Newsweek: Know Your Conspiracies
COMMENT: Though there is indeed some unsubstantiated stuff here, Newsweek has not provided any evidence to the contrary. In short, every ‘conspiracy’ here is dubbed something like ‘too silly’ to consider, or self-explanatory, or already debunked, or no proof… Give me a break. On top of listing Alex Jones three times by name, Newsweek links to The Obama Deception at the end.
David A. Graham
Newsweek
February 15, 2010
Like recurring nightmares, conspiracy theories aren’t necessarily gone for good just because they disappear for a while. They often come back, sometimes in slightly different forms. Their last golden age came during the middle of the Bush administration, which saw rumors from the political left about connections between the Bushes and the bin Ladens, insinuations about the military-industrial complex and the Patriot Act—actually, pretty much every plotline in Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. Nothing breeds paranoid theories like political exile, which means that with Democrats back in the White House, it’s the right’s turn to take up the standard, a task it isn’t shirking. And of course, several leftist theories remain in circulation. If you’re having a hard time keeping all these paranoid points of view straight, here’s a handy primer.
[efoods]8. FEMA is establishing detention camps.
The government has quietly made the Federal Emergency Management Agency a shadow government. Even now, FEMA has concentration camps ready across the country to intern American citizens. The idea attracted leftists during the Bush administration and—updated for the Obama administration—now has right-wing adherents.
Proponents:++Glenn Beck (briefly), the Internet.
Kernel of Truth? Too silly to discuss.
11. Time magazine wants to restrict the Internet to licensed users.
Time, in concert with pro-censorship groups, is backing a plan that would require a license—i.e., government sanction—for people to get on the Internet.
Proponents: Radio host and conspiracy junkie Alex Jones’ twoWeb sites.
Kernel of Truth?Time published a story reporting on a Microsoft executive who’d like to see licensing to combat anonymity. Broadcasting such a controversial proposal—regardless of its merits—is quite the opposite of censorship, as Time’s Michael Scherer rightly explained.
12. 9/11 was an inside job.
The truthers, holdovers from the Bush days, just won’t go away. They argue that the physics of the World Trade Center collapse doesn’t add up, and that the attacks were an excuse for the U.S. to launch wars abroad and enrich defense contractors. Either the government planned and executed them or it knew they were coming and turned a blind eye.
Proponents:Alex Jones, retired religion professor David Ray Griffin, Reagan administration policy analyst Barbara Honegger, British journalist Robert Fisk.
Kernel of Truth? Not even the staunchest mainstream George W. Bush bashers believe this one. Enough said.
13. The Omnibus One-World Government, Unified Currency, Dollar-Abolishing, Free Trade–Advocating Theory of Everything:
To make, first reheat old theories about elite organizations that supposedly control various world governments and would like to create a single, unitary, global regime—the Bilderberg Group, the Council of Foreign Relations, and the Trilateral Commission. Add a healthy portion of slightly newer but equally discredited theories about the Amero, a pan-North American currency, and the NAFTA superhighway, a planned thruway from Canada to Mexico said to be six football fields wide. Freshen with the economic-crisis-born idea that Ben Bernanke is trying to destroy the value of the dollar. Add a pinch of tea-party spice from former Alabama State Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, who believes there’s a plan underfoot to have a United Nations guard at every American’s door. The finished product should taste a little like this.
Proponents: Alex Jones, finance blog Zero Hedge, WorldNetDaily, conservative news site NewsMax, Roy Moore.
Kernel of Truth? Eh, sounds plausible to us.
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