubber bullet firing machine guns and lined both sides of the street. Both sides of Church Street, maybe it was Fulton, but anywayz, BOTH SIDES of the street were filled with Black Shirts and Alex Jones took the Megaphone. Alex spit facts and led the crowd in chants of 9/11 was an inside job, 911 was an inside job, 911 was an inside job!! The Truth movement was massive, and the media completely DISAPPEARED. At one point, an ABC news van drove down the street in front of us and were BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOed and screamed at to do your job!!!.

    Anywayz, that went on for a while, and then the movement began walking to 120 Broadway, where Larry Silverstiens office is. The police blocked off 2 lanes of traffic and the Truth Movement gathered in the middle of the street. Alex Jones got on the megaphone again and started speaking about WTC 7 and other things. In the hour or so we were there, we chanted Pull it! pull it! pull it! and murderer! murderer! murderer! among other sayings like 911 was an inside job, we have the proof, so face the truth! After that, the Truth Movement marched to Police HQ, but me and my boy were both tired as *expletive deleted*it and beat, so we decided to head back to Penn Station.

    It was a great experience all together. One thing I took away from it was the fact that something so massive could take place, so many people from all over could gather and voice an opinion, and the media could black it out as if it never happened. Its upsetting. I was there, it was massive, and no one I know that watched the news yesterday seen it.

    Another thing I couldnt help but notice was the respect, concern, and love that the 9/11 Truth Movement represented. And on the other side, the hate and anger and wickedness of the so called ordinary people. They could not debate one fact, they couldnt talk without cursing or offending whoever they were talking to. To think that if it were them who died in the towers, and I had been there fighting for truth and wanting to know what happened to them, how unworthy they would be to protest for. Im absolutely sure that there were good people that died in the towers, and not all evil hateful monsters like those there yesterday pretending to mourn. I dedicate my protest to any good person that died in the buildings, but its sad to say, those people I encountered yesterday in mass, are not worth protesting for. Next time theyre government kills them, I might just stay home and be quiet.

[client32]

For some reason the picture I got was the VW bus from the movie Cars.

What are the odds that the cop this guy is so enamored with actually believes what he said, or simply found an easy way for them to drop the sign?

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Man, America be, like, turnin's all into the Twillight Zone, yo.  'Ceptin' this ain't no TV show.  This be real life.

Seriously, what's going on in the country?  Is there somehting in the water?

[wingnutx]

THE MAN is putting manganese into malt liquor.

[LAK]

The people that write this trash attempt to assume the high ground, usually because they have the lines - some directly - into the convenient avenues of media. The "right" - as in "correct" - media of course.

Ask Mr Goldberg who exactly were, and what happened to, the little group of five cheering Israelis in NY on September 11th, 2001 - people like Dominik Otto Suter and his "Urban Moving Systems" -  and he might suddenly find something else very pressing to find in one of his desk drawers.

The most ridiculous conspiracy theory is the story George W Bush and fellow puppets fed people via their media cronies. The so-called "9/11 Report" by the so-called "Independent Commission" would be hysterically funny were it not for the seriousness of the subject matter. You really need some kind of headwear - and a liberal dose of Ritalin - to believe that one, even if the deliberate blocking or suppression of information and investigation, destruction of evidence, lies and omissions, testimony and evidence to the contrary were not present.

The meddling within our government by foreign agencies, and the astounding (and unaccounted for) acts of interference on the part of some of our own government officials in the period leading up to, during, and since 9/11 ought to be the subject of Congressional hearings with subpoena powers, severe criminal penalties - with a long list of people placed under oath and questioned.

Citizens of this country being handed seventy-five question "census" forms - the completion of which is mandated under penalties of severely heavy fines - under the current administration might finally ring a historical bell with some people in this country.

If Al Kidya were what these puppets and their mouthpieces want you to believe they are - they would have had this country at a standstill, on the verge of chaos, in less than a month of 9/11. Not five months later, not five years later.

=============================

http://ussliberty.org
http://ssunitedstates.org

[The Rabbi]

The people that write this trash attempt to assume the high ground, usually because they have the lines - some directly - into the convenient avenues of media. The "right" - as in "correct" - media of course.

Ask Mr Goldberg who exactly were, and what happened to, the little group of five cheering Israelis in NY on September 11th, 2001 - people like Dominik Otto Suter and his "Urban Moving Systems" -  and he might suddenly find something else very pressing to find in one of his desk drawers.

The most ridiculous conspiracy theory is the story George W Bush and fellow puppets fed people via their media cronies. The so-called "9/11 Report" by the so-called "Independent Commission" would be hysterically funny were it not for the seriousness of the subject matter. You really need some kind of headwear - and a liberal dose of Ritalin - to believe that one, even if the deliberate blocking or suppression of information and investigation, destruction of evidence, lies and omissions, testimony and evidence to the contrary were not present.

The meddling within our government by foreign agencies, and the astounding (and unaccounted for) acts of interference on the part of some of our own government officials in the period leading up to, during, and since 9/11 ought to be the subject of Congressional hearings with subpoena powers, severe criminal penalties - with a long list of people placed under oath and questioned.

Citizens of this country being handed seventy-five question "census" forms - the completion of which is mandated under penalties of severely heavy fines - under the current administration might finally ring a historical bell with some people in this country.

If Al Kidya were what these puppets and their mouthpieces want you to believe they are - they would have had this country at a standstill, on the verge of chaos, in less than a month of 9/11. Not five months later, not five years later.

=============================

http://ussliberty.org
http://ssunitedstates.org

I thought we got rid of that Blackburn troll.

[Ron]

Nah, LAK has a long history at THR in L&P.

Don't recall too many ad hominems from him, he is just your garden variety leftist who enjoys debate.

edited to add, he may be a liberal or anarchist, memory fails and I don't have time to look it up. Been around awhile though and I don't have any bad feelings so he must be ok even if we don't agree.

[auschip]

Ask Mr Goldberg who exactly were, and what happened to, the little group of five cheering Israelis in NY on September 11th, 2001 - people like Dominik Otto Suter and his "Urban Moving Systems" -  and he might suddenly find something else very pressing to find in one of his desk drawers.

Watch the documentary "Protocols of Zion" by Marc Levin.  It's an interesting documentary about the advent and use of The Protocols of the learned Edelers of Zion in current society.  They discuss the "5 cheering Israelis", and even show snippets of interviews they provided after the fact.

[roo_ster]

We can all thank LAK for a demonstration of what the author wrote about.

(Unless it was a parody making fun of the nutball fringe.  It can be hard to tell the difference at times.  In that case, "Bravo!" for capturing the author's intent so very well!)

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

I'm confused...  

[client32]

I'm confused...  

My too, but I'm always that way.

[Art Eatman]

"Protocols of Zion"?  Hey, the original of that garbage was written by Jew-haters and Jew-baiters; it's as phony now as it was X-hundred years ago.

Shiny side out!  And always remember:  Dr. Goebbels was absolutely correct with his statement, "If you tell a big enough lie, often enough, people will begin to believe it."

Art

[auschip]

"Protocols of Zion"?  Hey, the original of that garbage was written by Jew-haters and Jew-baiters; it's as phony now as it was X-hundred years ago.

Shiny side out!  And always remember:  Dr. Goebbels was absolutely correct with his statement, "If you tell a big enough lie, often enough, people will begin to believe it."

Art

Absolutely, and the documentary with a similar name talks about how it is still being represented as true today.  It even goes into the history of the book, talks to people who believe it to be true (and those who admit it is a lie), and debunks alot of other myths (eg no Jewish people died in 9-11 etc).

It's available through NetFlix if you are a member.

http://www.independentfilm.com/films/protocols-of-zion-marc-levin.shtml an interview with Marc, and more info about the movie.

[LAK]

Perhaps the Rabbi, as the first heckler, can explain to everyone who the cheering Israelis filming the twin towers burning on September 11, 2001 were, and their agent in charge Mr. Suter who ran their little front outfit called "Urban Moving Sytems". The ones who after they were released by the FBI so quickly left the country.

There is a pile of evidence that the official story is a fraud, and that the targets were no surprize. The "Independent Commission" and it's report a bad joke. It was as superficial as something out of the Reader's Digest; something like a half a page - with no specifics - covering the funding of the attacks.

Art's comment on big lies is very apt. Goebbels would be proud indeed.

GoRon exhibits the classic current political dimentia - attempting to label a conservative a "leftist". As I have pointed out to one member on this forum recently, and several others over a few years on TFL and THR, I am hardly a "leftist". It is a great number of conservatives who are not blind to the lies flowing out of Washington DC from a so-called "conservative" administration - nor the omissions they have made.

Your leftists are actually running the WH under the current administration - as have their parallel party called "the democrats" in the past.

--------------------------------------------------------------

http://ussliberty.org
http://ssunitedstates.org

[Ron]

Your leftists are actually running the WH under the current administration - as have their parallel party called "the democrats" in the past.

Actually I agree that the current administration is leftist in its view of the role of government.

I really wasn't trying to label you as anything, I just remember butting heads in a thread over at THR some time ago.

[The Rabbi]

Just like arguing with paranoids and alcoholics, arguing with conspiracy theorists is a waste of time.  Any denial just means the evidence is being covered up.
Yes, LAK, it was an Israeli operation to blow up the WTC.  But theywere ordered to do so by the Pope, who pulls the strings in that country.  I dont mean Benedict but rather Elvis, who is very much alive and very pissed off about the way he was treated.

[Art Eatman]

Rabbi, all this garbage about WTC is just today's tinfoil hattery equivalent to the denial of the Holocaust.

A "sorta buddy" of mine has notebooks full of "evidence" that the Holocaust didn't happen.  Yeah.  Xerox copies of newspaper-type articles by other deniers.  I asked the guy why'd he'd want to call my father a liar.  He sez, "Huh?"  I sez, "My father was THERE!"  The camps existed.  The people were brutalized and murdered.  (Etcl, etc.)  I further went on to tell this idiot that I had served in the Army with Lifer M/Sgts who had also been here, there and yonder in Germany in 1945 and 1946.  They had seen.  They had talked to survivors.

I saw MovieTone newsreels in 1945 of survivors being released.  Staged?  Er, uh, how do you persuade people to starve themselves down to sixty and seventy pounds?  And in a month or two?  Those tattoos were all part of the "plot"?

Guess what.  The guy just shook his head; what I'd said had no meaning to him.

The latest I've run across:  The drop in gasoline prices is an oil company plot to help the Republicans win the next elections.

Buy stock in Reynolds or Alcoa.

Art

[Ron]

It does seem rather odd that the only thing our government does well is hide the proof of the global conspiiracy to take over the world.

The 9/11 commission wasn't covering up a conspiracy. It was trying to cover up incompetence.

[Art Eatman]

And while I'm ranting:  The WTC must have been a USGummint plot, because the buildings couldn't have collapsed as they did.  There had to be explosives set inside.  See, the buildings should have fallen over sideways, tilting and not dropping straight down.

That structural engineers have given rational explanations doesn't matter to a Liberal Arts major who flunked math.

Oh, and it couldn't have been an airliner that hit the Pentagon, because there weren't pieces of airplane obviously visible after the crash.

Hey, eyewitnesses are unreliable, right?  And read Fred On Everything's comments"

http://www.fredoneverything.net/FOE_Frame_Column.htm

Excerpt:

"But&how many Jews do you suppose worked in the towers? New York being New York, and the towers being full of lawyers and commercial people, the answer has to be A Whole Bunch. Lets think about this.

I picture Rachel Goldstein, a tower slave, in her apartment at night when the phone rings.

Rachel: Hello.

Voice: Rachel. This is Mossad.

Rachel: Oh, hi! Im Mahatma Gandhi.

Voice: No, Rachel. This really is Mossad.

Rachel: This really is Mahat&.

Voice: Honest. Really, really. Cross my heart and hope&.

Rachel: Take your medication. Click."

******************


Y'know, I think maybe a tinfoil hat get you an extra vote at the polling place.  There's gotta be SOME explanation for the mess we're in.

Art