Having somehow let my @ddress fall into the hands of KOS, I get occasional emails with a SHOUTY! subject line telling me that some right-wing travesty has come to pass. It really pisses me off to see that kind of dishonest tactic being used. I never even open those, much less give any money to those kind of Billy-Maysian assholes.
Does new age woo count as CT because that seems to be primarily the domain of the left. Belief in auras, and transdimensional healing, and vector travel vortex empowerment and all that crazy nonsense (I am sure I am mixing up terms) seems to be all the rage among the hippie dippie types, which tend to be the extreme left rather than right. Even fairly traditional spiritualist woo like tarot cards and astrology seem to be more embraced by leftist types.
Most of that isn’t conspiracy theory: a conspiracy theory necessarily involves a conspiracy. Some of it, e.g., beliefs that modern medicine is deliberately witholding information about the efficacy of homeopathy because they make big bucks off sick people, is CT. Other stuff, like Tarot Reading, doesn’t involve a conspiracy (unless, of course, you draw the six of staves reversed). A lot of it is pretty indistinguishable from other religious beliefs.
And lately I’ve seen more of this stuff showing up among right-wingers. I’ve vaguely wondered whether, as boomer hippies age, more of them fall into right-wing nonsense traps, and take their new age woo with them. But I have zero evidence to back up this wild speculation.
This has been a facinating thread, with a slight veering off towards “who scams who” in place of “Conspiracy Theories”. As Buck and Anne were going back and forth, I read this:
And something struck me as an idea (nothing behind this other than me thinking) - things like African American conspiracy theories don’t turn to grift because there is a closer bond in the community because they have been oppressed. Conspiracy theories in the Christian Evangelical community becomes grift because they are NOT oppressed, but have been convinced that they are. The same people convincing are the grifters.
OTTOMH Farakhan told his followers that AZT was part of a white conspiracy and sold them ‘special’ interferon which was the real cure for AIDS.
What leftist political beliefs do these people have? I’ve known lots of them, and they aren’t leftists, unless you define leftist as “has long hair and wears blue jeans”.
Everyone of them I’ve known is of the political belief that all politicians are alike, the system is rigged and elections are performance art. They may have some affinity with leftists in their attitudes toward social justice, but they have even more affinity with the right wing in their anti-government attitudes. I’ve watched more than a few of them slide right in the past few years, some of them even going so far as to support Trump.
Remember, Q is into yoga.
That is not entirely accurate, though. The right-wing types tend toward a more glibertarian position, that the government is unalloyed evil, can do nothing right, and we need to just let unregulated free market industrialism fix everything. The hippiewoo left dislike many aspects of our government but, I think, most are not inclined toward eliminating it entirely. They just want to see it functioning properly and equitably, not plowed into a smoking ruin.
The argument that elections are political theater, though, is difficult to refute. “My guy won, so you need to sit down and shut up, because our team is in control now,” sounds like a pretty fucked up way to run things. I only get accessible, responsive representation some of the time? And in some cases, never? Elections are barely distinguishable from championship tournaments. Just look at how the score gets reported.
This certainly is the kind of leftist hippiewoo I am. Love the apt description.
“Most” being key. The anarchist left is a long and storied tradition. The good ones are all about cooperative social networks: I’m friends with anarchists who run bookstores and needle-exchange programs and who coordinate aid for homeless folk. The not-so-good ones range from vandals to terrorists. They’re fortunately much rarer than the good ones.
How so? I’m honestly not seein this.
Who are you claiming says this?
Tell that to the folks at The Wooden Show, the very left anarchist bookstore on South Street.
“Most” being key.