Why Western elites now can’t resist conspiracy theories

[Abdul Alhazred]

Why Western elites now can’t resist conspiracy theories
NY Post

I was born into a nation of conspiracy-mongers. For all their many admirable qualities, Iranians have a penchant for explaining the world through conspiracy theories, a talent for discovering a hidden hand — usually a Jewish or American one — behind every national setback and personal mishap.

Now I’m afraid that the West has succumbed to the same fever.

Only in the West these days, the hidden hand is usually a Russian one. And unlike in the Muslim world, where it’s typically the man on the street who suspects elites of serving nefarious foreigners, in the West, it’s the reverse: Many elites imagine that the common people, vast swaths of their own populations, are Kremlin agents.

...

[scrmbldggs]

Everyone on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube... you name it - is a Kremlin agent.



(Except this guy.)

[ElectricMonk]

Conspiracy Theories are the result of a dissonance between what you see is happening and what you think should be happening, given your level of information.
Because we are able to get ever more information about what is happening, but because of the rise in complexity understand less and less why it is happening, it is no wonder that CTs are on the rise, especially among people who think they know enough to understand exactly what is going on - but don't.

[Gord]

...Only in the West these days, the hidden hand is usually a Russian one. And unlike in the Muslim world, where it’s typically the man on the street who suspects elites of serving nefarious foreigners, in the West, it’s the reverse: Many elites imagine that the common people, vast swaths of their own populations, are Kremlin agents.

...

These days?? Dafuq?? Did this guy not live during any of the 20th century???

[gorgeous]

Crazy Conspiracy Theories That Turned Out to Be True | Reader's Digest


https://www.rd.com/culture/conspiracy-t ... o-be-true/



Sep 18, 2017 - They say the truth is stranger than fiction. That's no lie: All of these so-called "crazy conspiracy theories" turned out to be legit.

[gorgeous]

7 government conspiracy theories that are true - Big Think


https://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/7-cons ... ually-true


Apr 26, 2018 - Are conspiracy theories ever true? Here are a few occasions when the government really did what the conspiracy theories claimed.

[Austin Harper]

These days?? Dafuq?? Did this guy not live during any of the 20th century???

It's a weird thought, but I do know lots of people who did not live during any of the 20th century.

[gorgeous]

^^^^^^Conspiracy: The Dalai Lama is a CIA agent.

The truth: Perhaps the reason the Dalai Lama is smiling in all those photos has something to do with the six-figure salary he pulled down from the U.S. government during the 1960s. According to declassified intelligence documents, he earned $180,000 in connection with the CIA’s funding of the Tibetan Resistance to the tune of $1.7 million per year. The idea was to disrupt and hamper China’s infrastructure. ------------wiki---The approval and subsequent endorsement of the program was carried out by the Special Group of the United States National Security Council. The program consisted of several clandestine operations with the following code names:
ST CIRCUS—Cover name for the training of Tibetan guerillas in the island of Saipan, and at Camp Hale in Colorado[8][9][10]
ST BARNUM—Cover name for the airlifting of CIA agents, military supplies, and support equipment into Tibet.[11][12]
ST BAILEY—Cover name for a classified propaganda campaign[ ------In 1959, the CIA opened a secret facility to train Tibetan recruits at Camp Hale near Leadville, Colorado

[gorgeous]

soo...we're agreed there are actual conspiracies...right? who knew the Lama was so greedy?

[Gord]

These days?? Dafuq?? Did this guy not live during any of the 20th century???

It's a weird thought, but I do know lots of people who did not live during any of the 20th century.

Impossible! Surely such people would still be in diapers, drooling their bottles across the carpet as they trundle awkwardly about on all fours!

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I know people who did not live during any of the 19th Century.

[Lance Kennedy]

One thing I know is that gorgeous is a sucker for conspiracy theories. I actually looked at his/her/its reference, which simply shows that the American government/military is made up of idiots.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

One thing I know is that gorgeous is a sucker for conspiracy theories. I actually looked at his/her/its reference, which simply shows that the American government/military is made up of idiots.

And the American public is made of sweeping generalizers.

[Upton_O_Goode]

Let's go back a couple of generations, to the early 1960s, when the Red Scare (the second major one in the twentieth century) was still formidable. In a surprising place, namely an address to a chapter of American Legion, you'll find the poem "Song of a Modern Vigilante" on pp. 17--18. I remember my roommate reciting it to me back in 1962. It's a priceless (and funny) send-up of conspiracy theories.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

.The Song Of A
Modern Vigilante

A poem:

I sometimes fancy, as I spy

That I excel the F.B.I.

Right now I'm making little lists

Of folks I think are Communists ;

I have no proof on anyone

And yet the list.? are lots of fun.

All friends of foreign aid, I think

Must be set down as rather pink.

A little pinker, not far off

I list perforce the college prof.

And pinker yet the student crowd

That lauds the Bill of Rights out loud.

U.N. supporters, as I've said,

Are always ipso facto red.

And redder still on my red list

Are all the integrationists.

Just for measure, in my labors,

I add a few of my close neighbors;

Thus I rejoice that loyalty

Resides alone in j-ou and me.

Although before my work is through

You may, good friend, be listed too.

https://archive.org/stream/dailytarheel ... 3_djvu.txt

[Upton_O_Goode]

.The Song Of A
Modern Vigilante

A poem:

I sometimes fancy, as I spy

That I excel the F.B.I.

Right now I'm making little lists

Of folks I think are Communists ;

I have no proof on anyone

And yet the list.? are lots of fun.

All friends of foreign aid, I think

Must be set down as rather pink.

A little pinker, not far off

I list perforce the college prof.

And pinker yet the student crowd

That lauds the Bill of Rights out loud.

U.N. supporters, as I've said,

Are always ipso facto red.

And redder still on my red list

Are all the integrationists.

Just for measure, in my labors,

I add a few of my close neighbors;

Thus I rejoice that loyalty

Resides alone in j-ou and me.

Although before my work is through

You may, good friend, be listed too.

https://archive.org/stream/dailytarheel ... 3_djvu.txt

Ya beat me to it!! I was about to edit my post to include the actual poem. The link I provided says it appeared first in Catholic News, a publication of the Archdiocese of New York and was later reproduced in "America".

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The "Daily Tar Heel" is a uni publication in South Carolina.

[Lance Kennedy]

Nice to see it published.
Though I am very, very cynical about the USA ( mostly the government to be honest), I do have a sneaking admiration for your freedom of speech values, in which you can say whatever you like, no matter how cutting, about those in power.

Here in NZ, and in Britain, there is a bit of restraint due to libel laws. I am unsure whether those laws are a net good or evil.

[TJrandom]

Conspiracy: Gorgeous is nutty as a fruitcake.
The Truth: This is true – the evidence is that ‘it’ referenced Readers Digest ffs… yawn…


(Surely this the first time that any skeptic has referenced RD. By first, I do mean me - in the line above. Gorgeous is no skeptic.)

[Upton_O_Goode]

Conspiracy: Gorgeous is nutty as a fruitcake.
The Truth: This is true – the evidence is that ‘it’ referenced Readers Digest ffs… yawn…


(Surely this the first time that any skeptic has referenced RD. By first, I do mean me - in the line above. Gorgeous is no skeptic.)

Absolutely. I don't trust Reader's Digest. I get solid information from TV Guide.

[Gord]

I used to read Reader's Digest until they refused to publish my joke about the priest and the three nuns.

[TJrandom]

I am surprised that it is still around - though I shouldn't be, given all of the asleep at the wheel Trump supporters there apparently are. Zombies, really...