Conspiracy Theories?

[JayM1125]

So here's a little fun fact about myself, I consider myself, to an extent, a conspiracy theorist. Why I say to an extent, I wonder if half of this stuff that some famous conspiracy theorists come up with are actual truth or if it's nothing more than a depraved form of entertainment. Now why am I posting this in here? I believe that this topic can hold some thought provoking merit, but taken with a grain of salt. However, if a mod feels as if this is in the wrong place, feel free to move it.

There are several theories that have been widely discussed across the internet. The most popular of them among the conspiracy theory community, or as they're called, "truthers," is 9/11. The belief that the World Trade Center attacks were staged in order to give the green-light to send the United States to war in the middle east. In my humble opinion, I can see it either way. I think it could be staged because I've seen some of the surveillance videos that have leaked onto YouTube over the years (one of the most famous being a missile hit the Pentagon instead of a plane). And then there's that television show that Jesse Ventura did called "Conspiracy Theory" where he had an episode that "exposed" what happened with the Pentagon. Of course one could argue that this was nothing more than a form of entertainment.

Then we have other theories, like the New World Order, The Illuminati, The Sandy Hook Shooting, JFK, and even several theories surrounding Barack Obama. You can practically search any term with the word "exposed" on youtube and find a conspiracy theory attached. Some of them seem feasible while others seem a bit too farfetched. There are also some major figures in the scene, being Alex Jones and Mark Dice.

So I want other people's take on some of these theories and if you think there could be any truth to them. Also, do you think any of these so called "Conspiracy Theorists" like Mark Dice and Alex Jones can be trusted. It's obvious that Alex Jones is a bit out there with many of his predictions, several of them have fallen flat on their face and as far as Mark Dice goes, when he's not insulting and blatantly trashing Miley Cyrus (even though immensely entertaining), I'm not sure if he's all that credible either. Everything I've seen of him has been interesting to say the least. Weather there's any truth to what any of these theories hold, is debatable. What do any of you think? Discuss...

 

[Alvis Alendran]

Frankly, I'll keep this pretty simple.

If the majority of the conspiracy theories were even close to correct, they wouldn't be tellingthe world about them. If the US government had half as much on the go as they claim, and had a tenth of the Shadowy Organizations that let them do these underhanded things, then the theorists would have been bagged and tagged before telling the world about the revealed secrets they claim to know.

Do I think that the US government has some seriously underhanded and sneaky bastard dels going on? Sure, absolutely. But I've yet to hear any real 'exposed' stories that made any real kind of sense overall. Every conspiracy theory that I've heard has been based on extremely shaky and unfounded information, things taken out of context, and a healthy dose of paranoia.

 

[JayM1125]

When I first got into them, I thought that many of them were true, especially how certain musical stars were associated with the Illuminati. Many people on youtube have pointed out many symbolisims in music videos and album art and such, but then I realized that these indivisuals had a bit too much time on their hands. Especially this one person trying to incriminate Christian rappers KJ-52 and Lecrae, both who rap about God and Jesus. Their basis was a bit stupid, imho.

I listen to Alex Jones some purely for entertainment, because he's so far off. Not only that, he uses fear-mongering to scare people into buying the products on his website. There are few things I agree with him on, but the one thing I do agree with are his views on guns. It's our second amendment right to bear arms and it's disgusting that Obummer and the government want to take that away. But other than that, his predictions are about as accurate as a TV weatherman.

I do however believe that 9/11 was staged. I'm starting to wonder about that Sandy Hook shooting, as sad as that sounds. I'm wanting to believe that it was legitimately true, but there are some details that are still sketchy. Almost all of the parents seemed to jump on the media like a vulture to it's prey. The LAST thing that ANY grieving parent would want to to is talk to the news media about any tragedy. And if they do, they'd be a crying, broken up mess. Almost all the parents in the interviews were smiling and showing no sort of signs they'd even shed a single tear. Even if they did cry it was forced. This was just based off what I saw in media coverage, and some videos I'd seen on youtube. Supposedly also, the parents were disaster actors. But other than that, there's still too many conclusions to draw to even think if it were true or false. However, I've seen alot of proof on youtube, eyewitness video, that 9/11 was an inside job. That is the one conspiracy theory I think is true, and even then it's a stretch. I just wanted to see if anyone else believed if there were any truth to any of these and their thoughts.

 

[Alvis Alendran]

See, and I'm going to go the opposite way. I can believe that a shooting is staged. It's easy to arrange, easy to cover, adn easy to work with. Knocking down some of the largest buildings in the US? Not so much.

Looking at the whole 9/11 thing, putting aside everything but the pure logical facts of the matter, the attack made no real sense. You could have gotten the same kind of effect, very similar public uproar, from a much smaller job. You could have blown up a mall, a finincial institution, or hell, go for a school or university! Taking down the towers would have just been overkill from a manipulation standpoint.

And it always hinges on they wanted public support for the war in Afghanistan. Okay. Why Afghanistan? Why Iraq? And why did they need to get troops on the ground, especially now that they're being pulled out?

The idea that the people in power put the plan into motion assumes a certain level of planning that borders on diabolically clever. But everything that follows seems to be assuming that they then got a good deal on a lobotomy, and became abysmally stupid.

 

[littlerooster]

I think these theories are modern day superstitions they help explain what is hard to understand, how did a bunch of Arabs hijack 3 planes and fly two of them into the WTC towers? Funnily enough the conspiracy theory with this goes hand in hand with the attack on Pearl Harbor theory that England had information of the attack and didn't tell America so that America would be drawn into the war, and I have to admit it is rather odd that the Aircraft Carriers at Pearl just happened to be away on maneuvers at the time.

I also think it quite odd that since Obama has been pressing for gun control laws there has been more mass shootings than usual in the USA. Actually I wanted to check if that was true and not just a feeling I had and sure enough shootings have gone up 300% since Obama was first elected. http://www.thedailysheeple.com/eric-holder-says-mass-shootings-up-300-since-obama-took-office_102013

So although I want to believe these theories are nothing but stories, I have to admit I keep an open mind about them as well.

 

[Trygon]

Occam's Razor easily destroys every conspiracy theory I've ever heard of.

Conspiracy theorists themselves, however, are fascinating! I think it's a sort of unrecognized mental aberration, personally. Some kind of pattern-seeking behavior run rampant, finding connections where there aren't any.

 

[Ms_Muffintops]

I think they're fun to think about. I do believe that we shouldn't just blindly have faith in our government and I realize there could be scheming and ulterior motives behind things going on in the government and other organizations, but a lot of the stuff I hear about sounds just way too farfetched or too much effort for what it's supposedly for.

 

[Ivory11]

personally I think conspiracy theories are a load of shit.

I mean seriously, they think it's more believable that the U.S government would not only kill thousands of it's own population just so it could go to a war that would send it bankrupt and not only that, but destroy the WTC instead of hundreds of other sites that could kill thousands of people, and by destroying the WTC that would mean the U.S intentionally destabilized it's own economy.... they think THAT is more believable than "a group of fanatical islamists who numbered already in their tens of thousands before the invasion, hijacked a couple of planes and crashed them into the WTC to hurt america in both moralle, life loss and economically"

the Pentagon, i have seen pictures of that straight after the crash, the plane that hit it wasn't lodged into the building but it had skidded along the ground and only collided into the building after crashing at a slight angle, that would explain why there isn't a wingspan-sized hole in the pentagon.

And other conspiracy theories like the moon landing, NWO etc... are all bullshit.
First of all, the Illuminati was a group of university professors who fought behind the scenes for educational reform in the early 20th century, and their symbol was the owl of minerva, not a pyramid with an eye on it, the pyramid is actually an ancient greek symbol for knowledge.

Second, the moon landing - if the moon landing was faked, why did neither china nor russia call america out on it?

NWO - there MAY be an organization dedicated to a new world order, but we have to ask ourselves... is that REALLY such a bad thing? a unified world government? no more wars over resources, religion and ideology?... i think IF a NWO existed, thenwhy would it inherently be a bad thing?

Anyway, with that done, i'll leave this here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X7Tjt4aX0Q

 

[Adam Edwardson]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmIjDfpTeMc

Take a look at the video above if you are leaning towards the inside job theory, if even only so slightly. It quite clearly demonstrates the bubble conspiracy theorists live in, where all evidence against their theory is simply discarded while any statement in favor, however dubious the source, is never questioned. There are seven videos, six of them debunking the truthers and a last one about the social and psychological phenomena of conspiracy theories. Sure, the people he interviews are just random activists on the streets, but the argument and false statements they use are the same as the more acclaimed liars (i.e. the makers of loose change) spread around.

In short, this bullshit smells so bad I can feel it all the way to Sweden.

 

[Ruphhausin]

I think that the greatest example of the worst kind of conspiracy being perpetuated was the "McMartin Day School" travisty. One of the few HBO movies that told the unabashed truth, Indictment: The McMartin Trial gave the inside story that if I didn't know how true it was, I would think the entire thing was made up. It was one of the sources of why it was so easy to sell the secondary "spontaneous conspiracy" defense theory in the OJ trial.

This is not a traditional "conspiracy theory", rather I am offering a suggestion of how it takes little time at all to watch such a "theory" be planted and go from seed to full blown Redwood in little time with the right "fertilizer".