Sunday, October 14, 2007

Is It Paranoid If They're Really Out To Get You?

It used to be that conspiracy theories were considered to be on the lunatic fringe of public discourse. Now they've become mainstream (e.g., the Troofers).

I have to believe that there already exists technology that would allow "the military" or "the government" to "spy" on an anti-war crowd--much more easily than it would do with robotic dragonflies.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

There theory counts for every thing but logic. Hmm the protesters were liberal therfore we can assume that there were mind altering drugs involved we can also assume there were hippies in the protest. Assuming that my assumtions are true we can say the All natural crowd stunk and attracted bugs and the druggies that were on a bad trip assumed that the bugs were really magic robots sent to spy on their public protest.

Darren said...

That makes as much sense as anything else that comes out of these people.

Matthew K. Tabor said...

Carson,

Apologies, but I didn't understand your comment at all.

allenm said...

I wouldn't sweat the "Troofers" too much. While they're just as self-referential and self-involved as any other leftoid they have no other agenda beyond proving their insightfullness and sophistication.

Nothing so obviously phony as multiple, simultaneously-shot videos by everyone from passersby with cell phones and tourists with camcorders to news people with professional video equipment, from multiple locations will fool the troofers.

They can look past the threadbare fabric of lies, insinuations and misdirection to the underlying troof. Occam's Razor holds no special meaning for them.

Darren said...

Allen, that's what's so troubling. They can ignore reality and still be taken seriously in some quarters--or at the very least, not be dismissed by *everyone* with at least two operational brain cells.

allenm said...

Har! The ability to ignore reality is hardly noteworthy. It's practically the basis for the cosmetics, fashion and entertainment, industries.

Oh yeah, politics too.

The troofers, like survivalists, Y2Kers, hollow-earth wackos, ZOG hysterics, black helicopter knobs, flying saucer fans and on the larger stage, lefties in general, are all terribly smart. They can see things mere mortals - the herd - can't see because of our intellectual inferiority. We're either too dumb to be worth bothering with, except as a contrast to the brilliance of the troofer or we need the guidance of our intellectual superiors the lefties.

To quote Jeff Goldblum's character from "The Big Chill", "I don't know anyone who could get through the day without two or three juicy rationalizations. They're more important than sex." The rationalization is that a sufficiently low standard of evidence justifies assumptions of superiority.

What happened to all the other, similar intellectual titans will happen to the troofers: they're passion will reach some sort of crescendo - a general-release movie seems to be the gold standard - and then will gradually descend into obscurity. I'm sure you can find plenty of Erik Von Daniken books at yard sales now. A couple of years the term "troofer" will elicit a puzzled raising of an eyebrow. Less likely is that it'll elicit bug-eyed anger.

Ellen K said...

St. Al might think so after he reads this story:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22584694-7583,00.html

Darren said...

I loved von Daniken--when I was in junior high.

How big is the EU today, anyway? :-)

Ellen K said...

Ah, Chariots of the Gods. Who could forget that classic? Remember the movie? It's right up there with "Reefer Madness" for factual dramatizations.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Tabor,

I was simply commenting (or as you probably would argue attempting to comment) on the general lack of sense in the article.