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@ewen@photog.socialQuote of the day...
"Everything looks like a conspiracy if you don't understand how anything works."
OMG of COURSE I AM TALKING ABOUT *YOU* who else could that toot possibly refer to???
Cannot believe how much some folks are reading into a very very simple throw away remark. It's funny because it's true.
"Religion is the original conspiracy theory."
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're NOT onto you.
@ewen that’s what they want you to think
@ewen That’s what they want you to think.
Or not think :)
@ewen I need a T-shirt
@ewen
...a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful.
By definition it would be impossible to know until it is evident !
@yoguiignacio @ewen Real conspiracies usually publish their plans in order to find advocates and/or leave a paper trail and credible witnesses. This is why understanding how things work helps you sort them.
@ewen Just because you suffer from paranoia doesn't mean they're not still after you. 
@ewen If we use the definition of a conspiracy as a group of people planning to engage in a harmful act, then the entire junk food industry is a mass conspiracy.
/∞
∫ I mean, sure, that's part of the *actual* conspiracy, extractive capitalism.
The wild conspiracy theories are to keep people busy with more interesting but fake shadowy plots and historically convenient enemies, so they don't get angry about the big, crushingly banal one that's actually fucking them.
@petealexharris @WhiteCatTamer
Tragically accurate.
@WhiteCatTamer @ewen Arguably, *most industries* will have at least half a dozen cabals of people working collaboratively to advance some kind of unethical activity. And the truth about these things is often very mundane, with ‘profit’ being the main factor.
@ewen
Everything also looks like a conspiracy if you don't understand that frequently nothing works
@ewen Framing this one.
@ewen Very related:
"Like with every conspiracy theory, all the evidence to the contrary becomes only evidence of how deep the conspiracy goes"
(Christa Peterson)
In the vein of "not understanding", I offer this as an example of what many hom skoold children get. It would fit perfectly in the movie Idiocracy.
![A page from a book for home-schooled children:
"Electricity is a mystery. No one has ever observed it or felt it. [...] We cannot even say where electricity comes from. Some scientists think that the sun may be the source of most electricity. Others think the movement of the earth produces some of it. All anyone knows is that electricity seems to be everywhere and that there are many ways to bring it forth."](https://media.computerfairi.es/media_attachments/files/112/598/964/830/578/616/original/217418919353c98c.jpg "A page from a book for home-schooled children:
\"Electricity is a mystery. No one has ever observed it or felt it. [...] We cannot even say where electricity comes from. Some scientists think that the sun may be the source of most electricity. Others think the movement of the earth produces some of it. All anyone knows is that electricity seems to be everywhere and that there are many ways to bring it forth.\"")
@ScottSoCal @ewen
It makes electricity sound like, well, God 
@ScottSoCal @ewen Great movie by the way. As a concept. Especially the first 20 minutes. The rest fills it in. Scriptwriter Cohen once tweeted, “I never expected #idiocracy to become a documentary.”
Also, to Buzzfeed: Cohen and Judge have struggled to satirize Trump because he is already so outrageous. “If you're making Idiocracy 2, and you're trying to write whoever's the heir to Camacho, if you put in Trump, it would be too silly to be in a movie,” Cohen explained.
@ewen “ you don’t need a formal conspiracy when interests converge “ George Carlin.
@ewen ok so you watch only Faux news, you dont believe anyone from the FBI CIA or anyone with MD or other degree in their name. Ok fine.
Who do you want repairing your roof, a roofer or your uber driver? Who do you want installing your water heater, a plumber or your kids gym teacher? Why do you respect someone who went to a 2 month vocational training more than someone with an advanced degree? Just how ignorant are you?
@ewen
I'd argue that conspiracy is everywhere. Wealthy people colluding together to serve the interest of the wealthy? That's conspiracy. Corporations colluding with corporations and governments to further their own interest? Conspiracy. I think Michael Parenti may have said something very similar to this. That understanding of conspiracy isn't as exciting as, say, the X-Files. I do enjoy speculating about events like the assassinations during the 60s (JFK et al), but the world has far more conspiracy fact than conspiracy theory.
Turns out that everyone acting out of rational self-interest is perhaps not the best thing for humanity as a whole.
There isn't some Alex Jones-style shadowy plot underlying everything. The Qanon conspiracy theories are just the older illumanati / NWO conspiracy theories. Those, in turn, were just versions of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, gussied up to look less anti-Semitic.
@ewen
Then again, it truly could be a conspiracy!
@ewen You can join me in my couch fort! Bring your tin foil hat and ray guns.
@ewen It's not a conspiracy theory when there's a purchase order.
@ewen it may even look godly
@ewen I am reading this while the news on television says that Hungarian President Orban has arranged for Russians to cross the border into Hungary to come and work there. Easily enter the EU. Nice development, right?
Never mistake stupidity for conspiracy. History is littered with an abundance of ego driven miscalculations.
@ewen I don't think Orban is stupid.
His behaviour is.
Smart people do stupid things all the time. Humans are illogical creatures even in a good day, and power is one hell of an addiction.