Once Upon a Time (On a Paranoid Planet)

Episode One: The Crippled Epistemologists of Conspiracy

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😱👉 The Complete, Post Modern, New Age Idiots’ Guide to the Dark, Subversive, Malevolent Forces that Shape the New World Order in Which we Live.

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Friends and subscribers, what follows are some semi-serious reflections on conspiracies, conspiracy theories, and their respective devotees. And same on one of the most successful, enduring and popular PSYOPS/social engineering experiments in living memory. Now six decades* in the making. Still going strong. [*👀 Sidebar👇]

🗣👉 ['Our claim is that] conspiracy theories...stem not from irrationality or mental illness...but from a “crippled epistemology,” in the form of a limited number of informational sources.’ — Sunstein & Vermeule, "White Paper on Conspiracy Theory", 2008.

🗣👉 ‘Paranoia is the great undiscovered art form of the twenty-first century...All conspiracy theories are meaningful…just like all myths are meaningful.' — Cryptoscatology: Conspiracy Theory as Art Form, by Robert Guffey.

🗣👉 ‘The difference between conspiracy theory and [conspiracy] fact is usually about six months.’ — Frederick Brennan

🗣👉 ‘A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what's going on." — William S Burroughs

🗣👉 ‘Reality is the leading cause of stress among those in touch with it.’ — Lily Tomlin

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Preamble: For too long the proprietary domain of the time-rich whack-job, in an age of growing paranoia, insecurity, fear, loathing, mistrust, animus, and suspicion—propelled as it is by mounting government, corporate and institutional surveillance, secrecy, treachery, incompetence, corruption, subterfuge, propaganda, censorship, maladministration and criminality at the highest levels of power—it’s perhaps time to ‘rehab’ the rep of the much-maligned “conspiracy theory”, and go in to bat for and on behalf of its more dedicated practitioners past and present. We’re talking here of course those occasionally ‘useful nuisances’ we like to call conspiracy theorists.

Upon securing the perimeter, bolting the doors n' windows, and drawing the blinds n' drapes, it's time to embark on what might turn out perhaps to be a quixotic quest, to wit: Compiling a post modern, new age nincompoop’s guide to the dark, malevolent, conspiratorial forces shaping the New World Order into which we’re slowly but assuredly being socially and psychologically engineered. With desperate times calling for even more desperate theories, in this first instalment in a series Greg Maybury breaks out the aluminum foil, of which there’s plenty to go round for all…Or BYO...😉 Read on…|—| ==============

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— One Man’s Conspiracy is Another Man’s Theory

If America’s premier spy-shop the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was a rock n’ roll band, for my shekel one of The Company's all-time Greatest Hits would be the “conspiracy theory” contrivance in its modern—and it needs be noted— exclusively pejorative, usage.

Yes, the term had been in use before throughout history, but generally not in the same context—or attended by the same pejorative subtext—that it’s presently (in)famous for. So strictly speaking it was a ‘cover version’ and not an original, self-penned “hit”, but let’s not quibble. Yet few would argue the CIA folk made it sound like it was all their very own work. Think Jimi Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower” or Talking Heads’ “Take me to the River”, and you gets my drift.

And at the risk of overcooking the pop music allusion, whilst it might not readily move us to shake our booty or sing it in the shower, its catchy hook, chorus and unique take on the original nevertheless captured the attention of all ages and generations from the still living pre-Baby Boomers onwards.

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Further, its ongoing high rotation airplay on countless news and media outlets, channels, platforms, and political podiums etc., and pretty much every place in between is a testament to its enduring popularity. It even comes with its own conspiratorial (natch) meta-narrative. A bonus!

Say what you like then about the myriad faults, failures, faux pas and frequent fuck-ups the folks at Langley past and present might be guilty of (don’t get me started). But credit where credit is due: this is one thing they nailed. Even their fiercest critics cannot deny this cogent reality. What made the CIA’s ‘cover-version’ truly unique though was a wholly new riff on the original, this time tweaked with the devilishly clever refrain: “you’re just a conspiracy theorist!”

And so it was that this immortal epithet eventually made its larger than life entrance onto the stage of modern political parlance and more broadly, into the popular vernacular. It was now suitably suited up, locked n’ loaded, and weaponised for the post assassination zeitgeist. The rest as they say is history. Sort of…

This innovation in essence then had the almost immediate effect of disarming the individual critical thinking skills of then living generations and even those to come. This moreover achieved the desired effect of curtailing forever and a day our capacity or willingness to challenge the official narratives offered up by the powers that be. We’re talking here those official yarns which purported to explain key past and present political turning points and assorted historical events and developments, but which upon even a cursory examination by those less trusting souls amongst us struggled to stand up to basic scrutiny. With this new riff, those in high places doing things they shouldn’t have been doing and which they preferred to keep under wraps, thereafter looking to claim plausible deniability if sprung, now had the ultimate “Get out of Jail Free” card handed to them on a silver platter. What was there not to like?

Borne of ‘mother of invention’-type necessity, (the deeper backstory to which we’ll get in a future episode), such as it’s been leveraged in modern parlance now for nigh on sixty years, as a tried and true psychological operation (‘PSYOP’), it’s difficult to think of one that comes close to being as versatile, ingenious and effective an exercise in inspiring groupthink in the unwashed, deplorable, and generally unthinking masses. It’s perhaps the closest thing to George Orwell’s concept of thought control we have this side of the real thing. At the very least, it'll do quite nicely until the "real thing" gets here. In effect, via this contrivance we've been transformed into our very own "Thought Police" force.

The deviously crafted, one-size-fits-all-purpose “you’re just a conspiracy theorist” parry then can still be counted on to shut down or derail any rational, reasoned line of inquiry instigated by those bold enough to question or challenge anything from the officially sanctioned versions of the historical record to any of the ‘approved’ political narratives du jour attending the big events of our time. If it came complete with a ‘shelf-life’ upon its ‘release’ in 1964, then it’s hard to make out the ‘use-by-date’. Such is its durability.

Now of course when we say “rational, reasoned debate”, we’re talking here those views, opinions, and conclusions (i.e. “conspiracy theories” mon cheries) which after due diligence, purport for some folks (i.e. the “conspiracy theorists”) to provide far more plausible explanations of the real story behind past or present events and developments. That is, those narratives which are markedly different from the ones our leaders (political, corporate, institutional), their globalist organ grinders, the court scribes, and the bought and paid for establishment media mercenaries etc. would have us all believe. And who go to great lengths to debunk and decry them when the less gullible show signs of not taking them on face value.

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SIDEBAR: The above quote—a much beloved conspiracy meme courtesy of former CIA director William Casey (1981-87)—reportedly emerged from a February 1981 meeting in the West Wing of the Ronald Reagan White House, at which policy analyst Barbara Honegger was present (who was then acting as Assistant to the chief domestic policy adviser to the President). She then relayed it to the Senior White House Correspondent Sarah McClendon, who made the quote public without naming the original source, through the radio host Mae Brussel, a pioneering early “conspiracy theorist”.

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Two of the most obvious transformational events herein from the past would include the Kennedy assassination in 1963 (natch), and those (again, natch) of September 11, 2001 (aka 9/11). A more recent example might be the declaration of the global Covid pandemic and along with it the launch of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) “Great Reset”. More recently still, we have Russia’s 2022 “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine, and the events of October 7, 2023 in Israel. Each of these seismic, albeit disparate events have generated more than their fair share of ‘alternative realities’, i.e., those that run counter to the ‘for public consumption’, yet mostly incomplete, and sometimes ludicrous, official explanatory narratives.

Not by happenstance, it’s often the aforementioned CIA (and to be sure other intelligence agencies such as MI6 and Mossad) that’s played a "central" role—albeit a sub rosa one—in concocting, orchestrating, participating in, and covering up huggermuggery, thuggery and skulduggery of the criminally covert clandestine kind. This includes most notably and more recently its involvement (in lock step collusion with key elements of private sector vested interests), in transnationally co-ordinated live simulation exercises conducted in late 2019 (i.e. Event 201), in preparation for an “imminent global pandemic event”. Which as we now know, said “event” as if on cue 'coincidentally' unfolded a few short ("imminent") months after. Who’d have thunk it?

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*SIDEBAR: Though I’ve nominated 1964 as the birth year of the “conspiracy theory” construct as we know it, some might argue the toss. That’s perfectly understandable. It all depends on how one sees fit to date the origins of the phrase in its modern usage context. It was first used in connection to the 1963 JFK assassination in an article published in the New York Times the year after by the prominent conspiracy theory author/debunker Richard Hofstadter. (We’ll touch on his work in future episodes.)

At all events, the JFK Thing is widely recognised as the pivotal event that kick-started the modern ‘do-it-yourself’ conspiracy theorising mania with which most of us are familiar and have come to love. Up until 9/11 at least, depending on which side of the picket fence one stands (the one located on top of the Grassy Knoll), most people would agree the JFK Thing was either the ‘mother’ of all conspiracies, or the ‘mother’ of all modern conspiracy theories.

Not surprisingly for most folks, it was the CIA that dusted off and ‘reengineered’ (i.e. weaponised) the phrase, then resurrected the concept in modern usage terms, that is, as it was used in and by the establishment media and others. As the William Casey attributed quote above illustrates, the ‘one-stop-shop’ for all the news that’s fit to fake and hide that is the establishment media has all too willingly been complicit in the CIA’s arguably most successful and consequential conspiratorial gambit of all, a statement that in and of itself is a big call. Indeed, their complicity was essential to its fabrication, facilitation, and enduring popularity, in more ways than the obvious. More on this in a future instalment.

JFK ‘Takes One’ for the Team — Kickstarts DIY Conspiracy Theory Industry

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— Going the Extra Mile

It is often said: “Never let a good crisis go to waste…”. Putting aside the implicit ambiguity of this trope and the fact that the precept itself has been doing the rounds for some time in one form or another (crass opportunism and bloody cynicism hardly being concepts foreign to the power political mind or the ruling overlord classes and their enforcers past and present), it not by chance shoehorned itself into the political lexicon in the wake of the events of 9/11.

Yet—at least that is for the dedicated doubters and serial skeptics amongst us—the subtext of this meme was then and remains even more so now: “if we get tired of waiting for one [a crisis] to show up, go the extra mile and have one tailor-made and fit-for-purpose”. Cue actual conspiracies in abundance, and the theories plausible or otherwise which inevitably follow in their wake.

But it’s not only the CIA and their professional ilk who’ve orchestrated major events, developments and agendas that are against the will and the interests of their people and who seek (natch) to keep their true motivations and goals—to say little of their own involvement, either before, during or after the conspiratorial fact—a closely guarded secret. Not by a ‘long shot’ from the Texas School Book Depository Building.

Perhaps the primo conspiracy theory ‘emporium’ du jour is the aforementioned WEF. Given the grandiose, multi-faceted agenda of this SPECTRE-like entity, it’s easy to see why. For any number of reasons WEF honcho Klaus Schwab and his posse (the “Daleks of Davos” anyone?), are just as keen to keep their malevolent machinations under wraps, albeit hidden in plain sight as per their MO. In doing so, they’ve inspired some of the most disconcerting—yet it needs be emphasised, plausible, if not indeed irrefutable—conspiracy theories of all time.

Of course the WEF, its allies, assorted partners-in-crime (including the intrepid folks in Langley VA.), and countless subsidiaries are hell-bent on throwing cold water on these theories. The last thing they need or want is a critical mass awareness gaining traction amongst the global populace that their grand designs for our collective future are less than altruistic or benign. In one such attempt, as one WEF ‘court scribe’ has posited,

'🗣…many conspiracy theorists, both on the far-right and far-left, point to the Great Reset as evidence that the WEF is attempting to manufacture a communist global society in order to take away people's rights'.

The standard ‘rinse n’ repeat’ riposte from those seeking to debunk these pesky theories usually proceeds along these lines: Like many popular conspiracy theories they say, ‘this one starts with a grain of fact’. But this then is immediately dismissed as ‘baseless’, a response which does little more than underscore that tried and true political rule of thumb, “never believe anything until it’s officially denied”.

Be that as it may, the standard rationale for the Great Reset imperative by the WEF’s myriad Useful Idiots™️ and True Believers™️ (we know who they are) goes along these lines:

‘🗣The global challenges we face…cannot be solved without action by wealth-holders and decision-makers of the corporate community’.

Now as recent events, developments and revelations have testified for those looking, this is hardly reassuring. This is especially so for those amongst us with a less trusting predisposition towards the self-anointed power elites and those upon whom they’re relying at the coal face to do their dirty work. The latter include those folks who in good faith, we’ve actually voted into public office in the not unreasonable expectation they’ll look after first and foremost the interests of their constituents and the broader citizenry of their respective countries. (That's us cupcakes.)

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The Ultimate Conspiracy? 👀👇

👀🔗👉 RELATED ARTICLE: Making the World Safe for Pathocracy — Part One: The Grand Design for Global Dominion, by Greg Maybury

🗣️👉 ’Great article, a detailed overview of the parasites, who want to take complete control of our lives. The future does not look good.’

🗣️👉 ‘I agree with everything you’ve said here…these clowns want centralization of the world. This [conspiracy] collective must be thwarted at every turn.’

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All of which is to say, whilst the WEF and its dutiful camarilla refute such theories and predictably uphold the Great Reset talking points as a benign, altruistic, notionally utopian—yet necessary and urgent—socioeconomic plan for the future, others beg to differ. Cue again the conspiracy theories and their authors and proponents, for which I'd aver we all should be forever grateful.

In his book The Great Reset and the Struggle for Liberty Unraveling the Global Agenda, after noting that ‘when obscurity and mendacity prevail at the highest levels of society’, Michael Rectenwald argues that in the age of the “Great Reset”—and in the wake of the Covid crisis and its outcomes—we should expect ‘a greater frequency of conspiracy theories’. Adds Rectenwald:

🗣‘…given its...connection to the Covid crisis and other questionable circumstances, and given the language of the authors of this project, the Great Reset lends itself to conspiratorial thinking...given that the uses of the terms “conspiracy theory” and “conspiracy theorist” are epistemologically unsound and irrational, it would be best to retire the terms entirely.’

A "no-brainer" conclusion then we might opine!

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Yet for those amongst us grounded in the salient realities evinced by the countless "conspiracy theories" once mercilessly derided by debunkers and fact checkers (to say nothing of YouTube, FaceBook, Wikipedia, Google et. al.) and yet which have since proven to be all too true, such a conclusion leaves us pondering how the "contrivance" has maintained such a tight leash on people's critical thinking skills and and iron grip on their perception of reality for so long. As of this writing, unlike the bubble gum left on the bed post overnight, it shows no sign of ‘losing its flavour’ any time soon. Meaning? People keep using the phrase without thinking!

What makes these WEF inspired “theories” disturbing isn’t just their own inherent, and therefore irresistible plausibility, it’s also their existential portent, the inescapable clarity of their dystopian trajectory. The central tenet of the WEF theories here is less so on what happened in the past, though that is important to understand. It is what is being plotted and perpetrated in the here and now for our collective future, a full appreciation of which far too many folks still don’t get. Given the stakes involved, this is highly disturbing.

It has to be said moreover that the grand designs of the globalists—such as they are now revealing themselves—have been a work in progress for a very, very long time. All of which is to say that the hard evidence of their plausibility and veracity—two none too loose measures by which any conspiracy theory might be redefined as conspiracy reality—has now been well demonstrated by the events, actions and revelations of the past four years or more with the launch of the “Great Reset”, and with it the declaration of the global Covid pandemic. Amongst other events that have occurred since then.

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The Ultimate Conspiracy? 👀👇

👀🔗👉 RELATED ARTICLE: Making the World Safe for Pathocracy (Part Two): The Predators, Psychos, n' Parasites that Be, by Greg Maybury

🗣️👉 ‘You challenge the reader on his/her responsibility to [our] human progeny to be alert to a future of feudalism or worse.’

🗣️👉 ‘Thanks for all your articles…I pass them all onwards far and wide. Keep up the great work…the asleep don't know they’re asleep!’

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— The Mother of all Conspiracy Theories

So folks, let’s then unpack this particular ‘picnic basket’ a little further before we wind up here? Since the events of November 22, 1963, and more latterly those of September 11, 2001 and the Covid “pandemic”, the question of what governments would and would not be prepared to do to achieve certain goals that they know their citizens will not accept under normal (however that might now be defined) circumstances is a whole new ball game. To be sure, the events of the past four years especially has brought this cogent reality into even sharper focus, at least for those attuned to seeing these kinds of things for what they are.

We all should be under no illusions: If they think they can get away with it, our global power castes, our governments and our political, technocratic and corporate elites (and their numerous proxies, True Believers™️, and Useful Idiots™️), will try anything at all, such is the treacherous, mercenary, mendacious, psychopathic, and sycophantic mindset of those who seek, then obtain power in any substantive capacity. Which thus far they’ve done with remarkable success, impressive chutzpah, and admirable impunity.

Viewed in this light then, the "conspiracy theory" contrivance combined with its cognate variant “[you’re just a] conspiracy theorist” has been in and of itself an uncannily useful tool in facilitating this outcome in favour of those in power. Harking back to my original metaphor, I'm certain those folks who concocted it from the get go (of whom more in future episodes), would never in their wildest dreams expected it to have been such a huge, nay evergreen, hit!

As I’ve noted elsewhere, given the sheer number of otherwise intelligent, perceptive, informed individuals who perhaps once prided themselves on being able to quickly spot the difference between the shit and the tan-tinted Shinola™️ freely dispensed by our political classes yet who increasingly fail to see the “bleeding obvious”, our notions of what hitherto might’ve been readily defined as “obvious” needs a wholesale redefinition. Even after all this time, so many folks are still MIA.

Never before has the basic remit of the conspiracy theory carried with it more existential import, with its practitioners being the soothsayers and prophets of our time. They don’t always have to be right…they just have to be here…

Indeed, humanity’s future—by any basic metric we might use to assess our prospects therein—now actually depends on such a redefinition. With the ticking of the Doomsday Clock getting louder every minute, the existential imperatives of doing so are—or should be at least—“bleedingly obvious”. If there's one characteristic which separates "conspiracy theorists" from the "normies" or the "sheeple", it's their ability to spot the "bleedingly obvious". And respond in kind.

Perhaps herein the pioneering 19th Century mind explorer/social psychologist Gustave le Bon was onto something when he opined:

🗣'The masses have never thirsted for the truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error...Whoever can supply them with illusions is their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.'

Of course the particular psychopathology of the power political classes being what it is—a basic insight of which hardly requiring much more than a nuanced appreciation of human nature and bringing to bear one’s own personal ‘once bitten, twice shy’ life’s experiences of same—they’ll push the envelope until the mailbox is (as we like to say here Down Under), ‘chockas’.

In short, the over privileged parasites, psychos, plunderers and predators that be have imbibed the essence of le Bon’s “bleedingly obvious” summation of the foibles and follies of our presumably well meaning, yet sadly naive, compliant, complaisant fellows. Moreover, they are using it against us all with a degree of chutzpah that's been applied in indirect proportion to the level of accountability in which we've been able or willing to hold them for their high crimes, sins, treacheries, hypocrisies and lies. Not to mention their existentially dangerous conspiratorial contrivances. And look just where it has got us?

A word to the wise mon cheries? We're all "conspiracy theorists" now. Or we should be. 🙏🏼🤔 Have at least one on your dance card in case of emergency. You just never know when they might come in handy. Bear in mind though, by the time you do “know”, it may already be too late.

Greg Maybury, 12 July, 2024.

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