tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post2149352152080600570..comments2024-03-19T07:04:19.011+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: Everybody is some kind of conspiracy theorist Bruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-34962198532083531962016-10-19T09:42:43.201+01:002016-10-19T09:42:43.201+01:00The secular left are always more than happy to bel...The secular left are always more than happy to believe that the world is largely run by corrupt vested interests so long as the trail leads back to the usual suspects. For example, claiming that tobacco companies suppressed evidence of harm from smoking for a long time will not get one ridiculed as a 'conspiracy theorist'. Or claiming that climate skeptics are all secretly on the payroll of big polluters or fossil fuel companies. Or claiming that large corporations fix markets to keep out small competitors. Or that the press barons influence elections against the left. None of these claims will get one ridiculed as a conspiracy theorist. <br /><br />The left have no problem following the money and believing that the world is largely rigged by corrupt vested interests - so long as the trail leads back to the usual suspects, i.e. corporations whose sole raison d'etre is to make money. <br /><br />It is only when one starts arguing that other vested interests may be implicated in anything (such as education systems, academia, professional associations, official 'science', NGOs, the medical profession) - or argue that other interests or agendas may be at stake rather than solely financial interests (such as religion, social control, Satanism etc.), that one gets ridiculed as a whacko 'conspiracy theorist'. <br /><br />In effect, the purpose of the pejorative labeling of conspiracy theorists by the progressive zeitgeist is to maintain a narrow, facile worldview where some entities are assumed to be entirely self-interested while others are deemed to have no vested interests and are merely looking out for the greater good. Misanthropistnoreply@blogger.com