Killing us so badly our GDP only grew at a 5.7% clip last quarter. LOL
Asians are gaining and lead in many fields
Yeah, just like in the 80's? It's deja vu all over again.
Japan leads in many fields
Sure. Japanese creativity and entrepreneurial ability is legendary.
There’s a lot more in that video that a few nonsensical claims about the North American Union. It contains all usual John Bircher demonology involving Rockerfellers, bankers, the CFR, etc. The soft-voiced narrator does not mention Jews, but you can be sure, that if you got to know these morons you would find the usual foul anti-semiitism.
G. K. Chesterton said, “A mad man is not someone who has lost his reason, but someone who has lost everything but his reason.” People usually associate conspiracy theory with craziness, and it is (check out the movie A Beautiful Mind), people who think eloborate inferences qualify as “proofs”. but conspiracy theory is not just crazy; it’s evil, and in recent years some have even argued that it is the principal source of evil in all human affairs. There’s a Catholic theologian who has argued that it is the most important element of Original Sin.
To really understand conspiracy theory,you need to read René Girard’s book Scapegoat.
Girard shows how much primitive religion is based on murdering innocents (exceptional people, very ugly or very beutiful, very poor or very rich, etc.) as a form of catharsis accompanied by an ELABORATE PSEUDO-LOGIC used to justify the murder. Remember the scene in the movie Monty Python:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrzMhU_4m-g
Crowd: We have found a witch, may we burn her?
Official: How do you know she is a witch?
[Nonsensical arguments]
Official: There are ways of telling whether she is a witch. Tell me what do you do with witches?
Crowd: Burn them!!! Burn them!!!
Official: And what do you burn apart from witches?
Crowd [thoughtful]: Wood.
Official: So, why do witches burn?
Crowd [thoughtful]: Because they are made of wood?
Official: Good! So, how do we tell if she is made of wood?
Crowd: Build a bridge out of her?
Official: Ah, but can you not also make a bridge out of stone?
Crowd [assents, perplexed & silent]
Official: Does wood sink in water?
Crowd: No! It floats!!! It floats!! [gleefully] Throw her into pond!!
Official: What also floats in water?
Crowd: Apples, small rocks, cherries, ....
King Arthur: A duck!
Official: Exactly!
Member of Crowd: So, LOGICALLY, if she weighs the same as a duck, then she’s made of wood, which means she is a witch!!!
The most fascinating part of Girard’s work is his very persuasive argument that the rise of modern science depending on DISCIPLINING OUR INFERENCE MECHANISM. We think of science as the search for causes, and it is, but actually, modern science (as opposed to voodoo & primitive religion) depends on RESTRAINING the tendency to see causes where they do not exist. What prevented the rise of science was not the inability to see causes, but the emotional need people have to discover bogus causes that explain their pain (traditionally explain a plague or a war) and to give them an excuse to vent their pent-up envy, fear and resentment.
The hallmark of conspiracy theory is the obsession with SECRECY. If you can invent a fairy tale about things happening in secret, you do not have to confront very real public evils. You are off the hook for being a real adult with difficult choices. How nice. Why worry about Islamic extremists? That might obligate you to adopt an opinion that won’t be popular at a social event, a party. Much better to talk in whispers about secret plots that “THEY” are hatching, because then you do not have to take a stand against real people who are in your face, just abstract invisible people. Conspiracy theory is a form of cowardice combined with a deep need for emotional catharsis masquerading as logic, but the people who practice it are the precise opposite of what Aristotle would have called rational men.
As far as Medved goes, he has a Conspiracy Theory show once a month when the moon is full, and the North Am Union usually comes up. He accepts calls from conspiracy theorists and exposes them as the fools they are. I will be happy to supply past broadcasts in MP3 format if you like. I have a number of them.
Lou Dobbs an is an example of a guy who makes a pretty good living peddling conspiracy theories. His most outrageous lie to date is the one about illegal aliens bringing leprosy into the US. Usually people just ignore this scumbag, but in this case the main stream press called him on the carpet. Just do a Google search with the phrase “Lou Dobbs plague” and you will find plenty of links. Here’s one:
http://volokh.com/posts/1180547228.shtml
Apparently, CNN only cares about Lou Dobbs good ratings, so they are starting to look more and more like the broadcast version of the National Enquirer