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Aug. 18, 2018 - Know More News - Adam Green
10:11
The Conspiracy Theory Conspiracy (Official Documentary Trailer)
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Time Text
Conspiracy theories are a great American pastime.
We are in a period where conspiracy theory is flourishing.
It feels like there's more of this out there than there has been.
Because the very word conspiracy implies something negative, I think.
Conspiracy theories are not new.
They are not even the exclusive providence of the American right.
They're left-wing conspiracy theories, too.
Conspiracy theories have been woven into the fabric of American society since before the signing of the Constitution.
Reality has been subsumed into a conspiracy theory.
Not everything is a conspiracy.
Some things just are what they appear to be.
And um, you know, that that usually tends to be the reality of things.
Are there definitions that we can lay out here?
Where does somebody go from asking a legitimate question to becoming a conspiracy theorist?
Historically, we we see that these conspiracies come after very upsetting events.
Kennedy assassination, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Each time something really scary and disastrous happens, people search for meaning.
So if you're scared or if you're angry, and uh people, a lot of people are, uh conspiracy theory seems appealing.
These are people who are inclined to believe that the government is out to get them anyway.
Uh the media is inconvenient with it, and then they seize on these few little anomalies that they think uh uh disprove the mainstream view.
If you look at where a lot of the work originates, where the first things come out on the internet, they some of them tend to be these political fringe sites, which looks authoritative.
They have facts, they have figures, they quote people, and yet they're treated by much of the media as if they're somehow credible that a quote from one of those sites is no different than uh something from the New York Times.
We've got to have the media call anyone that questions us conspiracy theorists, and any media that's not the Washington Post or New York Times is a conspiracy theorist.
you will be labeled a conspiracy theorist to shut you down.
Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories.
The conspiracy theorists are gonna go wrong.
Number three two.
This is a conspiracy theory and such a conspiracy.
Mr. Barrett is a conspiracy theorist.
What we have here is a conspiracy theory.
They had very much gone down the kind of rabbit hole of conspiracy thinking.
They've got lots of conspiracy theories.
They may have made all the truth.
I'm sorry to kill your conspiracy theories, but that is what happened.
I stumbled into conspiracy theories in another way.
I didn't know what that meant, that it was a real buzzword for Moonies.
This woman, we need to be clear, is an out and out lunatic.
She's a conspiracy theorist.
The overwhelming majority of Americans don't believe the official story yet.
Anyone who questions it is labeled fringe, a conspiracy theorist.
I was called a conspiracy theorist in the mainstream media.
And I know you've been called one too, and I think it's really important to address this pejorative term.
How does it feel to go on shows like Piers Morgan and other shows on the mainstream media and to be ridiculed and painted as a lunatic for bringing up these issues?
Well, because we'll show you in the book that that was the CIA's uh uh mission to anyone with question it, that's how they do.
They try to marginalize you.
They try to make it seem like you're a conspiracy knot.
That's where the mainstream media comes in, because they are also culpable of this deal.
They they like to uh diminish us and dismiss us by calling us conspiracy theorists.
It was sad because they didn't really take a look at any of the stuff I was asking them to look at, any of the evidence or any of the stuff that generated those questions, you know.
And they said, Oh, he's uh he's another tinfoil hat wearing Hollywood clown, you know.
If you know anything about disinformation, if you know how governments discredit other governments and discredit movements.
They always say conspiracy theory.
It's the it's the it's the first thing you go to.
Because people don't want to be involved with conspiracy theories In any language in any country.
They just don't want to be involved.
And so you label people conspiracy theorists.
You you sit there and say, let's debate the issue.
What?
You're missing my own.
I'm not gonna debate this with you.
Let me give you an example.
Not the people of America.
I'm not gonna ruling class, a small minority.
Cut his mic.
We found it so inherently unbelievable that those uh uh statements would be made.
Uh it was hard to ascribe credibility to them.
I honestly don't even want to answer the question.
I think that's so far out of bounds, and it's true and realist uh be ridiculous.
I don't even want to dignify this with a response, really.
Bearing me a diatribe about conspiracy theories.
Can you please give me a straight answer?
Look, I think we should pass on this question.
I just, you know, I don't want to spend time on this question.
I don't think it's valid.
Thank you.
And I agree.
We've had that question as many times before.
Hopefully, uh that will be the end of it.
Well, you've been hearing the conspiracy theories uh on this for many years as well, and sometimes you have to scratch your head.
They are paranoid.
You cannot debunk this theory.
It is madness as well as idiocy.
Like you cannot argue logic to someone who is mentally ill.
Just think of them as mental patience.
So that's what I do with conspiracy theorists.
They're off their rockers.
Why do people from the truth movement keep getting called psychotic and all other names for what they believe?
Well, that's because they don't have any evidence to try to disprove what we say.
So rather than arguing the evidence with us, they have to attack the messenger.
And then they say, uh, you're crazy.
Yeah, what kind of argument is that?
He's considered a crank and a coup.
And most people think you're a nut.
Most people think you're not.
Why in the world would they care what you and a couple of other kooks in Southern California send them in the mail?
I don't think they're going to want to take the time to open mail from some fringe political sect.
Music.
It's not even worth mentioning this guy's name.
I mean, he does not represent America.
This is the same guy that that said that the US government is involved in Oklahoma bombings in 9-11, so it's just he really lives in the land of wacky.
Some guy on the radio, we don't really know who he is.
The guy that we don't talk about very often because he's so insignificant and we don't really care.
Um but he is he is a also psycho.
Yeah, he's can we just say what it is?
I think he is a psycho.
The king of conspiracy.
Radio show host Alex Jones, the outrageous Alex Jones.
The talk show host is Alex Jones.
He's uh he's a conspiracy theorist.
He's kind of like the the guru, the you know, the king of the conspiracy theorist.
He's considered legitimate on the crazy conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Conspiracy theorists in conservative conservative radio halls like Alex Jones, quasi journalists such as Alex Jones, that conspiracy theory comes from the mother of all conspiracy theories that can set seduce Republicans.
It's an internet talk show called Info Wars.
Info Wars.
When really smart people have come up to me and said, you know, I just saw this on something from InfoWars.
You don't think about it?
Yeah, stay away from it.
Immediately somebody well, I got it from InfoWars.
Oh, then I can tell you right now it's most likely not true.
If you talk about it for any length of time, you discover all kinds of things that you do know about the world.
We blown it wide open.
Um you have you have I'm absolutely blunt up.
He can see a lot of things that other people can't see.
It's like a conspiracy around every corner and in everyone's eyes.
Alex Jones may sound crazy, but still had 300 million YouTube.
Uh well, he had 300 million people that have watched him on YouTube.
Challenge Alex Jones to a boxing match.
Show up with a semi-automatic that you got legally and pop them.
I'd love to see that.
in uniform.
I'll borrow my brother's uniform.
I don't think Alex Jones should be disqualified from participating in Republican Party politics.
It's as if Alex Jones is now the head of the Republican Party.
Because every conspiracy theory are all coming together, and they've created this narrative, but it's all out of their talk radio base.
It's all out of their right-wing uh online base, and they've now converged on Congress, and they've pulled them into the conspiracy theorizing too.
It's brilliant.
Yesterday afternoon, Matt Drudge, who's the purveyor of the most influential conservative website in the country, the Drudge Report, yesterday afternoon, Matt Drudge tweeted this.
He tweeted, I've privately told friends that this will be the year of Alex Jones.
One hell of a broadcast in such a homogenized media.
Again, this is from the most influential figure in conservative media.
I know him really well.
It's not an act.
He's my friend.
I mean, I've known that guy for over 10 years.
Alex Jones is exactly who he presents himself as.
The validity of some of the shit he's brought up is unquestionable.
There's a lot of stuff that he brings up that's like, and by the way, he was bringing it up way ahead of anybody else.
If Alex Jones thinks any sane person believes he's deranged, wild conspiracy theories he can keep on pretending.
You know, when idiots are calling brilliant people stupid, you've got a real problem.
*music*
Telling the truth is not a conspiracy theory.
It's just such a cheap shot to shut down debate and critical thinking.
They want the truth.
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