7) Theory of Agency rather than Process. For the conspiracist, there are no coincidences. Everything happens for a reason, and that reason is always an intentional agent. Any large scale, frequent, or dramatic events must be the product of deliberate planning, and carried out by an commensurately powerful organization. If those events are negative, a vast malevolent agency or cabal is at work. Small criminal groups or sole individuals cannot be responsible. Ignorance, incompetence, poor planning, or impersonal forces cannot play a role. For those who do not understand how the world works, the question is not how, but who, a systematic misapplication of intentional explanations.

8.) Magic. For those who understand nothing about the world, all is magic. The agency is both supernaturally intelligent and powerful, and yet strangely inept. The cabal has virtually complete control of nearly all powerful institutions--economic, political, legal, social, criminal, and journalistic--yet somehow cannot prevent the conspiracists from uncovering their plot. They can, however, hide all the evidence, an ability which would require the cabal to command power that rivals the divine. Benjamin Franklin said that "Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead." The conspiracists believes that plots involving thousands can operate without detection, thanks to the near omniscience and virtual omnipotence of the conspiracy, whose members are all unswervingly loyal to the cause.

9) Occult Knowledge. Despite the fantastic powers of the enemy, the conspiracists have uncovered the Hidden Truth, marking them as in some way the champions of divine providence. This too is no accident; the conspiracist possesses a rare and special virtue. The conspiracist is thus cast in a heroic light, often an overcompensation for the mundane reality of their personal lives. They alone have broken through the web of illusions created by the cabal, and it is their destiny to free the world. Their Truth trumps all lesser truths, so outright and deliberate lies are acceptable. The objective is not truth (which does not actually exist unless it is theirs--relativists always make exceptions for what they believe, otherwise the relativist argument itself would collapse) but victory.

10) Mutation, Adaptation, and Cross Breeding. As conspiracists meet contrary evidence, they continue to invent and share counter arguments in a piecemeal fashion. Exposure to reason and evidence, rather than correcting the theory, actually forces it to adapt to become a more reason-resistant strain. In effect, criticism acts as a form of natural selection, weeding out the rational proponents and isolating the loons, while at the same time forcing the theory itself to evolve into something which cannot be falsified by any means. Many conspiracist arguments actually contradict other arguments presented by the same conspiracist, because they are pieced together from variant conspiracy theories. Since conspiracy theories rely on gaps arguments, consistency is not important, and this is why one conspiracy theory leads to another--they share common elements indiscriminately. The only thing that is important is that the real explanation be refuted so that the conspiracist alternative may be offered in its place.

11) Evangelism. Spreading belief in the conspiracy theory is of the utmost importance. The conspiracist believes himself to be the sworn enemy of an immensely powerful malevolent enemy, which must be defeated. Telling others what he knows will make him a less appealing target for the enemy. But in spreading the word, he also becomes the hero in a grand cause, a paladin in gleaming armor against the dragon. Converting others to his beliefs will not only lessen his cognitive dissonance (he is, after all, often told that he is crazy), but will also convince others of his heroic stature. In the eyes of converts, he will go from zero to hero in one easy step.


Although details of justification may vary amongst dogmas, these traits appear to be common to all systems of dogma. Consider Stalinism and National Socialism, both political dogmas. Both employed conspiracy theories of their own. Their biases, and general aversion to truth and the means of establishing truth, are fairly obvious. More suprising, as supposedly secular dogmas, both were notorious dabblers in the occult and wholesale distributors of pseudo-science. In their support for Lysenkoism, the Stalinists apparently thought they were in the position to legislate the laws of science. Hitler railed against "Jewish science". Fortunately for us this included nuclear physics, and led the Nazis to abandon the development of nuclear weapons.

Some invocation of magic and the occult seems to be required to protect any dogma from empirical challenge. Freudian psychology claimed to be able to recover repressed memories which even the patient didn't know about. This eventually led to the inanity of mutiple personalities, past life regression, and tales of vast satanic conspiracies. No evidence for any of this was ever found, and the entire charade has left the cult of Freud in ruins. But at the time it was claimed that only the psychotherapist had the knowledge, and ability, to reach these hidden truths. In the aftermath of these scandals, Freudian psychology was stripped of its scientific disguise and revealed to be an occult practice.

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This guy is brilliant! I'm going to start a thread in the political section just because I like it so much! Its a good things everyone isn't BRAINWASHED! We need more people like this guy on TV- someone that can see the lies from the gov't..!

YouTube - Is Iran Ready To Take Over Europe?

RON PAUL REVOLUTION

~PEACE~

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"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." Ghandi........
"We must learn to live together as brothers, or perish together as fools." MLK

so natrone how do you feel about "conspiracist" ideas?

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they must find it difficult ... those who have taken authority as the truth, rather than the truth as authority

never confuse information with truth. there might be some glimmer of truth out there, but it is covered over with layers of speculation and innuendo. discerning what is real from what is well intentioned misinformation from what is just plain old crap can be nearly impossible. it always seems to come down to what information goes along with your world view or whether you are gullible enough to believe the most spectacular option.

yep, crazies. people who want change merely for the sake of something different, that are looking for scapegoats instead of who is really in control and that are more concerned with immediate gain than with where those decisions may lead.

after slogging through all of the information on the wtc that i could lay my hands on, i came to one conclusion. no real conclusion can be made. every expert and pseudo-expert that comes along with a paid opinion is merely aping some predetermined agenda and when all answers are plausible they are all suspect.

of course you can't trust your government. haven't you been paying attention to a damn thing i've been writing since the day i joined this forum? that being said, it still doesn't mean that everything they turn their hand to is steeped in conspiracy. the clashes of ideology, the races for power and the simple misunderstandings between men are more than sufficient to explain the evils that abound in this world.

i would hope that if you are going to link to a source to prove your point, you would at least consider it credible. if even you don't quite believe in the veracity of your sources, why should anyone else believe in them and your entire system of proofs becomes meaningless.

it is always wise to suspect the motives of those in power, but allowing that distrust to overwhelm your common sense seems to be a bit of hubris particular to the conspiracy community.

if this is what passes for brilliance in your neck of the woods i suggest you move immediately.

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When her work is done, she forgets it. That is why it lasts forever.
If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.

The REVOLUTION has begun.

I have been hearing talk on the radio telling the citizens to get get guns to protect their second amendment of the constitution! The guy went on saying that we should protect our selves from the gov't. He was talking about a militia for the people! This was some paster from a Christian church, and it really hit home with me, even though I gave up on "religion".

People are beginning to wake up. The peoples unions are forming, its time to take a stand, and show the gov't who is REALLY in charge! For the people, by the people!

The Churches will soon be a place for militia gathering of people. Get guns and be ready to stand strong!

The REVOLUTION has begun!

RON PAUL REOVOLUTION

~PEACE~

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"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." Ghandi........
"We must learn to live together as brothers, or perish together as fools." MLK

You called for the death of Michael Reagan. So please explain how Michael Reagan is "fucking your over." I suspect that its his IDEAS you don't agree with that bothers you. So, are you into suppression of ideas via murder?

Vi

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

A lot of people have been before VI, you ought to know that. In fact, I'm pretty sure there's a lot of that going on now accross the globe, say what?

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

A lot of what ... suppression of ideas through murder? If that's what you meant, I agree. Its nothing new, of course. What's important is that its pointed out when we see it being promoted, and that's the point of my posting about it here.

Vi

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

Well, post away my "good" fellow.

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

Impeach BUSH before its to late!

YouTube - Countdown: War Crimes Prosecutions Possible

The REVOLUTION has begun!

RON PAUL REOVOLUTION

~PEACE~

__________________
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." Ghandi........
"We must learn to live together as brothers, or perish together as fools." MLK