[lbo-talk] Fisk avoiding facts? really?

cian cian_oconnor at yahoo.co.uk
Thu Nov 20 09:29:23 PST 2003


Joseph Wanzala quoting Michael Parenti:
>
> Almost as an article of faith, some individuals believe that conspiracies
> are either kooky fantasies or unimportant aberrations. To be sure, wacko
> conspiracy theories do exist. There are people who believe that the United
> States has been invaded by a secret United Nations army equipped with
black
> helicopters, or that the country is secretly controlled by Jews or gays or
> feminists or black nationalists or communists or extraterrestrial aliens.
> But it does not logically follow that all conspiracies are imaginary.

All that Parenti is highlighting, is that its very easy to close down discussion of certain topics in the US, by bringing up the word "conspiracy". Indeed with many people (reasonable "liberals" mostly), their internal censor does it for them. That's a very different thing, and is the fault of the conspiracy theories that you are trying to defend. Its because of wackoes, that conspiracy has become a dirty word.

Note, none of the events described by Parenti happened in secret. It all involved the organisations you would suspect, and the discussions took place in public. The more interesting question (and one that Chomsky, amongst others, have tried to answer) is how they can take place so openly, and yet be ignored. The other question, is why conspiracists never notice these things, either. Perhaps open conspiracies aren't sexy enough - they'd rather be battling secret subversives for the soul of the world. Who knows, certainly the psychology of the crazed is not my area of expertise.



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