26 April 2009

Rough Guide to Conspiracy Theories

I have a lot I've been meaning to write about. I'm London right now, and I'll be here or around the UK for the next six weeks or so. Unfortunately, I forgot my copy of "From Hell," the Alan Moore comic book, which is an extremely detailed version of the "Royal Conspiracy," concerning Jack the Ripper. But I found a tour guide pamphlet in our crappy hotel, and a blogger who has already done the "From Hell" tour, so maybe I'll just take some pictures or something. But I do want to write about that book, because it's awesome.

I found this book, "The Rough Guide to Conspiracy Theories," a few weeks ago when I was home in Richmond, VA, for my birthday, at my favorite used book store. As you might expect, the writing is pretty terrible, but it's a fairly comprehensive reference for conspiracy theories, so hopefully it will prove useful. It's kind of funny, it sort of claims to be "sorting myths from realities" but the writing is so vague it's often hard to tell what they fuck they're talking about. They use the terms "conspiracy," "conspiracy theory" and "conspiracist" pretty much interchangeably. Here's part of the introduction:

Conspiracy theories have also given birth to a miniature academic industry. Where once serious historians avoided the word "conspiracy" like a disease, cultural critics and sociologists are now documenting conspiracism in popular culture, dissecting the politics of conspiracist thinking and analysing what is sometimes called the "paranoid style" - interestingly, a term borrowed from clinical psychology. A few historians are now willing to lash themselves, like Ulysses, to the mast and expose their ears to the siren voices of the conspiracy version of history. The idea that long ago it was great men's deeds that drove world affairs gave place to the notion that much bigger historical and social forces were at stake. Now, once again, it is being recorgnized that plans, projects, conspiracies and even conspiracy theories can change the world.

My favorite new conspiracy from the book is about this guy, Danny Casolaro, who died in 1991, an apparent suicide, while pursuing a conspiracy theory he referred to as "the Octopus" -- "it had so many tentacles." Because Casolaro told his brother "
that, if something were to happen to him, it would not be an accident", law enforcement pursued a murder investigation. Casolaro, a freelance writer, was supposed to meet with Michael Riconosciuto, who was basically a nutcase grifter and conspiracy theorist. In the days leading before they were supposed to meet, Casolaro recieved numerous threatening phone calls. He met with a few other people on the way to Martinsburg, West Virginia, other sources providing material for the book he was trying to put together. Riconosciuto had promised an important piece of information to fill in Casolaro's "Octopus" theory. At the time, Riconosciuto was also facing charges for drug trafficking that could put him in jail for thirty years, and his defense was based on a government conspiracy to silence his knowledge about the Inslaw case, in which the government was being sued by a software company. Riconosciuto was known as a computer programmer and weapons designer, as well as a crystal meth manufacturer, but it's difficult to know if any of that is true.

Anyway, the ambiguity of Casolaro's suicide is what makes the story fascinating. Did the CIA fake his suicide because he was getting to close to the truth, "the head of the Octopus?" Did Riconoscuito kill Danny Casolaro to make give weight to his conspiracy theory? If so, did Riconoscuito himself actually believe his own theories, or was it all an elaborate plan of defence? Or was Casolaro driven crazy by his pursuit of the "Octopus" and his failures to get a book deal or the information he was seeking?

Casolaro's suicide note doesn't help answer that question: "To those who I love the most: Please forgive me for the worst possible thing I could have done. Most of all I'm sorry to my son. I know deep down inside that God will let me in."

Some other things I will hopefully eventually blog about:

-- Michael Rockefeller, who mysteriously died on an expedition in New Guinea. So far I haven't found any actual conspiracy theories about this, but I imagine they're out there.

-- This crazy guy, who came up with this, made this movie and others, and is now in jail, I think.

-- The Paranoid Style in American Politics, one of my favorite essays.

-- This British journalist, who George Blake told me about, also this guy Peter who was interested in working with Boy Crisis as one point.

-- The Marlowe Society, which doesn't "officially" claim that Marlowe was Shakespeare, but champions him, and likes to point out that he died under suspicious circumstance right around the time Shakespeare started publishing poetry. Thinking about getting a tattoo of their emblem. JK, I love Shakespeare.

-- This book, which is awesome, and reminds me of being in college.

-- Maybe even Noam Chomsky and this whole thing.

Bobby Fischer tells the truth and nothing but the truth

13 April 2009















I saw this episode of The Simpsons last night, which is a spoof on the Da Vinci Code. I actually read that book when it first came out, I think I had to for some reason, but I've never blogged about it or it's influence on the current popularity of conspiracy theories in tv and the internet and stuff. Oh, and National Treasure apparently, that Nicholas Cage movie, which I should probably watch, even though it looks terrible. The Simpsons does a good job with it though. Most of it is just a parody of the creepy catholic shit that happens in the Da Vinci Code, but they throw in this sort of NWO theory that George Washington, Ben Franklin, and the Kind of England staged the American revolution to cover their search for the gem that Lisa and a bunch of nuns are after. I guess it's not that funny.

09 April 2009

alex jones/obama deception

I lazily titled my last post "Obamathon" in anticipation of watching a bunch of shit about Obama, and then put it off for a few days. I finally finished The Obama Deception, which is probably the worst conspiracy movie I've ever seen. More than any other I've seen, it's a haphazard collage of theories loosely tied together by the idea that Obama is just the latest installment of puppet leadership put in place by the banking elite in order to distract the masses from what is really going on. Though you have to give them credit for figuring out a way to include the Green movement into the New World Order. This is going to be inaccurate, but I think it has something to do with controlling energy resources or making people afraid or something. They even have one of those guys who scientifically explains why the current global warming is normal or something, after saying, "I'm not a scientist, but..." There's a lot of footage of Alex Jones. He's not exactly not charismatic, but his whining/yelling thing is just a little too much. Also the fact that he's made ten films that are all essentially the same thing. When I see this guy making his face blue behind a bull horn I really wonder what it is that makes him do this. His political position is so radical that no one takes it seriously (there was one cute girl at one of his rally's though), yet he plugs on, film after film. I mean, I assume he's making a living off of it. It's hard to believe that the whole thing could just be a gimmick. But it's not like it's hard. Anyone could come up with his theories, anyone could shoot and edit these terrible films. I still have to watch that New World Order movie, which I thought was a documentary about conspiracy theorists, but is apparently just another stupid New World Order film, but it has given me the idea of making a documentary about Alex Jones, trying to figure out what is really up with this dude. Too bad that would be a huge waste of my time. Anyone, onto the images and videos.




Apparently Richard Linklater likes Alex Jones, or at least thinks he's interesting. I vaguely remember this part of Waking Life. This is the second time I've talked about that movie on this blog. I tried to find out if Linklater actually buys into Alex Jones' theories and stuff, and while I think he sort of does*, he probably really doesn't. A Scanner Darkly is about technology and surveilance taking over modern life, but it's definitely not about the whole planet being turned into a prison as Alex Jones theorizes.




*article is from Alex Jones' own site

This is funny. I also tried to find out if there is any criticism or even acknowledgment of Alex Jones by anyone else, but I didn't find much, other than people who are actually crazier than he is, and kind of scary, like this anti-Semite.































My favorite part of The Obama Deception is the Jesse Ventura interview. Looks like it's from the first section. Ventura compares American politics to professional wrestling. It's all a show, he says, and behind the scenes they're all friends. I wasn't really paying attention, but when did Jesse Ventura stop being the governor of somewhere and become a weirdo who apparently lives in a trailer?















Professor Griff was also in this movie. He didn't make any sense. There were a few celebrities. KRS-One was in it a lot. I guess this happened. KRS was pretty outrageous, but also adept at using metaphor, hyperbole and synecdoche.
















Alex Jones uses a few aesthetic motifs over and over. Like all the other conspiracy movies. I wonder if he even bothers creating new source material for new films.















Aren't these guys menacing:
















I also like how he aped MySpace:















Is he trying to appeal to the younger generation? I'm pretty sure that's his only audience.

So I guess I'm saying don't watch this movie. I'm not sure if that's really what I'm supposed to be doing while I blog about conspiracy theories, but if it is, then I should say, don't bother watching this movie. Just watch Zeitgeist again.


08 April 2009

Obamathon

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c
Baracknophobia - Obey
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Economic CrisisPolitical Humor


I'm halfway through the "Obama Deception" by Alex Jones, which is basically another New World Order movie, with some funny stuff that explains how Obama is involved (which actually kind of makes sense, if you're crazy), when I noticed this Daily Show clip James posted on Facebook. I guess the conspiracy theorists are finally making it to the mainstream, via Fox News, which really actually makes so much sense. It kind of debunks the idea that the media is controlled by the political/financial elite, but it really just proves that Fox is bullshit and is willing to put anyone who has any criticism of Obama on the air.

I'm also doing some research into the history of conspiracy theories, which is pretty interesting, as well as the history of paranoia. The Internet definitely added a lot to the proliferation of conspiracies, but there's some funny stuff from like the sixteenth century too, it looks like.



from: RT

04 April 2009

Fuck the New World Order















Ha ha. Actually I'm getting really sick of the New World Order thing. All the conspiracies in the world leading to the same thing is boring and stupid. I'm watching Wake Up Call which is pretty disappointing, because it's entirely made of clips from other conspiracy movies. And The Matrix. The whole first section is just taken from Zeitgeist, like actually fifteen minutes straight or something, and it makes several more appearances. I'm sort of skimming through the sixteen YouTubes now. The creator, John Nada, also borrows from Loose Change, Monopoly Men, The Capitalist Conspiracy, and just about everything Alex Jones has ever done. Considering that it appears he has done almost no actual research aside from watching other people's conspiracy theory movies, I seriously question his motive in making Wake Up Call. Though his MySpace page does describe him as a "Researcher, writer, video editor, graphic/website designer, truth-seeker, free-thinker, dreamer." So I guess that makes sense.

This shit is like two and half hours long. What the fuck.

More Zeitgeist. I've already seen all of this shit.

Well, I have learned one thing.
















This guy, Louis McFadden, is quoted by Dylan Avery as being one of the few US Congressman who stood up against the Federal Reserve Act (which according to New World Order conspiracists is how the banker elite have turned the american people into slaves). But I just read McFadden's Wikipedia page, and apparently he believed that Jews controlled the banking system and secretly controlled the American economy and government. He also supported Hitler's anti-Jewish policies. So... Not exactly an upstanding guy. This is also funny considering Zeitgeist's portrayal of the Bush family's association with Nazi later in the film.

It's scary that these conspiracy theories often converge with anti-Semitism and other freaky shit. I guess the whole point is that these guys are crazy and paranoid. I see it is as fiction and they see it as reality. But it would be so much more entertaining to me if they would come up with some interesting shit. And a lot less frightening and depressing.

Oh, also, this guy, Jason Burke, apparently claims there's no such thing as Al Qaeda, which I've never heard before:

















I also really can't get over how stupid this whole RFID/gps chip thing is.

















I don't even feel like talking about it. I can't watch this anymore. Maybe I'll have energy to watch that Obama one and the Alex Jones one later.

















"That you are a slave Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison for your mind."

Also:


03 April 2009

Paul Washer Project

Also, this isn't really a conspiracy, but the video is kind of amazing.



I also really like the info given:

ALMOST ON DVD! I'm working on it! Please message me to request one.
Feel free to download at:
http://www.mediafire.com/?0mjhwx2gng0
This is a Paul Washer sermon that I added sound, pictures, and animated text to for a school project. Music is "Lost Dreams to a New Beginning" from newgrounds.com by MilkMan-Dan. This is not actually on the history channel, this is a fictional commercial.


!

"this is a fictional commercial."

Wake Up Call/The Matrix



I also found this. I don't know anything about it yet, but it contains the entire blue pill/red pill scene from the Matrix, as it's introduction, which is amazing.

I've never talked about the Matrix at all, because I saw it when I was fourteen, enjoyed it, and then never thought about it again, but it is kind of the ultimate conspiracy, or at least it's a metaphor for all other conspiracies, the paranoia of knowing or believing that some secret thing is actually controlling reality. And the idea "taking the red pill" or seeking the truth is heroic is interesting to consider when talking about a dude like Alex Jones or any of the YouTube conspiracists.

New Documentaries to Watch

It's been a confusing day on YouTube.com for this blogger. I've been reading a lot recently, which sort of means that I haven't been watching conspiracy movies, but I did find a book called The Rough Guide to Conspiracy Theories, so I remembered about this whole thing.

That Obama movie is by Alex Jones, who I've been aware of for a long time, but was never really that interested in. He's a journalist who might be considered ever so slightly more respectable to mainstream journalism than say, whoever that guy who made YouTube about Masonic architecture in DC, using white text on a blue screen. But he has a big website and is probably pretty influential within the actual conspiracist community (which still hasn't reached out to me). Anyway, I got confused because I found this movie, which features Alex Jones, but isn't actually about him or made by him:



Which I only really figured out by reading the user comments on the YouTube, so that's not exactly a reliable source. Anyway, I'm excited about watching both of them (full versions also on YouTube), and possibly blogging about them.

Also, I'm excited about this movie, because while watching most of the trailer, for some reason I had the idea that it was a documentary about conspiracist "film makers", which would have been awesome, and something I probably should have thought about doing, but I think it's actually just a movie about the New World Order.

Alex Jones' site.