Conspiracy theorist

"Conspiracy theorist" (enemy image)
Interest of	• Matthew Remski • Shyam Sunder
An enemy image used for ad hominem attacks on people as a way of misdirecting attention away from their arguments

"Conspiracy Theorists" are people who subscribe to "conspiracy theories". The term is used as an enemy image by commercially-controlled media such as Wikipedia, as if conspiracies don't happen so theorising about them is pointless. The modern connations stem from the 1960s when the CIA weaponised the term to try to cover up the plot to assassinate JFK. As with other enemy images, it is not used outside quotation marks on this site.

Terminology

"Conspiracy theorists" are concerned with corruption in government and what could otherwise be described as transnational organized crime (among other things), which at the same time can be institutionalized in government, such as intelligence agencies. The definition of criminal conspiracy in US law is: "when two or more people agree to commit almost any unlawful act, then take some action toward its completion", while the action taken toward the goal need not be a criminal offense in itself, still these actions generate liability. UN regulation takes a similar stand. Many sentences for bribery in the US involve a conspiracy clause, the same is true for fraud. Official US statistics apparently do list only by the type of offense, but it is a factor in a substantial number of cases.

Early conspiracy theorists

People who were writing in the field that would today be termed conspiracy theory, were Augustin Barruel (1741 – 1820) "Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism" and John Robison (1739 – 1805) "Proofs of a Conspiracy against all the Religions and Governments of Europe, carried on in the Secret Meetings of Free-Masons, Illuminati and Reading Societies". Both writers were concerned with Masonry, the Bavarian Illuminati and connected groups and their influence on the French Revolution. The Catholic Church was expressing their criticism against Masonry starting in 1738 with In Eminenti.

Chamath Palihapitiya, Founder and CEO Social Capital, on Money as an Instrument of Change - Stanford Graduate School of Business

Conspiracy theorists the media does not mention

People of elevated intelligence who have been very successful in live on the economic side also hold views that are (highly) conspiratorial.

Chamath Palihapitiya

Chamath Palihapitiya, a Sri Lankan-born Canadian-American venture capitalist and the founder and CEO of Social Capital. He was an early senior executive at Facebook, joining the company in 2007 and leaving in 2011. In an interview for Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2017 he said:

“Here's the thing. There's about 150 people that run the world. Anybody who wants to go into politics, they're all fucking puppets, okay? There are 150 and they're all men that run the world - period, full stop. They control most of the important assets, they control the money flows. And these are not the tech entrepreneurs. Now they are going to get rolled over the next five to ten years by the people that are really underneath pulling the strings. And when you get behind the curtain and see how that world works, what you realize is, it is unfairly set up for them and their progeny. Now, I'm not going to say that that's something that we can rip apart. But first order of business is, I want to break through and be at that table. That's the first order of business.”
Chamath Palihapitiya

Mark Gorton

Mark Gorton is a prominent financier and a respected entrepreneur. He founded the music sharing site Limewire, and he runs Tower Research Capital LLC, a high-frequency trading firm and is involved in various green lifestyle issues especially those having to do with transportation. His believes are, that a "ruthless" secret cabal that assassinated JFK and planned 9/11.

Steve Outtrim

Steve Outtrim (born 1973) is a technology entrepreneur from New Zealand. He is best known for his success in the early "dot com years" of the Internet, as the creator of Sausage Software and its flagship product, the HotDog Web Editor. In his podcasts he speaks about: secret societies, satanism, organized child abuse, interest of the rich and powerful into the occult and many related matters. He also is taking up information from the Q Anon movement.

Every US President up to Eisenhower

The conspiracy theory researcher Michael Butter claimed in 2017 (Butter is part of an academic research area where conspiracy theories are more or less classified as mental problems) that "Every American President, from George Washington to Dwight D. Eisenhower, was a conspiracy theorist"..."What is more unusual is that over the last twenty years, conspiracy theorists haven’t held power in Germany, France or the US."

Corruption in government

A 2014 study from Princeton concluded that the U.S. government represents not the interests of the majority of citizens but those of the rich and powerful.

"The picture changes markedly when all three independent variables are included in the multivariate Model 4 and are tested against each other. The estimated impact of average citizens’ preferences drops precipitously, to a non-significant, near-zero level. Clearly the median citizen or “median voter” at the heart of theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy does not do well when put up against economic elites and organized interest groups. The chief predictions of pure theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy can be decisively rejected. Not only do ordinary citizens not have uniquely substantial power over policy decisions; they have little or no independent influence on policy at all.

By contrast, economic elites are estimated to have a quite substantial, highly significant, independent impact on policy."

Eric Zuesse reported about that study on 14th April, 2014 followed by a neutral "just-the-facts" article two days later by UPI. As far as mainstream media reporting goes, this was it at the time according to his assessment. He later observed rebuttals of the study by mainstream media publications that were ignoring it before. These rebuttals and criticism brought back a reply by the scientists involved, published on the Washington Post website. Zuesse notes how this reply was likewise buried in the reporting, only generating two user comments, thus:

"[..] America’s press has covered-up [..] the extreme extent to which the only scientific analysis of whether America is a democracy or instead an aristocracy, had found it to be an aristocracy;"

Jürgen Roth

The German investigative journalist Jürgen Roth in an interview said the following:

“German Business News: You dedicate a whole chapter to the Bilderbergers. What influence do the Bilderbergers really exert?

Jürgen Roth: Compared to the "round tables" I described, their influence is rather small. What stands out among the Bilderbergers is not so much the secrecy or the strict isolation in luxury enclaves, but who the initiators are. They are US banks and US corporations, as well as the Deutsche Bank. At its core, it is a kind of neoliberal think tank, whose members sometimes have a rather obscure biography. And they try, with more or less great success, to win over politicians who are well-disposed towards them and their goals. These in turn feel flattered when they are invited. And it is particularly revealing that only representatives of neo-liberalism are invited. Critics of capitalism will not be found there.

German Business News: Where is the line between real power and conspiracy theory? You criticize the network of the "Round Tables". What is behind it?

Jürgen Roth: There is no conspiracy theory, only the conspiracy of a small, exclusive, European, economic and political elite against the social and democratic state. Their goal is clearly an ideological revolution, the widespread implementation of a free, untamed market economy. Ulisses Garrido, the former Portuguese trade union leader and current director of the Education Department of the European Trade Union Confederation, is far from any conspiracy theory. He explained it to me like this: "What is to be achieved is a complete change in society, without the population having any say in the matter. It is undoubtedly a silent coup."

[...]

Jürgen Roth: The purpose of this silent coup is also the privatization of all state enterprises, or state or municipal real estate. The Deutsche Bank demands this particularly strongly. Companies are sold off at a ridiculous price, often to the favoured of the ruling political system. Vital areas such as education, health and social services are privatized, as in Portugal or Greece. What is practiced here is the expropriation of national property. I don't even want to know how much criminally gained capital has been invested in Greece, Spain or Portugal.”
Jürgen Roth,  Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten (24.05.2014) 

Elite Deviance

Elite deviance is a term known to sociologists and political scientists. It is a condition that exists in a society when the elite no longer believes that rules apply to them. So people who have enough material wealth, political influence, and personal connections can immunize themselves from consequences of their criminal behavior. Elite deviance protects and perpetuates moral depravity and debased ethical relativism among the wealthy and powerful. It is facilitated by a cadre of supporters, sycophants, apologists, and fellow travelers in media, academia, politics, and high finance.

“individuals who commit elite deviance face limited effective deterrents, due to lenient penalties for such actions. The narrow presentation of elite criminality in the news enables the continued perpetration of elite deviance, allowing for the power elite to maintain a hold on the presentation of deviance in society. While the accountability structures seem to be shifting, the ingrained systems of power remain, thus enabling elite deviance to continue, regardless of the potential consequences. Looking to the future, however, a change in public perception of elite deviance appears to be occurring. With unprecedented frequency, high-power individuals are facing public allegations of crimes, as well as, incarceration, rather than benefiting from the traditional veil of secrecy and protection that previously surrounded their actions.”
'

This concept has overlap with C. Wright Mills analysis of the The Power Elite.

White-collar crime

White collar crime refers to non-violent crimes committed through deceptive practices, for the purpose of financial gain. Typically, white collar crimes are committed by business people who are able to access large amounts of money. It is also associated with crimes committed by government professionals.

The FBI’s white-collar crime work integrates the analysis of intelligence with its investigations of criminal activities such as public corruption, money laundering, corporate fraud, securities and commodities fraud, mortgage fraud, financial institution fraud, bank fraud and embezzlement, fraud against the government, election law violations, mass marketing fraud, and health care fraud. The FBI generally focuses on complex investigations—often with a nexus to organized crime activities—that are international, national, or regional in scope and where the FBI can bring to bear unique expertise or capabilities that increase the likelihood of successful investigations.

Edwin Sutherland (1883 - 1950) was an American sociologist and is considered as one of the most influential criminologists of the 20th century. He wanted to find a general theory of the typical criminal and by reading other researchers work, getting the idea that all criminals were stereotyped as impoverished or of low social standing he found that hard to believe considering people of high social standing committed crime as well. In his book Sutherland said "White collar crime may be defined as approximately as a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation."

Usage by corporate media

A 2013 BBC article by Jon Kelly was entitled Is it OK to call someone a conspiracy theorist?, and observed that because Norman Baker expressed "doubts" about the death of Robin Cook, David Aaronovitch (of the Integrity Initiative) termed him "a conspiracy theorist".

Peter Lavenda

The following is extracted from Peter Lavenda's Prologue to The Most Dangerous Book in the World: 9/11 as Mass Ritual a 2012 book by SK Bain. To the extent that the terms "Conspiracy Theorist" and "conspiracy theory" have acquired a validity distinct from both their original dictionary definitions and the pejorative usage outlined above, this extract nails it:

“They have one foot in the world of mainstream history and culture, what Robert Anton Wilson used to call “consensus reality”. That’s the world where most of us live. We are all products of that world, and of the ideas and worldview it represents. We are trained in this world virtually from birth: school, church, government, media all conspire to present an image - a picture - of reality that will result in the development of perfect citizens in an easily-managed society. There is a social contract:

we contribute to this society with the expectation that we will receive goods and services in return. We obey the laws that are created by other people, believing that our best interests are being addressed thereby. We fight in wars declared by our governments in order to preserve our society - this carefully-structured, albeit artificial, society.

And all is right with the world.
But conspiracy theorists have their other foot ... well, somewhere else. Not everyone is asleep to the darker mechanisms of reality. In fact, everyone becomes aware of them at some point in their lives. Everyone questions. The very nature of reality itself is at times so hostile to human life that human institutions must be challenged for their inadequate protection of their constituents. Conspiracy theorists seize on this inadequacy as evidence of the tenuousness of consensus reality. There are other forces at work, forces that are unacknowledged by the state, the church, the media because to admit their existence is to admit failure. Thus, when things go wrong, terrorists are blamed, or communists, or witches. This serves to rally the citizens around the government once again, instead of stopping to insist that explanations be given, that evidence is properly analyzed, that the guilty are apprehended and punished. And we once more go to war, against … someone, somewhere.

Paranoia becomes institutionalized. It is appropriated by the government as its own prerogative. The state determines the nature and quality of the paranoia: it creates intelligence agencies whose sole purpose is to give a form to paranoia, to enshrine paranoia as one of the necessary qualities of an observant and caring state. To prove that paranoia is an acceptable characteristic of the paternalistic regime.

The citizens are not allowed to become paranoid unless it is at government direction and sanction. Individual cases of paranoia are frowned upon. The state tells us that if we are not paranoid the way it is paranoid—and about the same things—it’s because we don’t have all the facts: about "terrorism", fundamentalism, communism, foreign countries, weapons of mass destruction, sleeper cells. The state has all the facts: classified documents, wire-tap transcripts, intelligence feeds, high-altitude reconnaissance images, none of which the citizen is permitted to see.

It does not realise that the logical conclusion of all this paranoia is suspicion of the state apparatus itself.
What the conspiracy theorist often fails to realise, however, is that those working for the state are often just as clueless as the average citizen when it comes to the origin and function of the forces at work to subvert it. The strength of a conspiracy, after all, rests in the limited number of persons who are aware of its existence and parameters. No one has the entire picture. Each member of the state apparatus only has possession of a single piece of an enormous jigsaw puzzle. Putting together all these disparate pieces—particularly when one does not have the original picture to work from—is a soul-destroying enterprise that consumes decades of work and years of one’s life. This is especially true when the state has in its arsenal of lies the techniques of disinformation and misdirection, of false testimony and planted documents.

Anyone who works with this material eventually comes to that realisation. But the motivation to keep digging is still alive; the urge to uncover one more piece of the puzzle, one more document, is perhaps a central characteristic not only of the conspiracy theorist but of human nature itself. The more intelligent of the theorists soon come to realize that Hansel and Gretel have left breadcrumbs everywhere, in no discernible pattern. Thus, the inclination among some of the best to stop looking for the children and start looking for the Witch.

The deeper one delves into the conspiracy literature, the more one is struck by the tendency of some theorists to look beyond the documents and the tangible evidence of government malfeasance or political conspiracy to more transcendental sources of power. One begins with the government agents, the spies, the politicians, the military, and soon gravitates towards the secret societies: the Freemasons and the Illuminati (among so many others). This involves studying their texts, their social structures, their stated goals, their secret conclaves, their antinomian beliefs and practices.”

 

Examples

Page name	Born	Died	Nationality	Summary	Description
"Disinformation Dozen"				Enemy image "Conspiracy theorist" "Anti-vaxxer"	"anti vaxxer conspiracy theorists" according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate
"Wikipedia/List of COVID-19 conspiracy theorists"				"Conspiracy theorist" List COVID-19/Dissident	The people and groups that Wikipedia consider COVID-19 conspiracy theorists.
Jacob Wohl	12 December 1997		US	Lobbyist Fraudster "Conspiracy theorist" Troll

 

Related Quotations

Page	Quote	Author	Date
"Conspiracy mindset"	““Conspiracy belief”, “conspiracy thinking”, “conspiracy mindset”, “conspiracy predispositions”, “conspiracist ideation”, “conspiracy ideology”, “conspiracy mentality” and “conspiracy worldview” — most of these apparently serving no distinct purpose other than an attempt at elegant variation — are all terms based upon the psychologists' own delusional beliefs. For some reason, all those researching the psychology of those they have labelled conspiracy theorist imagine, without reason, that the so-named “conspiracists” don’t have any evidence to back up their arguments.”	Iain Davis	1 August 2022
Piers Corbyn	“Piers Corbyn is a danger to our families, teams + to the people who believe the garbage he bangs on about. People may not agree with all their MP does but threatening to hammer us to death and burn down our offices is vile. Anonymous online trolls aren’t the major problem here.”	Piers Corbyn Sarah Owen	18 December 2021
Kate Shemirani	“From what I can see it would appear a "conspiracy theorist" is actually now anyone who believes something other than what your controllers want them to believe... I find this deeply disturbing”	Kate Shemirani
Zach Vorhies	“As a trained scientist I have a multifaceted view of the world based on evidence and fact. Therefore any claim that someone has fringe beliefs or theories should be checked against http://trends.google.com and see what the views of the rest of america are and what they search for. They may find that many beliefs that are slandered as fringe are actually mainstream beliefs of we-the-people.”	Zach Vorhies
John Young	“Well, conspiracy theory was invented by the spies. No one does more more conspiracy theory than spies do. The national security apparatus cooks up conspiracy theories all the time, but they put out this story that is just conspiracy theory, as though it's contemptible. But in fact, they're the ones who cook up the threats that are far more complex and bizarre than anything we ordinary people could ever cook up and they get billions to fight it. So they're almost diabolically conspiratorially. So let me call myself a sceptic and I'm willing to learn, welcome criticism. I don't mind these terms of being a dissident, a conspiracy theorist. Those are all throwaway terms. (interview with RT Jan 2, 2011)”	John Young

 

Related Document

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Countering Criticism of the Warren Report	memo	19 July 1968	CIA	An explanation of how the CIA added pejorative connotations to the phrase "conspiracy theory". The document instructs spooks in the use of "propaganda assets" in the commercially-controlled media to undercut any criticism of the JFK assassination official narrative, especially suggestions that Oswald may not have been the "lone nut" as the Warren Commission claimed.

 

Official examples

Name	Born	Died	Nationality	Summary	Description
Gary Allen	2 August 1936	29 November 1986	US	Author Journalist Activist	US author of None Dare Call It Conspiracy, proposing that US big business and the left are in the same front.
Ernesto Araújo	15 May 1967		Brazil	Politician	Brazilian Foreign Affairs minister, "COVID conspiracy theorist"
Shiva Ayyadurai	2 December 1963		US India	Activist Engineer Inventor Businessperson COVID-19/Dissident Science/Dissident	Indian-American biologist and dissident.
Thierry Baudet	28 January 2983		Netherlands	Politician
Glenn Beck	10 February 1964		US	Television Radio host Political commentator Conservatism
Vanessa Beeley			UK	Journalist Activist	British investigative journalist focused on the Middle East. Helped expose the White Helmets.
Brian Berletic			US	Author Researcher Soldier	Researcher, Writer, Commentator, banned from Twitter in 2022.
Maxime Bernier	18 January 1963			Politician Populism Maverick	Maverick politician; former MP and Minister; Leader of the People's Party of Canada, campaigning for COVID-19/Resistance.
Johann Biacsics	1956	11 November 2021	Austria	COVID-19/Premature death COVID-19/Dissident	Leader of the Austrian Anti-vaxxer movement dies of COVID?
Marcus Birks	1980	27 August 2021	UK	Musician COVID-19/Premature death	"Anti-vaxxer musician" dies of COVID?
Mario Borghezio	3 December 1947		Italy	Politician	Italian politician; interested in the Bilderberg
Mae Brussell	29 May 1922	3 October 1988		Researcher	A renowned researcher and investigative journalist in the field of deep politics.
William Guy Carr	2 June 1895	2 October 1959	Canada	Author Spook Mariner
Christopher Chope	19 May 1947		UK	Politician Lawyer Maverick	Conservative MP for Christchurch and East Dorset
Michel Chossudovsky	1946		Canada	Journalist Academic	Canadian author, academic and editor of the Global Research website.
William Cooper	6 May 1943	5 November 2001	US	Researcher Spook 9-11/Premature death Radio host Dissident 9-11/Dissident	Announced around 10 weeks before 9/11 that "Whatever they're going to blame on Usama bin Laden - don't you believe it...They will soon do something outlandish to gain the support of the Sheeple".<a href="#cite_note-1">[1]</a> He was killed by the US Marshals Service less than two months after the event.
Piers Corbyn	10 March 1947			Activist Businessperson Weather forecaster COVID-19/Dissident	The activist brother of UK politician Jeremy Corbyn.
Liz Crokin			US	Journalist
James DiEugenio				Author Researcher	A JFK assassination researcher
Mark Dice	21 December 1977		US	YouTuber	American YouTuber.
Jimmy Dore	26 July 1965		US	Comedian	American comedian; the host of The Jimmy Dore Show.
Wolfgang Eggert	1962		Germany	Author Researcher
Willem Engel	15 March 1977		Netherlands	Activist Politician COVID-19/Dissident	Dutch "Covid denier" who was arrested when he became too much of a headache.
Daniel Estulin	29 August 1966		Lithuania	Researcher	Daniel Estulin is a leading researcher on the Bilderberg Group.
Myron Fagan	31 October 1887	12 May 1972	US	Author Director Producer
Walter E. Fauntroy	6 February 1933			Activist Clergy
James Fetzer	6 December 1940		US	Researcher Soldier Academic	Deep politics researcher who was convicted to pay $450,000 for defamation for his work on Sandy Hook.
Daniele Ganser	29 August 1972			Author Academic Historian Statecraft/Analyst	Swiss historian who has focused on Operation Gladio
Jim Garrison	20 November 1921	21 October 1992	US	Lawyer
G. Edward Griffin	7 November 1931		US	Author Researcher Historian Statecraft/Analyst	Exposed banking cartels and "The Rothschild formula"
Robert J. Groden	22 November 1945			Researcher
Anthony Hall			Canada	Author Academic	Academic targeted by B'nai B'rith in 2016 for "using his academic credentials to deny the Holocaust and promote 9/11 conspiracy theories."
Richard Hall				Researcher	A "conspiracy theorist" who claimed that the 2017 Manchester bombing was not as depicted by the commercially-controlled media.
Paddy Hannam			UK	Journalist	Journalist and political commentator
Health Freedom For Humanity				Activist	American group of health professionals; who advocate for Health Freedom.
Attila Hildmann	22 April 1981		Germany Turkey	Author Chef	German-Turkish TV chef, turned "anti-vaxxer" and "far-right conspiracy theorist"
Anthony John Hill				Activist
Daniel Hopsicker	16 July 1951	22 August 2023		Author Journalist Filmmaker Statecraft/Analyst	Film producer, director and investigative journalist whose primary focus was the illegal drug trade by the US deep state.
Armoni Howard	1976	July 2021	US		American conservative activist who died from the COVID-19/Vaccine.
David Icke	29 April 1952		UK	Author Activist	A reputation in corporate media as the 'de facto face of conspiracy'.
Alex Jones	11 February 1974			Author Spook Producer Radio host Businessperson	A very vocal and popular radio show host who occasionally has predicted deep events. Although having a very loyal fan base, several researchers have called him a spook.
Isaac Kappy	17 February 1977	13 May 2019	US	Author Whistleblower Actor VIPaedophile/Premature death Hollywood/Premature death	An actor who died aged 42 after accusing former Hollywood friends of paedophilia.
Craig Kelly	29 September 1963		Australia	Politician	Australian dissident MP; COVID-19/Resistance.
Megyn Kelly	18 November 1970		US	Journalist	Famous American journalist.
Mark Lane	24 February 1927	10 May 2016	US	Author Researcher Lawyer	Early researcher into the JFK Assassination whose worked helped to prompt the CIA's coining of the phrase "Conspiracy theorist".
Francine Lewis	7 November 1975		UK	COVID-19/Dissident	British impressionist; COVID-19/Dissident
Henry Makow			Canada	Author	"Conspiracy theorist" and the inventor of the boardgame Scruples.
Jim Marrs	5 December 1943	2 August 2017		Author Researcher Journalist	Scholar for 9/11 Truth who taught a class on the JFK assassination at the University of Texas at Arlington for 30 years.
Caleb Maupin			US	Author Journalist
Kris Millegan			US	Author Musician Historian	Worked with Anthony Sutton to republish America's Secret Establishment and established TrineDay.
... further results

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