Friday, February 5, 2010

The Empire Strikes Back

MOMCOM is pissed because some folks do not swallow whole the conspiracy theory she-it demands that we believe.

Yeah, she-it demands that we believe it fervently with all our "pea pickin' little hearts" as Ernie Ford used to say.

Well MOMCOM, that is not going to happen and you know it quite well.

So, you have decided to continue the policies of J. Edgar Hoover, who was a despotic tyrant of the FBI for many decades longer than decency should have allowed him to be?

He spied on everyone he saw as a threat, and built files so he could "compromise them with blackmail".

One Official of the Obama Administration is advocating doing the same against any U.S. citizens who believe a conspiracy theory besides the official government conspiracy theory of 9/11:
Conspiracy theories generally attribute extraordinary powers to certain agents – to plan, to control others, to maintain secrets, and so forth.
...
Such theories typically spread as a result of identifiable cognitive blunders, operating in conjunction with informational and reputational influences. A distinctive feature of conspiracy theories is their self-sealing quality. Conspiracy theorists are not likely to be persuaded by an attempt to dispel their theories; they may even characterize that very attempt as further proof of the conspiracy.
(Conspiracy Theories; or here; PDF). Hey, those who question the official 911 conspiracy theory could not agree with you more.

That is the one where they say "The Cavemen Did It!", yes, these special cave men had extraordinary powers, for cavemen that is, so they out did NORAD, the CIA, the FBI, and the Air Force to take out the three towers and the Pentagon!

Yeah, that's the ticket, "So easy a caveman can do it" ...

Isn't that extraordinary?

Can you believe that Cass R. Sunstein, an official in the Obama Administration, wants to infiltrate groups of U.S. citizens and spy on them if they hold theories or opinions different than his?

In his paper Conspiracy Theories, linked to above, he writes:
What can government do about conspiracy theories? Among the things it can do, what should it do? We can readily imagine a series of possible responses. (1) Government might ban conspiracy theorizing. (2) Government might impose some kind of tax, financial or otherwise, on those who disseminate such theories. (3) Government might itself engage in counterspeech, marshaling arguments to discredit conspiracy theories. (4) Government might formally hire credible private parties to engage in counterspeech. (5) Government might engage in informal communication with such parties, encouraging them to help. Each instrument has a distinctive set of potential effects, or costs and benefits, and each will have a place under imaginable conditions. However, our main policy idea is that government should engage in cognitive infiltration of the groups that produce conspiracy theories, which involves a mix of (3), (4) and (5).
(ibid, page 14). Hey Cass, remember that scientists criticize other scientists and say radical things even to the point of saying that their peers have fantasies in place of actual science in some cases, Cass.

They don't infiltrate them so as to try to subvert them Cass. Instead they debate and do peer reviews and all kinds of scientific investigation Cass.

Stop being afraid of ideas, even if they are bad ideas, and get about the business of disproving bad ideas out in the open where we can all benefit from it Cass.

The simple solution is to get rid of the conjecture with a real 9/11 Commission with real teeth. Subpoena power, investigative power, but free from outside influence so it can get to the facts in full.

While Cass was at Harvard Law School, he advocated the policies of J.Edgar Hoover such as infiltrating and spying on professional architects as if they are terrorists or something.

Is that the meaning of "freedom" you learned at Harvard Law School, Cass, or are you deft because of the "W" on every compass point now?

You want to do bad things to U.S. citizens if they don't believe that cavemen from one of the poorest countries of the world completely shut down the defense systems of the U.S., became pilots of massive airliners, even though they couldn't even fly Cessna's, then did fighter-pilot quality flying?

Many pilots do not believe it Cass.

Have you stopped to consider that the Commissioners who did the 9/11 Commission Report do not believe what they wrote any more either?

Have you infiltrated them yet Cass?

Maybe you should consider infiltrating the Associated Press, Cass, because their CEO has said that MOMCOM turned the U.S. military into a global propaganda machine.

Have you infiltrated them yet Cass?

And what about these churches that carry around a book you took your oath on Cass; that book you carry to church which says an invisible evil power controls the governments of the earth?

Have you infiltrated them yet Cass?


The next post in this series is here.

2 comments:

  1. Regarding conspiracy theories, its amazing to me that those who so immediately dismiss out of hand any suggestion that there might be an alternative explanation for some or all of the events of 9-11 (which may or may not have involved a conspiracy to a greater or lesser degree), so readily accept the idea that a ragtag bunch of disaffected Muslim extremists - lead by a guy that MOMCOM, with all of her extraordinary resources, almost nine years and two wars later STILL has not caught - did. I'd have to say that the official explanation stretched credulity AT LEAST as much as any proposed alternative, no matter how outlandish.

    All of which makes me suspect all the more that something's not right in this whole affair. An inside job sounds crazy at first blush to me as well, until you start looking at the evidence and considering the alternatives. Further, with each passing day, Obama and his minions start sounding more and more like an inside job themselves. A "liberal" puppet regime installed by hard-core conservatives to throw the public off their trail, while the inside maneuvering to consolidate power accelerates in earnest. Imagine, the whole McCain-Palin far hysterical right thing as mere political farce for the masses? Now THAT'S not hard to get my mind around at all!

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  2. disaffected,

    Conspiracy theories are presented each and every day in our court system to prosecute crimes.

    They are quite the socially acceptable thing.

    The official 9/11 Report sets forth a conspiracy theory - "the cavemen conspired then did it" - but since it is an official conspiracy theory it is not a "conspiracy theory".

    It is the non-establishment "conspiracy theory" that is not socially acceptable to MOMCOM, because it does not march in lock step as they want the press to do.

    I have no idea if it was an inside job or rogue elements or both.

    That is a conclusion of ultimate fact which one cannot entertain too seriously until all the evidence is looked at by unbiased professionals and citizens in a real investigation.

    There are too many questions left open, which is causing a larger movement than MOMCOM can handle, so there needs to be a valid inquiry to settle it properly.

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