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Mark Tokarski's avatar

Use of the phrase "conspiracy theory" came about in 1967 in a CIA memo to agency higher-ups suggesting its use to criticize people skeptical of the Warren Report. Search and you'll find it online.

Thereafter it began appearing frequently in newspapers, and later in a forgettable book that supposed intellectuals like to cite. It's remarkable psychology, in that in practical use (not by media and political officials) it allows people of low curiosity/intelligence to 1) avoid thinking, and 2) to ridicule people who are more curious/intelligent.

So suppose that you, Petra, are at a gathering of friends and relatives and you forget etiquette and mentions that, say, Sandy Hook was a staged event (or in my case, Columbine), one of those at the gathering will react by chanting "coo coo, coo coo" and ask where's your tin hat.. The person doing that ridicule will have no standing, being incurious and a non-reader, probably burdened by a low IQ and thoroughly a Dunning Krueger mascot. But you lose, and he/she wins. You learn from that episode to STFU. Ain't it amazing how well it works?

I doff my cap to the guy who wrote that 1967 memo. It is clever beyond the norm.

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TriTorch's avatar

Many people I encounter are so brainwashed by media that they can't see two inches in front of their noses, and if you ever challenge them on the propaganda they find there, like Pavlov's dog they will call you a conspiracy theorist. They will then turn up their nose and walk away with a heightened sense of superiority.

The term "conspiracy theory" is remarkably adept at turning off all critical thinking like a light switch in a large portion of the people I have personally met.

Conditioning the public to react this way has to have been one of the most effective PSYOPs ever pushed onto the general population.

It is equal parts diabolic and brilliant, and it means that the elites can get away with just about anything with little to no scrutiny because everyone is too afraid to point out that the emperor has no clothes lest they be labeled a "conspiracy theorist".

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