The emotional appeal of a conspiracy theory is in its simplicity. It explains away complex phenomena, accounts for chance and accidents, offers the believer the satisfying sense of having special, privileged access to the truth. For those who become the one-party state’s gatekeepers, the repetition of these conspiracy theories also brings another reward: power.
Anne Applebaum
December 28, 2022
If a woman has a trailer house full of cats, we call her nuts. But when people pathologically hoard so much cash that they impoverish the entire nation, we put them on the cover of Fortune magazine and pretend that they are role models.
Lester B. Pearson
December 17, 2022
It is ironic that Elon Musk has taken over Twitter and allowed all sorts of RWNJs to spout their drivel, while he owns shares in Tesla. Those who are cheering him on do not believe in climate change and likely would not even consider buying an EV, while those who are appalled by him are those who know climate change is happening, and are likely to buy EVs, but are now unlikely to buy a Tesla.
Blotreport
December 16, 2022
Conspiracy theories are a critical mechanism used to delegitimize the mainstream media, which fascist politicians accuse of bias for failing to cover false conspiracies.
Jason Stanley
December 13, 2022
White supremacists terrorised Black and Indigenous people for 300 years, and when that terror was finally made illegal, white rebel groups rose up to further terrorise Black and Indigenous people for another 100 years, and while zero reparations were paid to remedy that 400 years of terror, now to simply acknowledge that 400 year terror is called the "woke virus". White privilege is when the cancer of white supremacy is to be ignored—but recalling that history is called "a virus".
Qasim Rashid
December 13, 2022
Under the influence of great fear, almost everybody becomes superstitious. Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity towards those who are not regarded as members of the herd. Fear generates impulses of cruelty, and therefore promotes such superstitious beliefs as seem to justify cruelty. Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.
Bertrand Russell
December 11, 2022
[On the media in the lead-up to the Victorian election] This is what happens when the rest of the media treats the Herald Sun as a reputable source of news and not what it actually is: a dossier of Liberal Party campaign material interpreted via the mushy keyboards and mushy minds of the state’s thickest mouthpieces for a ghoulish arch-conservative oligarch. That this class of commentator cannot fathom a genuinely popular progressive-ish government and the willing community buy-in on pandemic health measures in a pre-vaccine world says far more about corporate media than it does about Victoria. [https://theshot.net.au/general-news/why-everyone-except-me-was-wrong-about-the-victorian-election/]
Dave Milner
November 29, 2022
Many people don’t recognise fascism because they think fascism will arrive selling oppression and tyranny, but if you’re part of the privileged group, fascism is selling you safety, normalcy, and tradition.
Byron C. Clark
November 23, 2022
Hold him a bit longer
Rock him a little more
Tell him another story
You've only told him four
Let him sleep on your shoulder
Rejoice in his happy smile
He is only a little boy
For such a little while
Anonymous
September 22, 2022
The essence of capitalism is to turn nature into commodities and commodities into capital. The live green earth is transformed into dead gold bricks, with luxury items for the few and toxic slag heaps for the many. The glittering mansion overlooks a vast sprawl of shanty towns, wherein a desperate, demoralized humanity is kept in line with drugs, television, and armed force.
