Apparently Lew Rockwell has gotten onto the conspiracy bandwagon. Two
posts today at his blog show that he has fallen for the conspiracy
theory of the Kennedy assassination. Once you ignore parsimony and
start multiplying entities, anything seems possible.
The
Men Who Killed Kennedy
Don't
Believe Conspiracy Theories
Why do so many libertarians fall for this kind of nuttery? The answer
is simple. It's called "confirmation
bias". When you believe that government is evil, you start seeing
government behind all evil.
This makes me mad. A few months ago some
NAU conspriracists starting showing images of an Amero coin as "proof"
that the North American Union was genuine. I've seen pictures of these
coins on anti-NAU literature and in forums. One person I talked to
face-to-face said "It's true! I've seen the coin!"
The only problem is, the coin is fake. Not only is it a fake, the coin
artist fully admits to it. Daniel Carr is the artist for these
coins. You can buy them on his website, http://www.dc-coin.com/.
Here's a link to the Amero
coin page.
I have no problem with people making fake or parody coins to promote
an issue. I have a major problem, however, with people deliberately
using fake evidence to prove their conspiracy.
Thanks to Reason for the tip.
You just can reason with some conspiracists. Even Canadian cartoonists
know this.
Green
Cheese
Will these conspiracies never stop coming? Now my mother is sending me
links regarding the North American Union conspiracy. Sheesh.
There are a lot of dots behind the NAU theory, and those dots are
indeed dangerous. NAFTA is a horrible trade agreement (that has
nothing to do with "free trade"). It's highways are financial
boondoggles. The SPP has been given more power than it ought, and
needs congressional oversight. And as always, the CFR is still a bunch
of nefarious globalists. Those dots are real and deserve genuine
concern. But the connections the conspiracists draw between then are
pure delusional fantasy.
It is impossible for the NAU to happen in secret. It cannot happen
without lots of treaties, lots of congressional bickering, and a
constitutional amendment. None of this is happening. It has not even
started.
All this energy expended on "uncovering" the NAU conspiracy, could
have been spent promoting the idea of genuine Free Trade.
Some related thoughts by others:
As you can tell by my latest posts, the current burr up my butt is
conspiracists. I've collected some links debunking various
conspiracy theories, as well as some general information regarding
them. I'm posting some of them here for you.
September 11th
Income Tax and the Federal Reserve
Other
General
My last blog entry was about conspiracists. Elsewhere on the net I've
been much harsher in my opinions of them. Imagine my shock this
afternoon upon discovering that I was heading down the path to
becoming one myself!
Politically, I am opposed to the income tax and the Federal
Reserve. So upon watching Aaron Russo's "America: Freedom to
Fascism" last week, I was hooked! My politics and the film were in
sync. I was determined to spread this news to as many people as
possible, so I made a bulk order of 100 DVDs to pass out to
friends, family, meetups, etc. Today the order arrived. I was so
excited!
I wasn't completely stupid, however. I knew the film was
sensationalist and engaged in quite a bit of hyperbole. I could see
that Mr. Russo had played fast and loose with some facts. I also
didn't like the over-the-top clip with Lou Dobbs at the end. But I
believed that in the whole it was telling the truth: The IRS and the
income tax were unlawful, and the Federal Reserve banks were running
the country.
But I'm a natural skeptic. I was smelling something fishy. I was
thinking up excuses to tell people, to get them to watch the
film. I imagined telling folks, "Yeah, it's sensationalist, but once
you get past that it's a good film." I was trying to explain to others
why it wasn't a conspiracy film like "Loose Change". Most disturbing
of all, the 9/11 Truthers were glomming onto the movie. The smell became
strong enough that I had to do a tiny bit of fact checking.
I knew there had to be more rebuttals to this film than just the IRS
FAQ. I found them. I should have looked at Wikipedia first, because it has
some good information. I don't always trust Wikipedia, but it's a good
place to start from, and it helped me find some good rebuttals of the
film. More importantly, I discovered the law that Aaron Russo said
didn't exist!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America:_Freedom_to_Fascism
http://docs.law.gwu.edu/facweb/jsiegel/Personal/taxes/F2F.htm
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/26/usc_sup_01_26.html
The message in the film is still a good message, but it is a message
that does not need to be bolstered with lies. The income tax may
not be illegal, but I still want to abolish it. The Federal Reserve
may not be a conspiracy, but it still has too much control over the
economy. And of course, our government is far too large for our
good.
I now understand a bit better the mind of the conspiracist. It's a
trap one falls into. If I had been a bit more credulous, I might be one
myself. That's a sobering thought.
I wrote this letter to a Ron Paul mailing list. I received so much
positive response to it, that I'm posting it here. Ron Paul's campaign
is striking a chord, and attracting supporters from everywhere. Some
of these new supporters are conspiracy theorists. This is my letter to
them.
Re: Conspiracy Convention
From: David Johnson
To: ronpaul@xxxxxx.xxx
On Saturday 19 May 2007, Xxxxxx wrote:
> Is anyone going to the Conspiracy Convention this weekend?
I do not believe in conspiracy theories, but I know some of you do. Please
hear me out. If we want to get Ron Paul elected, then we cannot have him get
labeled a conspiracist. It doesn't matter how right his message is, no one
will listen to it if they think he's a nut.
Did some of you tune me out when you read the word "nut"? Well guess what?
When people see the word "zionist", they tune out! It's racist. When people
see the phrase "9/11 truth", they tune out. When people see the
words "Bilderberger" or "Trilateralist", they tune out. Heck, they even tune
out when the see the words "Council on Foreign Relations", and that's an
organization that's not even secret!
It is my firm and unwavering belief that evil men are capable of doing evil
things without having to resort to conspiracies to explain it. Really, they
are. It doesn't matter whether the government is being controlled by a secret
cabal of masters or not, it is STILL the same government: bloated, unjust,
oppressive, subjugating. Focusing on the conspiracies only misdirects your
attentions away from the real problem: the government is bloated, unjust,
oppresive and subjugating!
It is a diversion, a diversion that dilutes and diminishes the message. The
message that we supporters need to be spreading is one of limited government
and individual freedom. Do not diminish that message, please.
Thank you.