A Commentary on So-Called "Conspiracy Theorists"

I've decided to make this thread to see if any other ATSers agree with me, just testing the waters. Trying to gauge how other members feel about this subject.

Browsing through ATS, I see that certain personalities in the "alternative" world seem to have quite a following. Does anybody else feel that these people are doing more harm than good? The ones I'm thinking of specifically are Alex Jones, whoever it is that's hosting Coast To Coast AM now, Jesse Ventura, and David Icke. My issue is this: they all focus on the absolute fringe of the conspiracy world. Forgive the generalization, but I don't think that the majority of the conspiracy-minded believe that the world is going to end within the next 24 months, that the world's governments are controlled by a race of sentient reptiles, that the government has been controlling people's minds, or that a base exists under New Mexico where the US government is colluding with extraterrestrials to oppress humanity. What we do believe is that John F. Kennedy was not assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald alone, that the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01 could have been prevented, that humanity has been in contact with some form of extraterrestrial biological entities since at least the late 1940s, and that there has been some manipulation of humanity by world leaders.

The people I mentioned earlier are no better than the talking heads in the media, spreading fear and showing the absolute worst there is to offer. Falsified evidence, absolute lies, and groundless statements designed to incite fear into their hypnotized audiences. The worst among these in my mind are the political puppets, forwarding an agenda of right-wing supremacy ruled by religion and terror. I fully support the removal of today's corrupt governing bodies, don't get me wrong. But pushing any system other than absolute freedom is moronic and self-defeating.

Forgive me if this comes off as a mindless rant.

I agree, that sensationalism by paid conspiracy personalities has in many ways enhanced the 'tin foil hat' image in detrimental ways.

Fear sells, and just like the 24/7 network news they are always looking for filler for their shows.

I liken a good conspiracy theorist to a good police detective, theories should revolve around motive and opportunity and identifiable personalities or profiles, ultimately real life investigation should happen where you actively investigate your theories through pounding some pavement, wearing out some shoe leather, and finding if not credible proof of the conspiracy, at least credible proof the elements of the conspiracy are there.

Man has managed to hunt to extinction or near extinction many deadly pretadors that are faster, stronger and deadlier than an unarmed man.

No one though has been able to bag a grey or a reptillian?

Doesn't sound right to me.

20 million masons around the world are tuning in to the Simpson's every week with a code book looking for hidden messages?

Doesn't sound realistic to me either.

The web bot is able to predict the future? It sure seems to miss and get a lot of things wrong.

The sad part is many people driven by fear, love what is in essence just another form of info-tainment.

Scary info-tainment, the scarier the better.

We all could be fighting against corruption in (insert your nation here) but how can we fight space aliens we can't even verify are here, satan, inter-dimensional beings, etc?

We can't so as a result the 'awake' generally fight against nothing, but being told they are still fast asleep in never ever land.

reply to post by ShadeWolf


Oh just eat the blue pill, swallow the chemtrail and start raging..

Call yourself a conspiracist. HA!

Why human alien would turn in his .. uhh.. space coffin??

Oo

reply to post by ShadeWolf


I look at the "personalities" in conspiracy the same way I look at the many gurus in spirituality.

They make themselves central in the issue, but its not about them. It shouldnt be about them. I love ATS because ATS is not the Skeptic Overlord show, or the Springer show. Its not about them. I mean its their site, and they have worked hard for it, and yes they deserve to make a living from it, and credit, praise, all of that.

But they did not make it all about them. Its about conspiracy and alternative topics first and foremost.

The others? They are profiting from conspiracy and contributing to it as well, but it seems as much about them, and self promotion as it does conspiracy and truth itself. I respect that less. I feel the same way about gurus. If you are setting yourself up as a messiah, you arent. You might have something good to say, but that ego is not enlightened.

Fame is a corrupting influence. Once you become a celebrity, moving in those circles, your integrity can be compromised. Not that it will, but it is much more likely to happen.

I don't take your view dude I think they allow thoughts besides sticking your head against a grinding wheel thinking your living the right way, for instance do they have FEMA camps on the rock? Plastic coffins stack up.
Imagine that set up taking place on the rock, nobody going to inquire about that, talk about that? heh my son!
Some of the greatest debaters come from the rock, that camp would be burned and the plastic coffins floating down the ocean in no time once they found out what it was for, and nobody would know what happened to it. must been aliens, lol foolish talk go see for yourself!!

reply to post by ShadeWolf


I agree, it does give us a bad name, I know I would be considered crazy if people knew I went on here >.<
Though they can voice their ideas and theories as much as us, It is not what *I* wish to be seen as. Like Muslim people who are afraid of others calling them a terrorist. Just because 1 person thinks it, doesn't mean they all do.

Good thread

I like to know what crazy things people are thinking when they let their mind wander and their paranoid fantasies rule. When no one is looking, what is it that you REALLY think?

If talking heads kick it off, I'm okay with that.

I rarely give a ratspatootie about the 'authority' of celebrity anyway.

I doubt most people will ever think "conspiracy theorists" are normal. They have other things to care about, and can't imagine that even if they agreed with you that they'd give a good god damn anyways. When that's the level of care people can muster when they agree with you, expecting to become valued for your interests seems unreasonable.

Does this mean that people are "asleep" or "sheep" to be condescended to? No. Someone's gotta be more interested in the daily grind and the granularity of regular day-to-day activities.

If you want to be taken seriously, become an academic.

reply to post by ShadeWolf

What we do believe is that John F. Kennedy was not assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald alone, that the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01 could have been prevented, that humanity has been in contact with some form of extraterrestrial biological entities since at least the late 1940s, and that there has been some manipulation of humanity by world leaders.

Is that really your idea of what we DO believe???

Originally posted by backinblack
reply to post by ShadeWolf

 

What we do believe is that John F. Kennedy was not assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald alone, that the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01 could have been prevented, that humanity has been in contact with some form of extraterrestrial biological entities since at least the late 1940s, and that there has been some manipulation of humanity by world leaders.

Is that really your idea of what we DO believe???

I think I'd like to re-iterate yours with different emphasis.

Who's this "WE" you're talking about. That's what *YOU* believe.

reply to post by Aeons

I think I'd like to re-iterate yours with different emphasis.

Who's this "WE" you're talking about. That's what *YOU* believe.

Fair call but wheres my star...

I would have to respectfully disagree with you OP. We need more people out there to wake up and then to also not fall back asleep. Which really is not that easy these days considering that most of the population have about a five minute attention span.

If they didn't occasionally use the tactics of sensationalism and they just stuck to provable facts and existing evidence most people would just say something like "oh yeah I knew that" or "oh I heard someone else mention that before" or "what do you want me to do?"..."There's nothing I can do about it."

The only way to wake up the sheeple and to keep them interested long enough that they start to open their eyes is to try and entertain them in some way. While also The reason we've all been labeled "conspiracy theorists" in the first place is because we think outside the box and see what's beyond the surface of the so called "facts in evidence".

No one is perfect and no one, unless they are actually part of the conspiracy itself, can know all the facts. It takes a group effort and teamwork to breakthrough the roadblocks and hidden barriers that the conspirators and the people themselves have placed in our way.

We need people like Alex Jones and Jesse Ventura to finally give us some credibility in the mainstream media. The more the message is spread and the more people who listen, for whatever reason they decide to listen in the first place. Then the more our team of evidence finders and checkers will grow.

The more our team grows the more facts and evidence we will be able to gather. And then when we can finally compile enough of the truth to convince the general population that these aren't just theories. Then we will finally not be looked at as crazy fringe subversives or fear mongers.

I haven't heard Jesse Ventura talk about any wacky far out conspiracies. Nor have I not seen Alex Jones back up what he says with evidence. I see you mention aliens and that's not really that far off from David Icke saying they're reptilians who shapeshift. William Cooper had some pretty far out theories before he was killed and most of them are now all being proven as pretty insightful.

I'm sure the whole "they're giving our movement a bad name" was the same thing that was said about Jesus or Moses by some of the leaders and followers of their movements back when. But they are the ones who we still hear about today and the other guys didn't go down in the history books as great men of their time.

If you think you can overcome TPTB , the debunker's and the brain washed, dumbed down, hypnotized state of the sheeple with common sense and facts without being a little extreme, over the top and/or exaggerated. Then you should look at the music industry and see that the biggest rock stars are the ones with a flamboyant, exaggerated and over the top persona. Sadly not many people pay attention to the quality of the character or even the quality of the messages being given these days. It's all about grabbing your attention and then hopefully keeping you on the edge of your seat so you wanna come back and see what they are going to do next time.

Lastly, I recommend that you watch one of Alex Jones earlier documentaries called "Wake up or Waco". He's been doing this whole conspiracy thing for quite a long time and after watching that I gained a whole new respect for the man. He was the guy who helped rebuild the church those poor families that lost their loved ones. He organized the donations and he went out there every Sunday for a couple months digging ditches and whatever else that needed to be done to help the victims of that tragedy. That film touched me and it's worth watching.

Here is the link.. www.youtube.com...

I think it's important to note that for many people, Glenn Beck is the face of conspiracy theory. He has a large and fairly mainstream audience and often promotes the idea that Obama is conspiring to sell national parks to China, that the Mideast revolutions are orchestrated by an alliance between Muslims, communists, and George Soros, and I believe he's done some spots on FEMA camps and the NWO as well.

Then you have people like Lou Dobbs, who was quite worried about the Amero/NAU a couple of years ago when he was on CNN. On the other side of the spectrum there's Robert F. Kennedy, who writes for the Huffington Post and has expounded at length about the vaccine/autism link and rigged voting machines.

It seems the most successful "conspiracy theorists," or at least those with the longest reach, are in fact mainstream media figures who just advocate one or two theories here and there. Though you could certainly make the argument that Beck has gone well past that line, but his ratings have been dropping like a rock recently.

On the car lot, every car is either that generic European looking sedan in shades of pastel blue/ gray/ silver.... what jumps out? the Banana Yellow Dodge Challenger with black racing stripes, chrome rims, and white letter racing slicks....Wow

Same with TV or Radio or Conspiracy Theorists... The wilder the rant...the higher the ratings/sales...the more the money. Classic marketing... squeaky wheel gets the grease. Good ol' capitalism.

Which is more interesting/informative/entertaining? JFK was shot by the CIA and the Mob?...

or the President is a reptillian shape shifter with a hidden, hive base of aliens operating under the White House with secret tunnels straight to the Denver Intl Airport...all awaiting the arrival of Nibiru when their kindred will come down disguised as the Second Coming of Christ to set up the NWO with the help of the Biderbergers and the secret Nazis who are hiding in the south pole with a secret space port on Mars inside the famous "Face on Mars" mount plataeu?

One thing I've noticed with the "conspiracy theorists" is that before they say anything they've usually done some serious research, looked at the official story, put two and two together and have a result of three. They tend to ask the hard questions. The look at the parts of the story that don't make any sense. Those who stick to the official story don't appear to do any real research, have limited knowledge of the events, and use insults to hide their ignorance. The saddest thing is that the questions asked are never answered - even by those whose job it is to answer the questions.

Glen Beck just seems to make stuff up as he goes along. I have seen absolutely no merit in anything I've heard him say. He's just a clown. People tune in because he's outright entertaining. That they swallow what he is saying is just sad.

As for the Icke's, Ventura's etc. of the world, I do see them looking at the most outlandish of conspiracy theories, but I believe that's just to gain attention to draw people in to look at the other stuff.

The clasic "asleep" "awake" "sheeple" posts.

Has it occurred to ya that people don't take those who denigrate them seriously? You should mull it over.

I think Max Igan is a good candidate for voicing the concerns of the conspiracy theorists. In this video series called "The Calling" he explains the reasons why people who voice their opinions about important issues are called nut jobs, wackos and crazy cons.

He also does an excellent job at explaining why conspiracy theorists are not crazy and why everyone should be concerned with the shadow government.

Part 1 of 8
www.youtube.com...

I partially agree with the OP.
The first time you hear AJ you think that he's just rambling. Then you check out his stuff and find out a lot of it is true. Then you do some more checking and then you start to get skeptical.
I don't think Jesse Ventura is that much of a big deal. He's been sort of swept up in AJ's net. Or something like that.
On the other hand I just find David Icke to be talking crap. In short terms it's a ripoff of the TV series V.

I think you have to find a lot of info on your own. And you have to be very careful when doing this.
I personally don't read any information that is said to be channeled or recieved from ETs or things like that simply
because you just can't prove that stuff. I am very skeptical when it comes to secret societies and conspiracies surrounding them. If you wan't info about secret societies just read esoteric litterature and scholarly works written about them like:

Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke - The Western Esoteric Tradition
Kocku von Stuckrad - Western Esotericism, A brief history of Secret Knowledge
Manly P Hall - The Secret Teachings of All Ages
The Kybalion
The Corpus Hermeticum

Yes, these books can be heavy to read but it's more pure and not filtered through the brain of a conspiracy theorist.

But I agree that many of these people can do a lot of harm but the worst thing is when they are in it for the money. I recently started a thread about this. www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by ShadeWolf


I have to ask, but Does it really matter what WE believe anyway? What are we SUPPOSED to believe and moreso, WHO are we supposed to believe?

When your own government lies to you, when your supposed newscasters lie to you...

You waste time worrying about the "crazies" when we all should be worrying about the direction of our future in this LIE-FILLED world we live in.

Maybe an epic-sized disaster is what we really need....better chance of getting rid of TPTB than getting them out of office!

Conspiracy theory is an industry that generates millions of dollars. Conspiracy theorists are that industry's consumers. The Icke's and Jones' are some of the captains of that industry.


One can tell by this site that moderate conspiracy theorists are hard to come by. While they may not subscribe to each and every conspiracy being purported, they usually go as far as they can within a certain conspiracy theory. This is the road that paves the way to the Icke's and Jones'.

I agree they're not helping. And frankly, I don't trust any of them.