This article on the fundamentalism in Fundamentalist Politics does some interesting (and presumably controversial) work defining fundamentalism. Having been accused of working with “interesting” definitions of both “conspiracy theory” and “conspiracy theorist” I find trying to locate fundamentalism in the intersection of superchurches and the heartland Right of the Republican Party really quite interesting. Nothing explicitly conspiratorial in this one, unless you could talk of talk of the silent majority as conspiracy-esque.
Talking about US Fundamentalism, it’s interesting that we don’t know much about it’s link to domestic terrorism because the person who was studying it lost his federal funding. The article both suggests a partisan conspiracy to deny links between extremist ideology in the U.S. and domestic terrorism, as well as a conspiracy to focus on Middle-Eastern sources for terrorism in the U.S.
Alex Proud from the Telegraph talks about how we are all conspiracy theorists now. It’s a standard list of conspiracy theories we should all agree turned out to be warranted. Still, always useful to have a little ammo when shouting “See!” and holding a placard about the imminent end of the world.
Edward Snowden; love or hate him, it’s hard not to appreciate the mess he’s made. Newly released documents to the public show that the NSA was keeping a large amount of information they shouldn’t have gathered in the first place, and detractors of Snowden are having a hard time trying to condemn Snowden whilst not also condemning the NSA. Sure, Snowden released personal information, but the NSA collected it and if we’re going to argue they have processes in place to stop personal information getting out, how do we explain Snowden being able to leak it?
What is more Welsha than replying to an OIA request in Klingon? Nothing, that’s what.
Nicky Hager is in court this week contesting the actions of the New Zealand Police when they confiscated his computer (given that it sets a chilling precedent for journalism in Aotearoa (New Zealand)). Here he talks about his machines being seized. Meanwhile, people are still interested in the identity of Hager’s source, Rawshark, and this piece is a very interesting analysis of what kind of hacker Rawshark is and what kind of expertise he likely has.
What is a Conspiracy Tound-up without a Cliff Kincaid piece to make fun of? Here he talks about the Christian genocide that is occurring (apparently) in the U.S. right now! Truly frightening (that Cliff Kincaid).
Would you like anti-slavery provisions to be included in the TPPA? Most people would seem to say yes, but, of course, we aren’t the ones doing the negotiation. It seems that the U.S. has stripped the anti-slavery provisions out, which is all-so-slightly funny/disturbing given the furore about that Confederate Flag and Charleston happening there right now…
Also on slavery, a discourse I didn’t even know existed: people who claim the Irish had it just as bad as the African slaves in the U.S. Here’s a rebuttal.
Mentioned on the podcast last week; there’s a plane and it’s been in space for over 600 days. No one knows what it is doing up there, and that kind of makes people curious.
Who wants to make sure Texas secedes from the Union? Vladimir Putin, that’s who. Truly, the survivalists and the nationalists are the real communists in America these days!
Is Trendy Veganism the Final Stage before Trendy Cannibalism? I kind of need to know, being vegan and all.
Person who supports the thesis the Chinese got to Aotearoa before the Māori ((The originator of that thesis claims the Māori are the offspring of Chinese sailors and Melanesian slaves, I might add.)) publishes new research about Aotearoa’s past and gets miffed people are questioning it because her previous research was highly questionable.