My first article as “The Conspiracy Guy” is up at the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry website. It’s called, “Maria Monk’s Awful Disclosures: A Classic American Conspiracy Theory.”
Whee!
RJB
What Happens in the Convent Stays in the Convent…
February 27, 2012
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conspiracy theory, CSICon, history, humanities, religion | 
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Posted by Bob
The Week in Conspiracy (31 Oct 2011 edition)
October 31, 2011Hello, hello from the city where pants are optional, New Orleans. I gave my talk about anti-Jesuit and anti-Catholic conspiracy theories yesterday, and then we bopped along Canal Street to the Smarti Gras party.
- I know that when I need medical advice, I go to a strung-out, obviously intoxicated rapper. I mean, not me, Vigilant Citizen:
- David Icke warns us about RFID chips that can kill non-compliant implantees.
- The Chatanoogan will print anything. I mean, there’s a point in there, I think, but then they mention the New World Order. Grr.
- Jeez. Border-guarding failures pollute everything they touch, including OWS.
- It’s official. Canada admits that alien technology is in use…in the US? How can they admit that?
- Is this a real thing? Someone enlighten me about the “Lightbulb Conspiracy“.
- How one person decided to let go of reason and embrace the space brothers. I suspect that there is a very good chance that any story that starts, “I was a skeptic,” is being told by someone who wasn’t. Especially when it includes: “The last documentary I watched was a lecture by Linda Moulton-Howe on cattle mutilations. I could not believe what I was seeing. The question in my mind very quickly became not whether UFOs existed – they clearly did – but what they were.” You and skepticism are not even nodding acquaintances.
- This one goes out to Fraser Cain: Electrical Engineer Proves Einstein Wrong.
- Here’s something off the charts, even for me. It’s an interview with someone from the Andromeda Council about removing the Reptillian bases from the sea floor. (Robert Schaefer pointed this site out in his talk, and holy cow does it deliver!)
- From the Journal of Hispanic UFOlogy (or “UFOlogia”): abductee takes his complaint to court.
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What’s wrong with this headline? “The Origins of Mankind finally REVEALED: Our Ancient Ancestors were from a solar system near the constellation Pleiades!“
- Check out the UFO Digest Newsletter!
- Alex Jones does not get genetic engineering.
- Oh, no! The Freemasons are in Ghana!
- Wow. Someone actually thinks that Trey Parker and Matt Stone are actually Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris. Also, more wow.
- Vigilant Citizen thinks that the streetlights are going to be spying on him.
- Another ancient alien base was found in China. This one is under a pyramid.
- Did someone try to assassinate a woman who claims to have schtupped Lee Harvey Oswald? Federal Jack reprints the story.
- This entry at ATS is pretty humdrum. The mother of all conspiracies is the Federal Reserve.
- That racist birther silliness will just not die.
- 9/11 Truthers slapped with sanctions for filing frivolous lawsuits. There should just be a stupid tax.
- This seems to be a freeman on the land sort of story, or “Sovereign Citizen” profile. They should be in a higher stupid tax bracket.
- A couple of climate change deniers have their asses handed to them by themselves.
- The War on Christmas starts earlier every year. Except when it doesn’t. The AFA apparently protests something that never happened.
- David Icke schools the OWS people.
- Run away! Solar tsunami!
- Subliminal (penis) Messages (worship Satan) Exposed.
- Vigilant Citizen and the symbolism of the “upside-down triangle.”
- Ahhh. A good old fashioned “aliens are manipulating our minds” conspiracy
- Public menace Mike Adams actually opposes a malaria vaccine. Also, he’s pro-cancer.
- Elenin? Really? It evaporated. It’s over. Done. No, it’s not causing earthquakes. Everyone knows that HAARP was responsible for the Turkey earthquake, anyway.
- Carl Teichrib is scared of the guys in fancy dress, as is Thomas Reese, Giulio Meotti, and Jimmy DeYoung.
- Chuck Norris is scared of DNA.
This week in straight to DVD:
Here is a compilation of reviews of Anonymous, a film in which Roland Emmerich does to Shakespeare what he does to little models of the White House.
- Here’s a credulous Review.
- This HuffPo writer thinks that a Marlowe-as-Shakespeare movie would have been better; if you are going to write bollocks, he writes, at least make it dramatic bollocks.
- Artsy NYT writer doesn’t care who wrote Shakespeare. Which is fine. The reason I fuss about it because adopting the conspiracy theory is to reject evidence freely available to anyone with a library card. When you toss out the evidence, you can say whatever you like, and Oxfordian nutters do. But you can’t call that learning or time well spent.
- Roland Emmerich makes people dumber. This is not a proud legacy.
- You go, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust! The Bard’s home county defends their favorite son.
- CBS should not mystery monger. Just let Shapiro speak. There is no method, you line-dropping dong-dong, just madness.
- The Washington Post reviews the movie, opening:
- “Damn absurd.”
- “Is this a turkey I see before me? Urm, yep.“
- “The film is as lurid, melodramatic and incoherent as the conspiracy theory it purports to endorse…”
- Christian Science Monitor’s take
- Years ago, Frontline dropped the ball on Shakespeare. I refuse to trust them on this issue.
- This dude gives the movie a B+.
- “One of histories stupider conspiracy theories.”
- It’s great that everyone is pointing to Shapiro’s excellent book.
- Crackpot Keir Cutler is a crackpot.
No week in conspiracy this week, folks! Tomorrow, I’ll be talking to Jon Ronson, who is Skyping into a few classes at Georgia Tech. Pretty exciting!
RJB
4 Comments | 9/11 conspiracy theories, Anonymous the movie, conspiracy theory, CSICon, history, John Orloff, mass media, politics, Roland Emmerich, Shakespeare authorship, Uncategorized, who was shakespeare | Permalink
Posted by Bob
Very Superstitious: The Token Skeptic Podcast
October 28, 2011Yo. We’re at CSICon, and you can’t make us not be. I had lunch with Eugenie Scott, Steve Novella and Richard Saunders.
Yeah, I’m just name dropping.
Let me do it again. Here’s a panel I was on with Steve Novella, Steven King and Barbara Drescher. Kylie Sturgess was the host.
RJB
3 Comments | CSICon, psychology, Superstition | Permalink
Posted by Bob
This Week in Conspiracy (23 Oct 2011)
October 23, 2011I won’t have time to do everything that I need to in the few days that I have before CSICon. But I make a point of doing this, even if it hurts a little.
So, given the time crunch, I’m going to do as much as I can in an hour. GO!
- Muammar Gaddafi , Sofa King, Dead. Or as @conspiracywatch tweeted: “@ConspiracyWATCH I’m still not convinced Gaddafi was killed. The US/Western media pathologically lies already… not sure yet. Could be…” IMF and World Bank now in Libya. Clearly they are vultures. Or MG destroyed all private enterprise–how do you make an economy out of what he left behind? Of course, this has been planned for decades as an 1980s sitcom predicted the year of MG’s death. Now, I would have liked to have seen MG tried in Scotland–no, wait, Texas–but there are a lot of people whose perspective on the world is so far out there that they actually lament MG’s ignoble demise. Now the only question is who should be blow up next? Hugo Chavez is looking pretty weak…For a surrealist news reporting on the death, visit David Icke’s site. Alex Jones’s writers, of course, can’t tell the difference between war and democracy, which is probably why they are always so worked up. Russia Today’s coverage is hard hitting (the floor, next to the toilet) as usual. Of course, Tony Blair is behind the killing because he benefits from MG’s death. GodLikeProductions thinks that MG’s head is two-dimensional. Really.
- Eric Jon Phelps: Occupy Wall Street: Prelude to Jesuit Fascism. He might agree with some points made here, that the OWS may be a prelude to One World Gummint, which Soros is behind, apparently, and Gorbachev is all over. But will he go so far to occupy closets? But at least the 9/11 Truthers aren’t showing up…oh. “What do we want?” “TYRANNY!” “When do we want it?” “As soon as possible!” The only problems that Truth Excavator has with OWS are that 1) they don’t care about 9/11 Truth, and 2) they aren’t complaining about the Fed.
- Why aren’t the sailors on the ship that “tossed Osama bin Laden over the side” talking? Could it be because they are being blackmailed? Or could it be something more sinister, like, it fecking happened?
- OH NOES! JOOS HAS PERFECTED UFO TECHNOLOGEEE!!
- Why are we being forced to go to digital TV? To free up bandwidth for Words with Friends? HELL NO! MIND CONTROL!
- Teaching critical thinking at Alex Jones.
- Roland Emmerich’s new film is getting…”reviewed” is a deceptively neutral word for what’s happening to it in the press. Oh, also here. To celebrate, Emmerich released a short video about what a titanic, smug moron he is:
- In additional Shakespeare news, Forbes’s Alex Knapp wrote a piece, “Yes, Shakespeare Wrote Shakespeare” and got inundated with…enthusiastic correspondence. He contacted me and Eve about coming up with a reply to the specific claims of Shakespeare deniers, and we’re happy to help. Also, John Orloff, the screenwriter of Anonymous, left a smudge in the comments on my post about his indignation at the HuffPo.
- Holy crap! I thought Ron Paul reminded me of someone! It’s Pat Buchanan!
- Godlike Productions stepped in it this week when they tweeted:
They actually tweeted the word "Negro".
- Of course, when you hit the link in the tweet, you get this.
- I look forward to apologies from all the people who thought that Elenin was going to kill us all. Oh, wait. They are now messing themselves over the very pretty Eta Carinae going not supernova, but hypernova!!!eleven!!1emphasis!
- NRA head says that in Obama’s NEXT term (he sounds like Harold Camping), that the Administration is going to “break the back” of the 2nd Amendment. Obama has made no move on the 2nd Amendment at all. He has other things to worry about.
- FEMA, FCC announce national test of emergency alert systems…to warn us about when they are going to round us up and take over our brains?
- It’s all so simple: the New World Order, finally mapped.
Conspiracy Theory of the Week:
You win! Please! Stop sending me this! Everyone I have ever met since I got out of short-pants has sent me this at least twice! Are you guys coordinating this??? Hey, I’m “just asking questions.”
Hey, not bad for an hour.
RJB
1 Comment | 9/11 conspiracy theories, Anonymous the movie, conspiracy theory, critical thinking, CSICon, history, John Orloff, mass media, politics, Roland Emmerich, Shakespeare authorship, urban legend, who was shakespeare | Permalink
Posted by Bob
This Week in Conspiracy (16 Oct 2011)
October 16, 2011My every waking moment is consumed by CSICon at this point. Currently, I’m looking into the idea of “human hybrids,” whatever the crap those are supposed to be. I mean, hybrids with what? There are, of course, the innumerable human-alien hybridizations, but the guy I’m talking about doesn’t believe that there are such things as aliens. So, hybridized with what? I think that “hybridization” might be a code word for “I don’t understand genetics.” But he does talk about the hybrids’ sterility. God, muddling through the brains of conspiracy theorists is such a muddle. I think that there is a strain of the “medical experimentation” trope in there, but… yeah, that’s not exactly right, either. Oh well.
But enough of my foolish problems. Onto the foolish problems of others!
- Beyonce not pregnant for some reason!
- Who’s behind the Christian-Muslim clashes in Egypt? JOOOOOS! I mean, if you can’t trust Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who can you trust?
- It’s time to put Mike Adams in an institution and take away his Internet connection for his own good. He thinks that Occupy Atlanta is zombie Communist indoctrination.
- In other Occupy Whatever news, it’s all a false flag operation, or Cointelpro.
- Coed Freemason Paintball. There. Those are three words you weren’t expecting to see together today.
- The Larouche folks have warned us of a British backed coup of the Obama White House.
- Why did Queen Elizabeth II and the Vatican commit genocide of Canadian native children during a trip there? Hm? Show me a bone or STFU.
- The Occupy the Whole World-ers really are anti-Semites. I mean, if you can’t trust Rush Limbaugh (see really horrid shit here), who can you trust?
- “What do we want?” “Time travel!” “When do we want it?” “That’s irrelevant!” Man files patent for time machine.
- Hundreds of incompetent dentists speak up against fluoridation.
- Here’s a not batshit analysis of the Fed’s new interest in social media.
- Scientists invent history-erasing time cloak or something.
- Everything I’m seeing about the alleged Iranian assassination plot on US soil expresses disbelief–or at least notes that the whole thing defies precedent. NPR noted this, though they are still investigating, even finding a possible motive. The conspiracy theorists have ben wetting themselves over this, accusing the US of orchestrating it, though this seems to be a knee-jerk reaction and not the product of reason applied to evidence. PrisonPlanet says we’ve given Israel the OK to bomb Iran. I mean, there’s no doubt that the coordinated press releases by the Obama Administration across so many departments suggests that this was a coordinated disclosure of info, but they did file charges and have opened themselves to the possibility of being humiliated in open court. Hugo Chavez thinks that the plot was cooked up by the US. I mean, if you can’t trust Hugo Chavez, who can you trust?
- All top-secret FEMA death camps conveniently listed on google maps.
- Glenn Beck will be in New Orleans during CSICon. I cordially invite him to my conspiracy theory panel.
- More aliens on the moon goofiness.
- A failbook contribution from Eve.
- Are nuclear weapons being tested beneath Hoover Dam? A guy who made the mistake of getting automated updates about earthquakes from the USGS thinks so, and writes to his paper about it.
- Is the New World Order unravelling? asks Pat Buchanan. I mean, if you can’t trust Pat Buchanan, who can you trust?
- I eye-roll at people who think there is anything principled about not getting vaccinated.
- “The Mossad setup the US Government to believe that Libya had sent death squads to kill President Reagan.” Warning: Porn Mustaches.
- Ah, another example of 9/11 doggerel filk rap.
- Performance art brought down the WTC. I knew nothing good could come from performance art.
- UFO Digest, known for its calm analysis of the confirmed extraterrestrial presence among us, gives its take on the Uganda deployment.
- Here you go. Proof that Obama was a member of the American Communist Party, if by “was a member” means “was endorsed by,” by “American Communist Party (est. 1919)” you mean “the New Party, which was established in 1993.”
Conspiracy theory of the week:
- Get to a higher dimension! A massive gravity wave coming!
Well, I’m going to hide in a bunker. See you all next week!
RJB
1 Comment | 9/11 conspiracy theories, conspiracy theory, CSICon, history, mass media, politics, Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Bob
The Week in Conspiracy (9 Oct 2011)
October 9, 2011Is it strange that I first typed 2003? I mean, it hasn’t been 2003 for, like, at least 5 years.
Anyway, it was a goofy time this week in the conspiracy theory-o-sphere. Or at least, I think it was. You see, my principle data gathering method, the Twitter Android app, was down this week, and I was not able to collect as much as I normally would.
- Weird little man and presidential candidate (really), Ron Paul, got his wildest dream, to audit the Fed. Of course, he’s clearly mildly impaired, as the Fed has been audited throughout its history. Way to waste money and making the gummint a little bit bigger, Libertarian goofball!
- Has anyone ever seen Roseanne Barr and Rosie O’Donnell in the same room? I can’t think of a time. Hm…
- It would take an idiot like Mike Adams to decide that it was the treatment that killed Steve Jobs and not the cancer. What a horrid, horrid man he is.
- The 3-dimensional veil is very dense, indeed.
- Hey, I was just writing about this species of conspiracy theory for CSICon! I guess my talk will be timely!
The UN documents describing Project Blue Beam and how the NWO and UN plan to use the actual projection of “indoctrinating holograms” onto the atmosphere itself to create convincing but fraudulent “second coming” imagery are located on my original Wiki and have been hidden there in plain sight for four years. This is the NWO’s most ludicrous, heinous and preposterous plan yet for trying to install a one world government on the unsuspecting people of the world, by employing the ultimate in faked imagery to try to achieve their goals.
- Wow. Someone who says there’s no evidence that we go around the sun. Wow.
- The larger We Are Strange community picked up the local Truth(tm) group’s LOLcat write up of me. It came with this delightful little comment, directed at yours truly:
typical jewish online behaviour – very similar to trying to argue with your wife (those of you who have experienced the moving-goal-post nature of such an exercise.
- Is that an RFID chip in your pants or are you just happy to see me?
- Texas rep: Obama’s tax bill is faaaaaaaabulous for gays.
- Jesse Ventura: “Manchurian Candidate—only for realzies!“
- Author claims that Obama resurrected the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, forgets to explain exactly how.
- Is Alex Jones filming himself doing something illegal? Driving while filming yourself on your phone? Driving while more impaired than usual, at the very least:
- Mumps outbreak at Berkeley brings out the antivax loons.
- The Bahamas are being sold to the Antichrist/Illuminati/NWO/Boy Scouts.
- Using conspiracy theories to teach critical thinking! Yay! Vigilant Citizen misinterpreting it! Yay!
- UFOs are destroying crops, say farmers.
That’s all I have, folks. I would have written about some of the Occupy Wall Street protests, but I honestly have no idea what they are about. I mean, yes, they are mad, but what are you advocating? Oh, well. Sorry. I’ll try to be better next time.
RJB
1 Comment | conspiracy theory, CSICon, mass media, politics, Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Bob
This Week in 19th-Century Conspiracy
October 9, 2011Right now I’m writing my presentation for CSICon, and if you follow my twitter feed, you are well aware of this. CSICon has taken precedent over most other things at this point, and I’m gunning to have the entire presentation done well before I go to New Orleans, so I can just plug and play. Well, play mostly.
The program says I’m writing about religious conspiracy theories, which is mostly true. It’s actually going to be about a lot more than just straight religion. As I was writing, I realized that there was a good chance my audience would start thinking, “So the hell what?” as I was writing about a number of anti-Jesuit and anti-Catholic movements in 19th-century. This audience is on the cutting edge of bullshit–they are up on their game and mostly committed to fighting woo, bunk, nonsense and enfeebling thoughts in the here and now. So, I have reengineered my presentation to bring make clear that there is a close continuity between the conspiracy theories of yesteryear and the conspiracy theories of todayyear. In particular, I am going to be looking at the features of these old stories and the features of the more recent stories. And instruct my audience to embrace the FEMA death camps and obey the New World Order. (I know that some of you Truthers are reading this! w00t!)
Basically, I’m going to answer the question, “What does a pillow fight having gone horribly wrong have to do with UFOs?” I’ve taken an especially strange statement given to me by a modern conspiracist and am looking at all the history that led up to someone making such an extreme claim. In doing so, I hope to show that, as much as it appears and no matter how truly gobsmacking this comment was, it was not pulled right out of his probed orifice, but is the end product of immense conspiracist energies spanning decades. I hope that it will fit in nicely with the meme-based explanations that I anticipate from the other panelists, since I will be looking at some of the longest-lived (most enduringly reproductively successful) memes.
I don’t want to spoil it all here right now–not that the people who I will be presenting to are currently readers. (I do hope, though, that some of them will become readers by the end of the conference.)
RJB
2 Comments | conspiracy theory, CSICon, humanities, theology | Permalink
Posted by Bob
Skeptical Humanities 