And Harvey, for the record I'm not trying to jump in here and dogpile on you. Just that Sandy Hook thing always bugs me when people claim it was fake or staged or whatever.
Cool, you have every right to voice your opinion. Clearly, I don't see things the same as you, especially the whole people died so we're not allowed to talk about how that might have happened differently from what proven liars aka the mainstream media has dictated to us.
When you find yourself constantly wishing that others would stop voicing their opinions, that's when ya lost.
I totally feel you. And on a side note, I give you props for standing your ground in this thread regardless of whether or not I or anyone else agree with you. Salute
Gotcha, Frank. If a destitute, drugged-out wannabe gangsta breaks into your castle, you are going to blast him to pieces. But if it's some official army dudes in military gear doing it, you're just going to bend over. Sounds lovely.
Shouldn't there be a difference between west African country X and Teh United States of America, re: civility? Leader of the free-to-blow-each-other's-brains-out world sounds kind of clunky to me.
Yeah that's a good point. In Africa they do it out of desperation because they're hungry and dirtpoor. Why should this happen in America, the richest nation on earth.
Well, the point I was making is that "we need guns to protect us from government" is bullshit. You don't like the government? Vote them out. You don't like certain laws? Vote in a candidate who shares your view. America has some of the most comprehensive checks and balances of any democracy *inflicted* upon poor souls like Harv, but it's no longer a frontier, it's been settled and the inhabitants surely have to live within the laws, so saying that you have a constitutional right to forcibly defend yourself from those laws makes no sense. You think you've got a right, by law, to carry a gun. Then you'd have to respect the same law that comes collecting rent or whatever in the shape of the government.
What seems strange to me is that many of you believe that the great majority of police in the U.S. are corrupt.
That they cheat, steal and murder and then cover it up though lies and secrecy.
That they control and manipulate our judicial system to convict innocent people.
Yet the idea that our government could ever do the same exact thing on a larger scale is crazy talk.
While I believe neither, I find this concept to be very weird.
No, intelligent people just make a distinction between ordinary corruption and laziness and deliberately murdering a score of children in order to pursue some absurd political agenda.
You and Harvey don't make that distinction, so you both lend credence (albeit to different degrees) to the shitheaded fuckstains who push the "Sandy Hook was a false flag" obscenity.
Does the word albeit ever get used in Texas?
Either you don't know how to read, don't comprehend what you read or are just make up lies to argue against.
A
Either you don't know how to read, don't comprehend what you read or are just make up lies to argue against.
I guess if I say I don't believe in God but understand why people do, that makes me a Christian too.
What seems strange to me is that many of you believe that the great majority of police in the U.S. are corrupt.
That they cheat, steal and murder and then cover it up though lies and secrecy.
That they control and manipulate our judicial system to convict innocent people.
Yet the idea that our government could ever do the same exact thing on a larger scale is crazy talk.
While I believe neither, I find this concept to be very weird.
I don't think people are saying that. In fact the government is totally in bed with big corporation and just legally made them people so they can keep getting their way. We all know the politicians are bought off and worry more about keeping shareholders happy than the average citizen. They also totally set up wars like Bush and Chaney lying to congress to go to war with Iraq.
I think it's just the mass shooting stuff that is unlikely to be a government conspiracy and there really isn't any evidence to support that theory other than "I see what I want to see" stuff.
What seems strange to me is that many of you believe that the great majority of police in the U.S. are corrupt.
That they cheat, steal and murder and then cover it up though lies and secrecy.
That they control and manipulate our judicial system to convict innocent people.
Yet the idea that our government could ever do the same exact thing on a larger scale is crazy talk.
While I believe neither, I find this concept to be very weird.
No, intelligent people just make a distinction between ordinary corruption and laziness and deliberately murdering a score of children in order to pursue some absurd political agenda.
You and Harvey don't make that distinction, so you both lend credence (albeit to different degrees) to the shitheaded fuckstains who push the "Sandy Hook was a false flag" obscenity.
Does the word albeit ever get used in Texas?
Either you don't know how to read, don't comprehend what you read or are just make up lies to argue against.
A
Either you don't know how to read, don't comprehend what you read or are just make up lies to argue against.
I guess if I say I don't believe in God but understand why people do, that makes me a Christian too.
You used a bullshit video and said you could see why it would cause people to think why Sandy Hook was faked.
You didn't say you could see how deranged, moronic crackpots could reach that conclusion. You made it sound like a leap rational, informed adults could make.
It is nothing of the sort.
Your "Christian" argument is funny. It's more like you said, "I don't believe in Gawd, but I can see why people do, since Jeezus was His son."
But then this is Silly Week, since for the first time you've met a police action that you think is "fishy." What's next, you'll start writing sonnets for Rachel Maddow?
I'm totally aware that our government does shady stuff all of the time. I'm aware that our system is corrupt and like many people I don't completely trust politicians. The evidence isn't hard to find. Just pick up a local newspaper.
The difference is that I don't therefore believe that the government is behind everything bad that happens. That is a logical fallacy in its most pure sense.
I really really recommend reading the Wikipedia article on "confirmation bias" on Wikipedia. Then ask yourself "do I believe this is true because it confirms what I already believed in the first place?"
All along I have said that to convince me that any if these conspiracies actually happened all I would need is evidence. Then my mind is changed. And to those (not Harvey, I think he has had enough) who think that 9-11 or sandy hook or boston was staged, I have a simple question. What would it take to convince you that it wasn't?
Whoever thinks Sandy Hook was staged is either a paranoid moron, or mentally ill, or both, and deserves a fucking hard slap in the mouth for even suggesting it.
Fuck your right to say whatever you want.
HarveyCanal"a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
Duderonomy said:
You don't like the government? Vote them out.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good one, dude. Now, seriously...
HarveyCanal"a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
Gary said:
I'm totally aware that our government does shady stuff all of the time. I'm aware that our system is corrupt and like many people I don't completely trust politicians. The evidence isn't hard to find. Just pick up a local newspaper.
The difference is that I don't therefore believe that the government is behind everything bad that happens. That is a logical fallacy in its most pure sense.
So you don't believe that for about 150 or so years straight that the US government has either engaged directly or supported ruthless dictators around the world who have committed pretty much routine extermination campaigns/genocides in order to make way for American supremacy?
It's not just "shady stuff all the time". It's been deliberately wiping away large sections of the planet of its people for power and profit.
And it continues to this day.
The thing I don't get is why y'all get so defensive on behalf of these lying, murderous assholes when someone goes as far as saying they've done something you can't comprehend. They've murdered millions. So why does it bother you if someone calls them alien? Or shapeshifting? Or reptilian? Or whatever? Throw them in a fucking jail already instead of fighting their battles for them. How about that?
HarveyCanal"a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
parallax said:
Whoever thinks Sandy Hook was staged is either a paranoid moron, or mentally ill, or both, and deserves a fucking hard slap in the mouth for even suggesting it.
You know what...F*ck YOU WITH THE QUICKNESS. The thing is that Alex Jones is sitting on information that you are merely fifteen degree short of accepting. He wants to tell you how the financial collapse has been deliberate...which is basic f*cking fact that you can barely entertain. But he'd also like to tell you how the leaders who do such things as collapse a national economy also engage in some shady ass esoteric rituals...that in the case of Bohemian Grove are symbolic, but in the case of far too many missing children that get swept under the rug are as literal as it gets...but being stuck in your consumer comforts, you simply aren't going to accept anything like that ever. Dude cares way more about you than an Obama ever could...but you've been trained to clown him instead of dealing with the realities that he presents. Obama ain't about to close Gitmo, but you believe that bullshit. But Alex Jones telling you to invest in gold instead of anything fiat related is too crazy for blockhead stuck-in-the-system you. Muthafuckas go into the shit on some how-am-I-going-to-fashion-my-reactionary-joke mode. Who cares if my 401K is now non-existant? There are conspiracy jokes to be told on the internet and that's far more important. Seriously, you quacks need to put us out our misery once and for all. F*ck YOU BITCH ASS HALF BOOTIED SOCIETY PUNKS WHO SPEND YOUR HALF WITTED DAYS GETTING TAKEN BY DUPES WHO WOULD RATHER F*ck YOU DRY THAN GIVE YOU THE TIME OF DAY. For instance, I personally met Bill Clinton back inm 92 back when his campaign was straight bullshitting about ending the war in Iraq. And I met Clinton's ace in the hole right along with him, Ron Brown. Now, where the F*ck is Ron Brown? Dead with a bullet through his skull, you bitches, that's where. You go and f*cking repair some damaged roads for less than minimum wage, you dipshit hop-along-cassidy's you. I WOULD CRACK YOUR f*ckin PAPERTHIN SKULLS RIGHT NOW IF I COULD. Some of you I just wish were here for SXSW with me being as drunk and surly as I am right now. I would still be beating you pasty chump asses after 15 cop tazes and a horse duly pounding my head into the concrete. They'd have me in the patty wagon with blood streaming from my face and I'd still land a nasty loogie right squae on the bridge of your nose. Keep hiding behind your internet, complicit muthafuckas because it's now hunting season on you. That's right, it won't be long before someone just like me shows up to your door to smash your f*cking grill in once and for all. No more gourmet meals and fancy scotches to the tune of uber-rare grooves. That's just you getting over on the rest of us who in the end you'd rather make fun of than give even two shits about. YOUR TIME IS UP, PORTLY BITCHES. Watch your whole shit get washed to sea. You won't even know what hit you...since you have your heads up so far up your asses that you hear through your ever-pubescently hard nipples. You can't handle being off the grid. You will crumble just like you do when you crack yourselves up with your clueless internet jokes. Join together even and you will fall that much quicker. You are the muthafuckas that the rest of the world hates. And they are right, you are the worst in the history of the world. Millions upon millions of years of assholes and you wind up taking the cake. You make even the wind sick with your pompous arrogance. DIE SLOW WALKING PIG FAT, DIE SLOW!
You know what...F*ck YOU WITH THE QUICKNESS. The thing is that Alex Jones is sitting on information that you are merely fifteen degree short of accepting. He wants to tell you how the financial collapse has been deliberate...which is basic f*cking fact that you can barely entertain. But he'd also like to tell you how the leaders who do such things as collapse a national economy also engage in some shady ass esoteric rituals...that in the case of Bohemian Grove are symbolic, but in the case of far too many missing children that get swept under the rug are as literal as it gets...but being stuck in your consumer comforts, you simply aren't going to accept anything like that ever. Dude cares way more about you than an Obama ever could...but you've been trained to clown him instead of dealing with the realities that he presents. Obama ain't about to close Gitmo, but you believe that bullshit. But Alex Jones telling you to invest in gold instead of anything fiat related is too crazy for blockhead stuck-in-the-system you. Muthafuckas go into the shit on some how-am-I-going-to-fashion-my-reactionary-joke mode. Who cares if my 401K is now non-existant? There are conspiracy jokes to be told on the internet and that's far more important. Seriously, you quacks need to put us out our misery once and for all. F*ck YOU BITCH ASS HALF BOOTIED SOCIETY PUNKS WHO SPEND YOUR HALF WITTED DAYS GETTING TAKEN BY DUPES WHO WOULD RATHER F*ck YOU DRY THAN GIVE YOU THE TIME OF DAY. For instance, I personally met Bill Clinton back inm 92 back when his campaign was straight bullshitting about ending the war in Iraq. And I met Clinton's ace in the hole right along with him, Ron Brown. Now, where the F*ck is Ron Brown? Dead with a bullet through his skull, you bitches, that's where. You go and f*cking repair some damaged roads for less than minimum wage, you dipshit hop-along-cassidy's you. I WOULD CRACK YOUR f*ckin PAPERTHIN SKULLS RIGHT NOW IF I COULD. Some of you I just wish were here for SXSW with me being as drunk and surly as I am right now. I would still be beating you pasty chump asses after 15 cop tazes and a horse duly pounding my head into the concrete. They'd have me in the patty wagon with blood streaming from my face and I'd still land a nasty loogie right squae on the bridge of your nose. Keep hiding behind your internet, complicit muthafuckas because it's now hunting season on you. That's right, it won't be long before someone just like me shows up to your door to smash your f*cking grill in once and for all. No more gourmet meals and fancy scotches to the tune of uber-rare grooves. That's just you getting over on the rest of us who in the end you'd rather make fun of than give even two shits about. YOUR TIME IS UP, PORTLY BITCHES. Watch your whole shit get washed to sea. You won't even know what hit you...since you have your heads up so far up your asses that you hear through your ever-pubescently hard nipples. You can't handle being off the grid. You will crumble just like you do when you crack yourselves up with your clueless internet jokes. Join together even and you will fall that much quicker. You are the muthafuckas that the rest of the world hates. And they are right, you are the worst in the history of the world. Millions upon millions of years of assholes and you wind up taking the cake. You make even the wind sick with your pompous arrogance. DIE SLOW WALKING PIG FAT, DIE SLOW!
Never, in the history of the world, has one person been so tough.
Slowly caramelize fine cut apples and onions in lard, spread over sour dough bread fresh out of a wood burning oven (preferably apple or birch), add a pinch of salt.
Fantastic with a nice glass of smoky Single Malt.
Careful though to not get any grease stains on your ├╝ber raers!
And Harvey, for the record I'm not trying to jump in here and dogpile on you. Just that Sandy Hook thing always bugs me when people claim it was fake or staged or whatever.
Cool, you have every right to voice your opinion. Clearly, I don't see things the same as you, especially the whole people died so we're not allowed to talk about how that might have happened differently from what proven liars aka the mainstream media has dictated to us.
When you find yourself constantly wishing that others would stop voicing their opinions, that's when ya lost.
I totally feel you. And on a side note, I give you props for standing your ground in this thread regardless of whether or not I or anyone else agree with you. Salute
do you approach dudes on the street corner dressed like jesus with signs that say THE END IS NIGH, and give em dap for standing their ground for their beliefs? come on now.....
And Harvey, for the record I'm not trying to jump in here and dogpile on you. Just that Sandy Hook thing always bugs me when people claim it was fake or staged or whatever.
Cool, you have every right to voice your opinion. Clearly, I don't see things the same as you, especially the whole people died so we're not allowed to talk about how that might have happened differently from what proven liars aka the mainstream media has dictated to us.
When you find yourself constantly wishing that others would stop voicing their opinions, that's when ya lost.
I totally feel you. And on a side note, I give you props for standing your ground in this thread regardless of whether or not I or anyone else agree with you. Salute
do you approach dudes on the street corner dressed like jesus with signs that say THE END IS NIGH, and give em dap for standing their ground for their beliefs? come on now.....
No, but when I see someone get bombed on in a thread by literally everyone I have to respect them holding their ground. Again, regardless if I agree with said person's opinion or not.
do you approach dudes on the street corner dressed like jesus with signs that say THE END IS NIGH, and give em dap for standing their ground for their beliefs? come on now.....
Do you approach this dude and tell him what a fucking idiot he is?
Harvey does take his lumps although is like to think I've been pretty fair and asking straightforward questions. That they have failed to get a straightforward answer is disappointing.
On the other hand I feel like Harvey thinks he answers my questions. Maybe if I put them as a numbered list it would be easier. Surely questioning something isn't the same as attacking. Similar, I guess, but not the same.
And Harvey, for the record I'm not trying to jump in here and dogpile on you. Just that Sandy Hook thing always bugs me when people claim it was fake or staged or whatever.
Cool, you have every right to voice your opinion. Clearly, I don't see things the same as you, especially the whole people died so we're not allowed to talk about how that might have happened differently from what proven liars aka the mainstream media has dictated to us.
When you find yourself constantly wishing that others would stop voicing their opinions, that's when ya lost.
I totally feel you. And on a side note, I give you props for standing your ground in this thread regardless of whether or not I or anyone else agree with you. Salute
do you approach dudes on the street corner dressed like jesus with signs that say THE END IS NIGH, and give em dap for standing their ground for their beliefs? come on now.....
No, but when I see someone get bombed on in a thread by literally everyone I have to respect them holding their ground. Again, regardless if I agree with said person's opinion or not.
Touching. Ok you've had your fun. I got his IP. Team dispatched. He's completely surrounded. Nice work everyone
So most accept that shady shit happens, for which lets abbreviate to conspiracy.
Now all that's left to argue or defend is where to draw the arbitrary line of plausibility.
Harvey's line is over here, for others it's over there.
The end.
And Harvey, for the record I'm not trying to jump in here and dogpile on you. Just that Sandy Hook thing always bugs me when people claim it was fake or staged or whatever.
Cool, you have every right to voice your opinion. Clearly, I don't see things the same as you, especially the whole people died so we're not allowed to talk about how that might have happened differently from what proven liars aka the mainstream media has dictated to us.
When you find yourself constantly wishing that others would stop voicing their opinions, that's when ya lost.
I totally feel you. And on a side note, I give you props for standing your ground in this thread regardless of whether or not I or anyone else agree with you. Salute
do you approach dudes on the street corner dressed like jesus with signs that say THE END IS NIGH, and give em dap for standing their ground for their beliefs? come on now.....
No, but when I see someone get bombed on in a thread by literally everyone I have to respect them holding their ground. Again, regardless if I agree with said person's opinion or not.
Touching. Ok you've had your fun. I got his IP. Team dispatched. He's completely surrounded. Nice work everyone
Lol, you guys do realize that Harv and I have gone toe to toe and disagreed on damn near everything for years, right? The fact that I came out of lurk mode to defend him should make my point abundantly clear.
And ironically, I think people who stick to their opinions in the face of clear and opposing truth are the most dangerous people out there, but I'm riding with my dude for Soulstrut OG lvlz on GP.
If he wants to believe what he wants to, let him. None of this shit should come as a surprise to anyone who's been here for a minute.
I don't hate Harvey. He's part of soul strut and this pace wouldn't be te same without him.
Wje I read the original article posted my first thought was to wonder how somebody who does believe in these types of theories would address the arguments made in the article. Those arguments were not addressed.
Then I thought if I asked myself I would get somewhere but again, none of the arguments were addressed.
The only insight I feel like I have gotten from all of this is that conspiracy theories are a lot like religion. They require faith rather than evidence. They involve a "truth" that can't be proved but must be believed. Anything that confirms the belief is considered proof of the belief. Anything that contradicts the belief is given as proof of just how mysterious god is, or just how shady the illuminati is or whatever.
As I see it there is only one difference between religion and conspiracy theory. In religion, the higher power protects you. In conspiracy theory the higher power is out to harm you. Everything else seems the same to me.
HarveyCanal"a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
You have faith in the explanations and science provided by others. Enough that you play apologist for the end result of worldwide carnage. I just say that the explanations and science are nothing but a smoke screen that I simply shoo away to continue focusing on the end result of war, imprisonment, exploitation, manipulation, theft, etc. In other words, whether you say it's coming from legitimate sources or whatever, I think you are getting conned, however you want to slice and dice it. I mean, you tell me why you aren't calling for the complete overhaul of the system, from the way laws are made by a "2-party" dialectic to the way money is created out thin air to the way that unjust lies lead to unjust bombings to the way that we are the most incarcerated civilization ever to the way our public schools are failing to the way that all of our manufacturing jobs have been exported to the way this new health care package is a total sham, etc. It's like you are looking at a big steaming pile of shit, but saying well, science tells me that this giant terd actually doesn't stink that bad. Yet, it does. It stinks to high heaven. You've just found ways to excuse it is all. You'd rather appear to be "right" by way of approval from a compromised peanut gallery than to position yourself to actually do the right thing. We need to be angry enough to be motivated to action, but your methods which have been handed down to you as a means to keep you complacent are doing just that.
That you wouldn't put it past our government to engage in false flags and to stage fake news events only tells me that you haven't been paying attention to the past 50 years. Shit ain't new and your denial of its prevalence helps nobody.
But hey, you get to feel like big man looking down on others, and since in America that's what it's all about...right on, brother. Right on.
Comments
I totally feel you. And on a side note, I give you props for standing your ground in this thread regardless of whether or not I or anyone else agree with you. Salute
Well, the point I was making is that "we need guns to protect us from government" is bullshit. You don't like the government? Vote them out. You don't like certain laws? Vote in a candidate who shares your view. America has some of the most comprehensive checks and balances of any democracy *inflicted* upon poor souls like Harv, but it's no longer a frontier, it's been settled and the inhabitants surely have to live within the laws, so saying that you have a constitutional right to forcibly defend yourself from those laws makes no sense. You think you've got a right, by law, to carry a gun. Then you'd have to respect the same law that comes collecting rent or whatever in the shape of the government.
Comparing this scenario with a lawless country?
Unfortunately, the checks are campaign checks from wealthy donors. And the balances are the bank balances of politicians.
Either you don't know how to read, don't comprehend what you read or are just make up lies to argue against.
I guess if I say I don't believe in God but understand why people do, that makes me a Christian too.
Both Aliens from space. Next.
I don't think people are saying that. In fact the government is totally in bed with big corporation and just legally made them people so they can keep getting their way. We all know the politicians are bought off and worry more about keeping shareholders happy than the average citizen. They also totally set up wars like Bush and Chaney lying to congress to go to war with Iraq.
I think it's just the mass shooting stuff that is unlikely to be a government conspiracy and there really isn't any evidence to support that theory other than "I see what I want to see" stuff.
BaBoom!
You used a bullshit video and said you could see why it would cause people to think why Sandy Hook was faked.
You didn't say you could see how deranged, moronic crackpots could reach that conclusion. You made it sound like a leap rational, informed adults could make.
It is nothing of the sort.
Your "Christian" argument is funny. It's more like you said, "I don't believe in Gawd, but I can see why people do, since Jeezus was His son."
But then this is Silly Week, since for the first time you've met a police action that you think is "fishy." What's next, you'll start writing sonnets for Rachel Maddow?
The difference is that I don't therefore believe that the government is behind everything bad that happens. That is a logical fallacy in its most pure sense.
I really really recommend reading the Wikipedia article on "confirmation bias" on Wikipedia. Then ask yourself "do I believe this is true because it confirms what I already believed in the first place?"
All along I have said that to convince me that any if these conspiracies actually happened all I would need is evidence. Then my mind is changed. And to those (not Harvey, I think he has had enough) who think that 9-11 or sandy hook or boston was staged, I have a simple question. What would it take to convince you that it wasn't?
What would change your mind?
Fuck your right to say whatever you want.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good one, dude. Now, seriously...
So you don't believe that for about 150 or so years straight that the US government has either engaged directly or supported ruthless dictators around the world who have committed pretty much routine extermination campaigns/genocides in order to make way for American supremacy?
It's not just "shady stuff all the time". It's been deliberately wiping away large sections of the planet of its people for power and profit.
And it continues to this day.
The thing I don't get is why y'all get so defensive on behalf of these lying, murderous assholes when someone goes as far as saying they've done something you can't comprehend. They've murdered millions. So why does it bother you if someone calls them alien? Or shapeshifting? Or reptilian? Or whatever? Throw them in a fucking jail already instead of fighting their battles for them. How about that?
Bring it then.
Never, in the history of the world, has one person been so tough.
Slowly caramelize fine cut apples and onions in lard, spread over sour dough bread fresh out of a wood burning oven (preferably apple or birch), add a pinch of salt.
Fantastic with a nice glass of smoky Single Malt.
Careful though to not get any grease stains on your ├╝ber raers!
do you approach dudes on the street corner dressed like jesus with signs that say THE END IS NIGH, and give em dap for standing their ground for their beliefs? come on now.....
No, but when I see someone get bombed on in a thread by literally everyone I have to respect them holding their ground. Again, regardless if I agree with said person's opinion or not.
Do you approach this dude and tell him what a fucking idiot he is?
On the other hand I feel like Harvey thinks he answers my questions. Maybe if I put them as a numbered list it would be easier. Surely questioning something isn't the same as attacking. Similar, I guess, but not the same.
False poast attack
Touching. Ok you've had your fun. I got his IP. Team dispatched. He's completely surrounded. Nice work everyone
Now all that's left to argue or defend is where to draw the arbitrary line of plausibility.
Harvey's line is over here, for others it's over there.
The end.
Lol, you guys do realize that Harv and I have gone toe to toe and disagreed on damn near everything for years, right? The fact that I came out of lurk mode to defend him should make my point abundantly clear.
If he wants to believe what he wants to, let him. None of this shit should come as a surprise to anyone who's been here for a minute.
Wje I read the original article posted my first thought was to wonder how somebody who does believe in these types of theories would address the arguments made in the article. Those arguments were not addressed.
Then I thought if I asked myself I would get somewhere but again, none of the arguments were addressed.
The only insight I feel like I have gotten from all of this is that conspiracy theories are a lot like religion. They require faith rather than evidence. They involve a "truth" that can't be proved but must be believed. Anything that confirms the belief is considered proof of the belief. Anything that contradicts the belief is given as proof of just how mysterious god is, or just how shady the illuminati is or whatever.
As I see it there is only one difference between religion and conspiracy theory. In religion, the higher power protects you. In conspiracy theory the higher power is out to harm you. Everything else seems the same to me.
That you wouldn't put it past our government to engage in false flags and to stage fake news events only tells me that you haven't been paying attention to the past 50 years. Shit ain't new and your denial of its prevalence helps nobody.
But hey, you get to feel like big man looking down on others, and since in America that's what it's all about...right on, brother. Right on.