[lbo-talk] Documented pattern of govt/elite front groups

[Louis Trager]

I'm believe I'm researching a fairly long-term, extra-constitutional 
structure for political warfare and social engineering, serving economic 
and ideological interests and U.S. power internationally, and involving 
a relatively tiny number of very well-connected people. It was an aspect 
-- I think a significant one -- of the liberal-moderate interventionist 
current or milieu that dominated the mid-century era, but that was not 
undisputed or undefeated. All the key facts were out in the open as they 
occurred, or soon after, except for acknowledgment of the government 
connection, whose unearthing in dozens of cases suggests that the cover 
typically was not very deep.

Discrete conspiracies exist. They can be interesting and important; they 
can be rabbit holes; and they can be ridiculous distractions. 
Conspiracism produces bad thinking, bad writing, and terrible politics. 
I'm obliged to knock down the usually fantastic and not-infrequently 
vile conspiracy theories that opponents wielded against the players I'm 
writing about. But I'm probably silly to hope I can inoculate myself 
effectively against the red herring of conspiracy-mongering myself.

On 2014-10-01 13:27, MM wrote:
> On Oct 1, 2014, at 7:01 PM, Louis Trager wrote:
> 
>> I have an article -- hnn.us/article/156791 [1] -- that contends
>> these citizens committees were instrumental in helping form and
>> maintain the liberal-moderate consensus across U.S. politics and
>> society from the 1940s through most of the '60s. And it explains why
>> the record is as incompatible with conspiracy theories as with
>> conventional pluralist models. I'd be delighted for you to comment
>> online or privately, and to share the link.
> 
> Conspiracy precludes "personality conflicts, turf battles and
> disputes"? Has anyone informed the Attorney General?
> 
> Seriously, the knee-jerk allergy to "conspiracy theories" - and if a
> reifying generalization ever demanded conceptual analysis, that one
> surely does - is as unhelpful as the belief that World Events™ are
> conjured by a cabal of cigar-smoking, kabbalizing rabbis in a Josefov
> attic.
> 
> The problem with stereotypical conspiracy theories isn't that they are
> false - although most of them are - but that even when they are true,
> they are framed in a way that is radically disempowering. But trying
> to re-frame activities that clearly constitute attempts at what most
> people would call "conspiracy" as something else is just as unhelpful.
> 
> Never, ever, ever lie to the class. And if you want effectively to
> operationalize that command, construe "lie" as broadly as possible -
> even at the expense of your intellectual vanity.
> 
> 
> 
> Links:
> ------
> [1] http://hnn.us/article/156791