the crazy new conspiracy theory that people with lots of money have lots of power.
There has to be a term for when people dismiss perfectly plausible claims as conspiracy theories to pre-emptively discredit them.
it's kinda what the popularization of the phrase "conspiracy theory" is
Parenti uses these terms
-
Innocence theory: The rulers of the world are naïve and ignorant, they have the best possible intentions for doing what they do.
-
Coincidence theory: Stuff just happens man. It's pure coincidence that so much of the stuff that happens seems to benefit the rich and the powerful.
-
We are a few steps away from “capitalist exploitation is a conspiracy theory”
As opposed to wholesome conspiracies like Russia being responsible for everything
If Bernie had said "Ultrarich Russkies" WaPo would be like "yesss king"
ultra rich :lenin-sleeping: ultra rich russkies :lenin-rage:
In many western countries "Oligarch" is implicitly understood to refer to someone from the jungle countries outside of the civilised garden of the west. The racism is baked into the definition.
Once you know that power protects itself like this, this kind of thing stands out like a neon sign.
Remember how Michael Moore went from accusing the deep state of complicity in 9/11 to openly rooting for the deep state to overthrow the President?
Mike Lofgren, a congressional staff member for 28 years, joins Bill Moyers to talk about what he calls Washington's "Deep State," in which elected and unelected figures collude to protect and serve powerful vested interests. "It is how we had deregulation, financialization of the economy, the Wall Street bust, the erosion or our civil liberties and perpetual war," Lofgren tells Moyers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYS647HTgks
They calmly discuss things and he has described our current reality perfectly. Millions have seen evidence like this and come to their own conclusions. Of course WaPo is going to continue to call them "conspiracy theories" - it's the only weapon they've got. What are they going to do, calmly discuss it?
Remember how Michael Moore went from accusing the deep state of complicity in 9/11 to openly rooting for the deep state to overthrow the President?
No, because he melted out of relevance in the transition. His last big hit was the movie where he set up a flotilla of Floridians to visit Cuba in search of health care.
After that, he basically dropped off the map.
A lessening trust in bourgeois institutions must be the result of "popular paranoia." Are these masses unaware that everything which exists is fundamentally good, and that liberal democratic institutions must be protected from the idiocy of the common people? All ideas that serve to undermine the common paradigm are by definition conspiracy theories, and even lukewarm takes such as “hey the rich have a disproportionate amount of power compared to the poor” must be the same as saying the moon is made of cheese; democracy is something that we have and which all groups threaten to take away from us. Democracy dies in darkness and anything and everything new and different has turned off the light.
If anyone hasn't watched it yet: Michael Parenti Conspiracy and Class Power
Damn I liked Bernie's stance on the ultrarich but seeing it there sandwiched in between Trump and Meatball Ron has made me realize he's actually wrong and probably a republican.
Lack of an oxford comma is really good here. Glad they realize newspapers are just stenographers for cops I guess.
The real horseshoe theory is who supposedly lab-leaked COVID. Do better j**rnalists!!
Almost as an article of faith, some individuals believe that conspiracies are either kooky fantasies or unimportant aberrations. To be sure, wacko conspiracy theories do exist. There are people who believe that the United States has been invaded by a secret United Nations army equipped with black helicopters, or that the country is secretly controlled by Jews or gays or feminists or black nationalists or communists or extraterrestrial aliens. But it does not logically follow that all conspiracies are imaginary.
Conspiracy is a legitimate concept in law: the collusion of two or more people pursuing illegal means to effect some illegal or immoral end. People go to jail for committing conspiratorial acts. Conspiracies are a matter of public record, and some are of real political significance. The Watergate break-in was a conspiracy, as was the Watergate cover-up, which led to Nixon’s downfall. Iran-contra was a conspiracy of immense scope, much of it still uncovered. The savings and loan scandal was described by the Justice Department as “a thousand conspiracies of fraud, theft, and bribery,” the greatest financial crime in history.
Often the term “conspiracy” is applied dismissively whenever one suggests that people who occupy positions of political and economic power are consciously dedicated to advancing their elite interests. Even when they openly profess their designs, there are those who deny that intent is involved. In 1994, the officers of the Federal Reserve announced they would pursue monetary policies designed to maintain a high level of unemployment in order to safeguard against “overheating” the economy. Like any creditor class, they preferred a deflationary course. When an acquaintance of mine mentioned this to friends, he was greeted skeptically, “Do you think the Fed bankers are deliberately trying to keep people unemployed?” In fact, not only did he think it, it was announced on the financial pages of the press. Still, his friends assumed he was imagining a conspiracy because he ascribed self-interested collusion to powerful people.
At a World Affairs Council meeting in San Francisco, I remarked to a participant that U.S. leaders were pushing hard for the reinstatement of capitalism in the former communist countries. He said, “Do you really think they carry it to that level of conscious intent?” I pointed out it was not a conjecture on my part. They have repeatedly announced their commitment to seeing that “free-market reforms” are introduced in Eastern Europe. Their economic aid is channeled almost exclusively into the private sector. The same policy holds for the monies intended for other countries. Thus, as of the end of 1995, “more than $4.5 million U.S. aid to Haiti has been put on hold because the Aristide government has failed to make progress on a program to privatize state-owned companies” (New York Times 11/25/95).
Those who suffer from conspiracy phobia are fond of saying: “Do you actually think there’s a group of people sitting around in a room plotting things?” For some reason that image is assumed to be so patently absurd as to invite only disclaimers. But where else would people of power get together – on park benches or carousels? Indeed, they meet in rooms: corporate boardrooms, Pentagon command rooms, at the Bohemian Grove, in the choice dining rooms at the best restaurants, resorts, hotels, and estates, in the many conference rooms at the White House, the NSA, the CIA, or wherever. And, yes, they consciously plot – though they call it “planning” and “strategizing” – and they do so in great secrecy, often resisting all efforts at public disclosure. No one confabulates and plans more than political and corporate elites and their hired specialists. To make the world safe for those who own it, politically active elements of the owning class have created a national security state that expends billions of dollars and enlists the efforts of vast numbers of people.
:parenti-hands:
