More signs

The first torrent site I used was Torreny Spy. On their front page they link to news from the net provided by Shoutwire. It was through Shoutwire that I had my eyes opened to the vast, vast, vast expanse of the internet devoted to being bat shit crazy. Going down their index you'll see categories like Business, News, Entertainment, and technology. There is often some interesting tibit from the world there, and commentary from SME and users that enhances the reading experience.

However, right smack in the middle of their index is Politics. This is the home to some seriously whacked out, paranoid, ignorant, delusional beliefs. It's some wicked "here be dragons" territory. I'd never heard of Loose Change, and was wholly unaware of just how deeply so many believed in a conspiracy like that. And it goes on and on and on. Plots about how the oil companies are keeping the ultra-eco-friendly used-cooking-oil car from the garages of consumer. How Saddam was really a great guy who didn't execute his own citizens. It's really some entertaining stuff really, but I can't read it very often because, well, like junk food, it's not good for your health to induldge in so much junk reading.

However, after reading the morning news a couple days ago on the latest airplace terror alert I asked myself "SFC B (that's how I refer to myself in my mind), how long do you think it took for a commenter to suggest that the shampoo-bomb plot was all a conspiracy?" So I pointed FireFox to Shoutwire and sought the answer.

Much like getting to the center of a Tootsie Pop, the answer is three. It took nine before someone accused the Israelis of actually planning the attack in some sort of freakish wag-the-dog scenario.

I don't know why I started this post. I'm bored and thinking too much. It's not really my style to cover things like this, but, well, it's my blog and I'll ramble about stupid stuff if I feel like it.

I like to think I'm a pretty practical person and not blinded to the reality around me. The occasional fantasy escapism aside. When I delve into a thought-process that sees nothing but conspiracy behind coincidence, wind in a vacuum, and a small cabal of people responsible for all the world's ills it strains me. The internet, for all it's glory in sharing of information and pictures of naked women, can be like giving a microphone to the village idiot.

In Conspiracy Theory Mel Gibson plays a man who sees a goodly number of conspiracies in every day events (I almost want to see the movie again to see if any of them were Jewish conspiracies to arrest drunk celebrities). He disseminates his theories through a self-published newsletter that is snail-mailed to his handful of readers and fellow believers. Now a days he'd be able to IM and set up a chat room with his fellow travellers and hem and over the details until they produce a web page that does a real good impression of actually being useful.

Every bit of evidence of a government conspiracy used by 9-11 conspiracy theorists has been shown to be false. It stuns me when an otherwise rational, intelligent person peddles this stuff like it's some grand forbidden truth. I comfort myself with the feeling that it's not that people are stupider or more naive than before, after all people have been buying and swearing by snake oil long before snake oil was ever invented. It's just that now the inmates have access to the asylum's PA system.

Anyways, going to go see Ricky Bobby tonight. Hopefully the Snakes on a Plane previews will over before I get there.