How conspiracy theories harm Activist communities.
The harmful effect of what happens when a Conspiracy theory "works" is not whats interests me. Its what happens when it doesn't. When it fails to convince. My argument is , that by throwing such crazy ideas into the broader conversation of the progressive left, it harms and diminishes the good ideas by turning the whole endevour into something that can be legitimately targetted as 'loony'.
Let me explain a few examples.
Take 9/11. A pretty fucking serious tragedy, by anyones account. Bunch of psychos hijack some planes, prang them into some buildings and kill a bunch of folks. Before long out come the conspiracy loons. The planes where remote controlled. There where bombs in the buildings. The pentagon crash didn't even happen (uhhhh?) , George bush ordered it, and so on. Each claim crazier than the previous. To make it worse ,the proponents of the theories where relentless, and many of them came from the left. It was the ultimate in confirmation bias. We TOLD YOU Dubya was evil, and now we KNOW IT!. Problem is, none of this was true. The evidence that what happened roughly resembled precisely what you saw on the TV set was insurmountable.
So what DOES this theory damage?
Whats crazy about all of this, is there ARE questions to be asked about 9/11 and its aftermath. Very fucking serious questions. What went wrong with the Intelligence Aparatus. Why where intelligence officers who where worried that this might be being planned ignored. So on. Legitimate questions that have huge implications for the way intelligence is organised, on buget priorities, and perhaps even on the very question of negligence high up in pentagon command. And you know what? Nobody gives a shit, because any will to investigate this got burnt up by the snarling psychos of the 9/11 "truther" movement. The crazies turned up scared everyone off.
Lets take one closer to my home. The Bali bombing. This involves a very real conspiracy, and how a very unreal conspiracy killed it.
Series of explosions go off in Bali, in 2002 (and later again in 2005). Maybe 30-40 australians killed, all linking back to Jemaah Islamia. This one was a bit personal for me, as my sisters boyfriend, a genuine likelyhood for brother-in-law to be, was killed in the blast. It all seemed pretty obvious what was going on. Or was it?
In 2005, Australias SBS, a quasi-autonomous Government owned TV station in Australia ran a documentary called "Indonesias War on Terror". Featuring hidden camera evidence, interviews with top Millitary brass, and even evidence from Abdurrahman Wahid, Indonesias former President, SBS's Lateline team laid out an amazing case, that the Indonesian Police and Military Intelligence had been funneling funds into Jemmah Islamia, to increase the incidence of terrorist attacks, which in turn led to massive influx's of foreign military funding to "fight" this supposed war on terror. And these funds? Some folks high up in indonesia where getting quite nice pay bonuses.
It was a shocking story, straight out of Tom Clancy, and made even more intriguing by what appeared to be a military D-Notice, banning the documentary , which immediately got pulled from SBS's website, under australias military censorship laws. Too late. Already screened to millions of viewers.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0510/S00223.htm
http://www.guba.com/watch/3000007741
So did the earth move under these shocking revelations? Well no. See the ground had long been poisoned by Joe Vialls , his crazy fans, and their loopy theory about a "micro nuke", mosad, the CIA blah blah blah blah.As a result, almost any mention of Bali and the notion that 'things are not as they seemed' would be met with rolled eyes. 'Riiiiight , Micro-nukes huh?'
And in this respect, the outcome of Vialls bat-winged conspiracy monkeys was much nastier than the outcome of the 'truthers'. Any likelihood of investigating a friendly government actively conspiring with terrorists to generate incidents to get foreign aid, is pretty much gone, because yet again, the loonies had poisoned the well. Watch that video folks. That's a major Australian news organization famed in Australia for its accuracy and scruples, and oh yes, the story they tell is very, very real. Now contemplate nothing will ever happen, and contemplate why. Joe Vialls and his micro-nuke loonies had already painted the crime scene with crazypaint.
What about Climate Change?
Here's an issue that might well be one of the most important and urgent issues facing man kind. And its been sabotaged to hell and back by the conspiracy theorists of both the left AND the right. Global cabal of 'scientists' conspiring for science bucks. Dissenters get fired. SOMEONES MAKING MONEY OFF THIS, or so goes the refrain. The ugly part is, so many people, including many in high power, believe this tripe about a vast conspiracy of scientists lying about the climate to scare folks into giving them bucks. Even IBM's Deep blue is in on it!
What about the war?
Almoat any peace protester can tell you of his frustrations with conspiracy theorists and loonies sabotaging almost any peace group formed. Believe me, its almost impossible to organize a sensible protest when the biggest banner always ends up being some loonies ten foot high "BUSH=SECRET SKULL&BONES OPERATIVE" or worse "IRAQ IS A ZIONAZI LIE".
Alternative media?
Indymedia, one of the most exciting experiments of the late 90s and early 2000s experimental journalism community has been rendered completely and intollerably mentally-ill by the conspiracy theorists. Whereas 99's Seattle indymedia was an explosion of hard hitting on the ground citizen journalism , ripping to shreds any government propaganda it could find, it quickly became a haven for anti-semites, 9/11 truthers, Mason/Skull-bones/rothschild/lizardpeople theorists, Some crazy guy who thinks Beatles use time travel to steal songs, and so on. Granted the thing would die anyway due to the rise of bloggs, its a shame that what started off as an intelligent, and exciting project that single-handedly kick started the open publishing and citizen journalist genres, ended up dying a miserable crazy and lonely death, with its uncensored wires raped and pillaged by the crazies of the conspiracy world.
I could go on. Medicine, Socialism, Palestine, all wells poisoned by the crazies. But I guess my point should be clear by now. In all these examples, interesting, sober and important questions get drowned in a sea of craziness.
The left has to rid itself of its crazies, or it will destroy any worthwhile cause it cares to adopt.
As the joke goes;- "The CIA invented the conspiracy theories to blind people to the real enemy. Stupidity".
It expresses something that drives me nuts. I see people who want to see a better world, but they get so far down the rabbit hole of wanting to know the "real" truth that they can't see the very real problems of the world. And then they spend all their time fighting imaginary enemies, and discrediting by association anyone who wants to ask real questions.
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