Conspiracy theory – The Examined Life

Is the Trump Train Looking for an Alternative Track to the Alternative Right?

April 6, 2017April 6, 2017jimdroberts

Thursday 5th April may well prove to have been a day that will go on to shape the remainder of the Trump presidency. Has Trump finally cut himself free from the strings of his puppet master, Steve Bannon, and realized that the simplistic, populist ideology of the alternative right can’t be applied to the complex societies we live in today?

Whether you agree, and many do not, with Trump’s attempts to cozy up to Putin, the gas attack that appears to have been carried out by President Bashir’s forces, forces that have received Putin’s support, in the north-west of Syria killing at least 70, provided Trump with the brutal realities of what he will have to face during his time in office. Trump has learned that Putin can’t be trusted, and following Bannon’s removal from the National Security Council, it appears that he’s less than sure about his chief strategist as well.

The news of the horrific use of chemical weapons in Syria comes at a time when other very significant events are taking place. Yesterday CNBC broke the story that a new memorandum on the composition of the National Security Council (NSC), published by the Federal Register, no longer listed Trump’s White House chief strategist as a member of the principals committee, while reinstating the Director of National Intelligence. Why Bannon was ever included on this committee in the first place left many scratching their heads, and why the Director of National Intelligence needed to be reinstated seems equally strange.

The use of chemical weapons on civilians by a Russian backed Syrian government, as meanwhile another Asian nation, led by a tyrant one used to see starring as a villain in

Image result for kim jong un odd job — Having to sit with his legs so far apart, American Intelligence agencies estimate that each of Kim Jong Un’s testicles weigh in at anywhere between 12 and 16lbs.

James Bond movies during the 1970’s, develops nuclear weapons and test fires rockets towards Japan, and terrorists continue to wage jihad in the name of a distorted and morally bankrupt ideology in random cities throughout the western world. Not to forget that on Thursday President Trump meets with the President of a country the United States accuses of building sand bars on which to place strategic military installations throughout the South China Sea, and with whom Bannon has guaranteed the United States will be at war with in the next 5 -10 years, a claim he made on his own radio show on March 16, 2016. See link below.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-steve-bannon-china-south-sea-war-chinese-us-president-special-counsellor-a7556546.html

Bannon’s Walter Mitty Existence

Bannon’s military experience was limited to serving as a naval officer for 7 years, during which time, much to his own disappointment he never saw combat. For those of us who are cynical there might be questions asked why a man with apparently so little to offer, was placed on the principals committee , the innermost circle, of the NSC. But, aspiring to great heights with neither the credentials nor experience necessary appears to be Bannon’s forte. Having left the Navy Bannon the world of investment banking and Goldman Sachs welcomed him with open arms. After working at Goldman Sachs for only 6 years, Bannon and some colleagues found the time to start a Boutique Investment Bank creatively named Bannon and Co, specializing in the financial interests of media companies. Again, up until this time Bannon appears to have had no experience with the media, much in the same way that he’d had no experience of investment banking, but his “devil may care” attitude appeared to be all he needed to get him through.

From dealing with the financial complexities of the media, the next logical step for Bannon was to purchase himself a media company, and start writing and producing

triumph of the will — Described as being a legendary propaganda /documentary of the Third Reich’s 1934 Nuremberg Rally. At first *Triumph if the Will* looks like Glastonbury for people without any sense of humor, and then you remind yourself, that unlike Glastonbury the ideology of the Nuremberg Rally would go on to cause a war resulting in an estimated 60 million deaths,

right-wing propaganda films. Bannon’s films were much admired by the founder of the
right-wing website Breitbart News, Andrew Breitbart, who affectionately nicknamed Bannon, Leni Riefenstahl, after the famous female director responsible for producing many of the most famous Nazi propaganda movies, most notably Triumph of the Will. I’m left wondering how Breitbart’s comparing Bannon to a Nazi propagandist left Bannon feeling. I’m guessing that if we could get the answer to this question we’d have a good idea as to how the next decade will play out.

There can be little disagreement that the level of global insecurity with which America’s most politically inexperienced President is confronted with, is to say the least extreme. This is what makes the timing of Bannon’s dismissal from the inner sanctum of the NSC so mysterious, and can only be explained in one of two ways:

Trump has come to understand that Bannon is a right-wing maniac who will stop at nothing to destroy the American political establishment, and much of the world along with it. Bannon is reported have been heavily influenced by the pseudo-
Yet one more book that “it’s agood time to read”.

academic text:The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy – What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America’s Next Rendezvous with Destiny, 1997 by William Strauss (Author), Neil Howe. The authors of this book identify that the history of Europe and the United States can be divided into saeculum, or generational periods in which events occur that fundamentally reset the course of western civilization. Strauss and Howe predict that circa 2008 to 2025 the United States will go through its fourth turning. Beginning with the global economic crisis of 2008 and culminating in western civilization taking on the rest of the world in an orgy of death and destruction that would have given Hitler second thoughts.
The second possibility is more disturbing. The White House can not be seen to entertain Bannon’s latent desire for global Armageddon. In all probability it’s unlikely that his lust for destruction isn’t shared by mainstream military advisers, who’ve actually experienced the horrors of war first hand. But, Bannon still remains chief strategist at the White House, and the concern must be, just how much of a voice does he remain in Trump’s ear. Banishing Bannon from the NSC projects a message that a more reasonable, and considered course will be taken, but honestly, I
In the final book of the Bible, John of Patmos predicted that four horsemen would usher in the apocalypse. It appears that it might involve fewer men and horses, but more Speedos than John originally accounted for.

wouldn’t trust any of these people to be able to sit the right way round on a toilet.

So has Trump come to his senses and initiated a trial separation from Bannon and his right-wing fantasies, or is it all just the smoke and mirrors necessary to initiate Bannon’s wet dream of Armageddon? To start the conflict that he regrets not having experienced during his short naval career. One thing I do know is that I find it hard to trust two guys that profess to being heterosexual, hugging one another in Speedos, nipple on nipple.

Yesterdayafternoon, some journalists reported having seen a man looking like Steve Bannon cycling across the White House lawn, in the direction of the Breitbart offices.

World Burn Bannon — Is Bannon and the alt right being frozen out of the White House, or is he like the turd that just won’t flush, forever resurfacing just when you think it’s disappeared?

A pretty decent documentary that exposes just how hideous Steve Bannon is.

Generation X – The Age and Adulation of the Conspiracy Theory

October 14, 2015jimdroberts

Generation X, the first generation of internet users, a generation lost to the half truths of cyberspace, a generation confused by an infinite number of stories reported from an infinite number of sources, divorced from reality, and ultimately apathetic towards the truth. For some unknown reason the conspiracy theory is highly addictive to generation ‘X’. It eats away at their minds, and leads to the illogical reasoning of a drug addled hippy, reasoning along the lines of:

“Well if I can’t disprove the claim, no matter how outlandish it is, then there is a possibility it could be true.” See onus probandi: the burden of proof rests with those making the claim.

It’s along similar lines of reasoning that since the dawn of man so many have fallen into a trap, and follow gods of which there is no proof, hence the so called “leap of faith” a non-believer must take to become a believer. It’s called a “leap of faith”, but in reality it might better be described as “a sidestepping of reality”.

Those of us born between 1970 and 1985 are generation X, and on this occasion x doesn’t mark the spot, there is no spot, and even if there was it’s unlikely that the shadowy figures that lurk in the corridors of power would ever let people like you or I know where ‘x’ was, or even if it exists.

Generation ‘X’ is at best skeptical, but more often than not just downright cynical of everything, believing that anything we’ve been told could be a lie, we’re highly suspicious as to whether there’s even a right way round to sit on a toilet. Give your average member of generation “X” five minutes thinking time, and they’ll be able to start spinning a web of conspiracy regarding almost any current news item. It’s no coincidence that during our teens generation ‘X’ were influenced heavily by programmmes like “The X Files” which caught the zeitgeist of the moment, and encouraged us all to be cynical towards governments and any agency wielding authority. To generation ‘X’ everything happens for a reason. A powerful network hides behind our governments, pulling strings, and manipulating societies at their whim. They play with us for their sport, much the same way the Gods of ancient Greece played with the destinies of Athenians.Unwittingly, all the conspiracy theorists of generation ‘X’ have actually done is to substitute a belief in an unprovable, omnipotent deity, with a belief in unprovable, omnipotent societies of man, both seem equally as preposterous, and subject to the same inherent fallacies of onus probandi and the Argument of Ignorance.

Although I am firmly ensconced within the parameters of generation ‘X’ (born in 1976), I find it hard to believe that man is capable of organizing such complete, and pervasive control over one another. I come from a country (the U.K) that can’t run a train on time, it’s therefore requires quite a stretch of my imagination for me to believe that a small group of people are so well organized that they control the entirety of our chaotic society. But, in truth if there are a small group of individuals wrestling for the control of my life, then I give them full permission to take control of my life given that I’ve made such a mess of it.

To categorize or group all generation “X” together is in itself a paradox, as Jeff Gordinier, author of “X Saves the World,” writes that Xers are:

“said to be the defiant demographic, dedicated to shredding whatever raiment the marketing apparatus tries to drape us in; because we’d prefer not to be categorized at all, thank you very much”

morpheus — What if I told you, that what isn’t spelled with a j?

As Gordinier alludes to I resent being tarred with the brush that suggests every generation “X” is a conspiracy theorist. I have tried very hard to stay out of the foul clutches of the neuroses and paranoia required of a conspiracy theorist. To me it seems little more than a pastime of the pseudo-intellectual, people who believe that they are some how clever if they go around disagreeing with everything, because somehow they are aware of “the hidden agenda”. One sure way of confusing a conspiracy theorist is if you propose the theory that there is no agenda, hidden or otherwise, everything is a mess, everything is in chaos, life itself is an absurdity because mankind has to use all his wits just to get himself to work on time each morning. Propose this to a conspiracy theorist and they’ll likely reply,

“that’s what they want you to think, they’ve got you just where they want you”.

And who is the “they” that conspiracy theorists are constantly referring to, Illuminati, Masons, Bohemian Grove, Yale University’s Skull and Bones, the Bilderberg Group, or the mystical cabal of Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn? Whoever “they” are, they are still ordinary human beings and in my experience I have found us to be a quite an underwhelming, under achieving species, and I’m less than impressed with our abilities to organize anything but the simplest of things, birthday parties, poker nights etc. To believe that there are a few of our species capable of influencing everything would seem to me to be placing far to much confidence in the abilities of mankind.

Conspiracy has been defined in the United States as:

an agreement of two or more people to commit a crime, or to accomplish a legal end through illegal actions. A conspiracy does not need to have been planned in secret to meet the definition of the crime.

With this definition of conspiracy any it’s impossible for conspiracies not to occur. What is debatable is the levels of conspiracy that generation “X” seem capable of believing.

images — Of course someone in search of the truth, must be a bit of a dick to put on a blindfold before he starts. Who knows what you might stumble into, or what conclusions you’ll make.

elephant — This represents the basis for the construction of most conspiracy theories. Someone observes half a fact and from it draws a complete conclusion. Most conspiracy theories fall foul of anecdotal fallacy .

That’s not to say that all conspiracy theories are bunk, absolutely not. In fact nearly everything underhand that happens in day to day life has required people to conspire. Conspiracy has long been a platform for entertainment, in his play, Shakespeare tells of the conspiracy led by Cassius and Brutus to assassinate Julius Caesar. The Boston Tea Party was a conspiracy, as were the Gunpowder Plot, and Operation Valkyrie (the failed plot to assassinate Hitler). History has proven conspiracies occur time and again.

Discussing the unprovable might just be the definition of futility, it has even produced its own branch of philosophy, absurdism. To the philosophers Albert Camus and Søren Kierkegaard discussions on the existence of god, or any subject that cannot be proven was considered absurd as any effort to find inherent meanings in life can only fail.

Whilst I do believe that conspiracy theorists are the equivalent of a blind man, in a dark room, looking for a black cat; that isn’t there. I must confess to just not knowing any of the answers. And that is where I differ from the conspiracy theorist and ardent followers of religion, I am happy knowing what I don’t know, and acknowledging my ignorance. I am happier doing this than constructing assumed facts based on spurious sources, or abnegating all responsibility of discovering the truth with the catch all excuse “it’s god’s will”.

And although I say this, I can’t escape from the fact that I’m a generation “X”, and conspiracy theories are like an embarrassing itch that just has to be scratched, no matter how many people are looking. For we live not in a world of black and white, but one in which we must appreciate the nigh infinite nuances of hues in the spectrum. Humans are made complex creatures by there complex desires, and their willingness to be dishonourable in order to achieve these desires. Questions in the realm of human behaviour rarely present us with binary solutions, absolutes of yes or no, true or false are unrealistic answers to anything but the most simple question, or the most simple person. It is unreasonable to draw absolute conclusions on the complex behaviours of people in our evermore complex societies, and we give credence to any conspiracy theory by reminding ourselves with idioms such as “there’s no smoke without fire”.

Recently I came across a conspiracy theory that has shaken the very core of my identity. A conspiracy theory that is in the public domain, but still has far reaching social implications as well as personal. A conspiracy theory that I intend to research thoroughly, and present as objectively as possible in order that the reader can determine for themselves what they think. And as I start on my journey through the smoke and mirrors of cyberspace, in search of something tangible, I’m reminded of a line spoken by the character Dana Scully: