Quote:
Originally Posted by
Universal Mind
I could just as easily say that you are in complete denial and being intellectually dishonest, which I think you are. Your characterization of conspiracy theorists involves the hasty generalization fallacy. I have never once said I believe in the shadow government/Illuminati (except years ago when I was playing games with Mystic7) or world control by elites. I don't rule it out, but what I know is that the U.S. government has gotten way too powerful and that big government is inherently corrupt. It is very capable of pulling large scale conspiracies for corrupt purposes. Guess what else. It has happened... a lot! Since you claim to be an anarchist, I am surprised at your denial of how insanely corrupt government can be. You have a bizarre trust of government and media for somebody who says he thinks government is so rotten that we shouldn't even have one. I don't expect you to be convinced that there was a Sandy Hook conspiracy, but you have not expressed even the slightest hint at surprise over any of the stuff I have posted that is at least sort of weird. You haven't suggested that it is even possible that the government might have at least coached a few family members of victims into speaking for gun control since the Second Amendment is obviously under major attack by the Obama Administration, which I am sure you would admit.
I posted this for Chimpertainment earlier, and I'm not sure if you saw it. Look at this list of conspiracies and tell me in seriousness that none of them ever actually happened. Will you do that?
CONSPIRACY THEORIES THAT TURNED OUT TO BE TRUE: List of Proven Conspiracies - from Wikipedia
Now, if you do admit that at least one of those really did happen, does that make you a "conspiratard" who wants it to be true and who believes in the Illuminati? Tell me.
You missed this post earlier in the thread:
I'd like to point out the difference between "conspiracy" and "conspiracy theory." Conspiracies happen in the real world, and often we find out about them. No one can deny that.
Conspiracy theories, on the other hand, never come to fruition and are never rigorously verified. What few factoids are involved, they are diluted by sloppy logic, confirmation bias, poor research, and paranoia. Conspiracy theories are homeopathic.
Quote:
Since you claim to be an anarchist, I am surprised at your denial of how insanely corrupt government can be. You have a bizarre trust of government and media for somebody who says he thinks government is so rotten that we shouldn't even have one. I don't expect you to be convinced that there was a Sandy Hook conspiracy, but you have not expressed even the slightest hint at surprise over any of the stuff I have posted that is at least sort of weird.
Because they all have reasonable explanations that don't require assuming they were coached, or that the whole thing was faked to push an agenda. Has it been used to push an agenda? Undoubtedly. But was it faked? No. It happened. Children and faculty died because of a deranged young man. Often times I think conspiracy theorists just don't want to recognize that there are fucked up people out there doing fucked up things by their own will. So they invent esoteric cabals to explain away their frustrations.
There is a massive difference between maintaining a certain level of distrust for the government and thinking they're behind every tragic event. Libertarians often get a bad rap for either associating with or actually being conspiracy theorists. A good percentage of the rabid Ron Paul followers are also disciples of Jesse Ventura and Alex Jones. I'm not going to be one of them. I'm introducing skepticism into these matters to get to the truth. If it leads me to think that the government wasn't actually behind it, so what? Does that mean I have a bizarre trust of government and the media? Not in the slightest.