"Conspiracy theorist" has negative connotations because the people it describes are usually dumb as hell.
Fluoridated water does not make anyone "passive, obedient, and stupid" lmao
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Is the term "Conspiracy theorist" a derogatory term?
Are the terms "Conspiracy theorist" and "Conspiracy theories" derogatory terms against people who are actual critical thinkers? I think yes, because questioning the bullshit preached by the corporate mainstream media(which I believe is owned by the very same corporations who collaborate with the government to keep the masses pacified and stupid) and the public education system would ruin the plans of the bourgeois (exposing some hidden actual evidence could prove the "conspiracy theories" true). Also the term "Conspiracy theorist" sounds like an Ad Hominen attack.
I think this video sums it all up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BJA1R8YIHk
Here are some "conspiracy theories" I actually believe:
1. JFK's and MLK's assassination were done by the government, but were covered up.
2. Tap Water is fluoridated a lot to help keep the masses apathetic and compliant. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUIslPT2G1Y)
Last edited by JudasMaiden; 21st February 2014 at 09:55.
"Conspiracy theorist" has negative connotations because the people it describes are usually dumb as hell.
Fluoridated water does not make anyone "passive, obedient, and stupid" lmao
I'm on some sickle-hammer shit
Collective Bruce Banner shit
FKA: #FF0000, AKA Mistake Not My Current State Of Joshing Gentle Peevishness For The Awesome And Terrible Majesty Of The Towering Seas Of Ire That Are Themselves The Milquetoast Shallows Fringing My Vast Oceans Of Wrath
There's a difference between believing certain conspiracies occurred (a conspiracy theory) and being a conspiracy theorist. The keyword being theorist. Someone who actively is finding conspiracies to believe in, rather than objectively coming to the conclusion that a conspiracy is likely the most reasonable explanation.
Whether it's derogatory depends on how you feel (and how deeply you feel it) about people who invest in diverting meaningful political energy into nonsensical theories to make the world less gray and more black and white, to fit it into a neat little box, because it's easier to deal with that way.
When talking with my cousin about the NSA civilian spying and the patriot act's unconstitutional detainment policies he called me a "conspiracy theorist" even though those two things are widely know facts. Not to sound like a hippy, but his views of the government are basically conformist and he refuses to believe the NSA spys on people as much as the evidence shows and defends the government as a legitimate institution, despite not benefiting from it. So basically any critical thinking is challenged with with a corporate media white washing, and I'm just a crazy conspiracy commie! He also doesn't care about the wrong the government does because "it doesn't effect him". Its pretty concerning, his attitude.
"Maybe some day... I'll find a way... without you.."
This shit is on par with wearing a tin foil hat so THEY can't read your brain waves.
Segui il tuo corso e lascia dir le genti.
Socialism resides entirely in the revolutionary negation of the capitalist ENTERPRISE, not in granting the enterprise to the factory workers.
- Bordiga
Conspiracy theory is a bit like PC - it works both ways.
Right-wing nuts scream PC whenever they're asked to behave. Likewise, they also scream conspiracy theory whenever the establishment (their version of events, rather) is questioned. Of course, if the govt. happens to be other than right wing, then they'd invent their own conspiracy theories.
So my point is, it works both ways.
I don't think it has to be derogatory even though it generally is. Lots of conspiracies turn out to be true, but that list never seems to include the all encompassing theories about secret societies or extra dimensional lizards who secretly control every aspect of social life. I feel that more and more the term is reserved for the people who believe in secret society stuff while people with more plausible conspiracy theories are generally just viewed as normal dissidents or whatever.
The OP actually kind of illustrates this himself, #1 is somewhat reasonable especially MLK's assassination and belongs in the realm of possiblity, #2 is some moonbat shit that you should be ashamed to believe and ties in entirely with the all encompassing social control space lizard camp of conspiracies.
Man is but a goat in the hands of butchers
I don't like conspiracy theorists because they shift the blame from capitalism to the fictional organizations like The New World Order and the Illuminati.
Yes, it's completely derogatory and is a really blatantly stupid way of avoiding the subject matter or alternative theory in question.
Come little children, I'll take thee away, into a land of enchantment, come little children, the times come to play, here in my garden of magic.
"I'm tired of this "isn't humanity neat," bullshit. We're a virus with shoes."-Bill Hicks.
I feel the Bern and I need penicillin
Probably not but it can kill you and lead to a host of other health concerns.
Come little children, I'll take thee away, into a land of enchantment, come little children, the times come to play, here in my garden of magic.
"I'm tired of this "isn't humanity neat," bullshit. We're a virus with shoes."-Bill Hicks.
I feel the Bern and I need penicillin
@Vox (Since revleft seemed to stop allowing me to quote)
Can you actually provide links to those claims?
Any compound can cause death at high concentrations, but the levels in which drinking water is fluoridated is far bellow lethal levels.
Fluoridated water in the US has .7-1.2 ppm, depending on the local climate (less fluoride in the water in warmer climates). At those levels, you would die of water drunkenness before fluoride poisoning.Originally Posted by voxxy
I haven't seen any independent studies that demonstrate any health issues caused by fluoridated water, either.
I mean, of course fluoride can kill you -- almost any substance in high doses can (even water).
I'm on some sickle-hammer shit
Collective Bruce Banner shit
FKA: #FF0000, AKA Mistake Not My Current State Of Joshing Gentle Peevishness For The Awesome And Terrible Majesty Of The Towering Seas Of Ire That Are Themselves The Milquetoast Shallows Fringing My Vast Oceans Of Wrath
Isn't fluoride carcinogenic?
"But here steps in Satan, the eternal rebel, the first free-thinker and emancipator of worlds. He makes man ashamed of his bestial ignorance and obedience; he emancipates him, stamps upon his brow the seal of liberty and humanity, in urging him to disobey and eat of the fruit of knowledge." ~Mikhail Bakunin
There haven't been any strong links found between fluoridated water and cancer yet (as of 2006)
I'm on some sickle-hammer shit
Collective Bruce Banner shit
FKA: #FF0000, AKA Mistake Not My Current State Of Joshing Gentle Peevishness For The Awesome And Terrible Majesty Of The Towering Seas Of Ire That Are Themselves The Milquetoast Shallows Fringing My Vast Oceans Of Wrath
One thing that has always bothered me is - why does it matter who shot JFK? The man was a bloody, racist, anti-communist butcher. So why are so many "leftists" obsessed with proving the gummint did him in? If they did, kudos.
Ahhhh alright, but I mean in general isn't it carcinogenic because its a very strong oxidizer or something like that. If you're drinking fluoridated water and using fluoride toothpaste and other fluoride items, couldn't that put you at a higher risk of cancer then? Along with all the other carcinogenic garbage that gets consumed with food. Like with Pringles potato chip's being coated with a carcinogenic chemical so that they maintain their shape. I'd provide links but I'm on a cellphone and phone posts aren't easy for me...
"But here steps in Satan, the eternal rebel, the first free-thinker and emancipator of worlds. He makes man ashamed of his bestial ignorance and obedience; he emancipates him, stamps upon his brow the seal of liberty and humanity, in urging him to disobey and eat of the fruit of knowledge." ~Mikhail Bakunin
ABC of Communism 1, 11
"In capitalist society, machinery and factory buildings take the form of capital. But do machinery and buildings always take the form of capital? Certainly not. If the whole of society were a cooperative commonwealth producing everything for itself, then neither machinery nor raw materials would be capital, seeing that they would not be means for the creation of profit for a small group of rich persons. That is to say, machinery, for example, only becomes capital when it is the private property of the capitalist class, when it serves the purpose .of exploiting wage labour, when it serves to produce surplus value."
Das Kapital, 1, 33
"Political economy confuses on principle two very different kinds of private property, of which one rests on the producers’ own labour, the other on the employment of the labour of others. It forgets that the latter not only is the direct antithesis of the former, but absolutely grows on its tomb only."
"We know that the means of production and subsistence, while they remain the property of the immediate producer, are not capital. They become capital only under circumstances in which they serve at the same time as means of exploitation and subjection of the labourer."
"There the capitalist regime everywhere comes into collision with the resistance of the producer, who, as owner of his own conditions of labour, employs that labour to enrich himself, instead of the capitalist. The contradiction of these two diametrically opposed economic systems, manifest itself here practically in a struggle between them."
pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will
previously known as impossible
The only one so called conspiracy that I think has any traction is the events surrounding MLK's death. With Kennedy I don't think the government would have had much reason to kill him and the 9/11 theories are too insanely complicated to be believable.
"Darwin did not know what a bitter satire he wrote on mankind ... when he showed that free competition, the struggle for existence, which the economists celebrate as the highest historical achievement, is the normal state of the animal kingdom." Engels
Left: 8.99, Libertarian: 5.84
It is a powerful tool. You have to be very careful with this stuff. If you do not have a "scientific" method, anything can be a conspiracy theory. Fİrst of all:
http://johnmolyneux.blogspot.se/2011...-theories.html
Then you have to emphasize the importance of method, whether your opposer accepts it as scientific or not. Science is not a statis concept anyway, but you have to show that this is empirically easily provable. Or you can try the Popperian falsification kind of stuff.
Especially if you are a Marxist, you should refrain from "conspiracy" thinking and have a methodological base. You have to put a thick line between that mysterious conspiracists and Marxists understanding of power relations.
http://www.nyu.edu/projects/ollman/
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~manicas/pdf_files/New_Courses/Marx'sPhilosophy.pdf
http://marxmyths.org/index.php / http://www.marxists.org/subject/marx...ay/article.htm
http://www.thehobgoblin.co.uk/journal/h4holloway.html
Ask yourself this: For socialism or socialism for, you are a revolutionary
I don't think the MLK Jr. one is really a conspiracy theory at all given that the government was found guilty in court.
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