Examining Famous "Conspiracies"

[Sinnerman]

Examining Famous "Conspiracies"

Robert Sheaffer - The Debunker's Domain Famous "Conspiracies" - Debunker.com -

Conspiracy theories have always been with us, but they have become extremely popular in recent years. Offering simple answers to extremely complex questions, they are seductive to those who do not examine issues too closely. They also appeal to those who harbor deep-seated resentments against "the rich," "the powerful," "the Jews," or whatever other group a person might envy and wish to see brought down. (See my book Resentment Against Achievement for a great deal more about this.)
Read my column about a recent Conspiracy Convention: Conspire This!
But the important thing to remember is that all "cosmic" conspiracies are false. Certainly some conspiracies do exist. Individuals routinely conspire to commit illegal acts: this is known as "organized crime," and its existence is never doubted. Nations sometimes "conspire" with other nations to achieve common goals: this is known as "strategy" or "diplomacy," and while the aims and methods may sometimes be murky, its existence is undeniable. But "global" or "cosmic" conspiracies make claims going far beyond this. "Global" conspiracies claim that the important events affecting the entire world are being driven, and indeed may have been driven for centuries, by a group of hidden rulers, pursuing its own secret agenda. Often there are extraterrestrial or other paranormal claims introduced into the conspiracy. What is invariably lacking is any hard evidence backing up the claims. Typically, conspiracists cannot agree who the secret rulers are, what they are doing, and what their aims may be. But conspiracists seldom debunk each other (even though if A is correct, then B, C, and all the others must be wrong): instead, they reserve their scorn for those who deny that the human race is little better off than puppets on strings, unaware of the actions of the puppetmaster.

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Conspiracies about the Sept. 11, 2001 Attacks on America

A compendium of 9-11 conspiracy claims from crank.net. ("Cranks, crackpots, kooks, and loons on the net.") Fringe, Cranky, Crankier, Crankiest.
Do You Believe the 9/11 Conspiracy Theories?


Debunking 9/11 Conspiracy theories.
Skeptic Jonathan Kay's Blog Among the Truthers.
The Anti-Defamation league prepared a report showing how many of the 9-11 conspiracy theories originate from anti-Semetic groups and individuals.
And since most people these days won't take seriously wild theories blaming "the Jews," when writing for a mainstream audience these conspiracists are a bit more vague about who they blame.
The left-wing political activist Chip Berlet debunks the conspiracy book The New Pearl Harbor by David Ray Griffin (for those of you who won't believe "the establishment").

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Conspiracies about Groups that Secretly Control the World

Popular Conspiracy author David Icke writes how a group called "the Illuminati" have "been holding the reigns of power in the world since ancient times." The Illuminati is in fact the secret bloodline of "the Reptoids," a race of space aliens who bred with humans to create a royal lineage, which includes (of course) "the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, the British royal family," as well as most presidents of the U.S., including both Bushes, and Al Gore, as well.
According to the industrialist Henry Ford, the Jews are working to secretly control the world, and are "the world's foremost problem." (This on-line book is hosted on the website of a 'Holocaust denial' organization, which vehemently denies being anti-Semitic.)


The "We Never Went to the Moon" Conspiracy

The claims: Bill Kaysing was the first to claim "we never went to the moon." (He doesn't think John Glenn went into orbit, either.)
The Facts: The Bad Astronomy site has an in-depth refutation of the claim that "we never landed on the moon."
Even the space conspiracy crackpot Richard Hoagland (who believes NASA is covering up Martians) agrees that we did go to the moon.


"Kennedy Assasination" Conspiracies

John McAdams' pages debunking misinformation about the assasination of President Kennedy .
The claim that the CIA had Kennedy killed began as cold-war disinfo from the KGB (and the author of this article writes for the leftist publication The Nation).




"Chemtrail" Conspiracies

My Photo of "Chemtrails" near San Jose, CA, June 7, 2001. (Note the cirrus clouds.)

The claims: Various cranks are claiming that wide, flat contrails are really "chemtrails," a covert government operation pumping chemicals into the sky for purposes speculated as anything from weather modification to deliberate poisoning of the population.
"Chemtrails" from Surfing the Apocalypse.
Clifford E. Carnicom's industrial-strength Conspiracy website - from the man who started the Chemtrail paranoia.
There is even a Contrails WebRing!


The Facts: Under certain meterological conditions, high-altitude contrails can serve as a catalyst for the growth of cirrus clouds that sometimes expand to enormous size. In other words, what starts out as a small contrail sometimes seeds the growth of a huge cirrus cloud. You will note that so-called "chemtrails" are seldom if ever seen except in the presence of cirrus clouds. However, if they were actually "posion spraying," this correlation would not exist, and they would be seen just as often in skies with cumulous clouds, or with no clouds at all.
Visit Contrail Science to combat rampant misinformation and conspiracy claims.
The New Mexicans for Science and Reason have an excellent page debunking "chemtrail" claims.

Medical Conspiracies

The vaccines you get are poisoned! And AIDS, Ebola, and other viruses are deliberate laboratory creations.

Miscellaneous Conspiracy Resources

Lots of conspiracy resources at Crank dot net

 

[DP]

"The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is the American Branch of a society which originated in England ... (and) ... believes national boundaries should be obliterated and one-world rule established."—Professor of History Carroll Quigley, Georgetown University, in his book "Tragedy and Hope."

It really is a show of ignorance when some come preaching against conspiracies fail to recognize that a conspiracy is merely two or more individuals working behind the scenes towards a common goal.

The word conspiracy is commonly thought of only in the negative sense, when it actually can also apply to what the U.S. founding fathers did in Philadelphia with the American Declaration of Independence. That definitely was a conspiracy in the mind of the British powers of the time.

What those like "Sinnerman" reveal are those who would have us believe there is no such thing as conspiracies, and to treat the idea of conspiracy itself as nothing more than a type of heresy that should not be mentioned in public.

Fact: Georgetown history professor Carrol Quigley in his 1960's book Tragedy and Hope revealed the operation of a conspiracy within the United States via the organization called the Council On Foreign Relations. He gave names involved, and he didn't present it in a negative light, but admitted that he had been close to the movement for most of his life, and that the only problem he had with the movement was that it wished to remain 'secret'.

Let's see, a movement used to establish a nation's policies held by more than one individual in secrecy? just what is that, if not a CONSPIRACY? More so, the fact that such an organization (or "think tank") containing NON-elected individuals helping to determine our U.S. policies could exist would make the founders of the U.S. Constitution turn over in their graves!

Regarding the underground letter of warning issued to state police governing officials by the Department of Homeland Security, police departments were to be aware of those even mentioning the Council on Foreign Relations, or CFR, and to be aware of U.S. veterans returning from Iraq, and to be aware of those who promote the U.S. Constitution, or that proclaim to be Christians. (Communism is against Christianity, and the U.S. Constitution, and of course U.S. veterans because veterans tend to be patriotic Americans and have combat skills that would make a Communist military takeover more difficult, so who in the Dept. of Homeland Security organization do you think would write such a letter to U.S. state law officials?)

When the head of Homeland Security, Janet Napilitano was questioned by U.S. Congress in hearing about the origin of such a letter from her department sent to state law officials, she would not reveal the origin of the source within her department (she probably didn't really know).

FACT: In the late 1780's in Bavaria, Germany, secret documents were discovered upon a dead agent provocateur revealing the existence in Bavaria of a secret order devised to overthrow all governments and monarchs of Europe, and to overthrow Christianity. It's founder was an orthodox Jew, professor of law at Ingolstadt University by the name of Adam Weishaupt. The name of his order he founded was called the Order of Illuminati. The governments and monarchs of Europe then banned the Illuminati order thereafter. This is history, not make-believe.

This conspiracy of the Illuminati was further exposed in two period works from the exposed documents of the order, in Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism (1799) by the Abbe Barruel, and Proofs Of A Conspiracy (1798) by John Robison. Both of these works are back in print.

FACT: Senator Joseph McCarthy was correct in his pointing to Communist subversives having crept into the U.S. state deparment. The declassified Soviet records revealed McCarthy was speaking the truth, his reputation has now been officially exonerated (see -- Joe McCarthy Was Right)

 

[Sinnerman]

Here is what conspiracy nuts do, they try to define a conspiracy in a way we can all accept. Police charge criminals with conspiracy all the time. It's no big deal. But then just wait a second or two and the conspiracy kooks will head off into the world of vast conspiracy theories like mentioned above in my post and the post by DP. All of those bizarre conspiracies are easily debunked and lead rational human beings to view people who embrace them as needing mental health care. Physicians say they are people who feel isolated and alone and they need to view the world as a dangerous place where secret groups are out to get them.

Here is how you deal with those types. You ask them for evidence. Where is your proof of this imaginary underground letter? Where are the secret Bavarian documents? Where are the declassified Soviet records that prove McCarthy was not a lunatic and fear monger? Let me guess. You aren't going to present them because you don't feel I deserve to see them, is that it? Or will you come up with a new excuse this time? Nothing ever changes with you guys. Doesn't matter if we are talking about the JFK assassination or 9/11 or Sandy Hook, or chemtrails. You guys have never posted any evidence to support your kooky theories. Yet you type the word FACT in bold letters as if it carries any weight. How about this; FACT, conspiracy theory people are kooks. I guess that makes it true by your standards. The people you trust are nuts who spend their lives obsessing abut conspiracies and posting youtube videos. They have been doing it for decades. A few of you see those videos and believe them because it fits the way you view the world. You can see that a plane hit the Pentagon, but you need to believe it was a missile, so you tell your fellow conspiracy friends that it was a missile. You might already blame Jews for lots of other things, so why not blame them for 9/11. Or blame the U.S. government for 9/11 because you've always disliked the U.S. government ever since you got a speeding ticket 30 years ago. It's just that you have no proof or evidence for your conspiracies, so you seek internet web sites full of people who don't ask you for evidence and accept your conspiracy theories without question. Sorry, not here, not on my watch. Provide evidence or it doesn't mean a thing to anyone but you, and possibly your psychiatrist.

 

[DP]

Some people cannot distinguish the difference between fact and fiction, even when presented with the evidence; such are the Sinnerman types in the world.

 

[Sinnerman]

Some people cannot distinguish the difference between fact and fiction, even when presented with the evidence; such are the Sinnerman types in the world.

Even when presented with the evidence? What evidence? I could offer a cash reward for evidence from conspiracy kooks and they would still have nothing to offer.

Try this experiment. Pick your favorite conspiracy and tell us what it is you believe happened that was so very different from what you have been told happened. Then, tell us what evidence you discovered that led you to believe the alternate version of what took place. You know, evidence, like a picture of a missile just before it hit the pentagon, or a person working in the military who says he fired that missile. Or pictures of a demolition crew planting explosives in the WTC towers. Or pictures of all the children said to have been murdered at Sandy Hook, alive and playing outside the new school building.

But you know what you get from conspiracy kooks? You get a picture of a porta-potty, and them saying it was set outside the elementary school before the shooting, and that is proof it was staged. I'm serious. The porta-potty conspiracy theory. And you can't understand why people view you as kooks? C'mon.

Saying some people can't distinguish from fact and fiction is easy to do. I can say that about you. See, it's easy. But what I've done before and am willing to do again, is discuss every detail of a particular event and pour over the evidence and debate the findings. I've done it with the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I discovered a lot about the conspiracy people and about what happened that day.

So I'm challenging you to make your case. Are you up for it? If you are, you'd be one of the first.

 

[DP]

Even when presented with the evidence? What evidence? I could offer a cash reward for evidence from conspiracy kooks and they would still have nothing to offer.

Go get copies of those works I presented, read them, they stand as evidence of conspiracies. Copies are still available, the 1798 Proofs Of A Conspiracy book by the British Mason John Robison is even free online!

But no, charlatans like you are not interested in facts, but instead in libels, false accusations, grand airs to make others think you know what you're talking about, when you don't.

 

[Sinnerman]

Go get copies of those works I presented, read them, they stand as evidence of conspiracies. Copies are still available, the 1798 Proofs Of A Conspiracy book by the British Mason John Robison is even free online!

But no, charlatans like you are not interested in facts, but instead in libels, false accusations, grand airs to make others think you know what you're talking about, when you don't.

Here is what you just did. You didn't make a case for any conspiracy theory, just like I said you would, and you didn't provide one sentence of evidence or a link to any evidence, just as I said you would. Even worse, you tried to tell me to go find evidence for you, to prove something you failed to prove yourself. Pitiful, truly pitiful. Yet standard operation procedure for conspiracy theorists.

I bet you are willing to post again and again and again, saying pretty much the same thing. You're right and everyone else is wrong and there is no need stating what you believe about any specific conspiracy or provide any real evidence to support it. Like Jaybird, you'll go on and on and on, while not really committing to any particular conspiracy in a way you feel you need to provide evidence. Like him, you can just say "it doesn't add up". That's his entire belief about conspiracies. They are likely true because the actual, provable, obvious, undeniable account just doesn't add up in your minds. I suppose that is what fuels all conspiracy nuts. That is their starting point. Then, rather than seeking evidence to make it add up, they embrace some bizarre conspiracy theory that could never add up to any rational person (no children were murdered at Sandy Hook and everyone was a paid actor). It's not just pathetic, it's insulting to the families who lost their children and have suffered so much already.

The OP is Examining Famous Conspiracies. Care to look at those and give us your thoughts? I doubt it.

 

[DP]

Here is what you just did. You didn't make a case for any conspiracy theory, just like I said you would, and you didn't provide one sentence of evidence or a link to any evidence, just as I said you would. Even worse, you tried to tell me to go find evidence for you, to prove something you failed to prove yourself. Pitiful, truly pitiful. Yet standard operation procedure for conspiracy theorists.

Face it; I called your bluff with providing source material and you failed to cover it which makes you a fake, nothing more than a crier at a medicine show.

 

[Sinnerman]

Face it; I called your bluff with providing source material and you failed to cover it which makes you a fake, nothing more than a crier at a medicine show.

The kiss of death, 48.3 "liked" your post.

Conspiracy Theories... they are seductive to those who do not examine issues too closely. They also appeal to those who harbor deep-seated resentments against "the rich," "the powerful," "the Jews," or whatever other group a person might envy and wish to see brought down.

Is this what all low functioning conspiracy theorists do to defend their beliefs? Tell others that somewhere out there exists evidence and it is up to someone else, not them to go and find it. Imagine a man on trial for murder telling the jury he is innocent and that there is evidence to prove his innocence if they would just go and find it. I can almost picture you saying something like that in front of a jury. I guess you sort of did by saying what you have in front of everyone on this forum. If we were all in the fifth grade, it might seem acceptable. Hey kids, my father is actually spiderman. No he isn't, prove it. I don't have to prove it, he told me he is spiderman. So there, you bunch of criers at a medicine show.

DP, here is the bigger problem with conspiracy people. They are troubled people. Ask 48.3 or Jaybird or yourself, what did you do today? Most days the answer is you spent/wasted a bunch of time reading garbage on conspiracy web sites and then you posted some pitiful rant on various internet forums. If you really go to a disturbing extreme, you might even average 48.3 such posts per day, leaving you just enough time to eat a meal and take a shower. Meanwhile, more well adjusted people who aren't obsessing on conspiracy theories, are carrying on healthy lives, hiking, biking, going to church, dating, spending quality time with family, fishing, hunting, going to the gym, walking the dogs, volunteering, going to concerts, dining out, attending a sporting event, maybe a rodeo of a football game, gardening, meeting other human beings in person, not on internet chat sites. But clinical studies of conspiracy people show they are sheltered from normal routines. They stay at home a lot and do not associate with others in person. They create personas via anonymous online forums. Maybe some of what they say about themselves is true, who knows. Maybe everything they say is made up to get attention. That is quite common.

This conspiracy forum is like a magnet for those who have serious problems. Look at Spherical and some other character named Rogers124 or something like that. They were complete basket cases and a lot of you conspiracy folks embraced them and "liked" their kooky rants. The Rodgers guy hated Christians and yet he probably came to this site after being booted off of many other sites hoping to drag some gullible conspiracy folks into his disturbed world. This has to be the garbage dump of the chat site. Where dysfunctional people come to entice others into a world of despair. I'm conflicted whether it's worth pushing back any more or just letting the troubled conspiracy folks lap up their own vomit and go on suffering in isolation. I keep hoping one or two of you will recover from this affliction and go back to living a rich and rewarding life. But you have to want to. Nobody can make you.