My dad the conspiracy theorist.

GuyInWhite

My dad insists that Osama bin Laden's death in recent days is a fake: he asserts that he's been dead for ten years.

Now, if this were any other guy, I'd dismiss him as just another kook, but the thing is, he's educated in this sort of thing; he's a historian. He has both a Law Degree and a Masters in United States history, and he studies documents about this sort of thing for a living. He's been studying the policies of the United States for at least thirty years now, maybe even forty.

Naturally, I'm know next to nothing compared to him, so I can't really call him out on his beliefs. This is what bugs me.

Thorn14

If he was dead for so long, wouldn't Bush have said so?

Also how the hell would he know?

GuyInWhite

I repeat, he is very fucking educated. He is able to take a look at documents and draw his own conclusions.

glennmagusharvey

I knew who started this--wait...no, I didn't.

Thorn14

Educated does not mean completely informed.

Theres a crapton of information he no doubt does not have access to.

glennmagusharvey

I don't have access to the financial and legal records of every company just in my hometown, for example.

I have a master's degree from an Ivy League university.  That don't mean jack.

GuyInWhite

Even given the secrecy of some documents, there are bound to be some implications in other documents that are overlooked. It's next to impossible for the government to keep everything they don't want getting out from getting out.

Hell, with the recent success of wikileaks, it's possible that he's seen documents that really are supposed to be secret.

Thorn14

Heres the thing, even though he is educated, bias can still twist how you look at things.

A moon landing conspiracy guy can see every single freaking fact and simply go "Nah I read this and this and its still fake"

Believing in conspiracies doesn't make you dumb, it just makes one untrusting.

Myrmidon

Chagen, why did you change your handle?

Khwarizmi

Don't blame this on Chagen.

TheMightyAnonym

My dad is just as out there, if not worse.

Also: Is GuyInWhite Chagen?

GuyInWhite

I am offended that you'd mistake me for Chagen.

Erm, no offense to Chagen, of course.

Nyarly

Considering how often he makes threads about his father, can you really blame others to think that Chagen has made this thread (before they clicked on it, of course)?

I thought that too, by the way.

I can kind of understand his viewpoint. Considering the elections, it's a bit too convenient for my taste that they got him now. But I certainly don't think that he's dead since such a long time.

Stormtroper

Damn, I thought it would add to my Before I Even Clicked On It score.

Tnu1138

Wow Thorn you place way too much faith in our government and I was totally expecting this to be Chagen.

Saigyouji

Considering the situation, I wouldn't call this "too much faith". It's not like they're covering up a nuclear meltdown or something.

BlackHumor

Uh, too much faith? Most conspiracy theories have the Illuminati as Required Secondary Conspiracy and you think not believing them places TOO MUCH faith in the US govt?

The moon landings are a good example of one that requires the Illuminati: in order for it to be true, the Soviet Union, which had all the tech and all the motivation to call us out on it if we were lying, would have to have gone along with the lie, and the US had to have known they would to attempt the lie in the first place. This implies that the US and Soviet governments were in cahoots with each other, which implies that the ENTIRE COLD WAR was a fabrication and there actually was one unified world government since at least the end of WWII.

The whole thing is more suited to be a plot for Metal Gear than to be taken seriously.

Gelzo

Being educated doesn't necessarily make you wise.

glennmagusharvey

> Wow Thorn you place way too much faith in our government and I was totally expecting this to be Chagen.

I'd say you should trust whoever you think doesn't have a reason to lie.  Generally people tell the truth unless there's some reason for them to lie.

Codename_M308

^^^ And yet Metal Gear is seen as an realistic work of art by the gaming public.

ClockworkUniverse

^I'd say it's seen more as a work of art than as a realistic work of art :P

Myrmidon

Hey INUH, do you think that love can bloom, even on the battlefield?

Thorn14

I didn't say the government never lies.

But holy hell its not like they are under some sort of curse that prevents them from telling the truth.

Forzare

The government isn't a giant monolithic empire of evilness.  Whatever that means.

They don't lie about everything.  They don't need to lie about everything.  What possible reason would they have to not tell us if Bin Laden was dead?

glennmagusharvey

Yeah, conspiracy theorists often neglect the fact that things might be far easier to work out without a web of lies and behind-the-scenes dealing.

See, in real life, people tell lies and cheat and scheme because they would gain something from it, not because For The Evulz.

Mostly.

Forzare

But clearly, the government is evil by virtue of being the government.

So really, constantly lying governments are inevitable.

Chagen

GUB'MENT ALWAYS MAKING CONSPIRACEE THEREES AN' SHEET

Seriously, why are there always those people who hold an irrational fear of anything type of authority?

snowbull

The Seven years war was an inside job by the French to give the French control of all of the New World.

Chagen

Everything is part of God's Xanatos Gambit.

EVERYTHING

Forzare

Clearly, the Romans are really the ones who are pulling everyone's strings from behind the scenes.

Rome was never conquered.

snowbull

The Pagans invented Christianity