http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/secret-memos-expose-link-between-oil-firms-and-invasion-of-iraq-2269610.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/8999890/Tony-Blair-and-the-8million-tax-mystery.html
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http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-people-believe-in-conspiracies
'The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence and vice versa ' Donald Rumsfeld 2002.
I am interested in conspiracy theories and how they require very little in the way of actual evidence, it almost acts like faith. The murky and corrupt nature of our leaders rarely gets the same level of our scrutiny as does the Zapruder footage of a man being shot in the head by a crazed loner. Of course crazed loners do not murder famous people...or is that what they want you to think?.
Conspiracy is big business as is disaster, the 9/11 market is millions of dollars, as thousands of people share their take on the terrorist attack...for a small fee of course. The footage of JFK being shot in the head is shocking, but of course we can all watch it, rewind it, make him live , make him die.
Shock and awe is ironic, since it is not, for us, the viewer shocking at all. How many Americans and British citizens even broke their sleep cycle to watch Cluster bombs rain down on the 65 thousand Iraqi citizens who died from indiscriminate bombing?.
Im interested in how the leaders paraphrase and select information as much as the conspiracy theorists do, and are often just as out of touch with reality.
Critical thinking, as ever saves the day.
I believe in some of the conspiracy's, some was wacked but some there is much there that they just leave by the wayside and ignore, only showing you what they want you to see. But I guess that is really the thing about everything with politics and information, they only give you and show you what they want to, to further their own agenda. Agreed we have become so de-sensitized as a society that nothing like the bombings even bother many anymore.
ReplyDeleteThanks Patt, it is odd how we no longer see certain things as shocking, 9/11 is now a comedy gif.
DeleteTalking about selective information Fox news did a hilarious interview with Michael Moore talking about his Sicko doc. They took him to task about him saying Cuba had a better healthcare than America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9qu9O4YAYI
Very funny.
thoughtful post
ReplyDeleteone needs to think critically
Thanks sm, yes critical thinking will save you. That and leanring to enjoy life. One thing i learned is life does not have to be hard, through it all a sense of humour and enjoyment is what counts.
DeleteMy old blog use to be about critical thinking, so happy to see it as your topic! Have to agree with you all the way.
ReplyDeleteThanks Matt, do you still run it?, i would love to check it out.
Deleteyeah, Jon. conspiracies are basic human nature taken up to a different level altogether when it involves leaders and nations. people are always going to selfish and collecting wealth for themselves and politicians especially, are involved in it. its ironic, but politics is a dirty business you cant stay clean even if you have wanted to.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jaya, i think conspiracy theories stop people looking at real facts and real issues. They look at con trails in the sky and government abductions, but they never look at why their taxes are being spend on bombs to bomb poor people in other countries for control of their resources. But i do think politics does not have to be dirty, it only happens if people stop being engaged and don't think critically. I argued with this American last week, she was fanatic about Joe Biden the vice president of America, refusing to see him as anything but sainted. I pointed out that real change never came from leaders but from constant campainging by individuals and groups. Nothing is ever done for the good by politicians they are managers at best. Anyway, as intelligent as she was, she refused to hear it because she did not practise critical thinking.
Deleteyes :) check and balance is important. it keeps things going in the most favourable way for tax payers like us ;p
DeleteAren't they just selectively picking information that supports their theories and ignoring the rest? There's a psychological term for that.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dwei, selecting the information you want to deal with and ignoring others is dangerous, but everyone does it to a certain extent. The way they deal with information and look at others is the same way our politiicans do i think.
DeleteFrom my understanding, we are a level a head of chimpanzees and ants in terms of our ability to love, rationalize, etc. And that single level stops us [normal people] from having intimate discussions with ants.
ReplyDeleteI think if we meet aliens who have advanced further than us they would see us similiar to cats. They would look at Hawkings and say "aww hes working on quantum physics" little timmy did that for his second grade project
Thanks College, the adrenalin part of our brain versus the rational seems to be lopsided in favour of running around getting angry at things. It means were easily manipulated, i have seen people cry at adverts. Or people say a moment in American Idol gives them chills when the judge shows a reaction at a contestant. They don't realise it is a pre recorded reaction either taken from another unrelated segment, or more likely a faked reaction for later editing. Of course we all know the shows are fixed.
DeleteFascinating. I often think that truth doesn't exist. There are many versions of truths - all of them accurate and inaccurate at the same time. Perception is a powerful thing. I wonder how many conspiracists indulge in conspiracy theories because they genuinely believe in their ideas or material... and how many are just drama queens.
ReplyDeleteThanks Azura, conspiracy theorists and the internet are a match made in heaven. I watched this footage of the moon landing on youtube and despite the vast amount of primary evidence (journalists in the launch control room, vast computer data, moon rock samples, camera footage) people still say it was faked. They also say the current computer technology we have was as a result of alien technology , despite it being a recorded process, with an easily available history to source.But they operate like politicians and the super fans of these politicians who dont use critical thinking but parrot repeat slogans, and see their'leaders' as gods.
DeleteI always find these things interesting, look up Bob lazar on youtube very cool stuff. I also run a program on my computer that scans data collected from the Arecibo satalite.
ReplyDeleteSorry for the delay Baur, i keep getting logged out of blog..
DeleteAnyway your alien interest reminds me of a joke i once heard. Two aliens are doing a probe on some farmer when the first one turns to the second and says 'why do we keep doing these probes?'. The second ones replies ' I don't know, all we found out so far is ten per cent of them seem to enjoy it'.
LOL nice I haven't heard that before made me laugh though :) Happy mothers day
ReplyDeleteThanks, you too.
DeleteI'm a total conspiracy theorist and love this post!! They are maniuplators!! I mean, how else do they the public to do as they want?
ReplyDeleteThanks Jax, it amazingly simple to manipulate us, as much as we think it cannot be done. We developed around group thinking, it is very hard to resist. Best bet is to switch off the ads whenever they come on, and utilise multiple news sources and try to broaden your knowledge base. I like conspiracies too, their exciting. Reminds me of this bad joke about too much paranoia. At a clearance sale, the wife of a federal district-court judge found the perfect green tie to match one of her husband’s sport jackets. Soon after, while the couple was relaxing at a resort complex to get his mind off a complicated cocaine-conspiracy case, he noticed a small, round disc sewn into the tie. The judge showed it to a local FBI agent, who was equally suspicious that it might be a "bug" planted by the conspiracy defendants. The agent sent the device to FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., for analysis. Two weeks later, the judge phoned Washington to find out the results of their tests. "We’re not sure where the disc came from," the FBI told him, "but we discovered that when you press it, it plays ‘Jingle Bells.’ "
DeleteTheres a bunch of conspiracy web sites out there they can really suck you in lots of confusing info on them
ReplyDeleteThanks BAUR, as ever look for actual facts, and find multiple areas of information. Ask for sources, ask for solid facts. There is a reason scientists are uninterested in u.f.o's and ghosts because the evidence is simply not there. As humans we are very good at spotting patterns in things and making leaps of logic,ever see a face in wallpaper, or a carpet?. It is called pareidolia, when we see ramdom stimulus and see it as signigicant, like the 'face on mars' which was just shadows on rock. The human mind can be tricked very easily.
Delete( im going in to a bit of a rant here so bare with me).
Ever read about a celebrity, and then through out the week that celebrity seems to be everywhere?. Or read about road rage and every news story seems to be about that topic?. It is a phenomenah called 'The Bader Meinhoff Syndrome', really when we see a word, or an event and remember it for a short period, our brains scan information and media for that similar phrase or event and it becomes 'significant' we start to see it with a purpose. How much information do you scan a week?. Thousands of hours of news,of comedies, of dramas and books and internet web sites, our brains cannot possibly deal with it all. So we filter out what is useless, but you remember your significant news story, so that is what you pick up on out of that barrage of info.
The term came from a doctor who read about the Bader Meinhoff German terrorist group, and noticed how many times the group turned up in his reading and watching of televisiion. What could be going on?.
The human brain is amazing but can be tricked so very easily. A good bar trick to illustrate this is to ask a person to hold their hands out, palms down and say ' i bet i can get you to turn your hands round with out touching you'. As they hold their hands out say ' no the other way i mean' . And in one second you won your bet.