Conspiracies

[ComerPerro]

Tin foil hats, Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, you name it.

You got LIHOP, MIHOP, Kennedy, Wellstone, Enron, and now the blackout.
But I am a fan of our conspiracy theories. I subscribe to many of them.

Over the summer (while on hiatus from DU) I started thinking, wondering why all the Right wing conspiracy theory wackos weren't suspicious about 9/11 or anything like that.
But then I started looking at the core, fundamental differences between the conspiracies.

Finally, I arrived at my thesis:

The extreme right and the extreme left both have their own set of conspiracy theories. While both show that each respective party feels that it cannot trust anyone who is an outsider, the suspected people behind conspiracies differ depending on one's political persuasion. Left-wing theories usually revolve around an opressive, secretive government that relies on lies, deception, covert operations and secret murders to hold and maintain power, as well as to keep the populus in check. Right-wing conspiracies, however, tend to center on external threats. Among these are immigrants, other countries, and, most popularly, space aliens.

[Devils Advocate NZ]

1. I disagree.

I actually believe that underneath it all, the right and left both point at the same types of people as being behind these conspiracies.

For example, the right wing conspiracy theorists hated NAFTA etc because supposedly it was a communist ploy, while the left wing conspiracy theorists hate it because it is facist ploy. We often refer to the same things (eg "New World Order") as being the creation of the other side.

The truth is that the people behind these conpiracies are apolitical to the extent that they don't support any one party - they support them all, because that is the only way to garauntee power. It also has the effect of negating democracy. If all parties are beholden to the same interests, what point is there in voting one party over the other? The outcome is still the same.

But that old saying still holds true - divide and conquer. While we blame the right, and the right blames the left, the people behind the scenes that don't give a shit either way, win.

And that is exactly what happens. Right wingers blame the left - and they have good reason to. Left wingers blame the right - and we have good reason to. If only we could realise that both sides are infested with the true conspirators and come together, we could easily defeat them. But as long as we continue blaming each other, nothing will change.

[AP]

2. Another angle. When something's working to your advantage,

you like to think it's organic. When it isn't, there's a conspiracy.

Right wingers (and even Greg Pallast, who doesn't like the Clintons either) think there was a conspiracy to avoid blowing up the Clinton gov't in relation to Indonesian connections (Riyadi? sp?) or donations, or whatever, which they think would have definitely resulted in impeachment.