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America.gov Anti-Conspiracy Blog (7 posts)

  1. truthmod
    Administrator

    Man, I love this shit...

    The State Department has a new blog for dismissing and ridiculing "conspiracy theories," etc. It seems to be maintained by one Todd Leventhal

    Rumors, Myths, and Fabrications

    http://blogs.america.gov/rumors/

    The widespread popularity of conspiracy theory thinking is a testament to the degree to which many people misunderstand how the world works.

    The mind is prone to many misconceptions. In recent decades, scientists have conducted experiments that map some of them. One is known as the “Linda problem.”

    In the early 1980s, psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman (who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2002) posed the following question:

    Linda is 31 years old, single, outspoken and very bright. She majored in philosophy. As a student, she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and social justice and also participated in anti-nuclear demonstrations.

    They asked whether it was more likely that Linda was: 1) a bank teller, or 2) a bank teller and an active feminist.

    85 per cent answered that Linda was more likely to be a bank teller and a feminist than just a bank teller. But this is statistically impossible. If Linda is a bank teller and a feminist, than she must obviously be a bank teller. But one can envision circumstances in which she could be a bank teller but not a feminist. So, the probability of her being a member of a larger group and a smaller subset must be less than that of simply being a member of the larger group.

    Most people did not see the problem this way, however. Because Linda’s biography makes her seem more like a feminist than a bank teller, they preferred the choice that included “feminist.”

    The “Linda problem” illustrates one way in which our mind plays tricks on us, in this case by thinking in terms of stereotypes, not probabilities.

    Many anti-American conspiracy theories rest on another type of unfounded stereotype: that of the U.S. government as devilishly clever, superhumanly effective, extraordinarily daring and unbelievably wicked. In my experience, bureaucrats are much more likely to be overly prudent, sometimes cautious to a fault.

    Posted 15 years ago #
  2. truthmover
    Administrator

    It contains a prominent link to Mark Roberts' page.

    http://wtc7lies.googlepages.com/home

    And...

    Todd Leventhal has researched false stories for 15 years, including Soviet and Iraqi disinformation, false organ trafficking rumors, and September 11 conspiracy theories. Todd also worked as a journalist and radio broadcaster for the Voice of America for seven years, covering Soviet affairs in the 1980s and African issues in the 1990s.

    He has a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School, a Masters in Russian Area Studies from Georgetown University, and a Bachelors degree in finance from the University of Colorado.

    Sounds like a spook to me. This page shows up a couple a weeks ago and he's already talking about 9/11 and Jonestown. We should send him a link to our forum. :)

    Posted 15 years ago #
  3. truthmod
    Administrator

    (Jonestown: This is what happens to people who believe in conspiracies)

    Jones did expound that MLK, RFK, etc. were government conspiracies.

    The Jonestown Mass Murder: Victims of Conspiracy Thinking
    http://blogs.america.gov/rumors/2008/11/20/the-jon...

    Thirty years ago, on November 18, 1978, Jim Jones ordered the mass “revolutionary suicide” of 909 of his followers in Jonestown, Guyana, as well as the murder of a U.S. congressman, Leo Ryan, and others who accompanied him on his visit to investigate Jonestown.

    Jones was a communist who admired Stalin and North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung, and who wanted to move his commune to the USSR. He was not religious. He stated, “We do not accept religion,” characterizing it, in Marxist terms, as the “opiate” of the people.

    Jones was plagued by conspiratorial delusions. Deborah Layton Blakey, a member of Jones’ Peoples Temple for seven years, wrote in a June 15, 1978 affidavit:

    Jones saw himself as the center of a conspiracy. The identity of the conspirators changed from day to day along with his erratic world vision. … He convinced black Temple members that if they did not follow him to Guyana, they would be put into concentration camps and killed. White members were instilled with the belief that their names appeared on a secret list of enemies of the state that was kept by the C.I.A. and that they would be tracked down, tortured, imprisoned, and subsequently killed if they did not flee to Guyana.

    Posted 15 years ago #
  4. truthmover
    Administrator

    I really find this fascinating.

    Here's a bit more on Leventhal:

    http://uscpublicdiplomacy.com/index.php/events/eve...

    He is the head of the State Department's Counter Misinformation Team which is most notable to us for the following:

    The Top September 11 Conspiracy Theories - 9/19/06 http://www.america.gov/st/pubs-english/2006/August...

    Here's a bit more on the this team which seems to have a different name everywhere you look.

    http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Counter...

    But really most revealing is the content itself. Take a look at the whole site, what it covers and how. It really reads as an operation of the Information Operations Task Force. The reinstatement of the Counter Misinformation Team occurred a few months after the Office of Strategic Influence was renamed and better hidden from mainstream view as the IOTF.

    http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Informa...

    Posted 15 years ago #
  5. NicholasLevis
    Member

    Hm, the "Linda problem." This coming from Mr. VOA = CIA as though it says anything about "conspiracy theory."

    Wouldn't it be more relevant to present-day political practice to ask how people do in the Milgram experiment?

    Posted 15 years ago #
  6. NicholasLevis
    Member

    BTW, how did you run into this obscure part of the america.gov site? Where is it being promoted?

    In the past, who would have thought that the final defense of the authoritarian state -- which hypnotizes by shows of force and legitimates by making trains run on time -- would be the claim that every single one of its constituent agencies is hopelessly ineffective and staffed by kindly idiots?

    In my experience,

    And I'm sure he's had plenty!

    bureaucrats are much more likely to be overly prudent, sometimes cautious to a fault.

    Which may be why they dispatch underlings to hire subcontractors and let themselves be surprised in a plausibly deniable fashion; also why they have a lot of lawyers, and let front-office shills like Leventhal do most of their talking. But never mind, whereas I was just a simpleton back when I let Linda fool me, I shall shortly be accused of having a pathological desire for complexity.

    Posted 15 years ago #
  7. mark
    Member

    http://www.oilempire.us/state.html

    Identifying Misinformation: State Department’s Rosetta Stone to 9/11 disinformation promotes 9/11 conspiracy hoaxes, ignores “Crossing the Rubicon” and other quality investigations

    a shorter version is at

    http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/122705_i...

    Posted 15 years ago #

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