Jim Devine wrote: > > I don't think conspiracy theories are always wrong. The CIA couldn't > do its stuff without conspiring secretly. (Sorry for the redundant > phrase.) Some conspiracies actually happen, such as the > destabilization of Allende's government, the Iran-Contra affair, and > the secret war between the governments of the US and Saudi Arabia, on > the one hand, and people around Osama bin Laden, on the other. (The > last is "Bush's conspiracy theory" that Paul refers to.)
I agree, such conspiracies occur continuously. They all, however, 'fit' into ongoing policies or strategies which are open, however 'spun.' I would reserve the label 'conspiracism' (and the contempt I feel for it) to those alleged conspiracies which lie mostly or wholly 'outside' of visible policy and are offered as the cause of major historical events. Conspiracist accounts of the Kennedy assassination and 9/11 are nearly perfect examples of the fundamental confusion about history that lies at the roots of Conspiracism. Carrol
