Are conspiracy theories destroying democracy?

[American Dream]

I've wondered out loud previously whether we might be able to forge any sort of consensus at the grassroots that would help bring us closer to a "policy" that minimizes thread proliferation in general.

There still seems to be interest/energy that could be channeled in this direction...

[norton ash]

Big money is destroying democracy. That one's lemon-squeezy.

[MacCruiskeen]

Big money is destroying democracy. That one's lemon-squeezy.

Corporations are eating education. That one too.

The BBC is a willing and active helper in this process. That one three.

Also obvious: The ongoing effort to shore up Establishment discourse is costing them all ever-more time and money. It's a class war, all right, and language is one of their main weapons. In their hands the weapon is blunt and rusty, true, but it still does a job.

Look at what they call their "blog", for instance:

Conspiracy and Democracy Project: the Blog

http://www.conspiracyanddemocracy.org/blog/

Did you notice the subtitle, in smaller print?

Conspiracy and Democracy Project: the Blog

A discussion space for project researchers

That's right: Where it says "Leave a reply", no reply can in fact be left, unless you're a fellow-"project researcher". It's British Democracy in microcosm: it simulates openness & access. They do; the plebs watch. The Great British public is free to participate by pressing its nose against the frosted-glass door.

The "Blog" itself shows precisely what is to come: a simulation of science & scholarship. Far from "researching" anything at all, they have their conclusions all worked out in advance, and those conclusions are the dumbest & laziest of ignorant lies & smirking evasions & philistine clichés. It's all achingly reminiscent of the chatter in The Guardian. (But of course; these chaps and chapettes are liberals.) Being hacks themselves, all they can do, and all they will be required to do, is rehash hackery. That's their Major New Research Project, at Cambridge Unileversty. Anti-thought and anti-science.

Simulation everywhere. Until 2015. On an (officially admitted) budget of over 1,500,000 quid.

The BBC will of course report on that serious scientific research, and regularly too. For how could it not? It is funded by everyone's license fees and therefore it has a duty to the public. And here at RI, we can and will comment on each report separately as it appears. To our hearts' content.

Fine thing, democracy. (That Russell Brand is so cynical.)

[MacCruiskeen]

It's all achingly reminiscent of the chatter in The Guardian. (But of course; these chaps and chapettes are liberals.)

Though of course also content to function, with a radiant corporate rictus, under the vilest British government in living memory.

The sheer banality of it.

[Iamwhomiam]

Hmm... I've been under the impression that Democracy was the conspiracy theory.

[JackRiddler]

The incredible thing is that, following the US-UK war of aggression that was launched against the opposition of a UK majority, we are now in the middle of the Snowden revelations proving the full extent of the surveillance state in UK as well as US. And this nonsense -- people have opinions we consider ill-informed -- is the crisis of democracy!

[MacCruiskeen]

The incredible thing is that, following the US-UK war of aggression that was launched against the opposition of a UK majority, we are now in the middle of the Snowden revelations proving the full extent of the surveillance state in UK as well as US. And this nonsense -- people have opinions we consider ill-informed -- is the crisis of democracy!

It's all incredible, after one million marchers against the Iraq invasion in London in 2003. After all the revelations. Snowden. Manning. Assange. All the revelations about 9/11 too, from Rowley, Jennings, the Jersey Girls, I can longer even remember who the fuck else, there were so fucking many of them and I am so fucking angry.

Today and for the last three days the German papers have been full of revelations about the NSA spying on Merkel's cellphone since 2002, with the full knowledge and explicit approval of Obama since he came to power. A day later it turns out they've been spying on the French government too. Now the Spanish government is getting decidedly testy too, and guess why? (The populace is of course of no relevance, in any Democracy.) It's all coming out. It's all coming down. With absolutely no thanks to the pseudoleft & liberal scrivening smugsters who decried it all as "conspiracy theory" until their governments finally told them it was all right to be concerned.

Has any of this been reported in the States at all?

And what's been the response of "the left", throughout the Anglophone world? What's been their urgent priority? To piss on Russell Brand. To call him a sexist. To point out that he failed to say everything to Paxman in the ten minutes at his disposal. To distinguish themselves from the naive plebeian masses who were so uncritical as to be delighted and relieved.

Ach, it just beggars belief. See that thread if you can bear it.

Seriously, I am now very close to despair about the possibility of any positive change before the planet fries. I have to keep reminding myself that the Brand video has now had over 10 million views with over 90% approval for him. Those people at least know that it's all coming down fast. Those people will not be indifferent to their "fate".

The problem is the so-called intellectual class, in the broadest possible sense. The salaried and freelance clerks, the "researchers", the journos, the Schreiberlinge, the banal enablers of evil, with their relentless resentful industry. The ones who are hustling for distinction. The ones who despise and resent and fear any kind of live or living action.

If there is hope it lies in the proles. See Latin America. And yes, goddammit, see "9/11 Truth", for all its thousand warts that Elephant Man is far more beautiful than Douglas Valentine or Alexander Cockburn or David Corn or any of the million other pseudoleft and "liberal" smirkers & scriveners & ponderers & timeservers. That's not socialism, that's barbarism. That is very decidedly the enemy too. Or at least it is mine.

Haters of beauty, haters of truth. They make me puke. They can all go to hell, and they will.

[JackRiddler]

As you say, Mr. MacC. But what'd Valentine do? I have it on moderately good hearsay he's a 9/11 skeptic.

[MacCruiskeen]

But what'd Valentine do? I have it on moderately good hearsay he's a 9/11 skeptic.

Who cares, Jack? If he is, when in all his smirking professional scrivening life has he ever once dared to make it clear?

See his latest banal Counterpunch screed. He is a repulsive creep. He can and will go to hell with the rest of 'em. .

[NeonLX]

Problem is, they may be going to Hell, but they will be dragging us along with them.

Every day, I wake up and ask myself if I should even bother listening or reading the news from non-corporate sources, or should I simply become blissfully ignorant (on edit, that genie was let out of the bottle long ago). My coworkers, many of them "lefties", have grown weary of my hoarse rantings. I've had to shut up. It's either that or I get sent packing.

And don't even get me started about our discussions at home.

[Iamwhomiam]

MacCruiskeen wrote:
Today and for the last three days the German papers have been full of revelations about the NSA spying on Merkel's cellphone since 2002, with the full knowledge and explicit approval of Obama since he came to power. A day later it turns out they've been spying on the French government too. Now the Spanish government is getting decidedly testy too, and guess why? (The populace is of course of no relevance, in any Democracy.) It's all coming out. It's all coming down. With absolutely no thanks to the pseudoleft & liberal scrivening smugsters who decried it all as "conspiracy theory" until their governments finally told them it was all right to be concerned.

They must be shunned, left in the cold, freezing, before being starved.

[justdrew]

while obviously the thing in the OP is bad, there is something to be said for squelching dis-information. Keep in mind on favorite tactic I would use if I were a defender of establishment discourse would be to see to it that as much nonsensical disinfo as possible were injected into the non-establishment channels.

[82_28]

I think that the better self must be recognized as a "team effort" with no view towards self enrichment. To deny any conspiracy is in itself a conspiracy. I don't really know how to explain it. The conspiracy is the hidden conspiracy behind why some believe this shit and with no control over outcomes. Ooops I did it again. Double Bind. By unearthing the truth all we expose is that the truth is made up to begin with and continues to be rewritten. We must double back upon the mass mentality and present the old answer to them were we to know what we know now say we had a fucking time machine in order to scope it all out. We have to, each of us use our individuality and community and learn from the past.

In a small way I am trying to come up with a way that mistakes can be ordered on demand for free. Yes, ironically, but seriously.

[coffin_dodger]

I think that the better self must be recognized as a "team effort" with no view towards self enrichment. To deny any conspiracy is in itself a conspiracy. I don't really know how to explain it. The conspiracy is the hidden conspiracy behind why some believe this shit and with no control over outcomes.

A true 'common sense' is a real and potentially hugely positive outcome of these current crises.
7 billion individuals, each as different on the 'inside' as their physical appearance on the outside. Each with their own reality and set of beliefs, founded through the experience of interaction with their environment and the written/visual experiences of others, each word and it's inference warped in turn by the author's own beliefs. I've never met another human being with whom I agreed on everything, but I've met plenty who are very concerned with the same questions - where are we headed and why has it gone so wrong?
To dismiss an individual because they disagree with some of your own beliefs suits the current power structure just dandy, creating fissures across the entire spectrum of 'general agreement'. It assists in keeping the 'not-importants' isolated and powerless. Left and right, black and white, for and against.

I sometimes consider ideas and concepts as frequencies. An initial idea starts at very low frequency and is inaudible. The more individuals that subscribe to that idea(l) raises the frequency, until at a critical point it becomes audible, then, as even more people 'tune in', it begins to pierce everyone's consciousness, whether they listen for it, or not. At this point, it may well be ignored in communication with others (so as to contain the spread and having to face the consequences), but inside, the voice we each carry with us unknown by the outside, will be thinking about it, discussing it. And worrying. This internal worrying can affect us as profoundly as any mental illness. And again, this assists the power structure in maintaining it's dominance - the fear of grand change and what it will mean for the individual. It's a conundrum.

But I hope it's breakable. We need to find a frequency that everyone can hear.