Welcome to the future! Well, the passing present. I might have news in a week worthy of its own blogpost, but, for now, here’s a round up on matters conspiratorial.
First and foremost, Josh and meself recorded the first episode of season two of The Podcaster’s Guide to the Conspiracy, and reviews are good ((Well, the one review we’ve had is good. Still, that counts.)) Why not give it a listen?
Just a week ago I was complaining to anyone who would listen that people on the far Right – particularly Libertarians – keep complaining about “Cultural Marxism this, Cultural Marxism that!”, mostly as a cover for their bigotry and selfishness. I was thinking that I should write something on the spectre of Cultural Marxism and how people like Trevor Loudon couch their conspiracy theories in terms of a “Liberal Agenda”, but someone has done the work for me. This piece by the Guardian’s Jason Wilson lays out what people on the Right think Cultural Marxism is, and how they must fight against it.
And if you want an excellent example of a local libertarian pumping his fist against Cultural Marxism, why not read Jamie Whyte’s atrocious new column? My favourite bit is how he sneaks in the erosion of the right of employers to be racist into his list of sins the Government commits.
Being a president seems like a bad idea, given that its a highly political role in many countries and sometimes people want to kill you. If you happen to be the president of Turkey and are a despotic autocrat, then that just makes the job worse. Especially if, despite all your efforts in curbing Press freedoms and arresting members of the Police you don’t like, it turns out that some Twitter user in your inner circle just continues to leak damaging information about you. If the leaks are to be believed – and thus far they have been reliable – the president of Turkey seems to be conspiring against his own people and organising faux terror attacks. It’s interesting reading.
I just finished reading Jovan Byford’s Conspiracy Theories: A Critical Introduction, which came out in 2011 from my publisher. It’s a book I found out about too late in the process of writing The Philosophy of Conspiracy Theories, which is a shame because some of Byford’s skepticism of conspiracism plays into my discussion of how people confuse conspiracy theories with belief in conspiracy theories. Still, one section I was particularly perplexed with is Byford’s dismissal of the current literature which treats belief in conspiracy theories seriously. Part of my “Huh?” moment was focussed around incidents like this, where automobile manufacturers and associations sought to make roads suitable for cars only. As I might try to explain in another blogpost, incidents like these seem to suggest that we should take the worries of conspiracy theorists seriously, because all sorts of conspiratorial activity is much more common than most of us think.
Unsurprisingly, the CIA spying on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence – which was looking into the “enhanced interrogation” programme, was not a bad idea. At least, that’s what the Review Board has said, and it should know: three of its five members are CIA. So, no conspiracy there.
Local immortal and MP, Winston Peters, has been banging on about this for years: German U-Boat entered our harbours.
Finally: Sounds of Sodomy might very well be the next Irish music extravaganza.