A conspiracy theorist seems to be an investigative journalist or a social critic with poor epistemology.
I have noticed over the years that the concretes reported upon and the trends pointed out by conspiracy theorists -- even some of the wackier ones -- have a pretty good hit rate. The paranoid are often very perceptive. It's in the theory department that they fall down, imagining wild and unlikely scenarios to account for things that boil down to simple elite deviance, oligarchy, political opportunism, and corruption.
Most of them also have a political, religious, or ethnic bone to pick and try to ascribe all the wrongs of the world to some hated group.
But as I said... they're often right about the concretes.
It's sad times we live in when unstable nutjobs are the only ones pointing out our obvious descent toward naked plutocratic oligarchy and gangster-statism.
Well nutjobs and comedians... what was that quote about the state of a society when only comedians can tell the truth?
Comedians have, throughout history been the acceptable dissidents of society. This can be seen from ancient Greece, through Shakespeare and through to people like Bill Hicks and George Carlin.
They have the unique position of being able to say what they think, and then let the audience decide if it was satirical or serious.
I think "the state of a society when only comedians can tell the truth" is known as "normal". I've never seen any evidence of some fabulous bygone age where the people in charge were cool with political dissidents who didn't frame things in terms of comedy.
I have noticed over the years that the concretes reported upon and the trends pointed out by conspiracy theorists -- even some of the wackier ones -- have a pretty good hit rate. The paranoid are often very perceptive. It's in the theory department that they fall down, imagining wild and unlikely scenarios to account for things that boil down to simple elite deviance, oligarchy, political opportunism, and corruption.
Most of them also have a political, religious, or ethnic bone to pick and try to ascribe all the wrongs of the world to some hated group.
But as I said... they're often right about the concretes.
It's sad times we live in when unstable nutjobs are the only ones pointing out our obvious descent toward naked plutocratic oligarchy and gangster-statism.
Well nutjobs and comedians... what was that quote about the state of a society when only comedians can tell the truth?