-Caveat Lector- IN THEORY: -- Twenty-Five Rules of Disinformation <http://www.trufax.org/research2/disinforules.html> 1. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. Regardless of what you know, don't discuss it -- especially if you are a public figure, news anchor, etc. If it's not reported, it didn't happen, and you never have to deal with the issues. 2. Become incredulous and indignant. Avoid discussing key issues and instead focus on side issues which can be used show the topic as being critical of some otherwise sacrosanct group or theme. This is also known as the "How dare you!" gambit. 3. Create rumor mongers. Avoid discussing issues by describing all charges, regardless of venue or evidence, as mere rumors and wild accusations. Other derogatory terms mutually exclusive of truth may work as well. This method works especially well with a silent press, because the only way the public can learn of the facts are through such "arguable rumors". If you can associate the material with the Internet, use this fact to certify it a "wild rumor" which can have no basis in fact. 4. Use a straw man. Find or create a seeming element of your opponent's argument which you can easily knock down to make yourself look good and the opponent to look bad. Either make up an issue you may safely imply exists based on your interpretation of the opponent/opponent arguments/situation, or select the weakest aspect of the weakest charges. Amplify their significance and destroy them in a way which appears to debunk all the charges, real and fabricated alike, while actually avoiding discussion of the real issues. 5. Sidetrack opponents with name calling and ridicule. This is also known as the primary attack the messenger ploy, though other methods qualify as variants of that approach. Associate opponents with unpopular titles such as "kooks", "right-wing", "liberal", "left-wing", "terrorists", "conspiracy buffs", "radicals", "militia", "racists", "religious fanatics", "sexual deviates", and so forth. This makes others shrink from support out of fear of gaining the same label, and you avoid dealing with issues. 6. Hit and Run. In any public forum, make a brief attack of your opponent or the opponent position and then scamper off before an answer can be fielded, or simply ignore any answer. This works extremely well in Internet and letters-to-the-editor environments where a steady stream of new identities can be called upon without having to explain criticism reasoning -- simply make an accusation or other attack, never discussing issues, and never answering any subsequent response, for that would dignify the opponent's viewpoint. 7. Question motives. Twist or amplify any fact which could so taken to imply that the opponent operates out of a hidden personal agenda or other bias. This avoids discussing issues and forces the accuser on the defensive. 8. Invoke authority. Claim for yourself or associate yourself with authority and present your argument with enough "jargon" and "minutiae" to illustrate you are "one who knows", and simply say it isn't so without discussing issues or demonstrating concretely why or citing sources. 9. Play Dumb. No matter what evidence or logical argument is offered, avoid discussing issues with denial they have any credibility, make any sense, provide any proof, contain or make a point, have logic, or support a conclusion. Mix well for maximum effect. 10. Associate opponent charges with old news. A derivative of the straw man usually, in any large-scale matter of high visibility, someone will make charges early on which can be or were already easily dealt with. Where it can be foreseen, have your own side raise a straw man issue and have it dealt with early on as part of the initial contingency plans. Subsequent charges, regardless of validity or new ground uncovered, can usually them be associated with the original charge and dismissed as simply being a rehash without need to address current issues -- so much the better where the opponent is or was involved with the original source. 11. Establish and rely upon fall-back positions. Using a minor matter or element of the facts, take the "high road" and "confess" with candor that some innocent mistake, in hindsight, was made -- but that opponents have seized on the opportunity to blow it all out of proportion and imply greater criminalities which, "just isn't so." Others can reinforce this on your behalf, later. Done properly, this can garner sympathy and respect for "coming clean" and "owning up" to your mistakes without addressing more serious issues. 12. Enigmas have no solution. Drawing upon the overall umbrella of events surrounding the crime and the multitude of players and events, paint the entire affair as too complex to solve. This causes those otherwise following the matter to begin to loose interest more quickly without having to address the actual issues. 13. Alice in Wonderland Logic. Avoid discussion of the issues by reasoning backwards with an apparent deductive logic in a way that forbears any actual material fact. 14. Demand complete solutions. Avoid the issues by requiring opponents to solve the crime at hand completely, a ploy which works best for items qualifying for rule 10. 15. Fit the facts to alternate conclusions. This requires creative thinking unless the crime was planned with contingency conclusions in place. 16. Vanishing evidence and witnesses. If it does not exist, it is not fact, and you won't have to address the issue. 17. Change the subject. Usually in connection with one of the other ploys listed here, find a way to side-track the discussion with abrasive or controversial comments in hopes of turning attention to a new, more manageable topic. This works especially well with companions who can "argue" with you over the new topic and polarize the discussion arena in order to avoid discussing more key issues. 18. Emotionalize, Antagonize, and Goad Opponents. If you can't do anything else, chide and taunt your opponents and draw them into emotional responses which will tend to make them look foolish and overly motivated, and generally render their material somewhat less coherent. Not only will you avoid discussing the issues in the first instance, but even if their emotional response addresses the issue, you can further avoid the issues by then focusing on how "sensitive they are to criticism". 19. Ignore proof presented, demand impossible proofs. This is perhaps a variant of the "play dumb" rule. Regardless of what material may be presented by an opponent in public forums, claim the material irrelevant and demand proof that is impossible for the opponent to come by (it may exist, but not be at his disposal, or it may be something which is known to be safely destroyed or withheld, such as a murder weapon). In order to completely avoid discussing issues may require you to categorically deny and be critical of media or books as valid sources, deny that witnesses are acceptable, or even deny that statements made by government or other authorities have any meaning or relevance. 20. False evidence. Whenever possible, introduce new facts or clues designed and manufactured to conflict with opponent presentations as useful tools to neutralize sensitive issues or impede resolution. This works best when the crime was designed with contingencies for the purpose, and the facts cannot be easily separated from the fabrications. 21. Call a Grand Jury, Special Prosecutor, or other empowered investigative body. Subvert the (process) to your benefit and effectively neutralize all sensitive issues without open discussion. Once convened, the evidence and testimony are required to be secret when properly handled. For instance, if you own the prosecuting attorney, it can insure a Grand Jury hears no useful evidence and that the evidence is sealed an unavailable to subsequent investigators. Once a favorable verdict (usually, this technique is applied to find the guilty innocent, but it can also be used to obtain charges when seeking to frame a victim) is achieved, the matter can be considered officially closed. 22. Manufacture a new truth. Create your own expert(s), group(s), author(s), leader(s) or influence existing ones willing to forge new ground via scientific, investigative, or social research or testimony which concludes favorably. In this way, if you must actually address issues, you can do so authoritatively. 23. Create bigger distractions. If the above does not seem to be working to distract from sensitive issues, or to prevent unwanted media coverage of unstoppable events such as trials, create bigger news stories (or treat them as such) to distract the multitudes. 24. Silence critics. If the above methods do not prevail, consider removing opponents from circulation by some definitive solution so that the need to address issues is removed entirely. This can be by their death, arrest and detention, blackmail or destruction of their character by release of blackmail information, or merely by proper intimidation with blackmail or other threats. 25. Vanish. If you are a key holder of secrets or otherwise overly illuminated and you think the heat is getting too hot, to avoid the issues, vacate the kitchen. IN PRACTICE: -- Copyright 1995 The New York Times Company The New York Times April 30, 1995, Sunday, Late Edition - Final Section 4; Page 5; Column 2; Week in Review Desk 746 words The Nation; The Conspiracy That Never Ends By George Johnson WHILE most of the world waited for news of the official investigation into the Oklahoma bombing, callers and talk show hosts on World Wide Christian Radio, the Nashville shortwave station that has become the shrill voice of the far right, had it all figured out: the Federal Building was destroyed as part of a plot by the United States Government, acting on behalf of a secret international cabal, the New World Order, whose symbol, the cold staring eye in the pyramid, mocks Americans from the back of every one dollar bill. Within days, the bombing had been tightly woven into the sprawling conspiracy theories that have obsessed some Americans since the beginning of the Republic. The historian Richard Hofstadter coined the phrase "the paranoid style in American politics" to describe this pathological world view in which history is a Manichean struggle between the forces of light and of darkness. The conspiratorial fantasies are not simply an expression of inchoate fear. There is a shape, an architecture, to the paranoia. Rule No. 1: The conspirators are internationalist in their sympathies. In this century the main targets of conspiracy theories have been Jews, depicted as people whose loyalty to fellow Jews makes them endemically antipatriotic, and international Communism. The United Nations is suspect, as is the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, Interpol and even the Red Cross because they supposedly place international agendas above patriotic concerns. In the 19th century, the chief conspirators were said to be the Vatican and the Freemasons. In the mind of today's political paranoiacs, which include some militia members, followers of the Liberty Lobby (the Holocaust-is-a-myth crowd) and the Ku Klux Klan, all these groups are mushed together into the New World Order, or One World Government. The first rule is of more than academic historical interest because of Rule No. 2: In a conspiracy theory, nothing is ever discarded. Right-wing mail order bookstores still sell the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," the anti-Semitic fantasy hatched in Russia a century ago. Another big seller is "Proofs of a Conspiracy, " a 1797 book reprinted by the John Birch Society, which fueled speculation that a Freemasonic group called the Order of the Illuminati plotted with the Jeffersonians to turn over the fledging United States to followers of French Enlightenment philosophy -- the 18th century equivalent of secular humanism. This brings us to Rule No. 3: Seeming enemies are actually secret friends. As evil as the Communists, in the right-wing mind, are the Rockefellers and international bankers (often a synonym for Jews). Through the lens of the conspiracy theorists, capitalists and Communists work hand in hand. To what end? That's Rule No. 4: The takeover by the international godless government will be ignited by the collapse of the economic system. In an elaborate decades-long check-kiting scheme since the dollar was removed from the gold standard, the Federal Reserve has been creating money out of thin air. Once the conspirators give the word, the bankers will yank out the rug from this house of cards and your money will be worthless. As a sign that the conspirators have taken over the currency, they had printed on the back a Freemasonic symbol: the all-seeing eye of the enlightened ones perched atop the pyramid. And there, under the emblem, is their name: Novus Ordo Seclorum. Finally, Rule No. 5: It's all spelled out in the Bible. For those with a fundamentalist bent, the New World Order or One World Government is none other than the international kingdom of the Antichrist, described in the Book of Revelation. Revelation also speaks of the "mark of the beast," a symbol of the satanic leader that will be imprinted on everyone's forehead and right hand. Fundamentalist preachers like Hal Lindsey have popularized the notion that the mark of the beast is the zebra-striped Universal Product Code, which will be tattooed on everyone by laser to increase the acuity of the panoptic big eye. We may never know what went through the real conspirators' minds when, as investigators say, they rented a truck, packed it full of fertilizer and fuel oil, and ignited it where it would do the most harm. But if they hung out at militia meetings, or even just tuned in occasionally to WWCR, they would have been exposed to this kind of thinking, over and over and over again. GRAPHIC: Photo: Father and son, 13, training in Michigan. (Reuters) LANGUAGE: ENGLISH <http://www.santafe.edu/~johnson/articles.paranoia.html> ---- "In the mainline media, those who adhere to the position that there is some kind of "conspiracy" pushing us towards a world government are virulently ridiculed. The standard attack maintains that the so-called "New World Order" is the product of turn-of-the-century, right-wing, bigoted, anti-semitic racists acting in the tradition of the long- debunked "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion", now promulgated by some Militias and other right-wing hate groups." "The historical record does not support that position to any large degree but it has become the mantra of the socialist left and their cronies, the media." A CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER --D L. Cuddy, Ph.D. <http://www.khouse.org/nwo_cuddy.html> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
