

Why I Don’t Believe in Conspiracy Theories - csandreasen
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/page/310102_Why_I_Dont_Believe_in_Conspira

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"With this [CIA] memo and the CIA's influence in the media," author Peter
Janney wrote in a guest column on our site last fall, "the concept of
'conspiracy theorist' was engendered and infused into our political lexicon
and became what it is today: a term to smear, denounce, ridicule, and defame
anyone who dares to speak about any crime committed by the state, military or
intelligence services."

Janney, whose late father Wistar Janney had been a high-ranking CIA executive,
continued: "People who want to pretend that conspiracies don't exist -- when
in fact they are among the most common modus operandi of significant
historical change throughout the world and in our country -- become furious
when their naive illusion is challenged."

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krapp
There's a big difference between believing that conspiracy theories don't
exist and believing that even if some do, most are still bullshit.

If someone insists that any criticism of their opinions, however outlandish or
unsubstantiated their claims might be, amounts to clutching at straws of naive
fantasy, then they're the one trying to control me, not the government
_(conceding for the sake of argument that the government might also be trying
to control me)_

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[http://wellaware1.com/artwork/large/kennedy1000.jpg](http://wellaware1.com/artwork/large/kennedy1000.jpg)

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the
American public believes is false." – William Casey, CIA Director (from first
staff meeting, 1981)

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krapp
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7890046](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7890046)

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jqm
So let me see if I understand... The author believes in conspiracies that have
been proved otherwise he dismisses them as, well... wild conspiracies.

So how would one ever go about investigating a possible conspiracy to obtain
proof as conspiracies that haven't been proved are dismissed out of hand?

Sure, many conspiracy theories are nonsense. Sometimes these nonsense
conspiracy theories might themselves be the product of a conspiracy to make
conspiracy theories look ridiculous. Wait.. is that another conspiracy theory?

