Different Conspiracy Theories

Why conspiracy theories let the system off the hook

Conspiracy theories—the belief that secret networks of powerful individuals rule the world—have had a recent resurgence.

Osama Bin Laden’s death has sparked the latest flurry—assisted by the changing versions of events put out by the US.

In one version of the argument, Bin Laden was killed many years ago and this information was only released recently. In another, he is not dead at all. Others argue that Bin Laden never existed, and that his videos are fakes, made by the CIA.

Conspiracy theories are rooted in a deep mistrust of the world ruling class, something that has increased over the course of the “war on terror” and the economic crisis.

An element of truth lies at the heart of most conspiracy theories—the ruling class do want to control society and act in secretive, undemocratic ways to do it.

But socialists argue that the problem doesn’t lie in a secret network of freemasons, the so-called Jewish lobby or an alien conspiracy. It is rooted in the way our society is structured to defend the interests of the elite who control the capitalist system.

And far from being an all-powerful clique, our rulers can be brought down through the collective uprising of the majority, as we are witnessing across the Middle East and North Africa.

Conspiracy theories may come from different positions, but they share the basic assumption—that shady networks of conspirators control the world.

Another recent example—the “birther” movement in the US—claims that US president Barack Obama was born in Kenya, and is therefore unlawfully in office.

One poll claimed that only 48 percent of US citizens believed Obama was born in the US. Figures like billionaire presidential hopeful Donald Trump led demands for Obama to release his full birth certificate.

The left is not immune to conspiracy theories either.

Some people argue that US foreign policy is controlled by an Israeli lobby, rather than the truth—that Israel is an unpredictable client state of the US.

Others who would call themselves socialists sympathise with 9/11 conspiracies. They believe that the 9/11 attack was organised by elements within the US state.

Keeping such a huge network of conspirators under wraps—from the media, World Trade Centre workers, emergency workers, explosive experts, structural investigators and so on—would be virtually impossible.

33 Conspiracy Theories That Turned Out To Be True, What Every ...

After reading the article released by Cracked.com, I decided to update and revise their work. The article gave me a chuckle because it lacked many famous and much larger conspiracy theories that became known. Their article had only listed seven. I can name 33 and I am about to release a revised list soon with 75. The article I read at cracked can be viewed here, but don’t waste your time, all of that is in this article and more.

Conspiracy theory is a term that originally was a neutral descriptor for any claim of civil, criminal or political conspiracy. However, it has come almost exclusively to refer to any fringe theory which explains a historical or current event as the result of a secret plot by conspirators of almost superhuman power and cunning. To conspire means “to join in a secret agreement to do an unlawful or wrongful act or to use such means to accomplish a lawful end.” The term “conspiracy theory” is frequently used by scholars and in popular culture to identify secret military, banking, or political actions aimed at stealing power, money, or freedom, from “the people”.

To many, conspiracy theories are just human nature. Not all people in this world are honest, hard working and forthcoming about their intentions.Certainly we can all agree on this. So how did the term “conspiracy theory” get grouped in with fiction, fantasy and folklore? Maybe that’s a conspiracy, just kidding. Or am I?

Skeptics are important in achieving an objective view of reality, however, skepticism is not the same as reinforcing the official storyline. In fact, a conspiracy theory can be argued as an alternative to the official or “mainstream” story of events. Therefore, when skeptics attempt to ridicule a conspiracy theory by using the official story as a means of proving the conspiracy wrong, in effect, they are just reinforcing the original “mainstream” view of history, and actually not being skeptical. This is not skepticism, it is just a convenient way for the establishment view of things to be seen as the correct version, all the time, every time. In fact, it is common for “hit pieces” or “debunking articles” to pick extremely fringe and not very populated conspiracy theories. This in turn makes all conspiracies on a subject matter look crazy. Skeptics magazine and Popular Mechanics, among many others, did this with 9/11. They referred to less than 10% of the many different conspiracy theories about 9/11 and picked the less popular ones, in fact, they picked the fringe, highly improbable points that only a few people make. This was used as the “final investigation” for looking into the conspiracy theories. Convenient, huh?

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