Kamchatka
Culturally outdated by choice
User ID: 76556707 United States 04/14/2019 10:05 AM
Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Those crazy right-wing conspiracy theorists So this showed up in my Firefox news feed this morning. It's early. I haven't had my coffee, but here we go with what I perceive to be a Harvard liberal's attack on conspiracy theories. Predictably, there's no comment section. [ link to www.vox.com (secure)] Here are couple of "ripe" quotes: I can think of several left conspiracy theories that I’d assess as outlandish: the left 9/11 Truthers who argue that the government knew about the attack in advance and let it happen, or even organized it, in order to justify war against Iraq — and to advance the attack on civil liberties and the Patriot Act. There’s also an element of the left that believes Bush and Cheney went to war in Iraq purely to get the oil; unwarranted on my view, but still held by friends and colleagues.
I can’t think of a right-wing conspiracy claim that turned out to be warranted, however. Today’s conspiracism seems to be uniquely right-leaning, and it’s hard to find a scrap of it that’s true; after all, it is not trying to explain the world, it is trying to recast reality. Or to see regular processes, like investigations and oversight, as attempted coups d’état.
In addition to other reasons I’ve explored, it’s the right, not the left, today that insists on its victimization and therefore is intent on identifying the enemies responsible for their humiliation — even as they gain office. The right that sees a liberal agenda to seize guns, dramatized by Alex Jones’s claim that the Sandy Hook parents were crisis actors paid to advance the gun control agenda. And near the conclusion: I don’t think we reason with conspiracy theorists. I think it’s a closed system. I think they are incorrigible. I think we have to speak truth to conspiracy, but not with the thought that we’re going to change the minds of conspiracy theorists. And we have to be especially critical of the institutions that help spread conspiracism.
But it’s my view that the people who can counter this are elected political representatives, people who have a partisan connection to their constituents and people who should in many situations say, “That’s not true. That’s not what’s happening. Here’s how it works.” And the tragedy we’re seeing now is that for opportunistic reasons, elected representatives are failing in their responsibilities to do this.
If elected officials cannot find the courage to do this, we’re in trouble. And the fact that the president of the United States and the leader of one of our two parties is one of the prime spreaders of conspiracism today is obviously a very bad sign.
More deplorable all the time. |
Anonymous Coward User ID: 38707241 United States 04/14/2019 10:07 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Re: Those crazy right-wing conspiracy theorists Fake news
Orange man bad
Muh Russian collusion. No really it happened. |
Anonymous Coward User ID: 38707241 United States 04/14/2019 10:07 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Re: Those crazy right-wing conspiracy theorists Right wing isn’t the conspiracy theorists anymore. The left is. |
Kamchatka
(OP) Culturally outdated by choice
User ID: 76556707 United States 04/14/2019 10:11 AM
Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Re: Those crazy right-wing conspiracy theorists
Right wing isn’t the conspiracy theorists anymore. The left is.
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 38707241 Just another example of the left accusing everyone else of what they do (and often not very well). The natural extension of fake news. More deplorable all the time. |
syncro
User ID: 75835116 United States 04/14/2019 10:20 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Re: Those crazy right-wing conspiracy theorists . Last Edited by syncro on 04/14/2019 02:44 PM |
Kamchatka
(OP) Culturally outdated by choice
User ID: 76556707 United States 04/14/2019 10:43 AM
Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Re: Those crazy right-wing conspiracy theorists What would a thread be without I suck dick for beer money? More deplorable all the time. |