I am a Conspiracy Theorist!

[Turn CO Blue]

Or perhaps I am not really, but Conspiracy Theorist is the label (I just love labels) that was applied to me this morning. Please be warned as you read the rest of this post, that I have also "gone over the edge!" Take the proper precautions. I am sorry to say that it was someone very dear to me who felt the need to engage in name-calling and to wake me up as to how kooky and X-Files-ish my belief systems are...

For a little background on me, you should know that I have become quite political over the years, and that interest has been growing exponentially day the day since last summer. I was never political in my teens or twenties; quite the opposite actually. I am nearing the Big four-oh, and now find that I think of little else, and little else interests me. Tracking anti-conservative tidbits and progressive opinion is my new and (almost) sole hobby.

So far as liberal-profiling goes, I wouldn't make the cut. I'm almost blue-white, nearing middle-age, and our combined income is pretty far above average. My husband has an MBA, we live in a $300K home in the suburbs with a very well-manicured lawn. The Repubs send us lots of mailers, so we fit their marketing demographic, I guess. I dress conservatively, and just don't look like an elitist, pinko, wine-swilling, French-loving Liberal.

But this Liberal thing of mine is escalating, let me tell you. I loathe TV news coverage. I find myself sneering at "Bush/Cheney 2004" stickers. I cringe when Cuckoobananas hems and haws his way through rehearsed sound-bit rhetoric in front of pre-selected Brown-shirters. I have even attended two protests at the state capitol! I logon to DU night and day (and check DKos, AmericaBlog, buzzflash, michaelmoore, and other sites often).

I feel that the precariousness of our democracy is escalating by the hour. Hell, it's escalating by the minute! Whenever I read threads that discuss how this country is on a grand slide into fascism, I nod my head knowingly.

I desire to be a rational free-thinker, and have tried to ask myself truthfully: since I seek progressive opinion and news sources almost exclusively, are my increasingly disgusted viewpoints (of the media, the BFEE, the neo-cons, the right-wing religious zealots) the result of:
- a cultish "groupthink" process, or
- the result of getting bits and chunks of "the truth"?

Guess which way I'm leaning? (wink)
-----

Here are some of my political viewpoints and the "conspiracies" that I buy into:

- The SOTUS illegally handed the presidency to Bush in 2000.

- Al Gore really did win Florida in 2000, but there was a preconceived plot by key Republicans including the Florida SOS to cheat or to change the results to Bush's favor.

- The 2004 presidential election didn't merely have "irregularities" in the count -- there was a systematic plan in key states, especially in Ohio, to commit election fraud, to rig the vote, to discriminate against Democratic and/or black voters, and to stifle the transparency of the vote-counting process by election officials.

- There is something fishy about the Mitofsky polling numbers and their explanations about the "mistakes" in the original releases of the data.

- The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) is a powerful cabal, akin to some crazy storyline in a sci-fi novel, bent on global domination, empire-building, and financial gain...and their members have slyly taken over the US government like body-snatchers.

- As for 9/11, I ascribe to the LIHOP theory at the least. I believe that certain Saudi nationals that had close ties to the pResident were whisked out of the country.

- The march to war in Iraq by the Bush administration had nothing to do with WMD or even the "generous" idea of bringing democracy to a dispirited and oppressed people -- and had everything to do with getting the pieces on the board in the right (oil rich) place in the giant game of Risk the PNAC'ers are playing.

- The mainstream media has lost its sense of journalistic integrity, and have become right-wing viewpoint shills for the corporations that employ them.

----
The above are just a sampling of the crazy notions and conspiracy theories that occupy much of my time and energy! Please pray for my redemption (snark!)

Obviously, most of you who read this will think most of the above points are no-brainers, and are rather like the minimum entrance requirements to current progressive thinking, but I have been set straight, having been advised that this kind of thinking is extreme and just plain nuts!

As I was writing, I tried to imagine some of the Bushbots I know reading this post. Am I really "out there", like on a limb?

Seriously, I feel rather like someone who has been unplugged from the Matrix, and rather pity those who still see their prison the Machines have constructed as a functional society.

The truth is out there...or "out there" on a limb, in my case!

[rawtribe]

1. I like to think of

myself as a coincidence theorist.
I'm very familiar with the knowing nod.

--------
An error can never become true however many times you repeat it. The truth can never be wrong, even if no one hears it.
- Mahatma Gandhi

[Turn CO Blue]

6. "No such thing as coincidences".

I used to work as a secretary to a man who was the former political writer for the Austin American Statesman for 20 years. He was the one who told me "No such thing as coincidence".

So coincidence theorist fits right in.

As for the label "conspiracy theorist", I'll chuck it off in a day or two...right now, I'm just smarting and throwing myself a pity party.

[Zorbuddha]

64. People that say "No such thing as coincidence"

usually mean everything happens for a reason or by some form of intention. But events coincide all the time, often uncannily, and that is the definition of coincidence. It is an undeniable aspect of human experience.

[Zorbuddha]

65. oops---self delete

wrong place.

[eridani]

86. John Brunner once said--

Coincidence = you weren't paying attention to the other half of what was going on.

[cloudythescribbler]

2. response

Actually most of those conclusions other than the thing about PNAC -- the world is crawling with these rightwing bureaucratic creatures -- makes perfect sense.

On Iraq -- yes, it's the oil stupid. The Dick Clarke interview in Fahrenheit 9/11 (you should get it on dvd and make sure all your near and dear ones see it) made it clear -- bush was interested on 9/12 ONLY in how to link it to Iraq, no other country, and didn't even ask his counterterrorism chief (Clarke) about AL QAEDA! By the way, I would highly recommend Clarke's Against All Enemies, though beware, he IS a conservative against the Bush foreign policy, and not a progressive. But I'll grant that he's a smart conservative and well worth reading.
Also, on 9/11 or as I call it "Christmas for Tories", the issue of getting the Saudis out of the country can actually divert attention to the real issues at stake -- the exploitation of the attack, its political usefulness, as in the Christmas tag.
On the media, the place to start is Chomsky MANUFACTURING CONSENT.
It is very well documented, and explains what you intuit about the mainstream media with great precision. I actually disagree, holding what some might consider a 'paranoid' theory (I call it the "pseudo liberal anti-paranoid style in American politics" as a parody of Hofstadter's famous essay "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" written shortly after the JFK assassination, where he cites polls showing the majority of Americans saw a wider conspiracy (duh!) as a symptom of mass paranoia.) John Lennon -- speaking of conspiracies -- used to call paranoia "heightened awareness". My own view is that the mainstream media is kept in line not merely by they dynamics of Chomsky, which can be discussed in polite society, but by widespread underground repression, to make sure they keep performing their function of justifying the lying.
I have plenty to say about the 2000 and 2004 elections -- but I'll leave you to Chomsky, Michael Moore, and Dick Clarke at amazon.com for starters.
If you want to further discuss stuff (I have studied this stuff extensively for decades since getting my MA in political sociology & decades of activism)just contact me at my inbox for messages and I'll email you. The stuff on these sites disappears in a day or two, and there's real problem in formatting, though DU is one of the very best around.

[FreedomAngel82]

5. On Clarke

Even though he's conservative he also served in the Clinton administration so if Clinton can trust him that must be something good, right? He knew about Al-Quida pretty well from working with Clinton/Gore. He was very outspoken against Iraq so that's a good thing too. It's like with Ritter. He's conservative but couldn't go along with Bush's plans so he left. I don't believe in coincidences but believe everything happens for some reason either by mortals or a higher being(s).

[jojo54]

3. Whether you think you're a conspiracy theorist or not

your assumptions are right (not that kind of right!). I am very much like you Turn CO Blue. At 50, it's been just the past few years (5, to be exact) that I've had the time and energy to see things for what they are. I lose sleep, I smirk at the chimp, I take everything the administration has to say with a grain of salt (actually a pound) and I often think of the movie 1984.

As John Neville (the Well Manicured Man) in the X-Files movie said, "Trust no one Mr. Mulder".

[Turn CO Blue]

7. Yes, we live in Orwellian times.

If he had named it 2004, wouldn't it have been even spookier? I am so glad that I found DU and the people on here (no matter how many drama queens, snarking and bickering) -- DU is like my church.

[Al-CIAda]

67. Our Leader

[GettysbergII]

4. A Quote from Michael Rivero is appropo

“Most people prefer to believe that their leaders are just and fair, even in the face of evidence to the contrary, because once a citizen acknowledges that the government under which he lives is lying and corrupt, the citizen has to choose what he or she will do about it. To take action in the face of corrupt government entails risks of harm to life and loved ones. To choose to do nothing is to surrender one’s self-image of standing for principles. Most people do not have the courage to face that choice. Hence, most propaganda is not designed to fool the critical thinker but only to give moral cowards an excuse not to think at all.”

[Turn CO Blue]

8. Truly, I am going to keep that quote.

The quote is perfect and appropos, as you say -- I feel that my dear friend suffers from "cognitive dissonance". He is desperate to continue to justify this administration, this war, this corporatism that is oozing into every crevice of our society...not because he is malicious in any way, but because, in his cowardice, it is easier than facing the truth, and what we must do about it.

[kaygore]

10. And Edmund Burke

"All that it takes for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing."

[Turn CO Blue]

18. I really like that quote too

The opposite of doing nothing is "doing something".

I often wonder what's going to happen with all this synergy on this board and all the Liberal sites, once we logoff our computers and really start "doing" some stuff. Not that this time isn't valuable...but when this movement really takes off, it's going to be amazing.

[Al-CIAda]

22. Truer words were never spoken. n/t

[leftofthedial]

9. I thought you were a conspiracy theorist

let's turn CO blue

[Turn CO Blue]

11. Oh so you saw me that way already did ya? Turning CO blue

is indeed the plan!

In 2004, the state legislature went blue, and in 2006, expect for things to go dark BLUE around these parts!

[leftofthedial]

13. the worthless Owens is still over 50% popularity

CO has almost always elected a split state government, with either a repuke governor and a Demo house or vice versa. Well-gerrymandered districts make a democratic congressonal delegation unlikely.

But getting CO blue in the next presidential election is doable.

[Turn CO Blue]

14. blue for Prez in 2008 sounds good, but I'm hoping for Gov in 2006

Owens is so much like the * Admin -- he took a huge state budget surplus and poof! It's gone to deficit.

[atommom]

12. I have the same feelings. So yes, you are officially loony.

:hi:

The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.

[Turn CO Blue]

17. We'll be loony together. I loved "the Matrix"

(just the first one, though). I loved the music, the feel, the characters, the story, the costumes/look. It rocked!

[serryjw]

15. Your tame.........I have ZERO problem

with anything you say....I am much further than you..I belive in MIHOP

[Turn CO Blue]

16. I did read some stuff about

liquified metal at the base of the beams below ground that sparks my curiosity...

[serryjw]

78. Listen to this.......

David Ray Griffin is one of the leading CHRISTIAN theologians in the country. His reputation is beyond reproach......He gives you his arguments for MIHOP

[Vektor]

19. You sound spot on to me!

I'd say you've got it pretty well figured out. Let them call you what they want - people are intimidated by those who aren't afraid to think for themselves and will stop at nothing to stifle your insight and try to force you back into lockstep. It gives those with small minds something to do to try to combat their own feelings of powerlessness.

SCREW THEM.

It probably won't be long before a lot of what you know to be true will come to light, and those who doubted you will end up with a whole lot of egg on their faces.

It'll be sweet.

[Turn CO Blue]

27. Reading all of these replies today

I've got more hope this morning!

I think another poster hit on it with the idea that those who doubt our major points suffer from cowardice (due to what that means, that they will now have to take action.)

This will sound cheesy, but I don't want this person in my life to have egg on his face later, I just want him to be informed...NOW!

[Vektor]

62. Then keep informing him!

:-)

He'll get the message, and the truth will sink in, I'm sure, whether he admits it or not.

(I think a lot of these people DO know what's really going on, they just choose to ignore it which gives them a free pass to keep wallowing in apathy.)

[Eloriel]

79. Yah. I haven't read all the responses, but your OP set me to thinking

(and btw you sound perfectly "normal," sane, well-informed and definitely unplugged from the matrix to me! :evilgrin: )

What your post got me to thinking about is this (and it may be illustrative for you, I don't know): I have a strange little problem with LIHOP/MIHOP. LIHOP isn't a stretch, really. For me it's pretty much a given. MIHOP, well, there's a shitpile of evidence pointing in that direction -- so much so that intellectually I can't deny it. I just can't.

But ahhhhhh, I am more than just intellect. I can't quite drag my whole being across that line. WOULD these guys do that? Sure. I can say that intellectually. But I just can't seem to make the connection emotionally. I'm split. It's not a comfortable place to be, I can tell you. I just can't bring myself to fully "believe" that people in OUR government (or close to it) actually were involved in it.

And yet, I know they were.

Just imagine where I'd be on the subject if I hadn't been reading DU for months and months and months before I got as far as I did with LIHOP/MIHOP. Or if I pretty much believed everything I got from the mainstream news because, well, what else is there and they're JOURNALISTS, aren't they?

We've got so damn much work to do.

But at least we've got people like you doin' it. I'm more hopeful now too. :toast:

[DerekG]

20. You sound like a moderate to me

I've got such comforting ventures as Operation Paperclip/MK-ULTRA/Operation Mockingbird/Franklin cover-up/MIHOP playin' in my head.

Fascism isn't coming to America...it's been with us since 1950 (use "national security state" if you wish).

[Turn CO Blue]

28. *Chuckles*

Well, I guess by today's standards of what makes Left and Right, I really am a Moderate. It's all relative, I guess. One man's moderate is another man's screaming extremist.

[porkrind]

21. You're not "really out there"

BTW, I think I love you. :) I agree with all you said except I'm firmly MIHOP. I'm about the same age and it's what I obsess about also. I don't think you're crazy, I think you have paid attention and followed the trail of facts to where they inevitably lead. I don't like it either, but what else can one conclude? I think if anyone honestly and energetically scrutinizes recent history, they would arrive at the same conclusion.

[Turn CO Blue]

25. I'm developing feelings for you, too!

Thanks so much. I was a straight-A student in school, so I reached my conclusions through a combination of instinct and seeking multiple sources.

As you say, the person in my life who is criticizing me has "honestly and energetically" scrutinized recent history. What's ironic is that he always calls himself a "news-aholic". Like CNN and MSNBC are "news"! At least he reads Yahoo news online, where there's a tiny chance he will see something beside what "they" want him to see.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

23. you're quite alright and normal! i also think you are a kindred spirit

to most here :toast:

[Turn CO Blue]

24. thanks

I suppose I was blue last night, and seeking validation that I am normal, just more informed than most.

Cheers!

[Pacifist Patriot]

26. If you're a conspiracy theorist, I've crossed the line into genuine loon.

I'm convinced Paul Wellstone was murdered.

[Turn CO Blue]

32. I should read up more on that...

I do know that there are so many on the board still genuinely grieving the loss, and convinced as you are that there were shady-doings.

I certainly wouldn't put such actions past this Administration.

[patricia92243]

46. Genuine loon - oh that is so funny - I love DU and everybody in it.

We're just sooooo great.

[liberalitch]

29. Good morning, I'm a wild eyed liberal

[Turn CO Blue]

30. Good morning to you, you Extremist, you! Here's your donuts!

:donut: :donut: :donut:

[liberalitch]

31. To quote the most intelligent guru of our time...

homer simpson
Ahhhhhhh!
http://homy.tripod.com/

[Turn CO Blue]

34. Ah yes, the guru. I quote him all the time, when I say, "Doh!" nt

[Jose Diablo]

33. I think you are one of the few that is awake

Nothing in you post leads me to believe you are over the edge. In fact, you are probably one of the very few in this country that is actually sane.

Good luck in turning CO blue. You know, Colorado lead the country last time our country turned to the red side. It looks like to me, Colorado will once again lead the country as it goes back to the blue side, and sanity.

[Turn CO Blue]

36. Yep. There are two factions here (as elsewhere)

There are those &*^%$ nutheads down in Colorado Springs, with Focus on Somebody Else's Family permeating every nook and cranny of thought here...and then there are the more "live and let live" kind of Natives. It helps that most of the transplants are liberals from Cali in the last few years.

[Jose Diablo]

44. They are mislead, they want to do the right thing

it's just their model of reality, it's just wrong for the family of humans.

Think of it like this. Typically for a republican, their model of reality says more or less 'survival of the more fit, big fish eat small fish', that sort of view of how the world works. I also believe in Darwin, but I also believe Darwin didn't say too much about social evolution, or how animals and plants cooperate to enhance each others mutual survival.

For example take 'mycorrhizal symbiosis'. Mycor mean fiber like and rhizal means roots, as in a plant. What this describes is the symbiosis fungus in the ground and the plants have with each other. Without mycorrhizal symbiosis there would be no land plants because the roots of plants are not capable on their own of gathering enough minerals and moisture for the plants to survive. The fungus though, it spreads throughout the ground and gathers moisture and then delivers to the plant's roots this moisture. But the fungus on its own cannot make carbohydrates it needs to survive. Thus the 2 together can survive, plants get moisture from the fungus. The fungus gets the excess carbohydrates from the plants.

You see, the model of nature is not just big fish eats small fish. Equally important is the relationship and cooperation between different animals and plants. There are many many examples of these relationships.

Now with us humans, does anybody really believe they are so self-sufficient that they could survive without the support of other people and also the society we have created? If we look at what Christianity is really saying, we can see over and over again that we must care for each other. If we don't, then nature itself will kill us. Because by ourselves we are very vulnerable, but together we as a specie are very strong.

As for those in Colorado Springs, I have a friend from long ago that lives there. She and I attended HS together, but we haven't spoken for close to 40 years. I can understand how her husband, being a grad of the air academy and a fierce commie hunter, due to his job, could become enamored with Bu$h's message. Bu$h appeals to that same fear that our country was subjected too, for coming-up on 75 years, "the Russians want to kill us" fear or choose the name of your enemy kind of fear. I understand where many of these people come from.

But I think about it like this. In that movie "Apocalypse Now" there was a scene where after Kurtz had been killed, Sheen is walking to the boat and takes that 'rocker' kid that was wacked-out on LSD by the hand and leads him back to the boat. I think of those fundies as that rocker kid and they are wacked-out from the fear and hate those in the pulpit have been feeding them. Eventually, they will wake-up.

And it will be people like yourself that will wake them up and lead them back to sanity. In effect back to the real Christ and the real reality of how humans should be. The reality that democrats believe, that the model of nature is really altruism and behaviors/policies that protect and care for the weaker among us.

[Blue Belle]

53. You're going to have your work cut out for you...

In Colorado Springs especially...

I used to live there. Focus on the Family has made that place UGLY!!

[Jose Diablo]

55. I wonder just how

squeeky clean is Dr. James Dobson?

Edit: Do you think he could withstand a deep internet search into his many and various undertakings these last dozen years or so?

[Blue Belle]

57. I've tried to do an internet search on him before...

but I couldn't come up with anything (bear in mind that it was merely a google search). If you have any luck finding anything, I'd be all ears...

[Q]

35. The "rancid anti-Americanism of the conspiracy-mongering left."

"Most rank-and-file Democrats, of course, are just as patriotic and zealous about vindicating our national honor as any Republican. But let's be honest: Cultural elites with influence in the party often give off more than a whiff of fashionable anti-Americanism. They tend to equate patriotism with jingoism, see America more as a global bully than as a victim of a terrorist conspiracy, haul out the tired Vietnam metaphor anytime U.S. troops encounter difficulty abroad, and are as hypercritical of America's faults as they are forgiving of those of our adversaries.

Take Iraq. It's one thing to say, as many thoughtful Democrats do, that the war in Iraq was a mistake. But it's quite another to depict it as the expression of a new U.S. imperialism, or as a Bush family vendetta, or as a plot to grab Middle East oil, or, most ludicrously of all, as a pretext to enrich Halliburton. What leftish elites smugly imagine is a sophisticated view of their country's flaws strikes much of America as a false and malicious cartoon. And while heartland voters may be too reluctant to hear reasoned criticism of U.S. policies, they are essentially right in believing that America has mostly been an indispensable force for good in the world. So let the glitterati in Hollywood and Cannes fawn over Michael Moore; Democrats should have no truck with the rancid anti-Americanism of the conspiracy-mongering left.

Will Marshall is president of the Progressive Policy Institute.

http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=253055&kaid=127&subid=171

[atommom]

38. So, Democrats should stay away from conspiracy theories, and

let the Repubs carry out their conspiracies in peace? Glad he cleared that up for us!

[Al-CIAda]

43. In other words, pay no attention to the PNAC or their Mein Kampf

Manifest Destiny meglomania

[ChiciB1]

37. Had To Reply To This One....

I'm someone who has been politically active "since forever"! Started when I was about 12 and I've ALWAYS remained a Democrat.

I don't find ANY of your points to be conspiracy laden and hasten to add there are many more that could be added. I live in Florida, so that should tell you something. I hit the Trifecta in politics... A Bush (Dick-Tatter) as Prez, A Bush (RW Hawk) as Gov., and then the inimitable "Cruella" Katherine Harris as my representative!! I live in constant ANGST and WORRY about the state of our country today!

NEVER have I seen the likes of what has been going on. I lived through NIXON and REAGAN and all the rest that I was opposed to, but NEVER in my lifetime have things looked so bad! And what's worse, I don't know WHAT to do about it! I'm a Boomer so it's makes it doubly distressing since "we" marched and had some impact by voicing our concern. Back then we were SHOCKED to find that our government lied to us. But today, it seems only us radicals seems to actually CARE! MSM is a joke and even if they TRY, well forget it! I mean you'd think that Michael Isikoff ALONE stirred up the Middle East.

How Absurd. I don't know what it's going to take to WAKE UP AMERICA! We are teetering on the brink of chaos and dare I say almost "true dictatorship"! My hope is dwindling but I won't give up. Perhaps nothing short of a Revolution will solve this travesty.

And I too don't believe Bush was EVER elected legally!

[Turn CO Blue]

40. You "hit the Trifecta"! That's classic!

Hey baby-boomer, thanks for voicing your protest back then in the Nixon era...get your sign-making materials and your little drum or tambourine ready...we're going to have to do some marching again!

I don't know when. I don't know what the "final straw" will be, but there is a tide of outrage swelling at this very moment.

[ChiciB1]

42. Well, I'm Ready And Waiting...

It can't come too soon. The drums ARE getting louder though. I watch the totals here at DU all the time. Got 34 new members yesterday!

Pretty pathetic that this is a "ray of hope"!

[Turn CO Blue]

48. Yes, who ever thought that I'd be looking forward

to the day when people finally PROTEST! I mean, protesting isn't really what we all hoped we'd grow up to do with our afternoons, is it?

[ChiciB1]

75. Just checking in again....

Protesting was actually FUN!

[Blue Belle]

39. Glad to see I'm not the only one ...

who has come to these conclusions...

You're notions aren't crazy. I welcome them.

:loveya:

[Turn CO Blue]

41. Nope, you're not alone. Except for post #35, it seems

that these are the facts as we know them...rather common and mundane thinking really.

[Blue Belle]

56. Well because of the "let's not take a stand"

thinking of post #35 that we're stuck with a Spineless Democrats like Lieberman, and a House and Senate full of Republicans. Turning off our brains and learning not to question authority will not make us stronger... it only makes us complacent. This complacency is making this country backslide to the age of McCarthyism where we're once again questioning the facts of evolution and accusing those with dissident opinions of being unpatriotic. But to subscribe to this notion of post #35 is ludicrous. Walking on eggshells is no way to elicit change and it goes against my genetic make up to do so. I cannot accept that the world is flat... and I cannot accept anything that the Bush Administration tells us is nothing more than a bold faced lie. Frankly, I'm tired of being lied to, and I'm tired of the citizens on this country seeing that they are being lied to and accepting it as how this country has to be. If I sound like I'm getting militant, it's because frustration is pushing me to the boiling point. I don't think I'm alone here...

[ElsewheresDaughter]

45. watch this and know you are OKAY "Power of Nightmares" Cannes film

You can watch it online:

Part I http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/video1037.htm

Part II http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/video1038.htm

Part III http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/video1040.htm

[Turn CO Blue]

47. Thanks. Will watch at home

[earth mom]

49. Another Conspiracy Theorist Here!

What amazes me is that SO MANY people can be in such complete and utter denial about what is going on in this country. It's almost as scary as the dirty deeds that have been committed! Hope they all start waking up before it's too late...since Gawd knows I've tried to open some minds to no avail! :scared:

[Turn CO Blue]

50. Pleased to meet you!

Thank you for trying "to open some minds" whether it availed itself to happening or not!

[earth mom]

54. Nice to meet you too!

:hi:

We're all in this boat together and it's great that we can encourage each other! If it wasn't for the infectious DU spirit of NGU-Never Give Up-I may well have given up trying to talk to people. Though next, I think I'm going to try that shopping cart flyer thing that was posted on another thread. :)

NGU!

[Protagoras]

51. It's only a CT if it involves AMERICA

if we report these sorts of games occurring anywhere else everyone is willing to accept it without question.

I'll wear a tinfoil hat with you.

[Turn CO Blue]

68. Perhaps DU should sell tinfoil hats in the DU store? nt

[Jose Diablo]

83. Most of us here make our own tinfoil hats

There was a discussion here recently about the best way to make our tinfoil hats.

I favor Reynolds wrap, placed inside the hat with the shiny side out.

I prefer the wrap on the inside because then those pesky men in black never become aware, that I KNOW what they are doing. And I can just go about my way without worrying that someone knows, that I know.

As for the shiny side out, its not the aluminum that stops the rays from the mind control satellites, its the shiny tin coating. Thus for better results the shiny side should be placed to the outside.

My wife made a perfect tinfoil baseball cap for me. Made from my favorite "Cubs" cap. I wear it all the time, and it works. Feel like a new man since wearing this cap. The people operating the cash registers around the area are now even speaking to me again. Thats progress, don't you think?
:tinfoilhat:

Edit: Don't forget to sew in a cloth liner to keep the tinfoil hidden. You never know when you will be required to temporarily remove the cap in public and it would be sort of a embarrassment for others to actually see the tinfoil inside the hat. Hard to explain to others too.

[JRob]

52. I've been referred to as "too radical to be credible" by a well-to-do...

friend who drives a brand new Suburban, lives in a million dollar house (in a billion dollar community), frequents a country club, wears (and dresses her daughters) in the latest and greatest trends, spends thousands at COSCO, wal-mart, target and is a self-described CNN addict...

The "Matrix" analogy is very appropriate

[Turn CO Blue]

70. You might want to ask them if they've

ever seen the show "What Not to Wear". I mean, if they're so fashionable and trendy, surely they know that no genuine fashionista would be caught dead in anything purchased at Wal-Mart, etc.

I'm not too trendy for Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is too "ghetto" for me (pardon the term). Besides the obvious socio-political reasons to not shop there -- the fluorescent lighting bothers my eyes, the end-caps are crowded with too much junk, and the stores are always dirty.

on edit: typo

[JRob]

84. they don't do wal-mart cloths & shoes...

[elehhhhna]

58. I beleive everything on your list. I must be a nut-kook.

[Coexist]

59. My husband complained once about me lurking about on DU

when I started doing it more than usual. I thought about it, and told him that if I wasn't doing this, I would just be sitting next to him watching "Becker" re-reruns. I thought this was more constructive - and I keep him informed on lots of stuff.

I spend lots of time shuttling my kids around, cooking, cleaning, volunteering - this is for me (like my 6:15 a.m. treadmill time).

We both decided that I am allowed, and that I am not obsessed (yet). But I have always had a political leaning - I am just expressing more and more since our country was hijacked (oooh - a conspiracy!!)

[Turn CO Blue]

74. Oh yeah, heard that one.

I figure, like you, that I am keeping myself informed, preparing myself in case it should get even worth. Like in Farenheit 451, where we may have to recite facts or stories from memory or something... oops! Had a cuckoo moment there!

[glitch]

60. Wear it proud - it means you still have a functioning frontal lobe.

Welcome to the looney bin, (aka the reality base) it's more fun in here anyway. Why anyone would choose delusion over reality is a mystery to me. But I think the above is right, the choice for delusion is fear-based.

PS I have a lot of relatives in CO, wouldn't it be funny if you were one?

[bobthedrummer]

61. I'm a conspiracy realist.

Really, there are conspiracies-and there are even LAWS against that!

:hi:

[Virginian]

63. How did you get inside my mind to write my thoughts?

Uh oh, I think I have group think.

There are times when my mind wanders over to a what-if MIHOP? I can't explain MIHOP away, I am just not ready to embrace it.

Could a leader kill his own people? He sent over 1600 to their deaths through lies about WMD and an al Qaeda connection with Saddam.

[Turn CO Blue]

73. Shh! Don't tell anyone how I did it, they'll think it's a conspiracy

I don't think it's "group think" either. I'd rather say that great minds think alike! ;-)

[Zorbuddha]

66. People that conspire to discredit conspiracy theories

are hypocritcal, theoretically.

[DearAbby]

69. One blue coloradoan here....Yep lets turn Colorado Baby Blue

Like her skies!

The scene in Washington stinks to high heaven, need a huge Pooper scooper...campaign to clean house!

[Turn CO Blue]

72. I work in Customer Relations. We clean up and correct all the

stuff that went wrong in the company. Important, but not so glamorous sometimes.

We call ourselves the "super-duper pooper scoopers". The next administration is going to have a lot of clean-up to do.

[Turn CO Blue]

71. That's some sharp shootin', on the wordplay, partner.

[grace0418]

76. I feel your pain

Even my husband (who's pretty well on board with liberal ideals) says I'm a conspiracy theorist.

I just think that's a bizarre assessement personally. IMHO, it's a lot more absurd to look at all the bad things that have happened, all the shady coincidences, all the bald-faced lies, all the information coming from sources outside this country and say "Nope, they're all wrong and BushCo is right."

That's like a cop telling a crime victim "I know you claim this man broke into your house and took all your belongings and I know you have fingerprints, witnesses, and a picture from your security camera. And I know the perp dropped his wallet in your house with his i.d. proving he's Joe Blow. But HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE JOE BLOW OF ROBBING YOU! Joe Blow says he didn't rob you and, even though he's got no alibi and a truck full of your stuff, if he says he didn't rob you then I BELIEVE HIM. He's a good Christian boy, he wouldn't do that sort of thing. What are you, some kind of nutty conspiracy theorist?"

I mean WHAT. THE. FUCK. has to happen before people finally get it through their thick skulls?

[mikelewis]

77. Welcome to the party pal...

My story is identical... so don't worry, you're not alone.

[Beam Me Up]

80. Stories that go nowhere.

That's what I point out to people who want to think I'm a "conspiracy theorist." The Gannon/Gosh is one of my favorites. I mean, there is nothing 'conspiratorial' about it. It is all out there in the open for anyone who wants to look. A homosexual male prostitute was brought through Secret Service screening and allowed repeated access to the white house numerous times under the guise of being a "journalist." I love asking people if they've heard about Gannon/Gosh and most of them haven't or only have some vague familiarity with the story. When I lay out all the information for them they are agog. And then I get to the point: HOW IS IT THAT THIS STORY HAS GOTTEN BURIED? How is it that this story is not common knowledge? And then I point out that this is only ONE of many stories. There are so many others equally devastating and more to the point--the Valrie Plame affair, for example--or the London Memo (which is getting some traction but not as much as it deserves)--or Sibel Edmonds. And these are only a few.

This kind of thing makes people think. I point out that there are many unanswered questions about a great many things--and in the most interesting instances THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS AREN'T EVEN BEING ASKED.

I remember after 9/11 most people I knew thought I was a bit 'odd' or 'extreme' to hold the view that it was most likely an inside job. However, as time has gone on and I've shown my friends more and more evidence that can't simply be explained away--and as they've seen this administration lie time and time again--I've watched as my friends have begun to wake up and become increasingly concerned about what is going on. They ask me, "what are we going to do?" My answer: "First and foremost educate yourself and the people you know. If there is ever going to be a change, it will come about when there is a critical mass of people who see through the spin--and see whose interests the spinners actually represent."

[Turn CO Blue]

81. Really good post. "The most important questions

aren't even being asked."

I do see people beginning to wake up. This same person who thinks I'm going nuts, was having a cow recently over the Kansas school board hearings over evolution and intelligent design. He is a science guy, you see.

But to your point, we have to urge folks to educate themselves.

[Mr Rabble]

82. well then so am I-

www.fromthewilderness.com

[Warren DeMontague]

85. Next you'll try to tell us that kindly old Chancellor Palpatine...

oh, never mind.

[Al-CIAda]

87. .