Carla Binion is a right-wing reporter who, in the context of her article ‘Conspiracy theories and real reporters’, attacks left-wing ivory tower liberals for not buying into the conspiracy theories surrounding the CIA and 9/11. Let me repeat that; a right-winger attacking the left for NOT buying into conspiracy theories. Admittedly, she isn’t making the bold claim that 9/11 was an American plot, only that it seems possible that the CIA knew about the attack in advance and let it occur so to create a situation to their advantage.Whether or not you believe that there was some kind of conspiracy on the part of the American government in re 9/11 you might think that it is justified to suspect that the CIA could know more than it has let on. Binion says: (more…)
Category: General
The Conspiracy Narrative that is ‘Zoolander’
No, I am not ‘jumping the shark’ so early on; I’ve just read an essay from MIT’s ‘Mediations’ magazine (Volume 1, Number 1, to be precise) entitled ‘Zoolander as a Parable and Parody of the Classic Conspiracy Narrative and Contemporary Western Popular Culture’ (Author: Jason Dick) It looked as if it could be interesting. I mean, the abstract claims:’Although often classified as an unorthodox comedy, Zoolander contains several elements which contribute to the reading of the film as a parody of the classic conspiracy narrative, while functioning as a parable of the paranoid anxieties of Western society exhibited in contemporary popular culture.’ (more…)
Psycho-analysis; how I don’t miss thee.
‘The tendency to suspect that conspiracies are behind events cannot be explained as a consequence of repressed homosexuality to the extent that this theory relies on Frued’s examination of Schreber’s case.’-A Psycho-Analytic Peek at Conspiracy, Buffalo Law Review, 1970, 20, 1, Fall, p. 248”The tendency to suspect that conspiracies are behind events cannot be explained as a consequence of repressed homosexuality…’ I don’t think I need say anything more; this stuff stands for itself (pun intended).
Question: New Zealand’s Reserve Bank
Because a) I’m in the midst of typing up notes for a course, b) because I’m too lazy to search for the information and c) I’m curious to see whether I can distribute my data searching I ask the following:What is the status of New Zealand’s Reserve Bank? How is it run? How is the money created? More importntly, anyone know any Conspiracy Theories about New Zealand’s Reserve Bank?
The Simplification Hypothesis
Question (non-rhetorical): Do you think that Conspiracy Theories, as explanations, simplify otherwise complex world events?I’m at a bit of a loss with this notion; on one level I can see why people would believe that positing a Conspiracy Theory reduces the complexity of historical and social processes down to an almost cheap formula, yet I also have the intuition that many Conspiracy Theories make the world events more, not less, complex.Whatever the case, a study at the New Mexico State University sometime in the late nineties (Beliefs in Conspiracies, Marina Abalakina-Paap, Walter G. Stephan, Traci Craig and W. Larry Gregory in ‘Political Psychology,’ Blackwell Publishers, Vol. 20, No. 3, 1999) dismissed the notion that people believe in Conspiracy Theories because they provide simplified explanations of complex events. (more…)
Them: Misadvertising the Extremists
I’ve just finished Jon Ronson’s ‘Them: Adventures with Extremists.’ Thoroughly enjoyable, rollickingly quotable and yet… Well, there’s a nagging feeling that the book is a bit… fictional.Ronson is a UK-based humour writer who produces material for the Guardian (who seem to have a thing for humour writers, as I found out whilst living in London). He admits this early on in the book when he tracks the Bilderberg Group to Portugal and finds himself the subject of some very overt surrveillance. The chapter reads well; jumpy reporter, a riling mark and strange, secret group of pan-government-cum-capitalists spying on each other. It reads rather too well, as if the events have been carefully restructured to provide the best in written entertainment.Which I think they have. (more…)
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07/06/2006