> -----Original Message-----
> From: martin [mailto:mschiller at pobox.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2004 8:22 PM
> To: Chip Berlet
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Democracy Now 5/26
>
>
> Your comments earlier - 'serious scholars who, . . . , write
> about the
> phenomenon of
> conspiracy thinking and conspiracism.' seemed rather
> dismissive, rather
> than a searching for deeper truth. Seems a strange way to encourage
> research, but . . .
>
> Martin
>
Yikes. What I was trying to point out was that I did not invent the idea of studying conspiracism, and everyone who studies conspiracism is not some "dittohead" accolyte of my work. In fact, there are several schools of thought about conspiracism. What I was objecting to was the way Wanzala misrepresented reality concerning the study of conspiracism in his effort to be snide.
I understand some people find truth in casting the I Ching, and if they take it seriously, I respect their right to do so. But when people take gossip and claim it is fact, it lacks the spiritual integrity of the I Ching, and it lacks the intellectual integrity of actual research.
When people claim to be progressive, and spread rumor and myth as fact, then I argue that conspiracy theory is a knife in the back of dialectical materialism.
Chip