General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Let's have a poll on JFK [View all]JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)"Conspiracy theory" is an attack term. It is a tactic to silence opinion and examination through ridicule. It has turned into a cultural hegemony, where people really fear the accusation and almost literally and reflexively run away from certain lines of thinking, even those thoroughly grounded in the prior history of the deep state and of deeply criminal war-making organizations such as the CIA, Pentagon and the major Wall Street banks and hedge funds.
At the same time, the term means absolutely nothing. It's perfectly alright to apply the many volumes of conspiracy law to the actions of a non-state, non-corporate business mafia. It's only denigrated as "conspiracy" in the academic and media discourse if American government, corporations like Monsanto or Bank of America, or other major U.S. institutions are implied to be responsible. You can still ask whatever you like about the possible dastardly deeds of foreigners like Putin or the Iranians, or at least be allowed to examine claims case by case without demands that you be disqualified automatically as a speaker and insulted as deranged, etc., and without automatic association with a whole library's worth of completely unassociated ideas that are thrown at you (Apollo Hoax, chemtrails, whatever). As for "creative speculation," not interested in a subforum where the name already trivializes and dismisses, says it doesn't matter.
Meanwhile, our history is denied and so we are doomed to keep getting fucked in much the same ways.