Surveying The Lay Of Conspiracy Land

a reply to: whereislogic

Honestly I was getting ready for work and skimmed your reply.

I'll come back to it a bit later today and give it my full attention.

i've been deeply interested in ufos, ghosts, and high strangeness my entire life, and i started hanging around here in '07 because this site used to be the best place on the whole internet to come for posts of sightings and the only site at all where there was any sort of balanced discussion instead of either total acceptance or total derision.

Those days are long, long gone now obviously but i've hung around because it's been fascinating to see the rise of Q and the Trump Right and to watch the particular way the pundit talking points of Fox et al filter through to the great independent thinkers of ats

a reply to: whereislogic

Something to think about (i.e. rhetorical questions, no need to answer):

Except, I am going to give you an answer.

Was no extrabiblical evidence for the claims and descriptions in the Bible discussed in my first 2 replies to you?

Evidence that the people involved in creating the Bible knew a lot about human nature, how to manipulate it and foresaw the criticism that would eventually come their way?

Absolutely. It wasn't the first religion that followed this formula and it certainly won't be the last.


You speak of a god of this system of things as if your religion is not wholly entrenched and benefits from the "system of things".


And yet your specific flavor of cult is worth over billion dollars in assets closer to 1.5 billion.

It suffers from the same demented mindset that enables sexual abuse as detailed in lawsuits.

Family members who don't toe the line are shunned and suicides are very common.

It's amazing how the truth sets one free.


It's also amazing how political movements are disgraced by the blood they have on their hands but when it comes to religion well, that was the devil and the people weren't true Christians ™.


You are defending a super rich, scandal rife organization.

A secret database of child abuse


And that's just the beginning when highlighting the wackiness when it comes to JW's.


You're no better than a catholic and a protestant, but you think you are.

I grew up in the Christian faith, saw it for what it was after completely believing in it, and rejected it for what it was.


Religion observes human behavior and exploits it in the worst possible way while profiting from it.

Tells people they are incomplete, sinful and deserve death but luckily for them religion has the answer:it's called a relationship with an imaginary master of the universe.

It gets dressed up in humility, piety, devotion, charity etc etc and yet it's one of the darkest delusions our species has ever concocted.

You are free to believe it. I am free to believe it's a cargo cult assembled like some Frankensteinian monster, the ideas appropriated from much earlier beliefs.

I think conspiracy is part of the human condition, especially for those holding political power.

As James Madison said, 'In truth, all men holding power ought to be mistrusted.' A very simple truth.

The humorous part is that in these last 50 years or so, after the CIA coined the term 'Conspiracy Theory', many times have conspiracy theories become conspiracy facts.

originally posted by: Salander

The humorous part is that in these last 50 years or so, after the CIA coined the term 'Conspiracy Theory', many times have conspiracy theories become conspiracy facts.

Unfortunately most of what we're getting these days is just doom porn. Somebody random dies and its either Hillary Clinton or the vax that did it.

a reply to: Salander

Absolutely, I think that "conspiracy theories" can arise organically in societies that value free speech in order to balance a push for more power by those that are striving for political power.

I think one poster earlier said the he doesn't believe in the details of Q Anon but that it's a work of art in this stage drama of current American politics.

I also think conspiracy theories can be specifically designed to attack an opposing system of ideas, the way religions make wild accusations against other sects and belief systems out self preservation.

originally posted by: 19Bones79
a reply to: whereislogic
...
You are defending a super rich, scandal rife organization.

Rather than defending any organization, I'm talking about the conspiracies exposed in the Bible, in particular the main overarching one. Responding to rather blatant propaganda is way too tiresome anyway, people who have already accepted the propaganda as the truth don't wanna hear it anyway, because it doesn't tickle their ears, unlike the propaganda and spin that does tickle their ears and suits what they already want to believe about said organization.

"Sect" is another word for "cult".

Name-Calling

Some people insult those who disagree with them by questioning character or motives instead of focusing on the facts. Name-calling slaps a negative, easy-to-remember label onto a person, a group, or an idea. The name-caller hopes that the label will stick. If people reject the person or the idea on the basis of the negative label instead of weighing the evidence for themselves, the name-caller’s strategy has worked.

For example, in recent years a powerful antisect sentiment has swept many countries in Europe and elsewhere. This trend has stirred emotions, created the image of an enemy, and reinforced existing prejudices against religious minorities. Often, “sect” becomes a catchword. “‘Sect’ is another word for ‘heretic,’” wrote German Professor Martin Kriele in 1993, “and a heretic today in Germany, as in former times, is [condemned to extermination]—if not by fire . . . , then by character assassination, isolation and economic destruction.”

The Institute for Propaganda Analysis notes that “bad names have played a tremendously powerful role in the history of the world and in our own individual development. They have ruined reputations, . . . sent [people] to prison cells, and made men mad enough to enter battle and slaughter their fellowmen.”

Playing on the Emotions

Even though feelings might be irrelevant when it comes to factual claims or the logic of an argument, they play a crucial role in persuasion. Emotional appeals are fabricated by practiced publicists, who play on feelings as skillfully as a virtuoso plays the piano.

For example, fear is an emotion that can becloud judgment. And, as in the case of envy, fear can be played upon. The Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail, of February 15, 1999, reported the following from Moscow: “When three girls committed suicide in Moscow last week, the Russian media immediately suggested they were fanatical followers of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.” Note the word “fanatical.” Naturally, people would be fearful of a fanatic religious organization that supposedly drives young people to suicide. Were these unfortunate girls really connected with Jehovah’s Witnesses in some way?

The Globe continued: “Police later admitted the girls had nothing to do with [Jehovah’s Witnesses]. But by then a Moscow television channel had already launched a new assault on the sect, telling viewers that the Jehovah’s Witnesses had collaborated with Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany—despite historical evidence that thousands of their members were victims of the Nazi death camps.” In the mind of the misinformed and possibly fearful public, Jehovah’s Witnesses were either a suicidal cult or Nazi collaborators!

Hatred is a strong emotion exploited by propagandists. Loaded language is particularly effective in triggering it. There seems to be a nearly endless supply of nasty words that promote and exploit hatred toward particular racial, ethnic, or religious groups.

...

Source: The Manipulation of Information (Awake!—2000)

a reply to: whereislogic


Why push for more acceptance?


You're way above the maximum limit of 144,000.


Follow the money.

You're devoting your life to a scam.