2012 and Conspiracies

[Commissar MercZ]

2012 has come and gone, and with it another batch of events that were supposedly the end of the world. The most well known was the December 21st business, but before then we had the rather bizzare attention given to a small religious group in the United States that claimed the end was coming in the past summer.

Of course, sometimes political concepts we know now started off as conspiracies, but the ones I have in mind are the rather colorful ones such as,

-Illuminati
-Bildeburgs
-Lizardmen
-What ever can be attributed to Nostradamus
-Trilateral Commission
-Planet Nibiru
-Project Blue Beam
-HAARP
-HAARP
-North American Union
-Antichrist-related stuff
-Millennial groups
-NWO
-ZOG
-X president's plot to declare martial law
-Black Helicopters

etc etc. It has been a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine trying to see some of the more bizarre ones. But it also makes me think, why do people believe in them? Even when proof is provided, it is not accepted as the proof itself is part of the conspiracy. I think in a way the internet has helped with the propagation and awareness of this, or just spreading the misconceptions of it like the whole mess with the Mayan calendar.

How exactly did the Mayan calender mess start anyways? The only thing I can get from the wiki article is an interpretation by an archeologist back in 1966 who claimed that the end of the 13th B'ak'tuns was understood to be the end of the world by the Maya. I don't know how it got more pronounced than the other multitude of conspiracy theories floating around.

[MrFancypants]

I got a spam mail today with a lengthy paragraph on how the recent school shooting in the US was really a government conspiracy to get weapons banned.

Some conspiracy theories are just stupid. But there are also the good ones, which seem somehow plausible or are difficult to explain, maybe combined with some desire for the conspiracy to be true because the idea may be intriguing. It also helps that there is often some element of truth somewhere in the story.

The most interesting theory I have come across recently is this one:
Nemesis (hypothetical star) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Maybe not your typical conspiracy theory as it is more substantiated, but still fascinating.

[Nemmerle]

- Because it makes people feel special to know a secret truth that no-one else does.

- Because if the world's out to get you then you matter.

- Because it helps to feel connected to some grand narrative or secret struggle.

- Because if you believe these things then you can understand something vast and terrifying, like a government, without actually putting in the hard work.

- Because you make some smaller investment and then the only way to stop looking silly is to make a slightly larger investment, and then you have to go a little bit further and all of a sudden you're lying, to yourself and others, about big things like how probability works.

- Because many people ain't too bright to start off with and if you don't read history, or about human behaviour, and never understood anything about probability and Occam's Razor and the like in the first place, then you're left using your emotions to try and work out some sort of truth, and this is an emotive sort of story.

- Because it provides access to an alternative success structure (at least in the case of cults and gatherings based around these issues) for people who are cut off from the possibility of advancement in their regular lives.

Lots of potential reasons spring to mind.

[Rikupsoni]

Obviously the HAARP conspiracies were related to some weird and loud noises with no apparent source in some parts of the world, most prominently in Ukraine:



And Alberta: Strange errie sounds in Alberta - YouTube
France: STRANGE SOUNDS in France (Auvergne) - 19/01/2012 - YouTube

That was rather interesting. I've read some loud nightly "ghost sounds" in England were traced to some industrial area, where from it bizarrelly enough somehow resonated very far away.

They didn't find a source for those I guess, and thus speculated some military projects like HAARP could be behind them.

[Commissar MercZ]

Originally Posted by MrFancypants

I got a spam mail today with a lengthy paragraph on how the recent school shooting in the US was really a government conspiracy to get weapons banned.

Some conspiracy theories are just stupid. But there are also the good ones, which seem somehow plausible or are difficult to explain, maybe combined with some desire for the conspiracy to be true because the idea may be intriguing. It also helps that there is often some element of truth somewhere in the story.

The most interesting theory I have come across recently is this one:
Nemesis (hypothetical star) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Maybe not your typical conspiracy theory as it is more substantiated, but still fascinating.

I haven't heard of that one, though Nemesis for some reason sounds familiar to me. Maybe it's from that bad star trek movie. That one doesn't seem to have prompted as much crazy things as the more infamous renagade clelestial object, Nibiru.

On the note of the government, I forgot about all the nutty stuff that goes around Obama, somewhat summarized in this chart.


Some of the points discussed

And a wrap up of all the stuff in 2012, aptly titled "2012: The Year of the Attack of the Gay Muslim Kenyan Divorcee President".

I wish I had taken a picture of it, but for a good three years I used to drive down the highway and see a billboard from WorldNetDaily about the birth certificate stuff. It was a good companion during bad traffic jams.

Looking at my list, I forgot the big popular ones- JFK assassination and the moon landing. Oh well, I always feel that was more specific to the United States. Anything that is more a product of your countries?

I remember for awhile this used to come up in internet communities for those who were interested in random stuff.

UVB-76 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Serio]

Originally Posted by Rikupsoni

Obviously the HAARP conspiracies were related to some weird and loud noises with no apparent source in some parts of the world, most prominently in Ukraine:



And Alberta: Strange errie sounds in Alberta - YouTube
France: STRANGE SOUNDS in France (Auvergne) - 19/01/2012 - YouTube

That was rather interesting. I've read some loud nightly "ghost sounds" in England were traced to some industrial area, where from it bizarrelly enough somehow resonated very far away.

They didn't find a source for those I guess, and thus speculated some military projects like HAARP could be behind them.

There's a rational explanation for everything. Some people just choose the more unhinged route by making up fake theories. The advent of the internet has only made it easier for such bullshit to propagate unrestrained. Doesn't give those "theories" any more credibility than other ideas based on make-believe evidence and imaginary correlation between unrelated events.