George Bush planned the September 11 attacks. The MMR injection triggers autism in children. The ancient Greeks stole their ideas from Africa. "Creation science" disproves evolution. Homeopathy can defeat the Aids virus.
Do any of these theories sound familiar? Has someone bored you rigid at a dinner party by unveiling one of these "secrets"? If so, it is hardly surprising. In recent years, thousands of bizarre conjectures have been endorsed by leading publishers, taught in universities, plugged in newspapers, quoted by politicians and circulated in cyberspace.
This is counterknowledge: misinformation packaged to look like fact. We are facing a pandemic of credulous thinking. Ideas that once flourished only on the fringes are now taken seriously by educated people in the West, and are wreaking havoc in the developing world.
Comment: Outright fiction is being peddled as historical and scientific fact, warns SOTT, in their provocative daily news website.
A lone madman in a cave planned the September 11 attacks. State-imposed vaccines are infallibly safe. Western civilisation is healthily altruistic. Modern science is immune to dogma, egotism and conflicts of interest. Hijacking of the health service by pharmaceutical giants is all 'for your own good'.
Do any of these theories sound familiar? Has the BBC bored you rigid by repeatedly unveiling this "secret" propaganda. If so, it is hardly surprising. In recent years, thousands of bizarre conjectures have been endorsed by leading publishers, taught in universities, plugged in newspapers, quoted by politicians and circulated in cyberspace.
This is COINTELPRO: misinformation packaged to look like fact. We are facing a pandemic of credulous thinking. Ideas that once flourished only in the minds of some power-crazed politician or behind the closed board room doors of some corporate giant, are now taken seriously by educated people in the West, and are wreaking havoc across the world.
We live in an age in which the techniques for evaluating the truth of claims about science and history are more reliable than ever before. One of the legacies of the Enlightenment is a methodology based on painstaking measurement of the material world. That legacy is now threatened. And one of the reasons for this, paradoxically, is that science has given us almost unlimited access to fake information.
Comment: We live in an age in which the techniques for obscuring and manipulating truths about science and history are more sophisticated than ever before. One of the legacies of this misdirection, is a steadily more entrenched dogmatism, and an increasingly extreme psychological reaction, bordering on hysterical self-righteousness, towards any data that threatens to undermine the status quo.
Most of us have friends who are susceptible to conspiracy theories. You may know someone who thinks the Churches are suppressing the truth that Jesus and Mary Magdalene sired a dynasty of Merovingian kings; someone else who thinks Aids was cooked up in a CIA laboratory; someone else again who thinks MI5 killed Diana, Princess of Wales. Perhaps you know one person who believes all three. Or do you half-believe one of these ideas yourself? We may assume that we are immune to conspiracy theories. In reality, we are more vulnerable than at any time for decades.
Comment: Most of us have friends who are susceptible to these self-calming stories. You may know someone who believes that, although the church is responsible for the inquisition and countless other acts of barbaric terrorism throughout the ages, it "is all different these days"; someone who believes that the CIA, with a black budget larger than the moon, has no projects to develop new types of exotic weapons, "that's all in the past"; someone else again who thinks that assassinations of high profile world figures are purely the work of chance. Such people insist on disregarding the repeated lessons from history, and rigidly adhere to the view that "it couldn't happen that way now". We may assume that we are immune to such hubris. In reality, we are more vulnerable than at any time for decades.
I recently met a Lib Dem-voting schoolteacher who voiced his "doubts" about September 11. First, he grabbed our attention with a plausible-sounding observation: "Look at the way the towers collapsed vertically. Jet fuel wouldn't generate enough to heat to melt steel. Only controlled explosions can do that." The rest of the party, not being structural engineers (for whom there is nothing mysterious about the collapse of the towers) pricked up their ears. "You're right," they said. "It did seem strange..."
Comment: I recently read an article ridiculing "doubts" about September 11. First it grabbed our attention with a plausible-sounding observation: "Outright fiction is being peddled as historical and scientific fact: George Bush planned the September 11 attacks". I'm sure that other readers, lacking critical discernment or maybe lacking access to the large volumes of data that lead to this conclusion, pricked up their ears. "You're right", they would say. "people will believe any old rubbish..."
Admittedly, no major newspaper or TV station has endorsed a September 11 conspiracy theory. But more than 100 million people have watched a 90-minute documentary, Loose Change, directed by three young New Yorkers who assembled the first cut on a laptop. The result is super-slick: computer-generated planes glide menacingly towards their targets, to the accompaniment of a funky soundtrack; buildings collapse in a comic theatrical sequence. This is one cool movie - and a masterpiece of counterknowledge.
Comment: Admittedly, no major newspaper of TV station has endorsed any other than the official September 11 conspiracy theory (and woe betide anyone who classifies it as such). But more than 100 million people have watched a 90-minute documentary, 'Loose Change', directed by three young New Yorkers who assembled the first cut on a laptop. The result is super-slick: computer-generated planes glide menacingly towards their targets, to the accompaniment of a funky soundtrack; buildings collapse in a tragic theatrical sequence. This is one cool movie - and a masterpiece of cutting through the hype, and attempting to make some sense out of something that contains so many contradictions.
The makers suggest that a missile, not an airliner, hit the Pentagon; that the occupants of Flight 93 were safely evacuated at Cleveland Hopkins airport; that the panicked calls made by the passengers were faked using voice-morphing technology.
Comment: The makers take up the theory posed by the 'Pentagon Strike': another internet documentary completely shunned by the mass media yet still seen by hundreds of millions of people, which introduces a vast array of data that demonstrates that an airliner could not have hit the Pentagon, and raises the question: "so, what did happen?"
The directors make basic errors and play outrageous tricks: quotes from experts and official documents are cherry-picked and truncated. Airline parts are misidentified and pictures cropped in a way that leaves out inconvenient rubble and wreckage. "Expert testimony" is lifted from the American Free Press, a hysterical news service with strong links to the far Right.
Comment: The directors may not have all the answers, but they bring to our attention a large number of unanswered questions raised by much anomalous evidence that simply does not fit the 'official conspiracy theory'. They raise the question "who benefits?", and more and more people are realising, given the subsequent events in world politics, that it certainly isn't some hypothetical 'Islamic fundamentalist sect'. which leaves the US administration, who instantly and unexplainedly 'fingered' the now dead Osama bin Laden, in a very awkward situation.
Yet the makers of Loose Change are pushing at an open door. More than a third of Americans suspect that federal officials assisted in the September 11 attacks or took no action to stop them. September 11 conspiracy theories have gained such a following in France that even a member of President Sarkozy's government has suggested that President Bush might have planned the attacks. Christine Boutin, the housing minister, when asked in an interview whether she thought Bush might have been behind the attacks, said: "I think it is possible."
Comment: And the makers of 'Pentagon Strike' (and subsequently 'Loose Change') are pushing at an open door. More than a third of Americans suspect that federal officials assisted in the September 11 attacks or took no action to stop them. September 11 conspiracy theories have gained such a following in France that even a member of President Sarkozy's government has suggested that President Bush might have planned the attacks. Christine Boutin, the housing minister, when asked in an interview whether she thought Bush might have been behind the attacks, said: "I think it is possible."
Another who believes this is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, who reckons that September 11 could not have been executed "without co-ordination with [US] intelligence and security services". Ahmadinejad is also a well-known Holocaust denier, having referred publicly to "the myth of the Jews' massacre".
Comment: Another who talks about this is Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, the president of Iran, who reckons that September 11 could not have been executed "without co-ordination with [US] intelligence and security services". He has obviously hit a nerve, and for his pains to point this out he was instantly hit with the knee-jerk 'anti-semitic' catch-everything tar brush (a well established COINTELPRO technique that has been used against everyone from respected WWII war correspondent Douglas Reed to the late Yasser Arafat), and it looks as though his country will now also be bombed back to the stone age, in a similar manner to Iraq.
In the world of counterknowledge, wild theories are constantly mating and mutating. As the editor of Skeptic magazine, Michael Shermer, puts it: "The mistaken belief that a handful of unexplained anomalies can undermine a well-established theory lies at the heart of all conspiratorial thinking, as well as creationism, Holocaust denial and the various crank theories of physics."
Comment: In the world of COINTELPRO, theories and techniques are constantly being revised and refined, though the underlying principles remain the same. So the perpetrators of such measures do not understand that they are destined to failure. The mistaken belief that a handful of predictable self-calming measures, smear campaigns and emotional manipulation can lull every listener into ignoring their own conscience and intuition, lies at the heart of all counter-intelligence activities.
We do not normally think of creationism and maverick physics as conspiracy theories; but what they have in common with Loose Change is a methodology that marks them as counterknowledge. People who share a muddled, careless or deceitful attitude towards gathering evidence often find themselves drawn to each other's fantasies. If you believe one wrong or strange thing, you are more likely to believe another. Although this has been true for centuries, the invention of the internet has had a galvanising effect. A rumour about the Antichrist can leap from Goths in Sweden to Australian fascists in seconds. Minority groups are becoming more tolerant of each other's eccentric doctrines. Contacts between white and black racists are now flourishing; in particular, the growing anti-Semitism of black American Muslims has been a great ice-breaker on the neo-Nazi circuit.
Comment: We do not normally think of creationism and maverick physics as conspiracy theories, and the reason that they have been talked about here is to muddy the waters, so that just as the reader is starting to consider that maybe there is something wrong with the official 9-11 story, a whole lot of other unrelated issues are brought in for the simple purpose of 'guilt by association'. The only people who will fall for such rubbish are those who share a muddled, careless or deceitful attitude towards gathering evidence, and so will often find themselves drawn into these fantasies. If you believe one wrong thing or invalid argument, you are more likely to believe another. Although this has been true for centuries, and is a well established technique, the invention of the internet has radically altered the playing field, leading to a huge explosion in the freedom of information - suddenly people are no longer wholly reliant on church, state or corporate propaganda.
In June 2007, the home page of The Truth Seeker, a conspiracy website, included claims that Aids is a "man-made Pentagon genocide", that Pope Paul VI "was impersonated by an actor from 1975 to 1978", that new evidence about the Loch Ness monster had emerged - plus a link to Loose Change.
Comment: The COINTELPRO movement has had to step up several gears in order to deal with this 'threat' of free information, and this has resulted in the proliferation of all kinds of disinformation, a veritable bazaar of tasty 'revelatory' treats for the un-critical mind, or for those easily susceptible to psychological ploys.
Yet, as we saw earlier, more than 100 million people have seen that film. In the 21st century, bogus knowledge is no longer confined to self-selecting minority groups. It is seeping into the mainstream, cleverly repackaged for a mass market. This crisis goes beyond traditional political ideology. Yes, the Left has helped to spread counterknowledge by insisting on the rights of minorities to believe falsehoods that make them feel better about themselves. Afro-centric history aims to raise the self-esteem of black youngsters by feeding them the fantasy that the origins of Western civilisation lie in black Africa. Last year, a British government report revealed that some teachers are dropping the Holocaust from lessons rather than confront the Holocaust-denial of Muslim pupils.
Comment: In the 21st century, bogus knowledge is no longer confined to the bastions of society, the church and the state. It is seeping into every corner of our lives, cleverly repackaged both for the mass market, and also for those who travel to the fringes to 'seek' something more. This crisis goes beyond traditional political ideology, and infects all realms of new age seekers, 9-11 truth seekers, religious and philosphical movements, radical politics, and attempts to fence in anyone, whichever direction they move in their search for answers to their intellectual and spiritual questions.
But Left-wing multiculturalists are not the only guilty ones: entrepreneurs are turning counterknowledge into an industry. Publishing houses pay self-taught archaeologists and pseudo-historians large amounts to turn fragments of fact into saleable stories. Titles are placed in the history sections of bookshops whose claims have been thoroughly demolished - yet the publishers carry on bringing out new editions.
Comment: But right wing neo-conservatives are not the only guilty ones: entrepreneurs are turning 'spirituality' into an industry. Publishing houses pay self-taught gurus, and pseudo mystics large amounts to turn fragments of fact into saleable stories. All the while, back in the mainstream press, assertions are made whose claims have been thoroughly demolished - yet the broadcasters carry on bringing out new reports.
The dividing line between fiction and non-fiction is becoming increasingly hard to draw. These days, public opinion is so malleable that a product does not even have to pretend to be fact in order to affect perceptions of truth: the success of The Da Vinci Code has persuaded 40 per cent of Americans that the Churches are concealing information about Jesus.
Comment: The dividing line between fiction and non-fiction is becoming increasingly hard to draw. These days, public opinion is so malleable that a product does not even have to pretend to be fact in order to affect perceptions of truth: the success of The War on Terror has enabled the US and allied forces to invade, destroy and occupy 2 countries, killing over a million civillians, using pure fairy stories as their justification, and get away with it, even when these stated motives have been shown and even publicly admitted to be fictitious at best.
Meanwhile, publishers, television channels and newspapers are making huge profits from another branch of counterknowledge: alternative medicine. Unqualified nutritionists make claims for vitamin supplements and "superfoods" that are unsupported by scientific literature; conveniently, these people often have a commercial interest in selling the supplements in question.
Comment: Meanwhile, giant international corporations (entities that exist on a psychopathic, conscience-free basis) are making huge profits from another branch of counterknowledge: allopathic medicine. Unqualified scientists and doctors make claims that are unsupported by scientific literature, and are based on studies fatally compromised by conflict of interest through their corporate funding; conveniently, these people often have a commercial interest in selling the products in question.
Fashionable advocates of alternative medicine, and the executives who profit from them, are as reliant on counterknowledge as any bedsit conspiracy theorist. Their miracle diets and health scares undermine science by distorting the public understanding of cause and effect, and therefore of risk.
Comment: Fashionable advocates of allopathic medicine, and the executives who profit from them, are as reliant on counterknowledge as any bedsit conspiracy theorist. Their miracle drugs and health scares undermine science by distorting the public understanding of cause and effect, and therefore of risk.
The fingerprints of the alternative medicine lobby are all over the worst British health scare of recent years, in which thousands of parents denied their children the MMR triple vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella following the dissemination of flawed data linking it to autism. In that case, distrust of orthodox medicine increased the danger of a measles epidemic.
Comment: The fingerprints of the 'big-pharma' lobby are all over the worst British health problems of recent years, in which thousands of parents have followed misleading advice, taken vaccines and drugs that were prescribed by the GP simply so that he would reach his 'bonus quota'. In that case, trust of orthodox medicine increased the danger of autism, obesity, cancer, mental health problems, epilepsy, parkinsons, diabetes, and countless other long-term problems.
But that is nothing compared to the impact of medical counterknowledge in underdeveloped countries. In northern Nigeria, Islamic leaders have issued a fatwa declaring the polio vaccine to be a US conspiracy to sterilise Muslims: polio has returned to the area, and pilgrims have carried it to Mecca and Yemen. In January 2007, the parents of 24,000 children in Pakistan refused to let health workers vaccinate their children because radical mullahs had told them the same idiotic story.
Comment: But that is nothing compared to the impact of medical counterknowledge in underdeveloped countries. Across Africa, the proliferation of Western medicine and other products such as powdered baby milk have lead to a whole new series of medical and social problems, not to mention an increased dependency on the parasitic corporations who push these products.
These incidents cannot be dismissed as examples of medieval superstition: these people are not rejecting life-saving vaccines because they reject modern medicine, but because their leaders are spouting Islamic takes on Western conspiracy theories. Counterknowledge, with its ingrained hostility towards a political, intellectual and scientific elite, appeals to anti-American, anti-Western sentiment in the developing world.
Comment: These incidents cannot be dismissed as examples of a real 'free market' economy: these people are not buying into the corporate reality provided to them because they have made an informed choice, but because their leaders are spouting the high-pressure marketing that has been sold to them via backhanders and corrupt politico-corporate collusion, and because they are often forced into co-operation even in order to survive. Corporate vampirism, with its ingrained hostility towards the humanity off which it feeds, is being used to deceive and victimise those very people, who see and distrust its manifestation in the developed world. They do not realise that they are victims of the same ploy.
Islamic countries, in particular, have embraced counterknowledge to a remarkable degree. In 2006, the Pew Research Centre asked Muslims in Indonesia, Egypt, Turkey, Jordan and Pakistan whether Arabs carried out the September 11 attacks. The majority of respondents in each country said no. Indeed, most British Muslims - 56 per cent - also thought that Arabs were innocent. A quarter of British Muslims believe that "the British Government was involved in some way" with the London terrorist bombings of July 7, 2005.
Comment: Islamic countries in particular, have suffered from the consequences of COINTELPRO to a remarkable degree. The axis of evil that is the US, UK and Israel, have acheived an astounding results in the Arab world, and managed to bring the 'cradle of civilisation' almost completely to its knees, instigated violence, division, hatred and extremism. And in many of these cases, the victims do not realise that they are being manipulated like a deck of cards, and are simply playing into the hands of the West, producing exactly the reaction that was engineered for, and therefore providing a manufactured justification for the West's ongoing 'war of terror'.
The battle between knowledge and counterknowledge is not just a struggle to protect the public domain from bogus facts. It has profound implications for the safety of the West. And, make no mistake about it: this is a battle we are losing.
Comment: The battle between knowledge and COINTELPRO is not just a struggle to protect the public domain from bogus facts. It has profound implications for the survival of mankind. And, make no mistake about it: this is a battle we are losing.
...that was therapeutic reading!