274 Matching Annotations
  1. Sep 2020
  2. Aug 2020
    1. Obviously not every group chat counts as a “conspiracy”. But it makes the question of how society coheres, who is associated with whom, into a matter of speculation – something that involves a trace of conspiracy theory. In that sense, WhatsApp is not just a channel for the circulation of conspiracy theories, but offers content for them as well. The medium is the message.
  3. Jul 2020
  4. Jun 2020
  5. May 2020
  6. Apr 2020
  7. Apr 2019
    1. These beliefs may seem harmless or even amusing, says Jason Colavito, an author in Albany who covers pseudoarchaeology in books and on his blog. But they have “a dark side,” he says. Almost all such claims assume that ancient non-European societies weren’t capable of inventing sophisticated architecture, calendars, math, and sciences like astronomy on their own. “It’s racist at its core,” says Kenneth Feder, an archaeologist at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, who is slated to present at the SAA session and began to write about the dangers of these ideas long before most other scholars paid attention to them.

      Ancient Aliens is racist

  8. Mar 2018
    1. Neither the “Jews cause all my problems” claim nor the “racial/gender oppression is everywhere” claim is a literal conspiracy theory. Most people who buy into them don’t think Jews or white men (respectively) secretly meet in smoke-filled rooms and devise sophisticated strategies for dominating the world. Instead, these theories resemble traditional conspiracy theories in sealing themselves off from any possible counterevidence.

      Audacious...

  9. Oct 2017
    1. Not all conspiracy theories are harmful.

      Some conspiracies make good movies. They teach us to think about things. whether it is true or not it makes us think.

  10. Aug 2017
    1. when big pharma kills off enough UK folks and bankrupts its government.

      I'm struggling to understand how killing off large numbers of its citizens, sufficient to bankrupt the Government (if that even is possible), sits with the conspiracy theorist's oft-spouted claims that 'Big Pharma' simply wants to make as much money as possible. If it kills vast numbers, who will fund Big Pharma's shareholders. Mind you, I find it very difficult to get into the mind of a conspiraloon.

  11. Jun 2017
    1. Fled to his house amazed. Men, wives, and children stare, cry out, and run, As it were doomsday.

      The discussion at Brutus' home in Act II Scene I revealed that there was much fear surrounding Antonius' reaction to Caesar's death. Trebonius was the only conspirator to agree with Brutus that Mark Antony did not pose a threat, instead remarking that '"There is no fear in him; let him not die; For he will live, and laugh at this hereafter." However, this act of compassion would eventually lead to the conspirators' downfall.

      Therefore, Trebonius' conspiratorial role was to lure Mark Antony away from the Senate House while Caesar's assassination was taking place. Consequently, he was the only conspirator that did not stab Caesar.

      As witnessed by Trebonius, Mark Antony "fled to his house amazed" in response to Julius Caesar's death. This indicates the strong relationship between the two Romans, and foreshadows the ardent vengeance that Antony is to develop.

      Furthermore, Trebonius recalls that "Men, wives, and children stare, cry out, and run, as it were doomsday." The comparison between the assassination and Armageddon reinforce the idea that the conspirators were not acting in the interests of the general public, but instead in the interests of themselves and their own envy.

    1. Go you down that way towards the Capitol; This way will I. Disrobe the images, If you do find them deck’d with ceremonies.

      Although he is not tangibly introduced until the next scene, the audience is already presented with a fairly clear characterisation of Julius Caesar. However, Caesar's exact nature is determined through two juxtaposing attitudes towards the Empire.

      The Roman common-folk praise the defeat of Pompey, in fact making a "holiday to see Caesar and to rejoice in his triumph." On the contrary, the noble classes express a more pessimistic attitude; Flavius cautions that the new leader will "soar above the view of men, and keep us all in servile fearfulness."

      The tribunes believe that Caesar's power is too great for one man, and that his rise as Emperor will lead to the downfall of Rome. It is also a valid argument to say that they envy Caesar's might, especially since Flavius and Murellus are to lose an element of their own authority.

      After commanding the people to weep for the coming events, Flavius and Murellus leave to "disrobe the images" of Caesar. This metaphor refers to removing the decorations off Caesar's statues, a crime which they are later punished for. The desperation of such an act is an indication of how strongly Caesar is feared and detested by the noblemen.

      This scene leaves the audience with a preconceived image of Caesar as ambitious, influential and excessively powerful. The loathing of Flavius and Murellus towards the new Emperor foreshadow the upcoming conspiracy and the ultimate demise of Caesar.

  12. May 2017
  13. Apr 2017
    1. and in the Phaedrus the title figure admits that the "man who plans to be an orator" need not "learn what is really just and true, but only what seems so to the crowd" (260

      Thinking of our class discussion on conspiracy.

  14. Feb 2017
    1. smug satisfaction in using the weapons of science against science

      Attacking other scientists as conspirators would not be helpful for most scientists' careers Immediately thought of the conspiracy meme reading when they mention that only crazy scientists would attack other scientists when they get denied tenure.

    2. trust to accumulation of facts· ao; a substitute for accuracy in the logical processes.

      Oh look, it's our conspiracy theorists, building a flat roof.

    1. When an alleged fact is debunked, the conspiracy meme often just replaces it with another fact. One of the producers of Loose Change, Korey Rowe, stated, “We don't ever come out and say that everything we say is 100 percent [correct]. We know there are errors in the documentary, and we've actually left them in there so that people [will] discredit us and do the research for themselves” (Slensky 2006).

      "Campbell makes a similar point about the dangers of paraphrase: Since we must be in doubt about the precise meaning of the original, any paraphrase must be consid· ered an interpretation."

  15. Nov 2016
    1. This is a modern update to a classic confidence game—find a risky scenario with limited possibilities, bet on every single combination, and then hide your failures.

      Today, all possible outcomes can be posted to any website that allows accounts to be set to private, or that isn't likely to be noticed. After the fact, the incorrect results can be deleted before making the account public.

      This post points out that this trick could be used to "predict" election results, making it appear that they were fixed ahead of time. So it's potentially very dangerous.

  16. Oct 2016
  17. Feb 2015
    1. The researchers examined social media patterns for 1.2 million Facebook users and found that nearly 92 percent of those who engage with Italian conspiracy theory pages interact almost exclusively with conspiracy theory pages.

      Oh, no. No. Noooooo.