“The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theory, is that conspiracy theorists believe in a conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is actually chaotic. The truth is that it is not The Iluminati, or The Jewish Banking Conspiracy, or the Gray Alien Theory.
The truth is far more frightening - Nobody is in control.
The world is rudderless.”
The truth is far more frightening - Nobody is in control.
The world is rudderless.”
The quote up there is from Alan Moore, who wrote the Watchmen comics and V for Vendetta among other things. It's an interesting understanding of why we cling to the concept of some kind of shadow organization that controls us all, isn't it?
There was a story in the news last week, that might have been somewhat eclipsed by the passing of Leonard Nemoy, but it caught my attention. Tom Schweich, State Auditor for Missouri and potential gubernatorial candidate, committed suicide on Thursday, among an 'antisemitic whisper campaign' and rumors that he was about to expose some sort of vast corruption between people in the higher levels of the local Republican party and the multimillionaire that funds them.
Convenient, right?
There was a story in the news last week, that might have been somewhat eclipsed by the passing of Leonard Nemoy, but it caught my attention. Tom Schweich, State Auditor for Missouri and potential gubernatorial candidate, committed suicide on Thursday, among an 'antisemitic whisper campaign' and rumors that he was about to expose some sort of vast corruption between people in the higher levels of the local Republican party and the multimillionaire that funds them.
Convenient, right?
Skeptical monkey is skeptical.
I don't know how I feel about conspiracy theories. In a lot of ways I agree with Mr Moore, that it would be nice if the world was that clear cut and that organized. But I don't neccessarily think it is.
Still, that little news bit up there got me thinking. Arguably if you throw enough darts at a board with your eyes closed eventually you'll hit it. And that made me think maybe for this Miscellaneous Monday we should talk about a conspiracy theory that turned out to be true. So, feast your eye-balls on:
Still, that little news bit up there got me thinking. Arguably if you throw enough darts at a board with your eyes closed eventually you'll hit it. And that made me think maybe for this Miscellaneous Monday we should talk about a conspiracy theory that turned out to be true. So, feast your eye-balls on:
COINTELPRO--A guide on how to be shitty by the FBI.
The Counter Intelligence Program was, in a quick nutshell, was the shit-show run by the FBI wherein they looked for new and inventive ways to discredit people in the civil rights movement and make them appear militant and dangerous to national security.
It was started and largely run, at least in the beginning years, by Hoover. And this quote in regard to Martin Luther King Jr sort of...covers the whole uncomplimentary, crappy nature of it.
"In the light of King's powerful demagogic speech. ... We must mark him now, if we have not done so before, as the most dangerous Negro of the future in this nation from the standpoint of communism, the Negro, and national security."
Just wow. Now I'm sure there's at least one person out there who will say something about the fact COINTELPRO also tracked and tried to disrupt less fluffy people, like the KKK. But really, just because you're looking at the obviously bad guys when trying to uphold the status quo, that doesn't make you're behavior any more laudible.
In any case, there's your Miscellaneous Monday dose of random. Nothing like a random reminder of our less admirable cultural and governmental history.
It was started and largely run, at least in the beginning years, by Hoover. And this quote in regard to Martin Luther King Jr sort of...covers the whole uncomplimentary, crappy nature of it.
"In the light of King's powerful demagogic speech. ... We must mark him now, if we have not done so before, as the most dangerous Negro of the future in this nation from the standpoint of communism, the Negro, and national security."
Just wow. Now I'm sure there's at least one person out there who will say something about the fact COINTELPRO also tracked and tried to disrupt less fluffy people, like the KKK. But really, just because you're looking at the obviously bad guys when trying to uphold the status quo, that doesn't make you're behavior any more laudible.
In any case, there's your Miscellaneous Monday dose of random. Nothing like a random reminder of our less admirable cultural and governmental history.
The suicide letter sent to King by the FBI
Come back Wednesday and see what I do for the part four of Chuck Wendig's four part fiction challenge!
RSS Feed
