The Misuse of the Word “Conspiracy” & The Origin of the Label “Conspiracy Theorist”
(FEDERALJACK) Popeye breaks down the origin of the labels “Conspiracy Theorist” and “Conspiracy Theory,” how they are used against us, and how they are misused by the masses today.
"Conspiracy theory" dates back at least to 1909, when it was used in the American Historical Review: "The claim that Atchison was the originator of the repeal may be termed a recrudescence of the conspiracy theory first asserted by Colonel John A. Parker of Virginia in 1880." Philosopher of science Karl Popper used it in the 1950s. Not created at Langley for the JFK assassination.
Hi Bob, I was wondering where you have been. Still trolling I see. When are you starting the “Week In Conspiracy” again? I haven’t seen a new one in while.
I’ve moved the Skeptical Inquirer’s website as the "conspiracy guy." I’m going to elevate the tone of the feature and go more in-depth for each conspiracy I cover–it won’t be like the shotgun blast it once was. This showed up in one of my twitter feeds, so I checked the Oxford English Dictionary…I realized that I didn’t know the origin of the word. You can roughly guess that the phrase could be as much as 50 years older, since the 1909 usage is only the earliest example that has been found in print.
I was referring to the use of it as a label, like we see today, which did come about as I said.
The only people responsible for the denigration of the term ‘conspiracy theorist’ and ‘conspiracy’ and the conspiracy-theorists themselves.
The world of conspiracy theory is so infested with utterly unproven nonsense that the culture has carved out its own image as an intellectual cesspit.
That’s sounds like a fair anal-y-sis Xen . On the other hand you sound like the type that is in the anti – conspiracy theory intellectual cesspit , pretty close to the bottom of it I might add . You have your idiots/morons/tards etc too , and outnumber the conspiratards 10 to 1 . I tend to stick with the facts and not the theories by the way . People like you either ignore the facts or mix them up with nonsense .
It’s always seemed apparent to me that every conspiracy theory is evidence of *a* conspiracy. It seems the misunderstanding stems from people who don’t understand the definitions of "truth", "disclosure" and "transparency". In the absence of these default values are lies.
When two or more people are lying, you have a conspiracy to deceive. I’m happy to be proven wrong but logic argument, but it’s always seemed apparent to me that you cannot have a conspiracy theory without a guaranteed conspiracy to withhold information forming the basis for the conjecture. So "conspiracy theories" should really be relabeled as "theories", no? There would be no room for the speculation if there was transparency and full disclosure; i.e. the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Anything else is a lie.
The term conspiracy theory or conspiracy theorists is used by the established to mock or parody real …abuses of power. All they have to do is throw out the c word and intelligence ends. Its an appeal to ignorance that’s an effective cover up.