Government Website Addresses “Conspiracy Theories and Misinformation”

By Aaron Dames on May 29, 2010 in News 18

America.gov, the public relations arm of the State Department, has created a “Conspiracy Theories and Misinformation” webpage. They attempt to debunk “popular conspiracy theories” surrounding the JFK assassination, depleted uranium, the North American Union, the 9/11 attacks, and many more topics.

The Economic text box reads:

Economic conspiracy theories are often based on the false, but popular, idea that powerful individuals are motivated overwhelmingly by their desire for wealth, rather than the wide variety of human motivations we all experience. (This one-dimensional, cartoonish view of human nature is at the heart of Marxist ideology, which once held hundreds of millions under its sway.)

9/11, America.gov, Conspiracies, depleted uranium, Government, JFK, North American Union, Propaganda, State Department

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Zoser23

The truth is somewhere in the middle. Some Conspiracy Theories can be checked into, and what is presented as fact turns out to be misinformation, but on the opposing end what is reported as “news” turns out to be misinformation as well. Don't believe what anyone says or presents in film or print, whether it's Michael Moore, Jesse Ventura, Fox News, or the government. Check the resources any of these people claim, and if it checks out then you're onto something, if not then at best it's just entertainment and at the worst it's manipulation. Skepticism and critical thinking are good things!
dumbsaint

So that video was basically 'aren't conspiracy theorists silly, and it's silly to have mistrust in the govenment'.

Politicians never lie, after all. They never use things like propaganda to influence the public (“America.gov” for a conspiracy theory debunking site?).
ES

Let's say we are dealing with a conspiracy theorist who really is wrong, and cannot see his way clear of his delusion. What are the causes of such delusion? Here is a partial list:

1. They are mildly psychotic. Not enough so they can't hold down a job, but enough so that they never believe the truth, even when it is right in front of them.

2. They have been brainwashed by a “counterculture cult'': All the people they know, all the websites they visit, all the books they read — everything points to one conclusion… “conspiracy''. I see this a lot, and it reminds me of religious fundamentalists. Especially insidious are brainwashed children who snicker when you refuse their propaganda fliers, and laugh as they say, “You're gonna burn in hell.''

3. They are a victim of the Dunning-Kruger effect, which is where people of little competence overestimate their competency; and perversely, experts often UNDERESTIMATE their competency. A good example of the phenomena is a novice chess player, who thinks they have considered all the possible moves on the board… and when playing a master, they quickly discover otherwise. Next game they are right back at it again, thinking they've considered all the moves…

4. The conspiracy theory becomes a source of meaning in their lives. Maybe they are poor, not especially talented in anything (more for lack of trying than anything else), and yet want to “do something with their lives''. And they make some conspiracy theory their mission — they get a sense of meaning out of “speaking truth to power''.

5. They are a victim of in-built neural wiring, in the form of patternicity and agenticity. Both of these are believed to be the source of certain primitive religions, such as animism. Patternicity is where one sees “pattern'' or “design'' when in fact there is none; agenticity is where one sees “intention'', when in fact there is none.

6. They do it because someone close to them believes very strongly in the conspiracy. Friendship and trust are powerful forces!
malatesting123

The term Conspiracy Theory is so abused its become virtually meaningless. What im interested in are conspiracy facts, and there are plenty. Iraq War, anyone? By definition, the dash to war was a textbook example of a conspiracy, ie. more than 2 people secretly plotting to accomplish their ends by means of subterfuge, lies, fabrication and distortion of facts and people.
One thing is for certain. When the government tries to tell you what to think, no matter what it is, it should be dismissed out of hand. We, together and individually, can figure out what the fuck to think, thank you very much.
Hey Obama/Dems/Gop—I bet the Tonkin Gulf was just a conspiracy theory too, right? Fucking Bastards.
http://cybercasualty.com The JoeBot

Glad that's finally settled. Does this mean it's finally safe to come out of my bunker?
kaner60

I find it fascinating that the whole category of conspiracy has been discredited. Conspiring in ways big and small, benign and sinister is a common human behavior. There are whole departments of government that are openly dedicated to the practice of conspiracy (counterintelligence agencies).The intensity with which government and academic allies have sought to declare this whole realm of human life as an illegitimate area of investigation is in and of itself a significant fact. I believe it is an outgrowth of the need to continue to deny and distort the reality of unequal power and the overall incompetency of the ruling class(es) in managing global affairs.
Yallways

That's funny. On their site they say that 911 trade towers being destroyed by controlled demolition is just how this appears to non-experts. What's funny is that I have heard testimony from more than 70 control demolition experts that say that this is exactly how it appeared to happen. Then the site goes on to say that experts agree that it is not a controlled demolition…. yet I have yet to see just one testimony from one of these experts stating this. DEFINITELY a misinformation site.
Synapse

Conspiracy isn't discredited. It's the massive, wide spread, secret, well-oiled, working conspiracies that are laughed at. It's literally insane to suggest that governments who can barely hold their shit together can somehow work perfectly in tandem using thousands of people from the bottom to the top level to do anything, and all without a single leak ever, only to be “exposed” by a random egotistic individual (who has never actually delt with anything first hand) with a website that this massive conspiracy group can't even suppress. Especially in this day and age of massive communication and visibility, it's a ridiculous notion.
- Word Eater
  
  Compartmentalization keeps each cog unaware of what the machine as a whole is doing.
  
  The spark plug ignites the fuel air mixture that was injected into the cylinder. All the spark plug knows is that it is supposed to spark with a certain timing and usually that makes something explode.
  
  The explosion pushes the piston. The piston only knows that is is supposed to move when hit by the force of the explosion.
  
  Etc.
  
  No single component knows the function of the whole.
  
  Our government is very good at keeping its own people ignorant by feeding them a steady diet of propaganda. I.e., asking questions means you aren't loyal to your country.
  
  If we didn't have this built-in feed-back mechanism, our government would be in shambles and our country would be in turmoil.
  
  The conspiracy of control is necessary to maintain the status quo. Without it: anarchy.
  
  Unfortunately, we don't have a benevolent dictator, but instead a collection of individuals with their own self-interest in mind working toward an unknown goal that considers us as only columns of numbers to be shifted as needed on their balance sheet.
Noone

This is a very important discussion indeed!
People affiliated with conspiracy stuff have to look more self-critical to there own view of reality.
It is very hard to do that, because everyting you do bases on fundamental thoughts about the world we live an. And when someone says, that this basic theories arent right, most of us are closing there eyes.
I dont say, that conspiracys arent real. But there is always a middle course and there are always two side of the coin.

It is even right, conspiracy theores give meaning to the live, especially the theory, that there is ONE force, controlling us all and a few people will fight honourable till there dead against this force.

In the opposite, there are many conspiracies in the world, because Conspiracy is the basic behaviour of human beings.

When 2 people hiding something in front of a third one because of a certain purpose, this is a conspiracy. Maybe good, maybe evil.

The history shows, that conspiracy is the only reality. But not the conspiracy like “oh my God there is on force till thousand of years controlling every aspect of our lives.”

No, but there ARE forces, trying to do exactly this.

Looking into history shows us, that almost every political action is not what it looks like. Look at MK ULTRA, Gulf of Tonking, Iraqi war, Pearl Habor, JFK assasination, cosovo war, etc.. The most of this things are even officially outet at conspiracy.

So it is important, that people begin to think for themselfs. It is totaly wrong, that the government is trying to pretend the theories the masses should believe in.

This is not creating a self responsible citizen.

sorry for my bad english, I am a german (jeah, still proud of my country)
5by5

Pfft.

They're trying to debunk the depleted uranium thing because they know they're gonna get their asses sued off when soldiers from Iraq start having kids with birth defects like anophthalmos (babies born without eyes). Among Iraqis, who've had consistent exposure to DU and NDU since the First Gulf War, that particular defect is literally 250,000 times greater than its natural occurrence (20 cases per 4,000 births, as opposed to the normal 1 in every 50,000,000 births). And cancer rates in Iraq have increased 1000% between 1989 and 2001 following our first use of the material in that theater of war.

Now? Fully 100% of Afghan civilians tested for exposure were found to have levels of non-depleted uranium in their system between 400% and 2000% higher than normal. Subjects also presented identical symptom profiles and chronologies. Victims reported pain in the cervical column, upper shoulders and basal area of the skull, lower back and kidney pain, joint and muscle weakness, sleeping difficulties, headaches, memory problems, and disorientation, as well as burning of the nasal passages, throat, and upper respiratory tract.

In order to produce nuclear weaponry, naturally occurring uranium has to be enriched to increase the level of fissile uranium, U-235. The leftover product is depleted uranium. In depleted uranium (DU) the level of fissionable uranium 235 has been reduced from 0.7% to 0.2% by the enrichment process. Uranium 238 makes up over 99% of the content of both natural uranium and depleted uranium. Depleted uranium is roughly 60% as radioactive as naturally occurring uranium. Since the beginning of the “Nuclear Era”, America alone has produced a waste stockpile of depleted uranium in excess of 1.1 billion pounds.

Rather than burying this toxin to protect the genetic future of the human race, the DOD's answer to waste disposal, is to give depleted uranium for free to arms manufacturers for use in armour and munitions.

In Iraq alone, we've dropped what amounts to 250,000 Nagasaki bombs PER YEAR in Iraq since the start of the war. In Afghanistan, it amounts to roughly 100,000 Nagasaki bombsworth of radioactive material. Even depleted uranium is highly toxic and carcinogenic with a half-life of some 4.4 billion years.

So why would they want to use something so dangerous, you ask?

Well, tank armour reinforced with depleted uranium is virtually impervious to conventional shells. And conversely, shells reinforced with depleted or non-depleted uranium slice through targets like a super-sharp knife through warm butter. Uranium is preferred by arms manufacturers over other ballistic materials such as iron, lead or tungsten because of it's unique metallurgical properties. It is extremely dense, and pyrophoric. In other words, it's dust burns spontaneously at room temperature. Solid metal uranium is auto-igniting at 170 degrees Fahrenheit. And most importantly, solid metal uranium has a property not available in any other metal — it is “self sharpening”. Meaning, that when it hits a target at high velocities, it breaks in such a way as to continually sharpen at it's point. The leading points of all other warhead metals flatten or mushroom under these conditions. These properties give uranium superior performance as a penetrating warhead capable of punching through the hardest and thickest armor plating, retaining penetration capabilities at 15% greater distances and lower speeds than the most common alternative, tungsten. Specifically, they can bore through 20 feet of super-reinforced concrete bunkers. When detonated, these types of weaponry essentially shatter/combust into diamond hard microparticles forming a radioactive dust which is released into the air with the explosion. 60% of this aerosol of fine uranium particles are less than 5 micron in diameter – 10 microns is a respirable size.

When inhaled, DU and NDU goes into the body and stays there, slicing through DNA. And while it's true that this “dust” falls quickly to the ground, the dust storms inherent to the Middle East mean that what might typically be distributed over a relatively small area, instead gets blown around throughout an entire region.

That's not “conspiracy theory”. That's SCIENCE. Those are medical results from the field, and the practical, commonly agreed-upon properties of the material itself.

The “conspiracy” is the government running around trying to play that “there's nothing to see here, move along….move along…”

In Kosovo, they tried to maintain it was safe because “chances were you wouldn't breathe it in once it was on the ground and then rain would keep it down.” Putting aside the fact that now that stuff is in the ground table no matter what, there is the little matter that in Iraq? Rain? Not so plentiful. Instead you have regular sand storms miles wide kicking this stuff up over and over for people to suck into their lungs.

If they try to debunk that? They are OFFICIALLY full of shit.
The Mason

I read Das Kapital, and studied Marx pretty closely. I can't recall a “one-dimensional, cartoonish view of human nature” at all. What I recall is a pretty close analysis that was as good, or better, than any other economist I have ever read.
5by5

What was that line from Michael Parenti?

“You can feel free to call me a 'conspiracy theorist' if I can call you a 'coincidence theorist'.”

That about sums it up.
jayurbzz

The rich and the most powerful meet up to make sure they maintain their control, CONSPIRACY, crazy!! The people at the top lie cheat and steal because they're allowed to–conspiracy, crazy!! Western society's hundreds of years old, history books may not know everything–conspiray, crazy!
Jlannin0

The New World Order is being forced to expose themselves more and more, this is pure misinformation and does nothing but reinforce everything I believe
http://teleomorph.com Teleomorph

Kinda weird/funny: in their slideshow of Pentagon photos the link to a page from Rense.com for more evidence of pane debris. They're using the one of the most vocal and outward conspiracy sites on the entire interweb to back up their story? wtf?
GoodDoktorBad

con·spire (kn-spr) v. con·spired, con·spir·ing, con·spires v.intr. 1. To plan together secretly to commit an illegal or wrongful act or accomplish a legal purpose through illegal action. 2. To join or act together; combine: 3. To plan or plot secretly.

The site's existance itself is a form of conspiracy. They co-conspired to bring all the glossed over governement
stories to one place. Equal opportunity bullshit. Welcome to bizzarro world….where anything can happen…..
Wheeee……. Where bullets change direction and bulidings all fall straight down “pancake fashion”!

No conspiracies? Conspiracy is every where…. everyone who has had contact with others has conspired to do something. Every business and social contact is a “conspiracy” that conspires to create the next moment, the next ripple effect, the next collision of circumstance. Each moment conspires with thought and actionable, possible effect.

The weight of negative connatation to the word “conspiracy” tips the scale mostly to “whats bad” of the concept of conspiracy. At it most basic meaning, it simply means loosely; working together to accomplish something. Not necessarily something “sinister”. I only mention this because it seems absurd, knowing that we all “conspire” everyday of our lives, that our government could be somehow immune to “conspiracy”.
I would ask the reader, how much conspiracy an corruption have you seen, just in places like the workplace?
How many instances of nepotism for that matter? Have you ever conspired to “break the rules”?
At some time, everyone has.
Politicians “spin” everything, lies are accepted as a given, so why would any one trust that there are no government conspiracies? Frankly, our government is the product of many conspiracies. It IS conspiracy, made manifest.
Word Eater

Compartmentalization keeps each cog unaware of what the machine as a whole is doing.

The spark plug ignites the fuel air mixture that was injected into the cylinder. All the spark plug knows is that it is supposed to spark with a certain timing and usually that makes something explode.

The explosion pushes the piston. The piston only knows that is is supposed to move when hit by the force of the explosion.

Etc.

No single component knows the function of the whole.

Our government is very good at keeping its own people ignorant by feeding them a steady diet of propaganda. I.e., asking questions means you aren’t loyal to your country.

If we didn’t have this built-in feed-back mechanism, our government would be in shambles and our country would be in turmoil.

The conspiracy of control is necessary to maintain the status quo. Without it: anarchy.

Unfortunately, we don’t have a benevolent dictator, but instead a collection of individuals with their own self-interest in mind working toward an unknown goal that considers us as only columns of numbers to be shifted as needed on their balance sheet.