"You might be a domestic terrorist if:" A look into conspiracy theorist claims about what makes a person a terrorist

Recently in one of skeptics groups that I belong to on Facebook someone posted this picture they found on a conspiracy theorist group:

Apparently conspiracy theorists believe that because some people believe or do certain then that makes them a "terrorist".

This picture is one of the most blatant examples of persecution complex that I have seen in a while and kind of shows the mindset of a conspiracy theorist.

I'm going to go through all of these claims and explain why believing in these things does not make you a domestic terrorist:

You raise/grow your own food

Why would this make you a domestic terrorist? The answer is it doesn't.

Millions of people across the country grow their own food in one way or another, be it either in small plots as a hobby (as my dad does) and as a way to have fresh fruits, herbs, and vegetables, or in greenhouses, or in large fields that provide enough food to feed their entire family. Heck, even the White House has it's own vegetable garden.

If growing your own food made you a domestic terrorist, then why wouldn't the government just go around to everyones' houses and destroy their gardens and green houses? Or pass laws that make it illegal to grow your own food? They wouldn't because growing your own food is harmless and effects no one.

Oppose GMOs

Opposing GMO foods does not make you a terrorist. It might make you someone who doesn't understand the science behind GMO foods, or someone who has embraced anti-GMO propaganda, but not understanding science or embracing some group's claims without questioning them doesn't make you a terrorist.

If opposing GMO foods made you a terrorist then there would be no organic foods in any grocery store or farmers market anywhere, and no laws meant to either label GMO foods or prevent them from being grown or sold would ever be proposed, much less passed.

Prefer natural medicines

If this was true then how come the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a official United States government agency that researches and promotes things like natural medicines, even exists?

While the government does restrict multiple types of alternative and natural medicines, this is only because some of them are dangerous, or the manufactures claim it can do something when infact it cannot.

If natural medicines made a person a terrorist then all forms of alternative medicine would be illegal and people who sale it or even promote it would be going to prison.

Refuse vaccinations

Refusing vaccines does not make you a terrorist as there no laws that say that you have to get vaccinated. However, it does make you dangerous to others, as well as your own self as it puts you at greater risk for getting infected with a disease that could kill you, as well as spreading said disease to others who either weren't vaccinate because they also choose not to (or their parents choose not to have them vaccinated) or a person whom couldn't get vaccinate for various medical reasons, or someone whom did get vaccinated but the vaccine did not take affect for some reason.

Have a Ron Paul bumper sticker

This does not make you a terrorist, it just makes you someone who likes Ron Paul and refuses to accept the reality that he'll never be President, and someone who doesn't know when to take a bumper sticker off of their car.

Question 9/11

Believing in 9/11 conspiracy theories, or any other conspiracy theory for that matter, doesn't make you a terrorist. If it did then people like Alex Jones and Mike Adams would be in prison, and their websites, as well as any other websites that promote 9/11 conspiracy theories, would be shut down. This also include Youtube videos, Facebook pages, and Twitter accounts that also promote 9/11 conspiracy theories.

Object to geo-engineering

I would ask what exactly do they mean by this, but I think they're talking about chemtrails.

Being opposed to geo-engineering chemtrails does not make you a terrorist, but this is due to the fact chemtrails don't exist, and even if they did, there are no laws that says that you cannot object to it.

However, if you threaten to shoot down a plane because you believe that it's spraying these imaginary chemicals, then you are a terrorist, or atleast someone whom has the potential to become one.

Oppose war

How does opposing war make you a terrorist? If anything it makes you the exact opposite, unless you oppose war via violence.

Support the Constitution

Why would supporting the Constitution make you a terrorist? I can't think of any reason why.

Certain people and places may not like it when a person expresses their rights as outlined in the Constitution, and have even tried to stop people from doing so, but whenever taken to court those people and places almost always lose.

If supporting the Constitution and standing up for your rights made you a terrorist then the people who stand up for their rights would always lose court cases where argue their Constitutional rights, and would go to prison for doing so.

Reject the NWO and Agenda 21

Rejecting the NWO does not make you a terrorist, but this is mostly due to the fact that the NWO does not exist.

As for rejecting Agenda 21 this also does not make you a terrorist. At worst it might make you someone that believes in the conspiracy theories about Agenda 21, but that only makes you uninformed about what Agenda 21 is, as well as someone that only listens to what other conspiracy theorists say it is rather than looking it up and reading about it yourself.

Believe your gov't is corrupt

I guess that means that I'm a terrorist! Because I think the government is corrupt.

Almost everyone believes that the government is corrupt, and there is a very good reason for that. Because it is, or atleast certain parts of it is.

If believing that the government was corrupt made you a terrorist, then you would never ever hear or read about in the news about any sort of corruption that goes on in the government because if a news organization did report on government corruption they would be labeled a terrorist group and shut down.

5 Things I've noticed about... Prisonplanet and Infowars

Prisonplanet and Infowars. Both are Alex Jones's main websites, and both are two of the largest conspiracy theorist websites in the world.

Now there are a lot of things that have been said about these sites, and after taking a look at these two sites I've noticed quite a lot of things about them, which I have narrowed down to five things.

So here are five things I've notice Prisonplanet and Infowars:

5. There are a lot of ads on the sites.

I have no problems with any websites having advertisements on them, and with the size of the websites that Prisonplanet and Infowars are it's necessary for these sites to have advertisements on them inorder to make money to both pay people maintain the sites, as well as to pay other employees... and also to make Alex Jones money.

The sites not only have your ordinary, random ads that try to look like news stories, but also ads by sponsors of the sites with products or services that is geared towards the typical fans of Alex Jones (i.e. conspiracy theorists), or it's just advertisements for books and videos and other products that Alex Jones has created himself... or atleast he claims to have created. And ofcourse there are also ads for Alex Jones's radio show.

There are also articles on those those sites as well, not just ads, but the thing about that is...

4. Alex Jones doesn't write a lot of articles on those sites.

On any given day if you go to Infowars and Prisonplanet you'll find a whole bunch of articles on there, what you hardly ever see however are articles written by Alex Jones. Infact seeing an article on there that was written by Alex Jones is more rare than seeing an article on there that actually tells the truth instead of being a manipulative form of propaganda.

Not only does Alex Jones not write a whole bunch of article on his sites, but neither does his staff. Many of the articles on those sites are actually from other websites, some of which mainly promote conspiracy theories and pseudoscience, and some are from legitimate news sites.

Even when someone there does write an original article, they always seem to do this one thing...

3. They cherry pick stuff.

Most of the articles on these two sites that are written by actual staff members of Alex Jones's tend to be just cherry picked from other legitimate news articles, with parts of the legitimate news articles being taken apart and having pieces of it taken out of context, and then the writers ad in their own comments to make it sound like the original article agrees with their point of view, even if it doesn't. Or they trash the original article completely and make it sound far worse than what it actually is, especially if the article says something negative about conspiracy theories or conspiracy theorists.

Even the articles that are completely and totally original still read like they're cherry picked. This is probably because they are written in such a way that it's obviously intended to manipulate it's readers into believing in the two sites' obscure world views. Now this isn't to much of a surprise, and that's mostly because...

2. They're stereotypical conspiracy theorist websites.

Whenever I'm asked about a conspiracy theorist website the first thing that comes to mind are these two websites, because not only are they two of the largest conspiracy theorist websites out there, they are also two of the oldest.

Besides just the other stuff that I mention above (cherry picked and manipulative articles) both sites also do a lot of other things you would find on other stereotypical conspiracy theorist websites, such as posting Youtube videos that are often manipulative and irrelevant (although they usually make these videos themselves), and has a comments section which tends to be a gathering place for other conspiracy theorists with even wilder conspiracy theories, and can be pretty hostile towards people who don't share their views.

Even the lay out of the sites themselves seems just like what you would find on a well made conspiracy theorist website.

1. They're shrines to Alex Jones.

Ever page that I go to on either one of these websites has either a picture of Alex Jones on them, or atleast has his name somewhere on the page. Even though these are his websites, this just seems a bit egotistical to me.

Some people might argue that those websites are about promoting the "truth", which couldn't be further from the truth. The only thing these websites do is promote whatever Alex Jones wants to promote and wants you to believe, and ultimately promotes Alex Jones himself.

These websites are not alternative news sites like they try to make themselves out to be. They're just shrines to feed Alex Jones's ego and wallet.

The best Videos of the Week for 2013

Last year I started putting up on this page one video per week.

Now I've had a lot of videos on here that were just great, and today I've decided to have a look back at what I consider to be the five best videos of the week for 2013:

5. Alex Jones As Alien Lizard Explains Obamacare

Probably every skeptic around the world knows who Alex Jones. While many skeptic bloggers have atleast written up a couple of articles to either discredit him and/or show what kind of a fool he is, still by far the best person to discredit Alex Jones and to make him look like a fool... is Alex Jones.

This clip from Right Wing Watch's Youtube page clearly shows why that's true:



4. Debunking 9/11 conspiracy theorists part 6 of 7 - The psychology behind a 9/11 truther

From late 2012 to early 2013 Myles Power created a seven part series that is in my opinion one of the best 9/11 conspiracy theory debunking videos that I have ever seen, and the sixth video in the series, which explains the psychology and mindset of a 9/11 Truther, and infact most conspiracy theorists, could have itself been a stand alone video apart from the series.



3. Five Stupid Things About the Anti-Vax Movement

Steve Shives is one of my favorite vloggers on Youtube, and his Five Stupid Things segment is my favorite of all of his video segments, and in this video he rips the anti-vaccination movement a new one, showing not only how all of their claims are completely bogus, but also how dangerous it is not to vaccinate your child, or yourself for that matter.



2. Dumbest Anti-Gay Comments (Compilation)

How best to expose the leaders in the anti-gay movement as the homophobic bigots they really are? Actually you don't have to. They do a good enough exposing themselves by making the most vile comments about homosexuals, and do so in public for all the world to see as this clip from Secular Talk shows:



1. Psychic Char Margolis fail on WGN Morning News

I know I might sound a little bit malicious for this, but I love it when a psychic fails, and not only fails, but fails on live TV for the whole world to see! In this clip from WGN News "psychic" Char Margolis fails to make a psychic reading (or what is better known as a cold reading) and pretty much makes a fool of herself infront of the world:

Anti-Vaccination Critics shutdown: How Facebook should prevent and punish Anti-Vaccination supporters (or anyone) who wrongfully get their critics banned from Facebook?

Over the past couple of weeks it's been revealed that Anti-Vaccination groups and their supporters on Facebook have been launching false flag attacks (and I don't mean types that Alex Jones thinks happens every time a shooting or a bombing or a natural disaster occurs in this country) against groups that are pro-vaccination and/or critical of anti-vaccination groups and their supporters and propaganda. These false flaggings have unfortunately resulted in the temporary (yet still wrongful) banning of multiple people and groups from Facebook who are critics of the Anti-Vaccination movement. This needs to stop. Infact not only does this need to stop, but the people who are making these false flag reports need to be punished.

While many of you have some ideas on what should be done inorder to curb false flag reporting (which I would love to hear from you in the comments section) I have a few suggestions of my own:

The first thing that needs to happen is that Facebook needs to make it easier to challenge a complaint and a ban. While you can do this even now, it's not an easy process. Plus a person should be given a chance to defend themselves before a ban is about to occur. No more automatic bans unless a certain amount of time has gone by after a complaint was sent (I say a minimum of six hours).

Now the second thing that should happen to help curb false flagging abuse on Facebook is that those that do abuse the reporting system need to have their ability to report posts and groups and individuals that they don't believe should be on Facebook more difficult. Granted I'm not saying they should be left unable to report someone or some group that really does contain offensive or illegal content (unless they continue to abuse the system even after restrictions have been placed on them, then their ability to report groups and people should be taken away, and they should be banned temporarily) but the process should be made more difficult for those that abuse the system, and probably should include a screen shot of any content that is being reported upon, as well as include more details about why something is being reported.

Going along side with the second suggestion that I believe Facebook needs to do inorder to curb false flagging abuse, after a person has already had restrictions put against for false flag abuse, if they do report someone or some group for their content and Facebook determines that it doesn't violate their policies, the person or group should be informed that someone sent a complaint against them that was struct down, and the person or group should be told whom that person is, and given the option of whether or not they want to block that individual.

Now these couple of suggestions might help against individuals who abuse the reporting system, but what about groups that do the same thing and organize their followers to report individuals and groups inorder to silence them (this can apply to any group, not just the anti-vaccination groups)?

First, for groups that do frequently abuse the reporting system, first give them a warning, then a ban if they continue, then a longer ban with a warning that if they continue to abuse the reporting system that their page will be removed and deleted, and if they continue to abuse the system, then Facebook should remove and delete that group.

The second thing that should be done to these groups that abuse the reporting system is that they should have the ability to control what is and isn't posted on their page and who can and cannot post on their page restricted as well.

Anti-vaccination groups (along with chemtrail, anti-GMO, fundamentalist groups, and generally any group that promotes conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, and bigotry) are notorious for blocking people and deleting any posts that they make that either counter-argues something that was posted in the group, or criticizes the group. One of the things that Facebook can do as a way to punish a group that abuses the reporting system is to alert the person whom has had a post deleted, or has been blocked, and give that person a chance to dispute the deletion or blocking. If they chose to try to prove that the deletion or blocking was unwarranted and didn't violate any of Facebook's rules, then Facebook will restore the post or unblock the person from the group, and also leave the group unable to delete anything else from that person, or block that person.

Now, do I believe that Facebook would do any of the things that I have suggested here? No, but I think that we all can agree that Facebook does need to do something inorder to curb false flag abuse.

5 Things I've noticed about... The Illuminati

The Illuminati. That secretive group conspiracy theorists believe have a great amount of power and want to take over the world.

There are a lot of accusations leveled against the Illuminati, and out of all of those accusations I've noticed many things and traits about the group.

Now out of all of the things and traits that I have noticed about the Illuminati I've narrowed it down to five distinct things.

So here are five things that I've noticed about the Illuminati:

5. They are the most patient people in the world.

The Illuminati has to be composed of some of the most patient people in the world. I say this because according to people who "investigate" the Illuminati (i.e. people who spend most of their free time watching or creating Youtube videos about the Illuminati, and listening to Alex Jones) have been doing stuff for years in order to get ready to take over the world, as well as kill 80%-90% of the population, and enslave everyone else.

Now as to how long the Illuminati have been plotting to take over the Earth no one (and by "no one" I mean conspiracy theorists) is really sure because no one is really sure how old the Illuminati is. Most conspiracy theorists say they're around two and a half centuries old, although others say they're as old as civilization, or even older, while others say they're only about a century or so old.

Regardless of how old the Illuminati is, the fact that they have been allegedly at this taking over the world thing for a very long time clearly shows that they are composed of the world's most patient individuals... or the world's worst procrastinators.

Now I would think that there would be atleast a few people in the Illuminati who wants to really push forward in taking over the world. I say this because apparently the Illuminati has a huge membership, so I would think that there would be atleast a few ambitious individuals amongst themselves.

Infact when thinking about that huge membership of their's it almost seems like that...

4. Everyone is apart of the Illuminati.

According to conspiracy theorists there are a huge amount people (probably in the tens of millions) who are members, or atleast works for, the Illuminati. This alleged list includes actors, musicians (actually any celebrity really), rich people, politicians, high ranking military officers, anyone in the CIA, or FBI, or NSA, whistleblowers, religious leaders, myself and fellow skeptics, and even other conspiracy theorists. Heck, even Alex Jones whom constantly "speaks out" against the Illuminate has himself been accused of being a member of the Illuminati.

Now taking all of this "information" (a.k.a. accusations) into account by my estimates I believe there are only eight people in the world are not apart of the Illuminati...

I admit I might be a little off on my math there, but still that's an awful lot of people who are apart of this super secret organization (so secret that there is no real proof of it's existence).

Ofcourse when you also consider how many people who are apart of this alleged secret organization it shouldn't also be surprising to know that...

3. They control everything.

According to many conspiracy theorists the Illuminati controls everything from the media, to the military, to the manufacturing industries, the airline industry (because how else are they going to spray chemtrails), the entertainment industry, the UN, the European Union, the Free Masons, the US government, law enforcement, major religions, minor religious, cults, the Democrats, the Republicans, the banks, most other governments, the oil industry, the pharmaceutical industry... the list just keeps going on and on.

I'm not sure what is crazier: the fact that the Illuminati allegedly controls all this and so much more, or the fact that the Illuminati allegedly controls all of this and hasn't even bothered to officially take control of the world and continues to lurk in the shadows while leaving symbols on things that have little to no meaning to most people inorder to show those people that they are incharge despite the fact that most people don't even believe that the Illuminati exists, and with good reason...

2. There's no evidence of their existence.

There is no proof that the Illuminati exists. Despite the amount of people who have been accused of being apart of the Illuminati, and despite the numerous tragic events that the Illuminati are accused of orchestrating, no one has ever brought any proof that they do exist, nor that they were once a member of the Illuminati, nor that they are involved in any events what so ever.

The only thing that conspiracy theorists have that even comes close to being "evidence" (and even that is a stretch) are the numerous "symbols" that the Illuminati allegedly likes to place up on everything. Despite what conspiracy theorists believe these symbols are not evidence of the existence of the Illuminati, and most often times means something else entirely than what a conspiracy theorist (and even non-conspiracy theorists) believes it to mean.

These Illuminati conspiracy theories are just a bunch of blame redirecting by people who believe that all of the world's problems, or their own problems, are being caused by some shadowy group that controls everything. These conspiracy theories are entirely made up... well, maybe not "entirely" made up, because...

1. The Illuminati conspiracy theories sound an awful lot like the old Jewish conspiracy theories.

One of the most common traits that I have noticed amongst the Illuminati conspiracy theories (especially the basic ones) is that they very closely resemble the antisemitic, Jewish conspiracy theories of a few decades ago. Infact if you were to replace the word "Illuminati" with the word "Jewish" or "Jew" it would sound exactly like one of the old Jewish conspiracy theories.

I'm not sure if the people who created these Illuminati conspiracy theories either ripped off the old Jewish conspiracy theories and replaced the words "Jewish" and "Jew" with "Illuminati", or if "Illuminati" is a code word for "Jewish", but the people who created these conspiracy theories sure did get a lot of inspiration from the older Jewish conspiracy theories.

Also it shouldn't be to surprising that many of these Illuminati conspiracy theorists are they themselves antisemitic and often times try to tie in the Jewish people (or to a lesser extent Israel) with the Illuminati.

6 Conspiracy theories that make people paranoid

There are a lot of conspiracy theories out there, and while most of them tend to be, well... stupid, for the most part they're pretty harmless (although some of the people who believe in them are not so harmless).

On the other hand, there are some conspiracy theories that can drive a person to become paranoid, and possibly even act out in very disturbing ways, perhaps even in a violent manner towards those who they feel are apart of that conspiracy.

Here are a few of those conspiracy theories:

Chemtrails

Chemtrails is a conspiracy theory in which some conspiracy theorists believe that the government is spraying chemicals on the population from air planes, and that the contrails coming out of many air planes are actually laced with chemicals, and thus called "chemtrails".

Now despite the fact that the chemtrail conspiracy theories have been debunked, some people take it very seriously. So seriously in fact that many conspiracy theorists will spray vinegar into the air whenever they see a contrail (because they believe that doing so will destroy a chemtrail), or even go to a hospital whenever they see a bunch of contrails in the air, because they are seriously afraid it might cause them health problems.

Some people have even taken their paranoia a step further and have threatened shoot down air planes because they think they are spraying chemtrails.

Mind control

If there is one conspiracy theory that believing in can cause a person to become very paranoid (although it may also be a strong indicator of a serious mental illness) it would be the mind control conspiracy theories, particularly the ones that involve some sort of telepathy.

The fact is that if a person believes that their mind can be attacked at any point in time it tends to leave that person extremely paranoid, and causes them to do some pretty bizarre stuff, such as wearing hats made out of aluminum foil, or even covering their entire house in aluminum foil (because they believe it will block out what ever rays are being used to control their minds).

This may also cause some people to be wary of other people as well, even people who might try to help them overcome their fear, because they fear that person might come under some kind of mind control as well and harm them.

Shape-shifting aliens

Often times attributed to David Icke, there are some people out there who seriously believe that there are shape-shifting reptilian aliens that not only walk among us, but are in control of the world, and that many world leaders are actually aliens from either another world or dimension.

I really wish I was making this up, but sadly I am not. There are people out there that are so paranoid, and so delusional, that they seriously believe that the leaders of the world are actually shape-shifting lizards from another planet or universe.

The belief that another person is a shape-shifting alien doesn't just include world leaders, it can actually include anyone, be it a celebrity, a rich person, some random person, myself, and even David Icke (who has been accused of being a shape-shifting alien).

Some people who believe in this conspiracy theory are even so paranoid and delusional in their beliefs that they believe that they themselves are a shape-shift alien...

Dis-info agents

Just about every skeptic and debunker has at one time or another been called a dis-info agent. This is just a general reaction by conspiracy theorists when a skeptic either refuses to believe them, or presents evidence showing that the conspiracy theorist's claims are false.

While some conspiracy theorists may cry out "dis-info agent" whenever they encounter a skeptic, many conspiracy theorists really do believe that there are dis-info agents out there, and that they are out there to "trick" people into no longer believing a conspiracy theory that they promote.

This belief in dis-info agents often times causes many conspiracy theorist to disregard any fact that would disprove their conspiracy theory, and basically regard it as being nothing more than disinformation, no matter how sound it is. This paranoia can even go so far that some conspiracy theorists will believe that other conspiracy theorists are also dis-info agents as well if that conspiracy theorist's conspiracy theory is to much un-alike their own.

FEMA camps

FEMA camps is another one of those conspiracy theories that has been around for a long time, yet has no evidence to back it up, but many people still believe in it and that these FEMA camps exists.

People who believe in this conspiracy theory claim that the government is constructing prison camps to be run by FEMA all across the country inorder to imprison anyone who they feel will oppose the government in some up and coming police state (which according to them is just around the corner... and has been for the last couple of decades).

This constant fear that the government is going to create a police state and ship people off to these imaginary prison camps can cause some people to act out in very irrational ways, including building huge bunkers in which to hide out in and perhaps fight from, buy up huge amounts of guns and ammunition and other type of supplies, and cut off contact with people. It can also make a person become violent towards anyone who works for the government (especially law enforcement), or just drive a person to the point of suicide due to the fear that they will be imprisoned or killed.

The Illuminati

There are many people out there that believe that, despite the evidence to the contrary, that the Illuminati exists, and that it controls the media, and the banks, and the government, and corporations, and just about everything... except apparently for the internet where anyone can create a website that opposes the Illuminate, as well as whomever is broadcasting Alex Jones's radio program.

The belief that the Illuminati exists can be very strong in some people, and can cause some people obsessively look for "Illuminati" symbols wherever they believe them to be. It can also cause them to accuse people (mostly people who are rich or famous, or are a politician) of being a member of the Illuminati. Sometimes it's not even someone whom is one of the rich and powerful, sometimes it can be just a regular person whom is apart of a group that is accused of being a front group for the Illuminati (example: Free Masons), or even a certain religion.

Because this belief in the Illuminati can be so strong in some people it can actually cause some people to distance themselves from anyone whom they believe to be a member of the Illuminati, or get into huge arguments with people who don't believe in the Illuminati.

5 Things I've noticed about... 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

A few months ago I did one of these "5 Things I've noticed about..." articles on the people in the 9/11 Truth Movement, and it had me thinking to myself "what about the conspiracy theories that the people in the 9/11 Truth Movements promote?"

So what about those conspiracy theories, and what are some of the biggest things about them that just stand out? Well, I've noticed a lot of things about them, and I've narrowed them down to five different things.

So here are five things I've noticed about 9/11 conspiracy theories:

5. There are a lot of them.

Probably one of the biggest problems with the 9/11 conspiracy theories is that there are more than one of them, instead of just one that the people who believe in and focus on.

For some people these can be confusing not only because they are all very different, but they are mostly not even connected to one another.

Not only can they be confusing, but they are also progressively more bizarre as well.

There is the let it happen theory, the controlled demolition theory, the drone plane theory, the nuke theory, and even the no plane/space lasers (which is so bizarre a person in the 9/11 Truth Movement debunked it).

I guess you say that the 9/11 conspiracy theories are a lot like the JFK assassination conspiracy theories in that not only are there more than one theory to what happened, but also because...

4. There is apparently more than one perpetrator.

Besides there just being more than one 9/11 conspiracy theory, according to these conspiracy theories, there is no solid conclusion on who the "real" perpetrator is.

Some people claim that it was Al-Qaida, it's just that those in the government allowed them to attack. Some people say that it was a collaboration between the government and Al-Qaida. Some people believe it was just the government, or Israel, or the Illuminati, or someone else entirely.

It just seems like none of these conspiracy theorists who claim that 9/11 was an inside job can agree upon who did it, and how they did it. Of course that isn't very surprising to me, because...

3. The biggest promoters of the 9/11 conspiracy theories are kooks.

Now I'm saying that all people who believe in the 9/11 conspiracy theories are kooks, but the biggest promoters of these theories are.

There's Alex Jones, whom constantly promotes conspiracy theories on his radio program, thinks everything bad that happens is a false flag attack, and just starts yelling and making incoherent rants.

There's Mike Adams, a promoter of pseudoscience and medical quackery (especially dangerous types of medical quackery), as well as other conspiracy theories.

Finally, there's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former president of Iran, whom in addition to promoting 9/11 conspiracy theories, is also a holocaust denier, and is antisemitic.

They are of course not the only one's who promote the 9/11 conspiracy theories, but they are some of the biggest ones, and many of the other promoters of the 9/11 conspiracy theories are just as nutty (or possibly fraudulent) as these guys.

2. They contain a lot of bigotry.

Many conspiracy theories contain forms of bigotry within them, and 9/11 conspiracy theories are no different.

A lot of the 9/11 conspiracy theories are antisemitic, either indirectly by blaming several prominent Jews of being involved in the attacks, or blatantly antisemitic by blaming Israel, and that all the Jewish people who worked at the World Trade Center were in on it.

Besides the antisemitism within these conspiracy theories, these conspiracy theories are also racist as well, because many conspiracy theorists try to justify their belief that someone other than some people from the middle east had to have done this because people from the middle east (and Arab people in general) are not mentally capable of planning out and doing such a thing, or if they did, then they would have had to have had help from either white people or Jews, or have been allowed to do this.

1. They've all been debunked.

Every single 9/11 conspiracy theory has been debunked. From the "let it happen" theories, to the controlled demolition theory, to the really crazy no plane theories, not a single one has ever been proven to be true, or have been shown to hold up to any sort of evidence, or even hold up to logical arguments.

In fact they have all been debunked for years now, and some skeptics no longer even debate and debunk the people who make these claims, either because they have determined that those people are either to stupid to figure out that none of these conspiracy theories are true, or that they are to self deluded to be able to see that what they believe to be true is not, or that they are mentally ill, or they are a liar with an ulterior motive.

The fact is that all of the evidence surrounding the 9/11 attacks point in only one direction: Al-Qaida and the 19 members of that terrorist group who hijacked those planes and flew them into the sides of those buildings, and no one else.

Why do people lie about their belief in a Conspiracy Theory? Part 2: Ulterior Motives

Why do some people claim to believe in a conspiracy theory, when in fact they do not?

In Part One I of this two part series, I explained that some people do this out of a motivation of fear (mainly the fear of some sort of lose by no longer believing in a conspiracy theory, or the fear of some type of retaliation).

Of course it is not always fear that motivate a person to claim that they believe in a conspiracy theory when they really don't. It could be that they have an ulterior motive that tends to be selfish in it's reasons.

Attention Seeking

Conspiracy theorists get a lot of attention, either from fellow conspiracy theorists who may or may not share their beliefs, or from skeptics who debunk their beliefs (while at the same time mocking them for those beliefs), or from the media (and law enforcement agencies) when a conspiracy theorist breaks the law after being motivated to do so by a conspiracy theory.

This attention can be attractive to those whom seek out attention themselves, and will take any type of attention (positive or negative) they can get.

Basically you can think of them as a bratty child who is acting bad simply because no one will play attention to them, and they know that acting the way that they are people will pay attention to them, and they do so without fear of consequences because there might actually be very little in the way of consequences, and even when they do suffer the consequences of their actions, they know it will be either minor and/or temporary, and that there are probably ways around it too.

Financial Motivations

Some people claim to believe in conspiracy theories not because they actually do, but because they're greedy, and they know that selling products that some conspiracy theorists buy can make them a lot of money.

For example, some one might open up a store that sells alternative medicine. The owner of the store might tell their customers how they "believe" that big pharma is evil, and that the medicine big pharma makes is actually bad for you, and that what they are selling will cure just about anything. The owner might not believe a word they just said, but if it gets them a sale, then they might not care.

Another example would be someone who has their own radio show and/or internet site which is dedicated to conspiracy theories, and lets say that this radio show and/or internet site has several sponsors that sell products that are aimed at conspiracy theorists. This could cause the host of this radio show and/or internet site to constantly spout out conspiracy theories that don't believe in order to keep money rolling in from those sponsors, and maybe even sell products that they have created (such as videos) to their audience.

Political Motivations

Another reason why some people might proclaim belief in a conspiracy theory that they don't believe in, and even make up conspiracy theories that they know are bogus, is because of political motivations.

Politically motivated conspiracy theories are actually very common, and the most common use for them is to try to get a person elected to an office by making up some stuff about another person whom already holds that office (or vice verse). The reason for this is to try to fool the voting public into believing these conspiracy theories about said candidate, and get more people to vote for their own candidate. This can be done by either a supporter of one of the candidates, or by one of the candidates themselves via attack ads, or internet postings.

Persecution complex

Somewhat similar to politically motivated conspiracy theories, some people might claim that a certain piece of legislation would (or does) somehow take away their rights (whether real or not). Some people might use the claims that a certain piece of legislation would take away their rights in order to rally people around them and either intimidate a politician to vote no on said piece of legislation, or create legislation that is suppose to counteract the other piece of legislation, or to an extreme extent, get people to ignore the legislation and any laws that comes with it as way to make it appear that piece of legislation is a failure. This could also apply to legal rulings as well as legislation.

Another reason why someone might claim that there is a conspiracy in that they are being persecuted for is that they are in fact being either investigated by law enforcement officials, or they really are being prosecuted for a crime they may or may not have committed. Some people might start spouting off conspiracy theories about the government targeting them over some conspiracy theories that they claim to believe in (which they may or may not actually believe in).

In fact they may actually be claiming that they are being persecuted (and even go so far as to claim that they have proof of a conspiracy theory, when in reality they never do) as a way to rally support around them, and as an attempt to try to intimidate the government into backing off of them.

Research

Some people might claim that they believe in conspiracy theories, and go to gatherings of conspiracy theorists groups, not because they believe any of it at all, but because they are doing research into conspiracy theories and conspiracy theorists.

The reason for this could be because they could be a psychology student, or a psychologist, who is doing research into the mentality of conspiracy theorists, so they may pretend to believe in conspiracy theories in order to gain their trust, and help to better their research in understand conspiracy theorists, and the conspiracy theories that they believe in. Perhaps they are even a skeptic who is trying better understand conspiracy theorists.

The research could also be being done by law enforcement officials in order to seek out individuals who might be considering committing a crime (like an act of terrorism).

Controlling people

Probably on of the more darker aspects of conspiracy theories is some people might create conspiracy theories as a method of (or an excuse for) controlling people in order to get them to do what they want them to do.

The creation of conspiracy theories are primarily based off of some type of fear, and there are people out there whom have no problems using that fear in order to control another person.

While this way of controlling people is mainly used by cult leaders, it is also used by egotistical people who simply love to control others.

Is it a Conspiracy Theory, or is it Satire?

When you investigate conspiracy theories and the claims that go along with them you will occasionally find some that are so strange, and so bizarre, that it will make you ask the question "is this real? Or is this something that a satirist came up with?"

Because of the result of the strangeness of certain conspiracy theories (or the fact that some conspiracy theories just look like satire and/or intentionally created hoaxes) it is seriously believed that some conspiracy theories were created by a satirist or hoaxer, rather than an actual conspiracy theorist.

A recent example a conspiracy theory that is so strange and absurd that many people (both skeptics and conspiracy theorists alike) believe it to be some type of satire or hoax is a conspiracy theory concerning the birth of Prince William's and Duchess Catherine's son.

The conspiracy theory that has been floating around the internet basically accuses Catherine of faking her pregnancy, and that some woman working for the "Illuminate" (a group that has never been proven to exist) was actually the birth mother.

Sounds so absurd that it sounds like it is entirely untrue and it was all made up, right?

Well, technically it is untrue and was all made up (as is with most conspiracy theories). The difference between this conspiracy theory and most other conspiracy theories is that it is heavily speculated that it was created as a hoax or even a parody by someone trying to show how gullible conspiracy theorists are, rather than some kook (or severely mentally ill person) who spends their time inventing these conspiracy theories.

Then of course there are some conspiracy theory articles on the internet that are so absurd that it's actually natural to assume that it is satire, when in reality it isn't. Such was the case this week when I read an article (or at least as much as I could have before the stupid started to burn) that claimed that Alex Jones was a "Jewish shill". If it wasn't for the fact that the website it is on promotes a lot conspiracy theories, and that several associated skeptics told me it wasn't, I would have assumed it was satire. In fact, I actually did ask if it was satire, and if it was on another website, I would have continued to assume it was satire rather then the rantings of a extremely bigoted, paranoid conspiracy theorist.

When I see stuff like this it honestly makes me wonder if any of the really strange conspiracy theories are the creations of some paranoid kook, or a well constructed hoax. It's even lead me to wonder if any of the older conspiracy theories who's origins I already question to being with, like chemtrails and FEMA camps, are hoaxes as well.

I already question whether or not the chemtrail and FEMA camp conspiracy theories were either the creations of some conspiracy theorist that got out of hand, or a deliberately created hoax to be used by various anti-government groups as propaganda that ended up taking a life of it's own. But now I'm wondering if those two conspiracy theories are just some hoaxes that were created for the purpose of showing how easy it is to either create a conspiracy theory that will be believed by others, or to show how gullible conspiracy theorists are by making them believe in a conspiracy theory that has no evidence to back it up.

So in conclusion I think it's okay to question not only whether or not a conspiracy theory is real or not, but to question whether or not it was actually meant to be taken seriously or not.

7 Reasons why Conspiracy Theorists get their videos and pages removed from Youtube

There are lots and lots of conspiracy theory videos on Youtube (and I mean a lot of them). These videos can range from being interesting to disturbing on multiple levels (being either because of the content in it, or the kind of conspiracy theory that is being talked about, or the fact that people can believe something so utterly ridiculous) and sometimes these videos end up getting deleted (and even whole pages).

Usually when a conspiracy theorist's video or page gets deleted they'll claim that (insert group here) are the ones whom either deleted the video or their page.

The reality is that this is never really the case, and that in fact there is usually some real, legitimate reasons why conspiracy theorists actually get their videos and pages removed from Youtube:

7. It contains copyrighted materials.

Probably one of the most common reasons why a video (or an entire page) gets removed from Youtube (and not just for conspiracy theorists, but anyone really, including skeptics) is because it contains a certain amount, or a certain type of copyrighted material that does not fall under the fair use laws, and thus is subjected to a DMCA complaint by either a single individual, or an entire group or business.

The recipient of the DMCA complaint does have a chance to get whatever material that was removed restored [example], but more often times then not they won't do this, either because it makes them look like the victim of some dark forces trying to hide the "truth", or out real of fear that if they do so then they might "disappear" after they give out the contact information that Youtube requires to begin the process of whether or not the video or page gets restored.

Of course there are those that say "screw these people, I'm putting that video back up."

6. The video contains hate speech.

Because many conspiracy theories have antisemitic undertones to them (or are blatantly antisemitic) it should be no surprise that some conspiracy theorists are antisemitic themselves, and are bigoted towards other groups as well. It should also come as no surprise that sometimes conspiracy theorists post videos that are blatantly bigoted and targets specific groups of people as well (Jewish people mainly, but other groups such as African Americans and Homosexuals as well) and contains language that can be best described as hate speech.

While hate speech is not actually illegal in the United States (although some kinds is legally questionable) Youtube does have a anti-hate speech policy, and will remove a video if enough complaints are launched (although sometimes this doesn't always happen).

5. The video encourages violence and/or other illegal activity.

Because certain conspiracy theorists believe that the government is preparing to throw certain citizens into concentration camps (or kill them) some conspiracy theorists may create videos encouraging their viewers to violently resist anyone who tries to arrest them. Other times these videos might even encourage the viewers to go out and commit acts of anti-government violence, or show you how to make something illegal, like a bomb.

Other videos might also encourage other types of destructive crimes as well, like vandalism. An example of this would be someone in the anti-GMO movement encouraging people to burn farm fields containing GMO crops.

4. The user is harassing people.

Sometimes when a person is removed from Youtube it has nothing to do with the videos they are posting, but rather it is their behavior and treatment towards others on the site.

While harassing and even threatening people isn't something that just conspiracy theorists do, it is something that conspiracy theorists do sometimes do in order to try to scare a skeptic away from Youtube. Sometimes it works, most of the time it just gets them in trouble with Youtube (and law enforcement).

3. The videos contain graphic images.

Sometimes Youtube takes down a video not because it's actually encouraging violence, or has had a DMCA complaint was launched against it. No, sometimes it's because the content in the video was simply to graphic to be allowed on Youtube, even under an age restriction.

2. They get hacked.

Many times when a conspiracy theorist's page on Youtube goes down they'll claim that their page got hacked by the government, and sometimes they are right (at least about the hacked part, not about the government part).

The truth is that conspiracy theorists do sometimes end up angering the wrong person, and said person might feel that Youtube is taking to long to take down a video or someones page (or they don't even bother to try to let Youtube handle it) and if they have enough skills and know how, they hack the page and get rid of whatever they don't like (an action in which I neither encourage nor endorse).

1. The user does it themselves.

Sometimes conspiracy theorists actually take down their own videos and then claim that Youtube told them to take the videos down, which Youtube does not do (Youtube would just take down the videos and then send a warning).

While there are probably multiple reasons why a conspiracy theorist takes down their own video, the most likely reason is that they want you to think that the government has something to hide, and thus it gets their own page more attention from other conspiracy theorists.

5 Things I've noticed about... Doomsday Prophecies

There's been a lot of doomsday predictions and prophecies over the years (and I mean a lot), and fortunately none of them have ever come true. While I have noticed a lot of things about them, there are five things that I have really noticed about them that tends to stick out.

So here are five things I've noticed about doomsday prophecies:

5. They have a bad track record.

Every single doomsday prophecy and prediction ever made has always failed to come true, including the big ones that a lot of people believed would happen and were actually preparing for. The most recent example of this is 12/21/2012 ending of the Mayan Long Count Calendar, which many people thought would mark the end of the world, despite the fact that nothing in any Mayan religious texts ever stated this, and even if there was, it wouldn't have meant that the world was ending anyways...

Thinking about, it's actually a pretty good thing that these doomsday prophecies and predictions has such a bad track record...

4. They tend to get pushed back.

While sometimes when a doomsday prediction fails it will go away, more often then not they just get pushed back to a later date, or will inspire someone else to make a similar prediction for a later date.

One of the most common types of doomsday predictions to this are the New World Order type of predictions. These are predictions that proclaim that the imaginary "New World Order" is going to take over the world and kill lots of people in the process. These types of predictions have failed every single time to come true, and have been pushed back so many times I can't even count how many times now, and that's just from Alex Jones alone...

3. They're pretty vague.

Most of these doomsday predictions and prophecies are quite vague and often times lack many details, if any.

While some of these predictions will at least say what type of disaster is suppose to occur, sometimes they don't even do that. This causes people to add in their own details about what is suppose to happen, which often times gets very... strange.

2. It causes people to do dumb things.

Often times these doomsday predictions and prophecies causes people to do things that many others would see as being very stupid, or at the very least, wasteful. These predictions and prophecies can cause some people to buy thousands, if not millions of dollars worth of supplies and even properties to live on that in the end they never needed, and probably would not have saved them if the worst did happen.

Other examples of people doing stupid stuff would be the 2011 Rapture predictions by Harold Camping, which caused many people to waste their life savings on pointless advertising campaigns.

In some extreme cases, these predictions have caused people to commit murder and suicide.

1. They make people fearful.

Doomsday predictions and prophecies (especially the more famous ones) make people afraid of whats going to happen. Even rational people can sometimes be a little edgy the day before and day of when the end of the world is suppose to happen.

Religious doomsday prophecies (like the Rapture) also tends to make people fearful as well, causing people to do strange, and sometimes extreme things due to the fear that if they don't that they will be left behind and have to deal with what is suppose to come, which they believe will happen soon.

Regardless of how people react to these doomsday prophecies and predictions, the fact is that it's almost always in some ways is a fear based reaction, because that's all these prophecies and predictions do, make people fearful for no reason.

5 Things I've noticed about... the Anti-Vaccination Movement

The anti-vaccination movement is a large group of like minded people whom believe that vaccines cause autism (along with some other stuff, but mostly autism). While there are a lot of things I've noticed about this movement, I've managed to narrow it down to five.

So here are five things I've noticed about the anti-vaccination movement:

5. There's no need for it to exist.

If you are part of the anti-vaccination movement, then you are in a movement that does not need to exist, and in fact shouldn't exist.

Every claim made about vaccines being harmful and causing debilitating neurological conditions (most commonly autism) has been proven to be false, and vaccines have been proven to be not only the cheapest method of disease control and prevention, but also the best, and the safest.

Complications from vaccines are rare (around maybe 1 and 1000) and mostly minor. Serious complications are extremely rare (around 1 to 2 per million), and deaths are even rarer than that.

4. It's biggest supporters are a bunch of cranks.

The biggest supporters (and leaders) of the anti-vaccination are not only people who should not be giving out medical advice, most of them aren't even doctors (and the ones that are tend to have some questionable credentials).

Jenny McCarthy, one of the top supporters, is not a doctor. In fact she left nursing school in order to become a model. She promotes therapies that are harmful, and she's also a liar too...

Andrew Wakefield, the ex-doctor whom's 1998 research paper that was published in the Lancet that claimed to show a connection between vaccines and autism, was stuck off of the British General Medical Council register (the British equivalent of having your medical license revoked) after the Lancet retracted his paper after it was proven his research was based off of fraud. He still claims his research was not fraudulent, and that there was a conspiracy against him to destroy his research (despite the fact that it took over ten years from the time his paper was published for his paper to be retracted, and for the GMC to strike off his name).

Then there is Alex Jones, who thinks that vaccines are being used to create genetically modified people and causes diseases, not prevent them.

3. The movement is based off of lies.

The whole bases for the anti-vaccine movement is based off of the proven fraudulent 1998 research paper by Andrew Wakefield that claims there is a connection between the MMR vaccines and austim. The paper was highly controversial even when it came out, and the claims made in it had been dis-proven years before it was formally retracted for fraud.

Other lies made by the movement are that vaccines have been made more dangerous over the years (in fact they have been made safer) and that and the rates of autism in children who are un-vaccinated is far lower then those that have been vaccinated, which is false. In fact the rates are the same.

2. People in the movement do stuff that's legally iffy.

Many of the things that people in the anti-vaccination movement do could be considered walking on the edge of the law, and even illegal.

Most states won't allow a parent to enroll their child into school unless they have been vaccinated.

Not vaccinating your child could be seen as form of child neglect.

The constant claims made against the companies that make vaccines could be considered liable and slander.

And even telling people that vaccines cause autism could be considered distribution of fraudulent medical advice.

1. What it's promoting is dangerous.

The anti-vaccination movement has been linked to the deaths of thousands of children, and not just children whom's parents got caught up in the anti-vaccine hysteria, but children who were to young to get vaccinated too.

Not only are people in this movement are putting their own children at risk of getting a serious illness, they're putting other children at risk as well. Not only is that dangerous, that's pretty selfish too.

10 Counter conspiracy theories

Ever hear of the term "Counter conspiracy theory" (which is in a conspiracy theory that is meant to counter another conspiracy theory)? Probably not, but you have probably read of a few of them (mostly when someone is having an argument with someone promoting a conspiracy theory).

So, I have decided to play Devil'e Advocate here and have listed ten counter conspiracy theories:

10. 9/11 conspiracy theories were invented by Al-Qaeda.

Ever since the 9/11 conspiracy theories started to show up, some people have made accusations that Al-Qaeda itself actually invented many of the 9/11 conspiracy theories, and even bribed certain people within the 9/11 Truth movement to spread these conspiracy theories.

The problem with this is that Al-Qaeda admits to committing the 9/11 attacks, and even criticized Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for saying that the United States government did it.

9. "Shape shifting reptilian aliens" is a code word for "Jews".

Many have accused David Icke's primary conspiracy theory, that "Shape shifting reptilian aliens" control the Earth and impersonate leaders of the world, as being nothing more than a re-hashing of old Jewish conspiracy theories, and that "Shape shifting reptilian aliens" is actually a code word for "Jews".

While it is possible that "Shape shifting reptilian aliens" is a code word for "Jews", most antisemitic conspiracy theorists don't bother to use such code words. Plus, David Icke is pretty much crazy as hell, so it's actually possible that he really does mean "Shape shifting reptilian aliens".

8. Alex Jones is a fraud.

While many negative things have been said about Alex Jones and the conspiracy theories that he promotes (which also usually gets debunked) one of the claims that is made against him is that he is just a fraud, and that he doesn't even believe what he says, and that he is just making up conspiracy theories to make money from his followers.

It's true that Alex Jones has made a lot of money from promoting conspiracy theories, and there is proof that he is very manipulative, the problem is that there is no 100% proof that he doesn't believe in the conspiracy theories he promotes.

7. Police State conspiracy theories is made up propaganda.

While there is quite a number of "Police State" conspiracy theories (i.e. FEMA camps, false flag attacks, martial law, etc.) some people have accused these conspiracy theories of being nothing more than propaganda made up by extreme right wing groups as a way to help recruit, or at least attempt to justify their own actions.

While it is true that, like with most other conspiracy theories, police state conspiracy theories are made up, and are sometimes used as propaganda, with the exception of a few people, it can be pretty hard to tell if a person making such claims are doing so for propaganda purposes, or if they really do believe what they are saying.

6. "The invasion of Iraq was for oil" claims is nothing more than propaganda.

Even before the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, there were claims that the invasion was for nothing more than to get that country's oil, and almost immediately there were counter claims that these accusations were actually being made up by those opposed the invasions, and even was created as a form of political propaganda (most of those accusations tend to be towards the Democrats and the former Iraqi government, but other groups are accused as well).

While it is true that many people who opposed the invasion also claim that it was for Iraq's oil, the problem is that they are also very sincere in their beliefs, and most politicians (even those who opposed the invasion) tend not to make those claims either.

5. Holocaust denialists don't even believe themselves.

There are a lot of accusations directed towards Holocaust denialist (most of which are probably true) one of the accusations is that Holocaust denialists don't even believe themselves, and that it is strictly made up antisemitic propaganda.

While it is true that some Holocaust denialists probably don't even believe what they are claiming, and are making these claims as nothing more than antisemitic propaganda, it is also possible that some of them really do believe that the Holocaust didn't happen, and that their bigotry is causing them to be willfully ignorant of the facts.

4. Tax protesters are just trying to get out of paying taxes.

One of the claims made against tax protesters (people who refuse to pay taxes because they believe that the IRS, income taxes, and most other taxes are illegal) is that they aren't doing what they do because they really do believe that the IRS and taxes are illegal, they're just doing it because they don't want to pay taxes.

While it is probably true that many so called tax protesters are only with the movement because they simply don't want to pay taxes, there are some tax protesters out there that really believe that taxes are against the law.

3. Creationists believe in evolution.

While many of the "claims" creationists have made to try to "counter" the theory of evolution are down right ridiculous (which includes the claim that the theory of evolution was just made up, or that it's an invention of the Devil), there are some people who claim that many creationist actually do believe in evolution, and that they are claiming that they don't either because of social pressures, or, for the high profile creationists, are just making up stuff to hold on to whatever power they have.

While many of the top creationist probably are trying to hold on to whatever power that they have, the odds are is that they really do believe in what they are saying, otherwise they wouldn't put out such ridiculous counter theories to evolution.

2. Global warming denialists are being paid to be denialists.

Probably one of the largest counter conspiracy theories out there is that many of the top promoters global warming hoax conspiracy theory are actually being paid by certain industries to deny that global warming either exists, or that it's being caused by human activities.

While it might be easy to believe that many of the top global warming denialists are being paid to promote the global warming hoax conspiracy theories, the problem is that there really is no proof that these people really are being paid to promote global warming hoax conspiracy theories.

1. Birthers are racists who are trying to get President Obama removed from office because he's black.

While many Birthers (people who believe that President Obama wasn't born in the United States) probably are racists, and that the conspiracy theory as a whole is fundamentally racist, some people actually accuse Birthers of making up the conspiracy theory simply to get President Obama kicked out of office because he is black.

The problem with this is that while it might actually be true for some, it might not be true that everyone who believes this conspiracy theory are just being racists who can't stand the thought of a black man as president, and there is really no proof for the most part that most of them don't actually believe what they claim.

5 things I've noticed about... FEMA camps

I've done quite a bit of research into "FEMA camps" (which is a conspiracy theory that claims that the government has constructed these prison camps around the country that are to be run by FEMA to hold American citizens in that disagree with the government) and there are several things that I've noticed about these camps.

So here are five things I've noticed about FEMA camps:

5. There are apparently a lot of them.

According to many conspiracy theorist websites, there are hundreds of FEMA camps scattered across the United States and Canada.

While the numbers tend vary from website to website, some report as few as 300 "identified" FEMA camps, and perhaps as many as over 900 "identified" FEMA camps.

I find it amazing that so many of these camps have been "identified", yet the only people they have caught the attention of are conspiracy theorists (particularly those in the Sovereign Citizens/Patriot Movement). Of course these numbers really don't mean anything, because...

4. They can be anywhere.

Also according to many websites that promote the FEMA camp conspiracy theories, FEMA camps can be just about anywhere, be it a military base, a hospital, a prison, a warehouse, an airport, a rail depot, a seaport, any place with a fence with barbed wire at the top...

Oh, and any place that has an open field and is open to the public. Those places can also apparently be FEMA camps too.

3. Apparently they've been around for a while.

From the research I've done into these FEMA camp claims, I have found that these claims have been around for a long time.

The first time I actually heard someone claim these places were real was back in the mid-1990's, and I have found out these claims are even older, even going back as far back as the 1970's.

It's kind of strange that FEMA camps have apparently been around for so long, and yet the government has yet to use them, or enact this fascist "police state" plan that many conspiracy theorists claim is going to happen when the government starts shipping people to these camps.

2. They drive people crazy.

I'm not talking about FEMA camps themselves driving people insane (although I'm sure some conspiracy theorists will claim that they do) I'm talking about that the belief in the existence of FEMA camps drives people insane.

These conspiracy theories have driven many people to become paranoid and to isolate themselves from the rest of society, to stock up on guns and supplies for what they believe will be a fight to the death, to become hostile to others (especially law enforcement and people who work for the government), and it has caused people to become extremely hateful and abusive towards those who tell them that FEMA camps don't exist, and in a few cases, suicidal.

Of course the reason why skeptics (like myself) tell conspiracy theorists that FEMA camps don't exist is because...

1. They don't exist.

From the research I've done on the FEMA camp location claims, I have found that none of them contain FEMA camps (you can see this research on my other blog Is that a FEMA Camp?).

Regardless of how much "evidence" people who claim that FEMA camps are real claim that they have, much of the so called evidence is easily debunked, and many of the sites of these alleged FEMA camp locations are either the result of major mis-identification, or are outright bogus and have nothing there at all.

The fact remains is that no matter how much some conspiracy theorists want to believe in them, FEMA camps just do not exist.

How many people really do believe the government committed the 9/11 attacks?

How many people actually believe that the government committed the 9/11 attacks, or at least allowed the attacks to happen? This is a question that I sometimes wonder about.

What I mean by people who actually believe the government committed or allow the 9/11 attacks to happen, I don't mean simply people who say they believe that the government committed the 9/11, I mean people who actually mean it when they say that they believe that the government committed the 9/11 attacks.

Now there are multiple surveys that have been conducted over the past decade that have asked people whether or not they believe the government was involve in the 9/11 attacks, but there are a couple of problems I have with these surveys:

One, they are often vary in percentages of how many people actually believe the government was involved in the 9/11 attacks. This can be because of where the surveys were taken, when they were taken, and how the questions were actually worded.

And two, there is no realistic way to filter out the people who just say they believe from the true believers.

Now many of you are probably asking "why would someone claim they believe that the government committed the 9/11 attacks but not really mean it?"

Well, one reason might be for political purposes.

It's very well known that conspiracy theories are often time used for political and propaganda purposes, and the conspiracy theories surrounding the 9/11 attacks are no exception.

A person could be claiming this because they have anti-government beliefs, or anti-American beliefs, or anti-Israeli beliefs (for those that are antisemitic), or they could be a person who hated President Bush so much that they say they believe the government committed the 9/11 to (in their minds) further delegitimize his presidency.

Of course they could also be saying that the government committed the 9/11 attacks not because they have a anti-something beliefs, but because they wish to further their own political agendas, and they're just using and exploiting the 9/11 Truth movement to do it.

Of course, political reasons are not the only reasons why some people claim to believe that the government committed the 9/11 attacks and not really mean it. It could be that they are, or fell like they are being pressured into saying that they believe that the government committed the 9/11 attacks.

Perhaps a person joined a group of people who believe that the government committed the 9/11 attacks because they themselves were once curious about the conspiracy theories about the attack, but now no longer believe in the 9/11 conspiracy theories. They might continue to claim that they believe that the government committed the 9/11 attacks simply because they made friends in that group, and they don't want to risk losing them.

Another reason is because they are feeling pressure from their family to believe in these 9/11 conspiracy theories. Perhaps they even feel threatened by a spouse or a parent to "believe" in these conspiracy theories.

This happens all the time with things like religion and politics, and so it really would not surprise me if it happened with things like conspiracy theories (since conspiracy theories are sometimes a mixing of religion and politics).

Then there is one more group that has to be taken into consideration: people who have severe mental illness.

While a person who is severely mentally ill, and believes that the government did commit the 9/11 attacks, probably sincerely does believe that the government committed the 9/11 attacks, there is the question about whether or not their belief should be considered a legitimate belief or not. The reason why I question if their belief that the government committed the 9/11 attacks should be consider legitimate or not is because it is questionable whether or not they would still believe that the government committed the 9/11 attacks if they were either not mentally ill (sometimes severe delusional disorders will make a person believe in anything), or if their mental illness was under controlled to the point where they were considered sane. Because of this it should be taken into consideration whether or not we should even count those beliefs as being sincere because their minds might not be allowing them to see clearly the facts when presented to them, rather then just simply ignoring the facts.

Because of all these factors I truly do wonder how many people actually believe that the government caused the 9/11 attacks, and honestly, I don't think it's as high as what many people think it is.

5 Things I've noticed about... People in the 9/11 Truth Movement

There are a lot things that I have noticed not just about the 9/11 the Truth movement, but the people in the movement itself.

So here a five things I've noticed about people in the 9/11 Truth movement:

5. They're not who you think they are.

Back a few years ago I use to think that 9/11 Truthers came in three different flavors: Those on the extreme left who were suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome, those on the extreme right who greatly distrust the government, and paranoid kooks who may be mentally ill and willing to believe in just about any crazy theory, but over the years I've found people who do not fall into any of those categories, and are actually perfectly normally people.

Heck, a few months ago a friend of mine posted something on their Facebook page in which they implied that the towers were brought down by explosives, and I was very shocked that they believed that. In fact I had actually thought that person's page had been hacked, but it turns out it wasn't, and because of that it's made me rethink that maybe not all 9/11 Truthers are a bunch of cranks, just misinformed. Some of them might even be to afraid to express their beliefs for fear of being labelled a crazy person.

4. They keep using the same, dis-proven theories.

Go to any site that promotes 9/11 conspiracy theories, or talk to anyone who believes in some of the 9/11 conspiracy theories, and you will get a variety of theories (technically speaking they're actually hypothesis) that despite their beliefs, and despite how much they seriously believe them to be true, they have been dis-proven and debunked, yet they still keep promoting them.

Apparently they must live belief that if you say something that isn't true enough times it will become true.

3. There is a lot of infighting.

While most people who promote certain types of conspiracy theories are normally united if they promote different theories about certain events, the same cannot be said about people who promote 9/11 conspiracy theories. This may be due to shear fact that unlike many conspiracy theories, 9/11 conspiracy theories varies greatly. Because of this members from one group promoting one theory might fight with members from another group promoting a different theory, with the two groups eventually accusing each other of being dis-info agents.

In the skeptic community this is generally referred to as "nutter fights"?

2. They always claim to have "undeniable evidence."

If you do a search on any major website using the words "9/11 Truth" you are going come across some pages that claims to have "undeniable evidence" or "undeniable proof" or something of the like that the 9/11 attacks were a false flag attack.

These claims in the end tend to prove absolutely nothing, but people in the movement still make them.

1. They don't want to do any real research into their own claims.

Probably the only reason why currently the amount of people that believe that the 9/11 attacks were committed by the government is above 10% is because the people who believe in it after all these years isn't because of some mental disorder, it's because they haven't done any real research for themselves, and have only relied on web sites and videos that promote the theories that they believe in.

In fact on the occasions when a a person who is a 9/11 Truther does real research on their own, and not simply rely on what some other 9/11 Truther says, they tend to leave the movement.

Conspiracy Theorists and Fascist Thinking: Do the Two go Hand-in-Hand?

Conspiracy theorists have been called many things throughout the years, but one of the things that they have commonly been called (and to many skeptics, accurately called) Fascists.

Now one of the things that made me start think about this claim is a question that I thought to myself "why do so many skeptics tend to call conspiracy theorists 'Fascists' when so many conspiracy theorists claim to opposes Fascism to begin with?" In fact many conspiracy theorists claim to support Libertarianism (or at least something that isn't anything like Fascism), rather than Fascism.

Finally after going to multiple conspiracy theorist websites and reviewing the comments left on those websites, and articles on those websites themselves I have finally come to the conclusion as to why conspiracy theorists are accused of having a Fascist mentality: They have a "Us vs. Them" way of thinking, and they believe that only they are correct.

Conspiracy theorists will claim that they want their "theories" to be given equal consideration and be on equal levels with what is official, but from what I have observed with their behaviors, that isn't true. They don't want their theories to be given equal ground, they want their theories to be considered "fact" (even after the fact that their claims have been discredited and dis-proven), and what is official and actually proven to be true to be seen as a big lie, because in their minds it is a big lie, and they don't want others to think otherwise. In fact it very seriously angers them when someone questions their "theories" (hypothesis would be a more accurate word) or has tested their "theories" and have proven them to be false.

Not only do conspiracy theorists tell other conspiracy theorists (and those curious about conspiracy theories) not to trust the information from reliable sources, they will insult you, question your intelligence, call you a "sheep" (at the very least), and basically try to use intimidation tactics to try to force you over to their side, if you question their "information".

Another thing that many conspiracy theorists will do is that (if the have the ability to do so) they will remove comments that offend them on websites when they can. In fact one famous Youtube vlogger and conspiracy theorist by the name of Christopher Hudson is notorious for this, often times blocking any comments that are in any way critical of his videos. Of course he isn't the only one either, but one example of many people on Youtube, or Facebook, or any individual blogs that promote conspiracy theories and don't allow people to question them.

Sometimes this goes even further then that by not only dis-allowing criticism on their own turf, but sometimes trying to get any criticism of their beliefs removed the internet entirely. They do this either through the use of threats and harassment, to actually trying to have a website shut down.

These are just few of examples of many of the actions and thinking that many conspiracy theorists tend to have and do, but there are many more than just what has been stated.

The reality is that these conspiracy theorists have, as a result of their self-delusions and frustrations over not being able to get the positive attention that they believe their "theories" deserve, they have basically become what they are claiming to fight.

5 things I've noticed about... Alex Jones

While there are a lot things I could say about radio host/conspiracy theorists Alex Jones (and it would be a lot) I noticed a few things he seems to do quite a bit.

So here are five things I've noticed about Alex Jones:

5. His sites have a lot of advertisements on them.

If you go to either of his two main websites (Infowars and Prisonplanet) there are a lot of advertisements on the right side of those websites. Not only are there ads for other people's products, but also for his own products as well (mainly his videos).

And his websites have their their own shop pages where you can buy more of his videos and other merchandise.

4. He always tells people he is not crazy.

Alex always seems to need to remind people that he is not crazy (in his view). I don't know why he feels the needs to do this. I don't know why people would believe he is crazy in the first place...

Maybe it's because he does stuff like this:

Author's note: go two minutes in. That's when the best stuff starts.

3. He's against fascism and totalitarianism... unless it's in another country.

While Alex Jones is a notorious outspoken critic of anything that he perceives as fascism and totalitarianism in this country, he apparently has no problem with it in other countries (especially countries that the US has very poor diplomatic relations with).

A good example of this would be that he often calls rebels in the Syrian Civil War "terrorists" and often claims that many of the atrocities committed by the Syrian government was actually committed by the rebels.

2. He respects the 2nd Amendment more than the 1st Amendment.

While Alex doesn't think there should be any gun control laws, he calls anyone who does want more gun control laws unpatriotic, criminals, and a member of the New World Order.

And if you're from another country and you call for more gun control laws, he wants you deported.

1. He has a hard time keeping friends.

While he is always happy to ally himself with anyone who shares his beliefs in certain conspiracy theories, if you stop believing in the conspiracy theories that he believes in, or if you believe in any conspiracy theories that he doesn't believe in (which is not many), or if you disagree with his political beliefs, he'll call you an elitist and dis-information agent, and will want nothing to do with you... until he decides that you aren't a elitist and a dis-information agent.

The Piers Morgan, Alex Jones interview: My take

On January 7, 2013, Piers Morgan on his CNN show Piers Morgan Tonight, conducted an interview (or at least attempted to) with radio host and world famous conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, both because Jones is vehemently opposed to any gun control laws, and because Jones is one of the people behind a petition to deport Morgan back to the UK because he is a vocal supporter of more gun control in this country.

Besides the petition being another example of why Alex Jones apparently only respects the first amendment when someone doesn't say something positive about something that he opposes, or negative about something that he supports, the interview clearly shows what many skeptics have known for the past decade: Alex Jones is a nutcase.

While many people were probably shocked by Alex's behavior on the show, most of his supporters and opponents (especially those in the skeptics community) were not shocked at all. In fact most skeptics would probably have been shocked if he had not acted like that.

Alex pretty much didn't do the gun rights lobby any help. In fact one comment I saw on a Facebook group I belong to said it best about what Alex accomplished due to the interview:

• "Jones made the strongest argument yet for both strict gun control and vastly improving mental health care."

And indeed he did.

Alex Jones is probably one of the worst people there is to support any movement (legit or not) what so ever due to his seemingly natural ability to twist things and to throw in things that have nothing to with the subject at hand, or something that is completely made up, while adding in the occasional vague threat.

His loud, paranoid, and conspiracy theory filled rantings during that interview is only going to make a lot believe (or validate) that people like Alex Jones is what the gun rights lobby attracts, and that at least people like Alex shouldn't even own a water gun, much less an AR-15 (which I have to agree with), and that we do need stricter gun control laws and we need to improve the mental health care system (which Alex also opposes. Not improving it, but the whole system because he believes that psychologists are evil, and that psychiatric drugs are harmful).

Regardless of whether or not Alex unknowingly and unwillingly helped the gun control lobby, and the mental health care lobby, he did do one positive thing that night: he showed the world that he is a complete nutcase that no one should ever take seriously.

8 Questions for people in the 9/11 Truth Movement

As everyone knows, the 9/11 Truth movement is a loose group of people who believe that the United States government committed the 9/11 attacks.

Now despite the fact that they have never been able to prove that the government committed the 9/11 attacks, they still hold steadfast to the belief that the government did.

It seems to me that most people in that movement have never really sat down and asked themselves some serious, logical questions about the attacks.

Here are eight questions that I feel that people in the 9/11 Truth movement should ask themselves, as well as should be asked by others:

1. If the government did commit the 9/11 attacks, then why would they hit more then one building?

Hitting one building with a plane would have been more then enough for the government to justifiably giving it an excuse to go to war. More then one would be overkill.

2. If the government did commit the 9/11 attacks, then why did it attack the Pentagon for?

The Pentagon is the United States top military headquarters. Hitting it with a plane could have killed our top military leaders and seriously harmed our ability to fight. The government attacking the Pentagon makes no sense both logically and militarily.

3. Assuming that the Twin Towers were brought down in a controlled demolition, then why would they be brought down in the first place?

There would be no reason for the government to bring down the towers. Not only would flying a couple of planes into the towers would have been more then enough to justify going to war, but bringing down the towers would be another example of overkill. Also, it would have been cheaper to repair the towers then it has been to clean up the rubble and build new buildings at the site.

4. Why would WTC 7 have been intentionally brought down?

Wouldn't intentionally bringing down WTC 7 have been a pointless action? There would have been no reason for the government to ever bring that building down and create a bigger mess. Not to mention many in the 9/11 Truth movement see that building's collapse as a "smoking gun" for a controlled demolition. If the government did do this, shouldn't they have had the foresight to see that it might look suspicious to some people?

5. Assuming that drones were used, then how come the forth plane crashed in a field instead of hitting another building?

If the government had complete control of all the aircraft, then why didn't they crash the last one into a building? Why would they just waste it and crash it into a field for no reason what so ever?

6. If the attacks were allowed to happen so we would have an excuse to go into Afghanistan and Iraq and gain control of those two countries natural resources, then why haven't prices on things like oil gone down?

One of the biggest claims from the 9/11 Truth movement is that the attacks were staged so that we would have an excuse to go into Afghanistan, and eventually Iraq, and gain control of those countries oil fields, along with other natural resources. The problem with this is that the cost of oil based products (gasoline, diesel, home heating oil) has kept going up instead of going down since the invasions of those two countries. So if we invaded those countries for their oil, then how come our oil prices have been steadily rising? And how come very little oil has ever actually come out of those two countries since we invaded them?

7. Why haven't we seen a serious decrease in our civil liberties?

While it's claimed that our civil liberties have decreased since the 9/11 attacks, in fact they really haven't in most cases. Most people haven't even been impacted at all by the Patriot Act. You can still create blogs that speak out against the government. You can still claim the government committed the 9/11 attacks. You can still belong to anti-government organizations. So why haven't people like this ever been thrown in jail? Wouldn't they be the government's biggest enemies?

8. How come the 9/11 Truth movement has never presented any evidence that has not been dis-proven?

One of the main problems with the 9/11 Truth movement is that it constantly presents old evidence that has been discredit and dis-proven, and rarely, if ever, presents any new evidence. So why hasn't the 9/11 Truth movement ever revealed any real evidence of what they consider to be the real culprits behind the 9/11 attacks and would prove what they were claiming is at least possibly true?