Guests: | David Aaronovitch, Richard Dolan |
Aaronovitch detailed a number of problematic attributes which he feels "attach themselves" to conspiracy theories and those who subscribe to them:
- Conspiracy theories do not allow for accident, incompetence, or coincidence.
- The official version of events "almost always, at its heart" has anomalies that cannot be reconciled.
- Scholars, usually with exaggerated credentials, are named as proponents of the theory.
- The theory is anti-elite and, thus, the theorist becomes "kind of a minuteman" warning the populace about the "powers that be."
Aaronovich also looked at a number of suspect issues surrounding a variety of conspiracy theories. With regards to the Moon Landing hoax, he observed that to complete such a fabrication would require far more manpower than the actual lunar landing itself. In addition to that, he pointed out that lunar conspiracy theorists often focus solely on the Apollo 11 landing and ignore the many other trips made to the moon. Regarding 9/11, Aaronovich conceded that the official version of events is also a conspiracy theory, but that its very simplicity is what makes this theory much more plausible than a grand overarching plan by nefarious forces inside the US government. To that end, he noted that if the government was truly clever enough to "organize conspiracies," then they would have planted WMDs in Iraq rather than invade the country and find none. "It would have been a much simpler thing to do," he mused, "and yet they didn't."
source : Coast to Coast AM >>>
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