What ho and welcome to “A new thing I am thinking of doing”: a weekly (maybe fortnightly) collection of links to articles and other things I’ve read online (or, in some cases, mean to read) to do with conspiracy theories and conspiracy theory theories. As this is very much an idea I had this morning, the following list is what I’ve managed to find by cursorily looking over my browser history. Hopefully future installments will be more robust.
On the MH17 tragedy
This week’s The Podcaster’s Guide to the Conspiracy was on the MH17 disaster. Here’s a couple of links.
If you lived in Russia, this is what you’d believe about the crash of MH17
100 AIDS researchers on MH17? Why and how the media got it wrong
Various
A few years ago, at the International Film Festival I saw the utterly facinating documentary, Collapse, which is a long interview with Michael C. Ruppert. Ruppert died earlier this year and the story of his life is intriguing.
The unbelievable life and death of Michael C. Ruppert
The next article is one whose title was initially off-putting (which is why I didn’t read it for three weeks or so, but is really quite good, since it looks at the way in which many conspiracy theory theorists use the term “conspiracy theory” in either ambiguous or politically motivated ways. It’s one of those cases where I now have another book to add to my list of readings for whatever book I write next.
It’s All a Conspiracy: The limitations of research into paranoia and conspiracy theories
A gaming-related interlude: a look into the murky and somewhat conspiratorial machinations behind the Kickstarter campaign for a spiritual sequel to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series. Features an highly improbable letter of recommendation from Vladimir Putin.
Get Out Of Here: Areal Kickstarter Suspended
Talking about highly improbably statements by presidents, Obama is complaining that people are only generating conspiracy theories about the TPPA because negotiations are going on in secret. Really? I wonder what the solution to that problem is, then?
Obama Complains That TPP Critics Are ‘Conspiracy Theorists’ Who ‘Lack Knowledge’ About Negotiations
This one is a paid link, but if you have journal access throufgh your institution, then its worth a look. It’s a paper on climate modeling which features amongst its writers Stephan Lewandowsky and Naomi Oreskes. Lewandowsky is, of course, famous for having a paper of his, on conspiracist ideation in certain communities, pulled because of the complaints by conspiracists from certain communities.
Well-estimated global surface warming in climate projections selected for ENSO phase