How to make a tinfoil hat (Conspiracy theories)

[nachtjaeger]

Anybody else here a fan of so-called "Conspiracy Theories" (whether you are a believer or a skeptic)?

I enjoy them immensely. This even though I agree with my Granddad's statement that "There's no Conspiracy, no grand plan- it's not that organized. The Government is just flat-out doing all this stuff."
I really love trying to debunk them with solid, verifiable facts. (I don't like it so much when I can't poke large holes in them. )

Anybody care to share their favorite Conspiracy Theory, no matter how "out there"?

My current favorite, I actually stumbled on myself, having never heard of it before. My original purpose was to determine if the 1979 movie "The China Syndrome" was just a topical Hollywood movie, a deliberate piece of anti-nuclear propaganda, or somewhere in the middle. It took about five minutes to find the answer- definite anti-nuke Propaganda from a production company owned by a certain '60s radical and her more radical husband. (Hint: she appears in the film.) What I never realized was that the movie, in one of those massive coincidences that [url]cracked.com[/url] likes to write about, was released just twelve days before the partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant. For my curious nature, that was like pulling a loose thread, and I had to keep pulling. I clicked on a link to details on the accident itself, since I hadn't read up on them in like, forever. Hoooo-leeeee shit! Coincidentally, I had also been doing some hobby research into how reactors actually work and are operated (long story.) One thing about the accident that has never been explained is why and how the valves for both of the two independent pipes feeding the backup cooling system were closed. The first time I read that, I thought "Who could be that stupid?" Today, I would answer "Nobody." Nuclear plant workers tend to do things "by the book" unless directed otherwise by a supervisor or engineer. The Book said that if you ever have to shut down both of those pipes, you shut the reactor down. The point of having two pipes is redundancy- if one fails, or has to be shut off for maintenance, you can still operate. Nonetheless, somebody closed both of those valves. This got me thinking- did anybody ever look into the possibility of sabotage? I won't spoil the fun- Google it for yourself, if you've a mind to. Great stroke of luck for IPC films and their distributor, Columbia Pictures. In today's dollars, the movie took in $150 million more than it cost to make. And it was a political gold strike for the anti-nuclear folks involved in the film's production. Pretty much mortally wounded the US civilian nuclear power program, which continued to bleed until Chernobyl gave it the coup-de-grace. One theory is that the accident wasn't supposed to be as bad as it was- just supposed to scare the crap out of people, like in the movie. It was the malfunctioning (probably defective by design) pressure relief valve, and the inconveniently located and ignored relief valve exhaust temperature gauge, that screwed things up to the point where they wrecked the plant. Thoughts?

((puts on Tinfoil hat))
Aliens!!! The Trilateral Commission! The Freemasons! The Society for Creative Anachronism! The John Birch Society! Area 51!
(( drools and rants as he is dragged off in a straitjacket by the Men in Black))

[kham]

Hollywood = screaming, frothing lunatics anti-nuke everything unless pays THEM + HANOI JANE ===utter bullshit propaganda

[Mynock]

Like all major accidents it's a case of a bunch of people doing the exact wrong thing at the exact wrong time to create a perfect storm.
Power generation is a matter of picking your poison. You can smash atoms for a carbon neutral energy source that creates a relatively small amount of highly toxic but easily containable waste, or you can burn fossil fuels and create a shit ton of impossible to contain greenhouse gases.
I've lived with 100 miles of no less than 8 functioning reactors at 6 separate plants my whole life. Only side effects I've ever experienced are clean air and cheap electrical bills.

[Lomax]

Given the government's (and I mean any government, anywhere in the world - some things are a constant) demonstrable incompetence in the fields of economics, education, jurisprudence, international relations, infrastructure management and just about everything else... why do people think they're good at keeping secrets?

[Conspiracy101]

Given my name I feel I'm required to chime in. Now I definitely have me fair share of conspiracy theories that I still believe in, but I joking named myself Conspiracy101 because after a while i started looking at some of the more insane (in my opinion) theories that just really go too far.

My biggest and most die hard theory, to get serious, is on that's probably been beaten to death which is the 9/11 conspiracy theory that our government did have a hand in all four planes being hijacked. I started dialing back when I was reading people theorizing that there were no planes at all and everything was just missiles being fired, bombs planted by government officials in the towers and even illuminati references were being thrown around. This was my turning point after getting sucked in for about a year where is just decided I had enough and I didn't want to become "that guy."

[Fred588]

Theories: There is a grain of truth here, but perhaps only a grain.

Man never even tried to domesticate the cat. Cats, on the other hand, have been partly successful in domesticating the human.

Beef was invented by cows as a means of assuring that there would be more cows.

One of the reasons that tinfoil hats do not work is they are mistakenly made from aluminum.

[Duncan Edwards]

Given the government's (and I mean any government, anywhere in the world - some things are a constant) demonstrable incompetence in the fields of economics, education, jurisprudence, international relations, infrastructure management and just about everything else... why do people think they're good at keeping secrets?

That's always been one of the anti-conspiracy things I held up. They can't keep a president's mistress a secret but they are going to hide an effort that would require hundreds of thousands of people? Any why is it that such a dark and monstrous apparatus as would be required to fake a moon landing remains unable to shut down a ten dollar website that knows "the truth?" (Buy my book)

Theories: There is a grain of truth here, but perhaps only a grain.

Man never even tried to domesticate the cat. Cats, on the other hand, have been partly successful in domesticating the human.

Beef was invented by cows as a means of assuring that there would be more cows.

One of the reasons that tinfoil hats do not work is they are mistakenly made from aluminum.

Cows are brilliant. I see them writing on billboards all over The South. Not the greatest penmanship but very clever.

You're right about cats. They are always wild animals but we bring them inside and feed them? Who is the smart one?

I had an actual member of the tinfoil hat brigade living across the street for a while until he was carted away to the enchanted kingdom. Spent many nights in his car because his house had been poisoned. Threw all the electronic devices out in the yard because the government was listening to him with them. The utility poles were beaming power through his brain and the reflection was reading his thoughts to some unknown forces. Wish I had been the one to send him on an actual hunt for tin rather than aluminum. That would have been as much fun as the night the cops shackled his thrashing limbs and tossed him into the magic coach. He was actually doing well with the police until they tapped politely on his car window and asked if he'd like to talk about things. His response was less than cordial -

"WHERE'S YOUR WARRANT FAGGOT?!?!"

That's when the dark forces yanked him out of his car. I guess his conspiracy theory was kind of self fulfilling.

[Mynock]

I don't know if they're technically classified as conspiracy theories but two things that have always driven me nuts were the Loch Ness Monster and Big Foot.

[Duncan Edwards]

I don't know if they're technically classified as conspiracy theories but two things that have always driven me nuts were the Loch Ness Monster and Big Foot.

Those are called "tourist attractions" under the influence.

[kham]

Every time I see those fucking retards from the badly-named Discovery channel out 'squatching' I have the desire to be up on the hill with a very big rifle and nightscope.....