Totally sick and tired of conspiracy theories.

We know that you and your friends have constructed this post as a red herring to your nefarious underground activities. We will not be fooled.

If those darned aliens had not built the pyramids, we wouldn't be in this mess!

You've hit the nail on the head for the primary objection to conspiracy theories--which is that the most of them require a great many people to have been involved with the same end, and then to have kept their mouths shut for long periods of time. Neither activity is common to the human experience. Another consideration is that those who would conspire are very likely to be venal--criminal conspiracies are those most likely to be attempted. A lack of trust among participants would eventually doom the conspiracy.

Historical theories of conspiracy are the most pernicious, however, because the majority of the public do not understand the rules of evidence as applied in historiography. It is all to easy for someone wishing to profit by the publication of an historical conspiracy theory to use evidence that a conscientious historian would doubt or reject out of hand. Additionally, such authors frequently use selective evidence. "It is quite plausible to suggest that Kimmel was unprepared for the Pearl Harbor attack because he lacked sufficient information . . ." would be an example of what one might quote from Knox, Stark, Turner or any number of persons who were responsible in the Navy Department in 1941. But such a statement would not include the disclaimer which any of those men would add, which was that they believed that Kimmel was getting the same intelligence information as were they. A futher technique of historical conspiracy theorists is to play upon the suggestibility of the otherwise uninformed reading public. In the Pearl Harbor example, an attack on Pearl Harbor seems a unitary concept. But it is not in fact a single idea. The Japanese did not attack Pearl Harbor, they attacked the Pacific Fleet, which they knew they were likely to find at Pearl Harbor. This is a crucial difference, because almost all men in authority in America in 1941 feared an attack on Pearl Harbor, but did not think about an attack on the Pacific Fleet. Lt. Gen. Short, the commander of the Army's Hawaii Department, had reached the point where he had completely reversed his thinking about his duties. His job was to protect Pearl Harbor and the Fleet--but he came to believe that Oahu was safe so long as the Fleet were in port. The Japanese had determined that the Fleet would be in port on a Sunday, and that everyone's guard would be down. This was certainly true of Short, who felt safe whenever the Fleet was in port. The attack was a success for that reason--among many others.

The biggest refutation of the Pearl Harbor conspiracy theory is that Americans had badly underestimated their opponent, and it was a great national humiliation to them that the Japanese, toward whom there was a racist attitude of superiority, could pull it off. It salves the national pride to dream of conspiracies, rather than to admit that the Japanese pulled off one of the greatest naval operations of all time.

One of the most ridiculous examples of this misdirection of the readers' attention comes from Van Daniken and his Chariots of the Gods tripe. In a discussion the momunental figures carved into the rock on the plains of Nazca, he posits (in so many words, i don't have a direct quote) that: "This could only have been laid out from over head, so how can you explain this as a work of people who didn't have flight technology." In fact, such claptrap can take in the well-educated, too. The National Institutes of Science paid for an expedition which went to South America to attempt to show that hot-air balloons might have been constructed with the materials available there at that time. But why should one accept the original statement in Van Daniken's thesis? Consider for yourself just how difficult it would be with modern technology, if not impossible all together, for a supervisor hovering above the plain in a helicopter to control workmen on the ground making the carvings. In reply to the thesis that the carvings could only have been laid out from above, i would point to the grid transfer technique, used by the human race for thousands of years. One draws a picture on a small scale, and lays out a grid of equal dimension squares over the drawing. By laying out a huge grid on the surface to be carved, and transferring proportionately the contents of each grid square from the small to the huge, you have a very simple explanation for producing monumental sized carvings.

Whatever the provenance of a conspiracy theory, applying William of Occam's dictum entia non sunt multiplicanda will dispell most of the fog upon which the hoax perpetrator relies.

I believe absolutely everything I hear on Art Bell's Coast to Coast.

Have i shown you my brochures for swa . . . that is, lake-front property in Florida?

Not Fooled
This is obviously a conspiracy against conspiracy theorists. I have secret information from a Very Reliable Source that this is part of the Plan by the Illuminati to stifle the inquiry of curious and skeptical minds to get to The Truth which has been kept from us for Evil Reasons by a Dark And Hidden Power. We are not fooled. Keep your eyes on the Grassy Knoll.

On To You,

Tantor

I have to agree that silly conspiracy theories still abound, surely the silliest of all is that Lee Oswald shot JFK, and incredibly there are people who actually believe this nonsense.

A mob boss, I've forgotten which one, once remarked that the only way a secret shared by even three people is when two are dead.

Oswald Did It


One of the people who believe Oswald did it was construction worker Howard Brennan, an eyewitness at Dealey Plaza standing across from the Book Depository who saw Oswald fire at JFK and identified him as the shooter.

What is silly is conspiracy pinheads' rejection of facts and evidence in favor of fantasy.

Tantor

WB tantor

I know this is inconsequential and there is a perfectly logical explanation, but how does the US government account for Bush's false claims about having watched the first airliner strike the WTC that day on television, when the first airliner strike hadn't even been televised that day, again?

By pretending it never occurred.

I used to work for Florida Power, and although it's a minor thing compared to the Kennedy assasination or Roswell, the attitude of much of the general public, as stated on talk radio, in the newspaper, in letters we received from customers, etc. was that we were conspiring to do all kinds of things, like create artificial shortages to be able to raise our rates, and a host of other conspiratorial things. It really struck me as sad, because, while I cannot swear that these things absolutely were not occurring, I do know that I never saw anything of the kind, and the people I met at all levels seemed to be decent, honest, ordinary people. In some cases, the conspiracies attributed to us were close enough to my own job function that I knew beyond any doubt that the conspiracy ideas arose out of simple ignorance of what we were doing.

Simple ignorance, one the human race's most popular commodities, is at the heart of every conspiracy theory. They cannot function without it.

A 'Shadow Person' visited me last night and told me not to believe in conspiracy theories anymore. Then a Succubus appeared, and laid on my chest, and it hurt like hell, but I said, "no way bitch, I'm having you tonight." She got all kinda soft, and we had great spirit-world sex. Well, I slept for a while, and then the grays showed up, uninvited. "Where's our pate, dude," they asked. "Screw you, you should call first if you want pate." They were not impressed. "Okie dokie, up to the saucer, and another anal probe for you." An unpleasant experience, but fortunately, no colon cancer.

truth
I suspect this thread is part of a vast conspiracy to suppress conspiracy theories.

Good God ! ! !

JLN, we have to alert the world, what if this nefarious plot succeeds, what if . . .

Hmm, i'm gettin' hungry, any suggestions for breakfast?

set I believe we have been systematically programmed from birth to believe that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and that government subsidized farming allows for the injection of eggs and prepared cereal with a mind altering drug that makes people believe everything they see on tv.

for God's sake man, skip breakfast!!!!!

I had bean soup for breakfast, Bear . . . am i in trouble?