this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2025
93 points (100.0% liked)

chapotraphouse

13880 readers
760 users here now

Banned? DM Wmill to appeal.

No anti-nautilism posts. See: Eco-fascism Primer

Slop posts go in c/slop. Don't post low-hanging fruit here.

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
all 10 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] RedWizard@hexbear.net 45 points 3 days ago

Lol great. That's fantastic.

logically follow that all conspiracies are imaginary.

Conspiracy is a legitimate concept in law: the collusion of two or more people pursuing illegal means to effect some illegal or immoral end. People go to jail for committing conspiratorial acts. Conspiracies are a matter of public record, and some are of real political significance. The Watergate break-in was a conspiracy, as was the Watergate cover-up, which led to Nixon’s downfall. Iran-contra was a conspiracy of immense scope, much of it still uncovered. The savings and loan scandal was described by the Justice Department as “a thousand conspiracies of fraud, theft, and bribery,” the greatest financial crime in history.

Often the term “conspiracy” is applied dismissively whenever one suggests that people who occupy positions of political and economic power are consciously dedicated to advancing their elite interests. Even when they openly profess their designs, there are those who deny that intent is involved. In 1994, the officers of the Federal Reserve announced they would pursue monetary policies designed to maintain a high level of unemployment in order to safeguard against “overheating” the economy. Like any creditor class, they preferred a deflationary course. When an acquaintance of mine mentioned this to friends, he was greeted skeptically, “Do you think the Fed bankers are deliberately trying to keep people unemployed?” In fact, not only did he think it, it was announced on the financial pages of the press. Still, his friends assumed he was imagining a conspiracy because he ascribed self-interested collusion to powerful people.

At a World Affairs Council meeting in San Francisco, I remarked to a participant that U.S. leaders were pushing hard for the reinstatement of capitalism in the former communist countries. He said, “Do you really think they carry it to that level of conscious intent?” I pointed out it was not a conjecture on my part. They have repeatedly announced their commitment to seeing that “free-market reforms” are introduced in Eastern Europe. Their economic aid is channeled almost exclusively into the private sector. The same policy holds for the monies intended for other countries. Thus, as of the end of 1995, “more than $4.5 million U.S. aid to Haiti has been put on hold because the Aristide government has failed to make progress on a program to privatize state-owned companies” (New York Times 11/25/95).

Those who suffer from conspiracy phobia are fond of saying: “Do you actually think there’s a group of people sitting around in a room plotting things?” For some reason that image is assumed to be so patently absurd as to invite only disclaimers. But where else would people of power get together – on park benches or carousels? Indeed, they meet in rooms: corporate boardrooms, Pentagon command rooms, at the Bohemian Grove, in the choice dining rooms at the best restaurants, resorts, hotels, and estates, in the many conference rooms at the White House, the NSA, the CIA, or wherever. And, yes, they consciously plot – though they call it “planning” and “strategizing” – and they do so in great secrecy, often resisting all efforts at public disclosure. No one confabulates and plans more than political and corporate elites and their hired specialists. To make the world safe for those who own it, politically active elements of the owning class have created a national security state that expends billions of dollars and enlists the efforts of vast numbers of people.

Michael Parenti, Dirty Truths

[–] MizuTama@hexbear.net 32 points 3 days ago

I went on r/world it was legitimately one of the most imperialist sludge subreddits I have ever encountered.

[–] smokeppb@hexbear.net 30 points 3 days ago (1 children)

And the other, more popular subreddits aren't? This can't be the best palantir can do, a discord server can do better than them if that's the case.

Yeah, this might be the tip of the iceberg...

[–] Belly_Beanis@hexbear.net 16 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I think every sub on r*ddit is astroturfed, including small ones about stuff nobody cares about. Anything not astroturfed is a psyop designed to create mass shooters and incels.

everything not astroturfed is a psyop designed to create mass shooters and incels.

Which confusingly is also a joint astroturfing effort from Big Therapy and the companies that sell parents backpacks with Kevlar panels for their kids when they send them to American public schools.

[–] LaughingLion@hexbear.net 17 points 3 days ago
[–] SkingradGuard@hexbear.net 8 points 3 days ago
[–] HexReplyBot@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago

A Reddit link was detected in your post. Here are links to the same location on alternative frontends that protect your privacy.