--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "brontebaxter8" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Angela wrote: > Conspiracies are nothing special, but are an ordinary part of > every day politics. And making the term conspiracy taboo is > without a doubt a conspiracy in collusion with the spin meisters > and opinion fabricators of the world in the interest of all > conspirators and against all free and inquiring spirits. > > Bronte writes: > It's mind-boggling that people who know our leaders are capable > of every other type of atrocity balk at the prospect that the > same people could be capable of conspiracy. Nauseatingly disingenuous, both of you: "The term 'conspiracy theory' is used by mainstream scholars and in popular culture to identify a type of folklore similar to an urban legend, especially an explanatory narrative which is constructed with particular methodological flaws. The term is also used pejoratively to dismiss claims that are alleged by critics to be misconceived, paranoid, unfounded, outlandish, irrational, or otherwise unworthy of serious consideration." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory That's the sense, obviously, in which people here are calling the two of you conspiracy theorists. Nobody here would "balk" at the prospect that the Bush administration is capable of conspiracy in the generic sense, and to suggest otherwise is intellectually dishonest in the extreme. Further, to claim that the pejorative nature of the term "conspiracy theory" is a function of conspiracy is itself a conspiracy theory in the sense defined by Wikipedia above. The goal of this dishonesty is to hold the most bizarre, wildly flawed conspiracy theories (and those who irresponsibly promote them) immune from examination and criticism.
