[lbo-talk] The Conspiracy Industry ( change the subject to the war)

Charles Brown cbrown at michiganlegal.org
Tue Oct 17 12:10:50 PDT 2006


ravi wrote:

CB, I have always enjoyed reading your posts...

^^^^ Ravi, you are too kind. :>)

^^^^

You had asked about the position of the "debunkers" -- I think they (some of them (*)) do not [necessarily] have positions and are happy to just "debunk" and let things fall as they may. Perhaps a "Look how smart I am" exercise: there was a recent book by an economist, filled with adulatory self-references, called Freakonomics, which "debunked" many popular notions. The author took great pleasure, IIRC, in not only helping identify teachers who "cheated" on scoring (to keep up with the "No Child Left Behind" requirements?), but being around in person to watch them get fired. Not surprisingly, I am told many of the claims and analysis of the book (and its author) have now been "debunked".

^^^^^^ CB: Come the revolution, there will be much less of this stuff, hopefully.

^^^^^

(*) some of the supporters -- our own Doug Henwood -- of debunkers, have other legitimate axes to grind: I am guessing the domination of WBAI by these 9/11 alternate stories which are poorly reasoned and reflect badly on the station and those it represents. Both "conspiracy mongering" and "debunking" as activities internal to the left, when time permits, are not necessarily, IMHO, a bad thing.

^^^ CB: Sure, but for now, this arguing about socalled conspiracy theory is causing a lot of division on the left without producing anything that can be used to further the radical movements.

Even if there was no U.S. spook complicitly whatsoever in the specific 9/11 attack, the meaning of 9/11 is :

U.S. imperialism finally prevoked a direct counterattack in the U.S. homeland, after all these years of the U.S. attacking and dominating people around the world. Prevent future 9/11's by bringing all U.S. occupying troops and arms home from so many countries.



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