Category: Conspiracy Corner

Conspiracy Corner – Spying on Kim Dotcom

Hello, everyone. I am a New Zealand citizen and do not need to be spied upon. Indeed, if you are curious to what I am up to and what I have been doing, week-in and week-out, I have a radio segment on the 95bFM’s Breakfast show, every Thursday morning at 8:15am. If I use the code word “Tubthumper,” then that means I have been up to something naughty.

For those of you not in the know, the preceding paragraph exists to assure the GCSB (Aotearoa me Te Wai Pounamu’s (New Zealand) FBI-equivalent) that they need not spy on me like they did with Kim Dotcom.

Basically, the GCSB, due to a lack of oversight by the relevant (Prime) Minister and an inability to interpret it’s own law, spied on a permanent resident and thus endangered the case against Dotcom that the actual FBI are pursuing. What I find especially interesting about what has happened is that there is a prior probability that an organisation like the GCSB will act conspiratorially because that is what they are meant to do. This doesn’t, however, mean we should expect all their behaviour to be conspiratorial (in the sense that it was planned); sometimes organisations like these “cock-up.” At the moment we are seeing a lot of allegations that the GCSB were acting on behalf of the Americans, or that the Government of the day are uninterested in pursuing the matter further because it will piss off an ally, but what happened might well just be a cock-up by an organisation that just happens to have a conspiratorial function.

Now, my love of security apparatus and the like is well-known (that should be “lack of love”) and I certainly think it’s possible that the GCSB acted beyond its remit because it thinks it is above the law (once again, if the relevant (Prime) Minister is not going to do what he is meant to do and actually engage in oversight over the activities of the GCSB, these things are all the more likely to happen) and it’s not outside the bounds of possibility that they are sympathetic to, or even taking orders from, the Americans, but…

Well, cock-ups happen.

09/28/2012

Conspiracy Corner – Libya

Today’s show was a phoner due to buses not running on anything approaching a “schedule.”

The show, broadcast live from my dining room, was all about the various theories which purport to explain why the consulate in Libya was attacked. It’s a messy situation and the conspiracy theories make it all the more muddy.

Claims that the incident was a false flag operation have been rife: this blog post from Aotearoa: A Wider Perspective is a nice example. It links in the attacks with the anniversary of 9/11, points out that there was media confusion as to either where the attack took place or which embassy or consulate was being talked about and so forth.

I’m rather partial to this one, not because of the content of the theory but rather the author’s “I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but…” angle on the proceedings: Mitt Romney caused the incident. The universal distrust of Republicans is now such that we suspect him of being capable of almost anything.

But not of winning the presidency.

Still, all of these pale in comparison to the mysteries behind the film, “Innocence of the Muslims,” which seems to have sparked it all in the first place. I’m not going to link to the two trailers to this film: if you’re really interested, you’ll go find them on the internets and I’d rather not link to offensive dross unless I really can’t help it. If you bother to watch them you’ll be astounded by the production values (or lack thereof) and the sheer incompetence of both the script and the acting. For a film which is rumoured to have been financed by 100 Jewish bankers who put in 5 million $US, either they didn’t get their money’s worth or that’s yet another lie spread by Sam Bacile in his quest to… Well, stir up trouble. You might find the following links about the film, the producer and the actors who are distancing themselves from it quite interesting. It certainly seems like he has been acting in a conspiratorial manner.

09/20/2012

Conspiracy Corner – The Obama Hostage Doctrine

This week we talked about a rather interesting theory that Barack Obama is holding members of the Clinton family hostage, in order to ensure that the Clintons do not speak out against the sitting POTUS and thus bring his reign of terror to an end.

Or something like that.

09/15/2012

Conspiracy Corner – Aliens and the Pyramids

Yesterday’s corner of conspiracy administer by meself, soon-to-graduate with a PhD, Matthew Dentith, was on that olde-but-classical notion of “Did aliens build the pyramids?”

The answer is no, but it takes me about nine minutes to get there.

09/07/2012

Conspiracy Corner – Megadeth

It’s a little known fact that I quite like “Mötorhead” but I dislike “Metallica.” Frankly, I have no real opinion on “Megadeth,” but I can say that Dave Mustaine is a moron. Indeed, I call into question his credentials on today’s segment:

Mustaine, in a concert in Singapore, claimed that Barack Obama staged the Aurora Shootings and the Sikh Temple massacre so as to bring about the establishment of Nazi America. Mustaine is one in a very long line of celebrities who has endorsed conspiracy theories, ranging from the likes of Jesse Ventura to Robbie Williams (imagine those two on a boat, having a chat. Why a boat? Why not?), and it’s only because we take them to be notable in one area that we even care what they think in another (I opened the show with my opinion about fish fingers, and, frankly, no one should care what I think about processed “fish” foodstuffs). This move, which is suprisingly common, is a constant bugbear of mine in the conspiracy theory literature. We mistake authorities all the time (I believe it was me that said “Lord Christopher Monckton might very well be a peer of the realm, but he’s not peer reviewed), in part because we often don’t have an opinion on some matter, so just adopt one that’s held by someone who makes out they know what they are talking about, because sometimes we want to have the same views as people whose other contributions we admire or because their views fit with our other opinions.

Whatever the case, you are on notice. Stop it. Stop it now.

Also, sorry for the large number of parenthetical statements today. I sprained my ankle and, well, I don’t really have an excuse.

08/23/2012

Conspiracy Corner – Treatygategate

Well, this week was, predictably, all about John Ansell’s “Treatygate” and, if you’ve read this post and this post from earlier in the week, the following broadcast really contains no new information whatsoever.

Also, I do apologise for the ending of the segment: we had so much material to cover that, basically, all I could do to summarise what I thought about Ansell and his campaign was to riff on the whole “Sad, old, out of touch man” thing that we young race traitors, who do not respect the silent majority, have a tendency to indulge in.

One note: I refer to John Robinson, author of “The Corruption of New Zealand Democracy: A Treaty Overview” as “D. G. Robinson.” These are not the same person: I had a momentary failure of reference. Sorry, Denis. Don’t know what came over me.

08/16/2012