• axont [she/her, comrade/them]
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    4 years ago

    I've occasionally seen some conspiracy theories drip onto leftist discussions, the main one I remember being 9/11 truther stuff.

    There's a good reason why conspiracy theorists are reactionary: the entire point of these theories is to construct a view of the world that blames all the problems on anything except material forces. It has to be something other than capitalism.

    The left just identifies capitalism as the culprit and so doesn't have to turn over rocks or invent reptilians or fabricate any kind of stories. Plentiful enough reality is right there.

    • RNAi [he/him]
      hexagon
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      edit-2
      4 years ago

      Yeah, is honestly kinda nice when horseshoe experts say "replace 'capitalists' with 'jews' and leftist sound exactly like nazis, anyways, please donate to my patreon so I can buy insulin this month"

      • Awoo [she/her]
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        4 years ago

        Yeah, is honestly kinda nice when horseshoe experts say “replace ‘capitalists’ with ‘jews’ and leftist sound exactly like nazis, anyways, please donate to my patreon so I can buy insulin this month”

        Kinda the point to be honest. It co-opts a feeling everyone has deep down within capitalism that they are being exploiter and ruled over by some.... Entity.

        It redirects that feeling to race rather than the bourgeoisie as a means of dividing the proletariat.

      • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
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        edit-2
        4 years ago

        Libs love to play madlibs, don't they? Yes, changing the entire context of a claim makes it somehow the same claim.

        Chemists say ice becomes water? That's like when alchemists say lead becomes gold. Same thing.

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
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      4 years ago

      the main one I remember being 9/11 truther stuff

      Sadly, people trying to analyze the exact flash-point of jet fuel got lost in the broader question of whether we were being lied into a new Vietnam.

      I always kinda laugh at folks who doggedly insist the Twin Towers involved a controlled demolition, because the specs on the building were supposed to make it plane-proof. A seemingly far more likely conclusion - in my mind, at least - was that the Towers weren't as structurally sound as advertised and the architects/inspectors simply lied the problem away. But, like, disappearing several hundred airline passengers and setting up an elaborate array of hologram projectors just seems more credibly than "Building inspector in NYC lied on a safety report."

      • lvysaur [he/him]
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        4 years ago

        Okay, but why did building 7 free-fall into the ground?

        • anaesidemus [he/him]
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          4 years ago

          It was on fire for a few hours, stuff fell on it from the other towers and it had a weird truss that put extra stress on the building.

          • lvysaur [he/him]
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            4 years ago

            But why is that empirically the only time that's ever happened? Even NIST admitted that it was a "new type" of collapse. That's not the first time a building's been on fire for a long time

            It's also really weird that Larry Silverstein is on video saying they "made a decision to pull the building". "Pull" is demolitions slang to initiate a demolition.

              • lvysaur [he/him]
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                4 years ago

                Okay, but why is he on tape saying to "pull the building"

                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p34XrI2Fm6I

                At the very best, WTC7 fell due to fires and the owner of WTC7 decided to troll the world by pretending it was demolished.

                At worst, it was actually demolished

                edit: could I get a real answer other than a downvote? This is the owner of the building on video saying that they "made the decision to pull the building". I guess we're stanning the Bush admin now

    • Ram_The_Manparts [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      There’s a good reason why conspiracy theorists are reactionary: the entire point of these theories is to construct a view of the world that blames all the problems on anything except material forces. It has to be something other than capitalism.

      I'm 99% convinced that most, if not all popular conspiracy theories come straight from the CIA. Seriously.

    • marxisthayaca [he/him,they/them]M
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      4 years ago

      blames all the problems on anything except material forces.

      Material forces are manifested through human beings tho?

      • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
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        4 years ago

        More in the sense that conspiracy theorists make the motivations of their enemies to be inexplicable, unknowable, or simply some nebulous thirst for power. They have to invent an enemy that's not clear, because a clear vision would place blame on the obvious day to day nature of labor and management of resources. A conspiracy theorist has to disregard all of that and instead point to secret organizations or something scifi or supernatural. They can't point at how things are now as anything meaningful. They have to point at some mysterious external force.