Conspiracy theory
From Bwtm
A conspiracy theory attempts to explain the ultimate cause of an event (usually a political, social, or historical event) as a secret, and often deceptive, plot by a covert alliance of powerful people or organizations rather than as an overt activity or as natural occurrence.
Related to conspiracy theory is propaganda, disinformation and misinformation. When used for political purposes this may become a Smear.
Contents |
Conspiracy theory
Loose Change
This film alleges that the attacks on 9/11 were not the result of terrorism but a series of cleverly executed events carried out by the US government.
http://www.snopes.com/rumors/pentagon.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loose_Change_(video)#Factual_inaccuracies
Kennedy assassination theories
In 1964, the Warren Commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated the President alone and without the assistance of others. Almost immediately, critics began to question the official government conclusions and wrote books attacking the Commission and its findings. Among them was Mark Lane, a lawyer who represented Oswald's mother, who authored the critical book Rush to Judgment. In the decades that followed, a dedicated group of independent researchers would develop dozens of different, contradictory theories and publish their findings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_assassination_theories
Propaganda, Disinformation and Misinformation
Iraq WMD
Half of U.S. still believes Iraq had WMD.
Do you believe in Iraqi "WMD"? Did Saddam Hussein's government have weapons of mass destruction in 2003?
Half of America apparently still thinks so, a new poll finds, and experts see a raft of reasons why: a drumbeat of voices from talk radio to die-hard bloggers to the Oval Office, a surprise headline here or there, a rallying around a partisan flag, and a growing need for people, in their own minds, to justify the war in Iraq.
People tend to become "independent of reality" in these circumstances, says opinion analyst Steven Kull.
The reality in this case is that after a 16-month, $900-million-plus investigation, the U.S. weapons hunters known as the Iraq Survey Group declared that Iraq had dismantled its chemical, biological and nuclear arms programs in 1991 under U.N. oversight. That finding in 2004 reaffirmed the work of U.N. inspectors who in 2002-03 found no trace of banned arsenals in Iraq.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Iraq_Believing_WMD.html
