Disinformation
'The use of “conspiracy theory” to deter citizens from investigating historic events is paradoxical, to be sure. It suggests that those who commit criminal conspiracies can only be relatively powerless people who happen to live on the most strategically important lands, and conspiracies among rich, powerful people are impossible or absurd. Basically, our entire legal system is based on the idea of conspiracy. Despite this fact we have been conditioned by the government and the media to blindly accept the official reports and to treat any questioning of those reports as “conspiracy theorizing.” That is, you are a conspiracy theorist if you don’t believe the government’s conspiracy theory.
This cultural phenomenon goes back to 1967. At that time, in response to questions about the Warren Commission Report (which President Ford helped create), the CIA issued a memorandum calling for mainstream media sources to begin countering “conspiracy theorists.” In the 45 years before the CIA memo came out, the phrase “conspiracy theory” appeared in the Washington Post and New York Times only 50 times, or about once per year. In the 45 years after the CIA memo, the phrase appeared 2,630 times, or about once per week.
Before the CIA memo came out, the Washington Post and New York Times had never used the phrase “conspiracy theorist.” After the CIA memo came out, these two newspapers have used that phrase 1,118 times. Of course, in these uses the phrase is always delivered in a context in which “conspiracy theorists” were made to seem less intelligent and less rationale than people who uncritically accept official explanations for major events. President George W. Bush and his colleagues often used the phrase conspiracy theory in attempts to deter questioning about their activities. When questioned by reporters about an emerging scandal in September 2000, Bush said the idea that his presidential campaign was flashing subliminal messages in advertisements was absurd, and he added that “conspiracy theories abound in America’s politics.” When in 1994, Bush’s former company Harken Energy was linked to the fraudulent Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) through several investors, Bush’s spokeswoman, Karen Hughes, shut down the inquiry by telling the Associated Press — “We have no response to silly conspiracy theories". -by Kevin Ryan
--- Psychological operations today are a finely-honed craft that exploit natural recall and classical conditioning. The nonsensical content of many of them belie their sophistication and effectiveness. They operate on numerous levels simultaneously, across the population, through the use of keywords that elicit a conditioned response, i.e. memes. .
Today we have Sandy Hook 'truthers', Flat Earth 'conspiracy truthers, 'crisis actors' 'pizzagate', Moloch worshipers who want to enslave the planet, etc. Nonsense as a weapon is nothing new. What is particularly insidious about the claim that no plane hit the pentagon is that it works in tandem with the claim that no planes hit the towers; that they were CGI on TV only. A much more patently absurd claim. In this way, it hijacks a more plausible idea (based purely on a faulty review of the photo evidence) that Flight 77 did not hit the pentagon.
The primary targets of this are the pre-occupied masses. People who are not going to take the time to dig out the details will spontaneously link '911 Truth' with the 'no plane/s' claim. Most people probably dont need an excuse to turn away from an uncomfortable truth. Our first response to trauma is denial. There are no shortage of cogent facts proving the demolition of those buildings, anyone focusing on anything else in public activism on this issue is a red flag.
also see:
Nonsense As a Weapon
ERROR: 'Webfairy's Whatzit'
How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations' By Glenn Greenwald
How the military uses Twitter sock puppets to control debate:
US Military Kicks Off Plan To Fill Social Networks With Fake Sock Puppet Accounts:
Reddit: Astroturfing Information Megathread- revision 8
These photos form one small example culled from one YouTube search early in 2015 when I noticed my youTube feed full of 'Flat Earth Conspiracy' suggestions. All make use of keywords associated with conspiracy theories. Most seem to have been launched during the same period and all made use of the same 'nonsense as fact' & 'conspiracy claims' associating those words with stupidity or nonsense. This effectively perpetuates the notion of loony conspiracism, i.e., This, is what conspiracy theorists believe.
The two topmost images are from blogs that were linked to these channels. I could have easily listed two dozen such channels from the suggestions in the feed.
You cannot get more obvious than this one.
Listen to this guy reading. While the video opens with him taking a helicopter ride past the new 'Freedom Tower'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djgPdJ9u4hE
