The Las Vegas Shooters, Conspiracy Culture, and the Media's Moral Responsibility

6/10/2014

As I’m sure most of you are aware, over the weekend two conspiracy theorists with radical views about the New World Order ambushed and killed two Las Vegas police officers and killed another person before turning the gun on themselves. The killers, Jerad and Amanda Miller, shared extreme anti-government views and believed in a coming tyranny, one predicted by right wing extremists and regularly promoted in conspiracy circles and even on cable television shows.

In a You Tube video Jerad Miller talked about “the New World Order and shit.” In another video Miller complained about government oppression and likened American government to Nazi Germany, not unlike Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson a few months ago. Carson said the America of today was “very much like Nazi Germany,” filled “with government using its tools to intimidate the population.” Miller similarly said:

You have to go get marriage licenses. You have to get a gun permit. Whatever it is, you have to go down to that big stone structure monument to tyranny and submit, crawling, groveling on your hands and knees. “Oh give me permission to do this, give me permission to do that.” I don’t know. Sounds a little like Nazi Germany to me. Or maybe communist Russia.

But that wasn’t the end of it. Miller had a range of conspiracy beliefs that closely mirrored the paranoid right-wing conspiracy fringe. While dressed as the Joker in a 2012 YouTube video, Miller discusses “FEMA concentration camps, and the New Order, vaccinating you with all these flu shots and hepatitis shots that give you little drops of mercury, which causes cancer and infertility. It’s so wicked.” His words, weirdly enough, were much less extreme than those of frequent cable TV guest and fringe writer Jim Marrs, who accused Obama and the U.S. government of restricting gun rights to pave the way for a Russian takeover and the imposition of martial law on orders from Jews.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the number of organized extremist groups in the United States has risen almost eightfold since 2008. The SPLC recognizes 1,096 such groups. Even if you disagree with the SPLC and its ideology, it is hard to deny that the vast majority of these groups do in fact have ideologies based on hate.

So why do the media treat these beliefs as entertainment?

The New World Order in particular has been a popular touchstone of “entertaining” cable television programs. Jesse Ventura made frequent reference to it on his old Conspiracy Theory TV show, and the NWO is no stranger to the H2 television channel. In addition to an episode of America Unearthed dedicated to investigating whether the quasi-governmental conspiracy was planning a mass genocide in support of liberalism, the NWO also reached its tentacles into the network’s America’s Book of Secrets conspiracy show. Earlier this year the program featured commentary from Mark Dice, the author of (and I am not making this up) Illuminati in the Music Industry, where he accuses Jay-Z and Christina Aguilera of being Illuminati agents for Satan. Dice describes himself as “fighting the New World Order.” He is a frequent guest on Coast to Coast AM and the Alex Jones Show, two other hotbeds of conspiratorial thinking. He lists his hobbies as “causing trouble for the New World Order.”

Dice specifically noted on his YouTube channel the importance of appearances on cable TV shows, despite their small viewership, for exposing new audiences to conspiracy theories: “H2 only has between 300,000 and a half a million viewers. I have probably a dozen YouTube videos with well over a million views each, just to give you a comparison, but at least it will reach the masses slurping soda on their sofas.” Good to know what he really thinks of his potential audience.

Dice believes that the Illuminati are a secret cabal who run the world for nefarious ends.

You will of course recall America Unearthed and its foray into New World Order conspiracies. There, Scott Wolter gasped in astonishment at the Georgia Guidestones, a 1980 granite construction that he declared proof of “connections” to the NWO. He called the monument’s cranky call for a reduced human population a “New World Order mandate” despite the monument never mentioning any New World Order.

And don’t forget that Wolter himself is a NWO true believer, stating in a March 28 radio appearance that he is certain a dark conspiracy is behind American government:

Do I think there’s a New World Order? Yes! Do I think there are secret societies that get together like the Bilderberg Group and make key decisions that dictate how things are going to go generally around the world? Of course!

Are you not entertained?
How about when Brad Meltzer’s Decoded investigated those same Guidestones for the History Channel in 2011 and also told tales of their occult purpose as a founding document for the New World Order to come when an apocalypse destroys most of humanity—and that the stones’ Rosicrucian builders were the real assassins of Robert F. Kennedy? Meltzer at least had the common sense to conclude that the stones are the idiot ranting of some Cold War paranoiac and not an occult secret, though it hardly excuses giving an hour of air time to lunatics raving about the Antichrist, anti-government conspiracies, and the imminent end of all flesh.

Isn’t this fun?

We can go on, of course. But what’s the point? Almost any time of day or night, a TV viewer can find a cable documentary “investigating” a paranoid conspiracy theory, but no one takes responsibility for the contributions such paranoid programming make to American culture. (It doesn’t help when tone-deaf officials like Vice President Joe Biden also speak of creating a “new world order,” as Biden did last month, apparently oblivious to its darker meaning among the paranoid fringe.)

Now obviously disturbed people do not need assistance from television (or the vice president) to justify their delusions, nor does TV turn people into killers. But why would the media want to intentionally give aid and comfort to ideologies and beliefs that have dark and tragic real world effects? I can’t help but think that every time a cable show implies that a Freemason-Illuminati-New World Order conspiracy might actually be true, it legitimizes the conspiracy just a little bit more. It was on TV, after all!

In communication theory, there is a concept called selective exposure, which helps to explain how the media influence viewers. Selective exposure researchers explain that media consumers tend to favor media messages that agree with their ideology and preexisting beliefs. Thus, conservatives are more likely to watch Fox News because it reinforces their preexisting beliefs. This tendency in turn functions to make those beliefs stronger by systematically limiting or eliminating exposure to opposing points of view. In this reading, cable TV conspiracy shows don’t create conspiracy theorists, but their constant drumbeat of paranoia reinforces conspiracy beliefs by legitimizing them, thus encouraging viewers to commit to those beliefs more strongly.

With such shows as a part of a broader conspiracy culture that includes radio shows (Coast to Coast, Alex Jones, etc.), internet sites (InfoWars.com, AboveTopSecret.com, etc.), publications, conventions, and more, it becomes possible to live in a bubble where conspiracy is normalized, reinforced because “everyone” you encounter is a believer and everything you read and watch is filtered through this belief system.

The rejoinder to this is that television is giving viewers what they want, that such programs represent free speech, and that broadcasters cannot be held responsible for what extremists do. And yet there are obviously viewpoints that TV won’t show. Explicitly racist programming, for example, is not shown, even though there are presumably more white supremacists available as viewers than the 40,000 people A. C. Nielsen reports watch the Fox Business Network. Similarly, we have no major networks making the case for communism or anarchism, nor proclaiming the truth of Hinduism. In reality, the range of acceptable viewpoints is exceedingly narrow, and this almost forces us to ask why it is that paranoid anti-government conspiracies are part of that acceptable range of public discourse.

There is a difference between freedom of speech and moral responsibility. I would never advocate censorship, and TV networks have every right to show whatever lies they’d like. But it is not too much to ask that they consider filing paranoid conspiracies alongside other topics considered too politically or socially loaded to treat as consequence-free entertainment.

59 Comments

6/10/2014 07:06:06 am

there have been several shootings of a similar nature in the
last week along with the arrival of summer weather. today
there was a minor shooting incident at a school in Oregon
that resulted in the death of a policeman and the shooter.
i can remember in the early seventies when radicals bombed
the nation's capitol building and the pentagon. the incidents
then did not have a massive loss of life but were part of an
intense radicalizing pattern that had an escalation of rhetoric
as a loose precursor. this is only a bi-election year and the
spate of primaries or caucuses are over or almost over. is it
more timed to the ending of the various school years around
the nation and the arrival of summer in a very tragic way? i've
more of an inclination to link the Marathon Bombings in my
own state to an online network than i am this suicide pact, but
i admit the FBI is not dismissing this idea out of hand in any
hurry. if we are looking for reasons, their degree of either social
isolation or involvement is a factor either way, they may have had
accomplices, and may be part of an angry fringe environment.

Steve StC

6/12/2014 03:42:47 am

Unless I'm missing something here, Jason has intimated that SW and AU are responsible for the murders in Las Vegas.

An Over-Educated Grunt

6/12/2014 03:48:35 am

You're missing a great deal, mostly between the ears. If you insist on saying that Jason blames Scott Wolter and America Unearthed, based on the text of the blog post you must also include Jesse Ventura, Brad Meltzer, and Joe Biden on that list. Your outrage is transparently selective.

Matt Mc

6/12/2014 06:07:57 am

Grunt I think his outrage is great than is IQ. Hence the reading comprehension problems.

6/12/2014 02:20:34 pm

The insults from your acolytes do nothing to diminish the facts, Jason.

Further, your acolytes never seem to dig deeper than what you and your keyboard puke up. You see, just as easily as Jason only mentioned Fox News in his diatribe, he could have focused on MSNBC and their lovely Reverend Al Sharpton. Together, then invented a guilty verdict for George Zimmerman without the necessity of a trial. Look at the result of that. Google the phrase (with the quotes) "That's for Trayvon" and look at all the hatred a knowingly false "news" station created out of thin air. Sounds similar to what you accuse others of in this blog post, Jason.

No matter what you think of SW or the others Jason slammed here, they think they're adding value and don't knowingly falsify - at least SW doesn't. MSNBC, CNN, and other left-leaning news organizations knowingly falsified the truth about Trayvon Martin by broadcasting and publishing ONLY photos of a young teen. In fact, the 17 year old Trayvon was tall, very muscular and very capable of smashing Zimmerman's head into the cement sidewalk. A jury of Zimmerman's peers found him not guilty. The Reverend Al Sharpton and MSNBC continue to treat him as otherwise.

So, while Jason only focuses on Fox News, AU, and the like, he conveniently neglected to turn the lens on his own kind. Oh, I know… Jason says he's an "independent." We all see through that Jason, and your political views aren't just worn on your sleeve with all your left-leaning diatribes, they're screaming from the rooftops.

6/12/2014 02:21:26 pm

By the way, Jason, you wrote, "…not unlike Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson a few months ago."

You neglected to put those two very important initials in front of his name. It's DR. Ben Carson, Jason. I know how important to you and your acolytes those initial are. Dr. Carson is therefore deserving of your highest respect, is he not?

Jason Colavito link

6/12/2014 02:55:11 pm

Yes, Steve, my undying hatred of conservatives would be why I also called the vice president, a liberal Democrat, tone deaf in the same article you accuse of liberal bias. ... My favorite part though has to be your race baiting in your comments on an article that was not about race. The irony is thick with you.

Only Me

6/12/2014 09:01:10 pm

After reading through Steve's latest nonsense, I realized his comments have the same symptoms as the bite of the tsetse fly.

I noticed no "facts" were established concerning his original accusation, none of his later drivel supported it and his unhealthy obsession with anything Jason Colavito-related is displayed in typical ranting fashion.

6/13/2014 01:36:03 am

Number of times Steve uses "Jason" in the last post: 7
Total number of words in post: 264
Percentage of total that are "Jason:" 2.65%

Number of times Jason uses "Scott," "Wolter," or "Scott Wolter" in his blog post: 2
Total number words in post: 1,410
Percentage of total that are "Scott," "Wolter," or "Scott Wolter:" 0.0014%

Tell us more about this obsession, please.

6/13/2014 01:39:34 am

Correction: The last number should be 0.142%, not 0.00142%.

6/15/2014 04:46:31 pm

You still have not added the "DR" in front of Ben Carson's name, Jason. You just can't bring yourself to do it, can you?

6/10/2014 07:37:25 am

http://planet.infowars.com/offbeat/the-police-to-kill-or-not-to-kill

the dude did an online rant at planet.infowars after a pot bust.

here are their 2 online profiles i found after going thru a few links.

http://planet.infowars.com/members/twiggy/profile/

http://planet.infowars.com/members/wtfdoihavetodo/

Planet InfoWars is basically an Alex Jones website + forum.

Clint Knapp

6/10/2014 07:37:58 am

An excellent summary of pretty much all of the reasons I've given up on all but the most selective television viewing at increasingly limited spans of time. Gone are the halcyon days of leaving the History Channel running in the background all day and maybe learning something other than how sad and desperate people are for attention.

Obviously, television was always about the marketing and the market goes wherever the viewership appears inclined, but I agree wholeheartedly this conspiracy-culture-smorgasbord has gone too far. Like the "reality" programming wave that hit before it, though, I don't see much hope of the trend petering out any time soon.

"Reality" shows are still going as strong as ever, spinning-off sequels to themselves, consuming entire channels in an unending cascade of cheap, ready-made tripe that turns the whole of America into a playground of carnival sideshow antics. Even channels like AMC, usually known for quality programming and themed movie marathons, can't help but jump on the bandwagon with Small Town Security as a draw for people who prefer a little less thinking involved in their television viewing. At least AMC's one foray into conspiracy was a fictional show, Rubicon, which was apparently too far over viewer's heads to be renewed.

I'd love to see both "reality" programming and conspiracy programming go the way of the dodo, but unfortunately we're going to be stuck with both for a long time to come. Maybe one day they'll collide and we'll have a "reality" show that pits conspiracy gurus against eachother in the tried and true Real World format. Won't that be lovely?

All of this, of course, leads to the big finish. If Ben Carson and Jerad Miller's "America as Nazi Germany" statement had any validity to it the current state of television would be the first thing to go. If you think a country that lets you publicly air anti-government sentiment is at all Nazi-esque, you need to go back to high school.

spookyparadigm

6/10/2014 08:05:46 am

The model here isn't reality TV, I think.

It's right-wing talk radio/internetradio. Only the most mainstream of which like Limbaugh does not routinely traffic in conspiracy theory.

They've chosen a specific audience that isn't as represented on the more premiere channels (be it the pay channels or the big broadcast). Is it any accident that the conspiracy shows are surrounded by "reality shows" that cater to/lampoon the stereotypical audience for right-wing talk radio? Honey Boo Boo? Duck Dynasty? All those swamp trucker, pawn stars, etc. etc. etc. populist shows, the cast of whom are often indistinguishable from the authority-hating ghost hunting paranormal teams?

Are they running ads for gold, survival seeds, and water filtration systems on History Channel yet?

6/10/2014 05:43:16 pm

Matt Mc makes a bit more blunt an explanation of what I was getting at with reality tv's involvement. With advertising dollars driving the content, and the general decline in those dollars (much of which seems to have something to do with DVR technology and the general ability to skip advertising), there's less money for the content that will draw viewers.

Reality TV succeeds because it's cheap and people will get as attached to it as a script-driven show if you give them something that hits enough of their interest buttons. Conspiracy shows build on this model easily enough; it's cheaper to let Scott Wolter, or Jesse Ventura, or Giorgio Tsoukalos rant about things they'll rant about anyway than it is to hire actors and script writers and all the production crew that goes with a higher-end show.

And the fringe gang will do all the content-providing for them- without being told specifically to do so. It's what they do anyway. The "reality programming" side of the show comes through again with the idea that this is all perfectly normal business for the stars.

6/11/2014 12:59:09 am

Reality TV is cheap, easy to produce and most importantly even with the most "controversial" subject matter like Jessie Ventura's show it is harmless. Even the over produced shows like 24, Game of Thrones, ect.... are harmless. Seldom is there a depth in programing.

Right now I mostly work as a freelancer on Discovery ID programs. They are horrible, poorly produced we edit them as slick as we can but honestly the guidelines they give us are of the same quality as Current Affair and Unsolved Mysteries was in the 80's and early 90's. Our topics while "disturbing" (one of our guidelines is to be disturbing as we can while playing it safe at the same time) are relatively safe and while they are true stories our job is to make them seem like that happen in a alternative world that exist outside normal life.

You see this in all the programs, seldom anymore do we see documentaries or investigative programing that really looks within it subject matter. The CNN doc about killer whales was an exception but it still played within the safe parameters, something that people can be upset about that does not affect regular lives.

I do think that broadcasters need to start holding themselves more responsible in how they present and cover events or how they are depicted in programing. While there is no real regulations for ethics a broadcaster can make good informative program that informs and entertains without aiming at the lowest common denominator. The problem is the it is the lowest common denominator that is the most susceptible to the advertising and product endorsement and therefore the target audience.

The only way to change the course of all this is for people to stop watching, instead of complaining to the broadcaster, complain to the advertisers that are on the program. I also feel that people like Jason do a great service in helping people find better correct information.

Walt

6/11/2014 06:07:09 am

But Matt, if broadcasters start holding themselves more responsible for how they cover events, they'll be off the air. That's just where we are. They have to do what sells or be out of a job. Newspapers and magazines are in the same boat, and many are gone or have a fraction of the revenue they had in the '80s. There are just too many choices who are willing to provide what people want to read or watch. If a broadcaster decides to have moral responsibility, they lose eyeballs and/or advertisers. And if they're part of a publically-traded company, that's not sustainable.

In an ideal world, sure, provide excellent programming that walks the high road. But those days are gone, and it'll only get worse, not better.

6/11/2014 06:50:27 am

Sadly Walt you are very right..

6/11/2014 07:02:52 am

It's not that sad though because it won't work in the long run. In 25 years, History, Discovery, and H2 won't exist anyway despite their last-ditch efforts to thwart the death spiral. They're just managing to survive an extra decade or two, in my opinion. Programming will still exist and be sponsored, but the middle-man is slowly being eliminated.

Jason in his 70s will be writing a book about what happened to network programming during this blip on the radar before networks, cable TV channels, and cable TV service itself disappeared.

6/11/2014 07:49:38 am

Walt, I hope Discovery is around for the next 15 years or at least until I retire since most of my work is done for them. Only thing I see as changing in the world to broadcast is a shift from over the air/ cable broadcast to full internet broadcast.

6/11/2014 08:11:03 am

Your job will always have to be done, so you'll have work. I'd expect a switch to IP broadcasting to happen first as well, so we're not close to having no broadcasters and no cable TV service.

It's happening to traditional telephone service first:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/05/verizon-att-forcing-customers-off-landline-phones-complaint-says/

They're first because so many users have already switched to IP-based phone service. Once more viewers get their content from Netflix, Youtube, or the production companies themselves, than are subscribing to cable TV service, the same thing will happen to cable service. At some point, providing traditional cable service just won't be profitable, just like traditional phone service isn't right now.

6/11/2014 08:25:27 am

The switch already has started on my end. I do a lot of working on short and extras that are broadcast on the webpages. I know when we submit shows for final Q&A now we are submitting a two versions one for broadcast and the other encoded for both HTML5 and Flash broadcast. Not that I mind too much but it gives me a lot more downtime.

6/11/2014 09:28:40 am

Interesting. You'll probably be one of the first people to see the demise of the networks coming then. Once you start getting work from the makers instead of the network, it's probably the beginning of the end. It's just a matter of time before the makers decide they don't really need a cable TV network for their content.

Jason still prefers to be published, rather than self-publishing, partly for emotional reasons. Some of that emotion will overlap, but it'll fade.

6/13/2014 10:02:45 am

YouTube in 3-D mode interactively in its new incarnation
via the ability to selectively create channels + play lists is
where the future is to be at in 20 to 30 years? either one
big huge conglomerate or oligarchy controls all our mass
media or the age of the behemoths is over and we are all
mammalian anarchists who are in awe as the "dinos" go
extinct. this would fragment all market niches even further
as the means of production become cheaper and cheaper.

6/10/2014 07:40:00 am

In my opinion, you're giving the networks too much credit by assuming moral responsiblity is the reason they won't show "too politically or socially loaded" programming. In reality, they just fear a backlash. You've mentioned repeatedly that they won't air shows discounting the Holocaust, but I say they'd be more than happy to do that if, at some point, they determine it won't cause them too many problems.

They want eyeballs with little or no backlash. I don't think factualness or moral responsibility are considered. Deciding to air a show is just a calculation, in my opinion. They can get away with factless conspiracy theories and anti-government NWO talk right now. In 20 years, they may get away with extreme racism and Holocaust denial. If they can, they will.

And the guidestones are the "Georgia Guidestones", not George. That does make them sound very friendly though.

Not the Comte de Saint Germain

6/10/2014 08:04:40 am

Good point. People on both sides of the political spectrum complain of media bias and assume it's deliberate. In some cases I'm sure it is, but the overriding motivation is entirely amoral. Above all, the media just want to make money.

6/10/2014 08:15:26 am

It really comes down to guidelines from the advertisers. When I was at CNN there were certain topics we never explored or only grazed over because advertisers had requested us not to address the subject. One of the reasons I decided to leave CNN. In recent years I have freelanced at FOX NEWS and was surprised that most of the technical and on air production staff is very liberal including producers, the conservative slant and topics are dictated by the management and advertisers. In fact inquires with some friends who still work there about the lack of coverage on the Las Vegas shootings I was told that a certain lobby group that feeds a lot of money to FOX requested minimal coverage.

I will say in my experience working in cable and broadcast news there is little if any moral decisions made, the only thing that matters is will the stories bring in the ratings that in turn bring in more advertisers or will it make our current clients happy. The one exception is local news which does take its community more seriously.

6/10/2014 12:55:28 pm

I never imagined the suggestions from management and advertisers would be so blatant. I at least gave them the benefit of the doubt that they would use focus groups and social media to judge what people wanted, which feels a step above being dictated to by advertisers.

But, I can't blame any content provider for their choices. These are very tough times to be trying to make a buck off of original content, in any form.

6/10/2014 01:01:19 pm

Walt they can be very blatant, if an advertiser has a certain feeling about a topic the use there might. When I was at CNN, Coke and Pepsi were pushing strong for us to stop airing stories about how bad for you sodas were. Guess what happened, we stopped airing stories about soda's. Understand large advertisers invest 100's of millions a year at these networks and can and will dictate how things are presented. Honestly when it comes to all forms of television (even public because all those shows are underwritten meaning the Corporations have even more control) is dictated by advertisers and only advertisers. Everything else is secondary and things change real quick when major advertisers make strong threats.

Also just so no one gets the wrong inference it the powerful Lobby group in mentioned was not the NRA.

6/10/2014 08:16:49 am

Damn autocorrect. I have fixed the Guidestones' name.

6/10/2014 07:55:19 am

this story brings up his felony auto theft conviction...

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/06/09/video-emerges-of-las-vegas-cop-killer-speaking-at-bundy-ranch-why-he-and-his-wife-were-allegedly-kicked-out-during-standoff-with-feds/

if the dude was very good at ripping off cars, we have an
underworld connection, in addition to the many social skills
implied by a major or minor pot bust. dude had a record.
this is more than a Roaring Twenties "Black Sun" nihilism
or an activist going "postal" on the gov't people, dude had a
record and sadly was in the process of deciding whether to
turn his young life around... or... stew much more deeply in
his own deeds and their logical "blowback" that seems direct
and very "cause + effect" related. dude did the crime and is
upset about the length time, and the terms around his parole.
i'd so love to blame this all on Alex Jones or the Neo-Nazis
but this is only just one aspect of this in terms of networking.
if the dude stole cars, he sold 'em to somebody somewhere.
Adolf Hitler didst purge Ernst Rohm + fellow street punks.
Many of the Nazis were thugs and not law biding people, yes.

6/10/2014 08:53:47 am

the Mother Jones people checked out a FB page...

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/06/jerad-amanda-miller-las-vegas-shooting-cliven-bundy-anti-government

here is Bosley Crother's review of Bonnie And Clyde in 1967
that got him ultimately fired.

http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=EE05E7DF173CE361BC4C52DFB266838C679EDE

"A raw and unmitigated campaign of sheer press-agentry has been trying to put across the notion that Warner Brothers' Bonnie and Clyde is a faithful representation of the desperado careers of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, a notorious team of bank robbers and killers who roamed Texas and Oklahoma in the post-Depression years.

It is nothing of the sort. It is a cheap piece of bald-faced slapstick comedy that treats the hideous depredations of that sleazy, moronic pair as though they were as full of fun and frolic as the jazz-age cutups in Thoroughly Modern Millie. And it puts forth Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in the leading roles, and Michael J. Pollard as their sidekick, a simpering, nose-picking rube, as though they were striving mightily to be the Beverly Hillbillies of next year."

We can argue that cinema tanked after the Hays Office ceased
to be, but Bosley Crowther was a compelling writer in his day. Roger Ebert emerged and eventually took his place, in time...

i can read Bonnie&Clyde, the Manson Cult, the UniBomber
or Herr Hister into the dude's rants or reasons, but as i read
more closely, they as a FOLIE 'A DEUX pair upset even the
respectable and normal radical right. they have a downward
and depressing spiral that they took out on three total strangers.
Again, rest in peace Bosley Crowther. You were and are correct.

"It has Mr. Beatty clowning broadly as the killer who fondles various types of guns with as much nonchalance and dispassion as he airily twirls a big cigar, and it has Miss Dunaway squirming grossly as his thrill-seeking, sex-starved moll. It is loaded with farcical holdups, screaming chases in stolen getaway cars that have the antique appearance and speeded-up movement of the clumsy vehicles of the Keystone Kops, and indications of the impotence of Barrow, until Bonnie writes a poem about him to extol his prowess, that are as ludicrous as they are crude.

Such ridiculous, camp-tinctured travesties of the kind of people these desperados were and of the way people lived in the dusty Southwest back in those barren years might be passed off as candidly commercial movie comedy, nothing more, if the film weren't reddened with blotches of violence of the most grisly sort.

Arthur Penn, the aggressive director, has evidently gone out of his way to splash the comedy holdups with smears of vivid blood as astonished people are machine-gunned. And he has staged the terminal scene of the ambuscading and killing of Barrow and Bonnie by a posse of policemen with as much noise and gore as is in the climax of The St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

This blending of farce with brutal killings is as pointless as it is lacking in taste, since it makes no valid commentary upon the already travestied truth. And it leaves an astonished critic wondering just what purpose Mr. Penn and Mr. Beatty think they serve with this strangely antique, sentimental claptrap, which opened yesterday at the Forum and the Murray Hill."

The 1967 New York Times review is the swansong of the era
and if you factor in the Goth look from the early eighties, they
as a couple could have been cast in a remake of Arthur Penn's
classic movie. the radicalism of the 60s +70s polarized our
political dialogue, life ceased to have the Cold War nerves and
apathy most manifest in the 1950s. I feel sorry for the two cops
and the sincere civilian who tried to draw on them in Wal-Mart.

6/10/2014 08:00:54 am

You refer to Illuminati in the music industry as if it's a surprising subject for the conspiracists. Trust me, it isn't. The paranoia sector of the blogosphere is littered with ravings about the Illuminati symbolism in pop concerts and music videos. When people read a plain old triangle as an emblem of the NWO, they can label anybody as part of the conspiracy. Literally anybody; didn't you know that Jay-Z and Beyoncé's daughter's odd name is an acronym for Born Living Under Evil, Illuminati's Very Youngest?

Something odd about the modern brew of fringe conspiracy theory is how it consists of tropes from New Age spirituality (which tends to appeal to hippy-dippy elements on the left of the political spectrum) and right-wing populist conspiracy theory. Obviously the shooters in Las Vegas were affected by the latter set of ideas. I expect the same is true of most other militant right-wing types. But Wolter's searches for a matriarchal version of Christianity and for New World Order conspiracies running through history show how the two themes can be intertwined. The most bonkers product of this ideological milieu that I've seen is an e-book titled "The Myth around Supriem David Rockefeller", whose mixture of 2012-related mysticism and conspiracy makes Wolter's book look levelheaded. Who in the 1960s would have expected that the John Birchers' phobia of world government and the hippies' eagerness for the Age of Aquarius would become part of the same spectrum of fringe ideas?

6/10/2014 08:15:43 am

I think the Illuminati in music (or more specifically, hip hop) thing is off the radar of a lot of fringe-watchers because it has a very demographic than what they usually track.

One of the great ironies of skepticism is that many who devote their time to it are often very similar in a number of respects to those they attack. I think they have to be, to be able to speak the same language of meaning, of why these topics are important. A lot of skeptic origin stories start with believing in certain topics, and then becoming dismayed when they found out their sources were lying to them.

The Illuminati of Jim Marrs or Alex Jones has more to do with Cold War America and modernism. Whereas anyone looking at the Illuminati that incorporates Jay-Z should probably go back and start with Robert Johnson and the crossroads.

6/10/2014 08:51:42 am

In my experience the people who see Illuminati symbolism in pop music aren't just talking about hip-hop. I've seen it claimed about every big name in pop music today—except the country stars (hmm, wonder why).

If by Robert Johnson you mean the blues singer who's said to have sold his soul to the Devil, I don't see a direct connection. Maybe I'm missing something. I do suspect that apocalyptic Christian conspiracy theory, which often characterizes the Illuminati/NWO as a

6/10/2014 09:14:47 am

Sorry; I hit a wrong button and accidentally posted before I finished.

In my experience the people who see Illuminati symbolism in pop music aren't just talking about hip-hop. I've seen it claimed about every big name in pop music today—except the country stars (hmm, wonder why).

If by Robert Johnson you mean the blues singer who's said to have sold his soul to the Devil, I don't see a direct connection. Maybe I'm missing something. I do suspect that apocalyptic Christian conspiracy theory, in which the Illuminati/NWO often foreshadows or serves the Antichrist, is an important part of the picture. Christian apocalypticism has a natural overlap with white right-wing anti-government crowd. Apocalyptic conspiracy theory also treats occult and New Age beliefs, and the ancient religions they like to draw upon, as manifestations of the Satanic evil, on the age-old Christian principle that one culture's god is another culture's devil. I wonder if Milton William Cooper was the among the first conspiracy theorists to draw all this stuff together: ancient mystery religions, secret societies, occultists, evil government, and UFOlogy to boot. Plus, a lot of conservative Christians despise Hollywood for corrupting "traditional values", so it's an easy step for those with an apocalyptic bent to characterize the entertainment industry as being run by Satanic Illuminati. Is that the sort of thing you were getting at?

Anyway, I suppose some conspiracist New Agers have taken these Christian apocalyptic themes and re-adapted them. Bizarre how these opposed ideologies feed on each other.

6/10/2014 10:08:52 am

I would agree with almost everything you've written above, but while the Illuminati music thing has spread (and as you note, not into country as AFAIK), generally, its current iteration seems to have squarely started in hip hop, and then sort of looped back around, back into the older ideas of Satanic rock music and their darker cousins, NWO conspiracy theory.

I think Cooper may have been the first to successfully meld these ideas with UFOs, making UFOs somewhat demonic. But all the bits were out there, and in some of the UFO-ish places, for a while. Just two that come to mind are

- Long John Nebel and his wife Candy Jones. Nebel was the Art Bell before Art Bell, with a similar impact on UFO and related culture. Nebel married in midlife Candy Jones, a WWII-era pinup model who became a dance instructor. At some point, Nebel and Jones started regressing her memories and created a narrative that she had been an MKULTRA victim, turned into a courier and otherwise used and abused in a second sleeper personality. I don't know if Nebel hooked this into the religious right stories of Satanic cults and perverted elites, but they are now.

- I was listening a few weeks ago to an interview with Loren Coleman, and he mentioned his early Fortean ultradimensional days co-writing with Jerome Clark (not that Coleman ever gave it up entirely, his Twilight Language blog is, to put it politely, incredibly eccentric). He alluded to Clark wanting to name names on similar ideas, at least from what I could intimate. I now want to go back and read their co-authored book (I've got it, haven't read it yet) and see if Clark was in on that business.

786 choruses

6/10/2014 12:29:56 pm

"Wolter's searches for a matriarchal version of Christianity and for New World Order conspiracies running through history show how the two themes can be intertwined"

Wolter should include Mother Teresa's son into the mix. He's living in Fort Worth.

6/10/2014 12:31:41 pm

I forgot to add, Mother Teresa's love-child was fathered by James Brown.

6/10/2014 08:05:55 am

Seems they were fans of CopBlock.org and Larken Rose.

this is an InfoWars posting he did, where he doesn't explain
his felony conviction but does complain about the police...

"I stand at a point in my life where I am on probation for selling marijuana. I take urine screens frequently and I am forced to take drug classes I do not need. Before I got arrested I had 2 jobs and was selling weed to my friends and family on the side. Now I cannot find a job. My probation officer states that if I protest that my probation will be violated. They have tried to tell my fiance, who has no criminal record, that she may not own a firearm if I live in the house. Now, i face a dire problem. At any time the police could show up to my house and enter it for any reason at all, because, since I’m on probation aparently I dont have my 4th amendment right and neither does my fiance. I live in Indiana and recently a law was passed named the right to resist law. As i can make out from it, if a police officer kicks in my door and is not there legally, then I may shoot him. But what is legal? A warrant signed by a judge? What if that judge however enforces unconstitutional laws? Locks people in cages for putting a substance into their bodies. I was arrested for a crime, that is a felony, yet i hurt no one. Never laid a hand on a person or their property. Was selling something on the black market that is in high demand. Yet there is no victim in the crime i committed, so how can that be a felony charge? A charge that takes my 1st, 2nd, and 4th right away? How can this be? Do I really live in a free country? So here I sit today pondering………….

Before I go any further however, i would like to tell you a story about a friend of mine. He got charged with a misdomenor for having a marijuana pipe on him. He was released from jail and he was given the wrong court date. He then had an arrest warrant out for him. I was at his house late one night playing a video game with him. A knock on the door came. He opened the door and cops shoved him to the ground and came rushing in guns drawn. several of the police officers were wearing ski masks. 2 police officers then shoved guns in my face fingers on the triggers as the rest swept the house. They pulled his father who was asleep from his bed and dragged him into the living room. I was ordered to lay face down on the floor as they searched me. Finally after running my name they uncuffed me and his father and took my friend to jail. Before we knew what was going on it was over and I felt as if I had taken a trip back in time to nazi germany.

Now, that was my last encounter with police officers. I’m afraid they may try to do some stuff like that to my fiance and I. For the most part, I’m a law abiding citizen. I believe in Gods law. You know the ones. Dont steal, dont murder, etc. I fear that if they came, even with a warrant, that I feel they are being unlawfull and infringing upon my rights. I feel that I have been violated and tread upon. That the so called justice system has done me harm. I do not wish to kill police. I understand that most of them believe they are doing the right thing. Yet, I will not go to jail, because I have not committed a crime! I would rather die than be labeled as a criminal. Let them call me a terrorist. Let them label me as a fanatic, some nut job. I know the truth, and so does God. I’m sure our founding fathers were labeled as such. Call me a radical, i will wear that badge with pride. Because America is a radical idea! Brought up upon radical thinking. That each man has constitutional rights that are God given and cannot be taken away no matter what. I refuse to stand by and let them dictate my life. My family loves me, my neighbors love me. I do good for the community, more than any cop can claim. How can a police officer have a consience arresting people who have done nothing to harm a fellow american? How can they sleep at night? I wouldnt be able to. So as i reflect, I’m being pushed further and further into a corner. I am like a wild coyote. You corner me, I will fight to the death. I love America, i love the idea of it. I am broken hearted tho to see people so pacified by materealism and obsession with hollywood stars. It is our duty as American citizens to stand against tyranny. To stand against corruption at all levels. How did this happen? That patriots like me could be resting under the boot of tyrants, and as i plead for help from my fellow americans they just walk on by. All the while thinking, at least its not happening to me. Yet, the sad thing is, it is happening to them. So, do I kill cops and make a stand when they come to get me? I would prefer to die than sit in their jail, when I have done nothing to hurt anyone."

Varika

6/12/2014 01:33:47 pm

He lost any sympathy from me when he mentioned that he's a drug dealer. He knowingly violates the law and expects that he won't have to ever pay a price for that? Doesn't matter how he feels about that law, he broke it anyway. Why does he expect SYMPATHY for this?

6/13/2014 10:07:26 am

he also stole cars and did a few
other things of an illegal nature.
he was not an ideologue on an
anarcho-capitalist tear decrying
all monopolies + conglomerates.

6/10/2014 08:14:34 am

even the radical fringe on the right has second thoughts
about them as a couple, when being at the Bundy ranch...
the pair had underworld connections, and were hostile.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_POLICE_SHOT_LAS_VEGAS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-06-09-15-44-59

6/10/2014 08:25:43 am

(from the AP story)

Jerad Miller had been convicted of felony vehicle theft and other offenses in Washington state between 2001 and 2003, according to a Washington State Patrol database. He also had a criminal record in Indiana.

Although police believe the shootings were an isolated act, not part of a broader conspiracy to target law enforcement, Sheriff Doug Gillespie said Monday he was pairing officers together for safety. For now, 300 will be on patrol at any given time - twice what is normal.

6/10/2014 08:29:39 am

they had only recently moved into Las Vegas.
the poor guy at the Wal-Mart had a gun permit
and tried to draw on them after hearing gunfire.
three tragic and needless deaths, from what i
can see, as the media is getting the details still.

6/18/2014 09:17:53 pm

there is a story making the rounds that the pair became
paid informers and that this all had happened before they
had to leave the Bundy Ranch in Nevada. am not in shock.
like that too might have been part of the downward spiral.
they were too vocal and perhaps too agent provocateur.

Shawn Flynn

6/10/2014 10:14:40 am

Apperently they were to extreme even for the Cliven Bundy bunch and they kicked them out or it was on account of the guys felony conviction they kicked him out. I find it rather disturbing that far right wing milita groups are America's biggest internal threat but they also had the clout to stop investigations into them.

Paul Cargile

6/11/2014 02:28:02 am

Internal threat to what?

6/11/2014 07:27:09 am

Threat to whoever they happen to target, or whoever gets in the way, like in the Oklahoma City bombing. The militia types aren't going to take over the country by violence any more than al-Qaeda was, but some of them have the potential to do serious damage. At the height of the War on Terror, a white supremacist was arrested with an arsenal that no al-Qaeda operative in the US could have amassed.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1229/p02s01-usju.html

Shane Sullivan

6/10/2014 11:32:20 am

I always figured the Jay-Z/Illuminati connection was that his single "Show Me What You Got" had something resembling the Eye of Providence on the cover. That might not be the source, as it sounds like such connections were being made long before the single was released in 2006. I suppose the cover could be someone's attempt to cash in on those imagined connections.

Or maybe it's just a coincidence, since it's just a man's hands in a triangle shape with a light shining through the center, not explicitly an Eye of Providence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Show_Me_What_You_Got

6/10/2014 02:55:09 pm

Apparently it's a symbol of Rock-A-Fella Records, which Jay-Z co-founded, though it's not the official logo. It does predate 2006 by at least a year, as demonstrated by this story from 2005:

http://nahright.com/news/2005/12/03/jay-z-sued-over-roc-a-fella-hand-gesture/

As far as I can determine through casual searching, the link in the popular imagination between hip-hop and the Illuminati dates to Tupac Shakur's album The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, from 1996. Apparently in that album Shakur insulted several other rappers, including Jay-Z, and implied they were out to kill him, which is probably an exaggeration of a rap feud that he really was involved in at the time. Shakur was murdered before the album's release, and the crime was never solved. It's understandable that speculation would spring up around that, Kennedy-style. The conspiracy theory is that he discovered some kind of malicious Illuminati activity in the music industry and was killed as a result; no wonder the conspiracy-minded would assume Jay-Z was involved. What I don't know yet is what Shakur meant to convey by talking about the Illuminati, assuming he did not actually uncover nefarious activities on their part. Anyway, some segments of the black community have jumped to the further conclusion that any strange deaths of black celebrities are Illuminati-related. I'm sure that assumption is boosted because the deaths of Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston took place during the proliferation of online Illuminati paranoia that began in the late 2000s. Conspiracy theory treads strange and tortuous paths.

Terry link

6/12/2014 04:02:50 am

The symbols are there, and put there intentionally. People calling them Illuminati symbols is factually incorrect as the only true Illuminati symbol is the owl of wisdom. The rest of the symbols they find in theses videos come from masonry and/or the occult or the western esoteric tradition at large.

The videos contain these images more and more because of the sheer number of people speculating on them. There's a market for it and they give them what they want. Just like they found out that Alex Jones is watched millions of times a week. They want some of those eyeballs too.

Further exploitation of the occult symbolism craze has overtly carried over into clothing lines. It's big business now, and they know what they are doing.

BillUSA

6/10/2014 09:04:18 pm

As I've grown older and hopefully wiser, I have recently learned that I cannot lump all Liberals or all Conservatives or all Independents together into their respective groups. My most scathing of political comments on news websites of late have included the proviso that I don't mean this or that toward all _______'s.

Since I am an Independent voter, I try to get a balanced look at the news. I don't rely solely on one source or even have a primary source. But I have to admit that there are far more left leaning news sources than independent or right leaning news sources.

In recent years I have found Lou Dobbs, Bret Baier and Mike Huckabee to be the most level-headed of the FOX network. Neil Cavuto is financially smart but he gets too excited for me and the rest of the hosts of the other night time shows are just too aggressive for me. I like Robin Meade for her way of presenting the news even if Wolf Blitzer gets the heavy stuff. OAN has gotten much of my attention of late and I like what I've seen so far.

But I'm not about to lump Bill O'Reilly with the right wing extremists or draw a connection between ACORN and Anderson Cooper because that is too wide a lens to look at something as intricate as the political spectrum.

As far as the tragic shooting's go.....

There is a disturbing trend regarding the fringe groups and moreso the fringe shooters seeking attention. Personally, I thought it contradictory of the Las Vegas killers to off themselves after saying a revolution has begun. That is why this subject is mostly in the realm of mental health issues. The conspiracy views are just a catalyst.

I say that because the knee-jerk reaction is to ban guns and the right to own them. If I lost a loved one to a senseless rampage I'd feel the same way. But the pragmatic side of me would wrestle with that thought because taking our right to bear arms away will not solve anything.

It's the fashionable thing to do while giving passing mention to the mental imbalance of the perpetrators. I often hear friends, family, co-workers and neighbors mention the bizarre or disturbing behavior of an individual after the fact, but the conversation - the obsession - always turns to the guns. Take away guns, then you'll have to take away bombs, knives, cars, tanks, planes, ignition sources, handcuffs, archery weapons, water, bioweapons and even gravity. It's like fighting insanity with insane measures.

I'd rather have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have one. Being a victim is not in my genes.

I go to bed at night knowing that I have some firepower to defend myself and my family within reach in case somebody is intent on hurting any of us. I'll be calling 911 for the intruder's sake afterwards.

titus pullo

6/11/2014 04:00:39 am

I would suggest the rise of conspiracy theories and whole cottage industries selling and profiting from them accelerates when people feel that the foundation of society is being threatened. They have no "anchor" and look for other answers as well as lashing out at the existing structure. In the current wave of this I would say started in 2008 with the financial crisis. The way it was handled was to paper over the problem for the benefit of govt and the financial elite, you simply cannot bail out very wealthy folks and well connected groups without there being disgust in society. The rise of the "liberty" movement and so on is related to this. While the media portrays these folks as "crazy"..many "tea party" types just want sound money, limited govt, free markets and peace. Does that mean all of them support violence? No and just because you don't believe in the Federal Reserve (a cartel of the worst sort), foreign wars, the drug war and so on you are an extremist. That is painting in too broad a stroke. People feel alienated and to continue the current situation is to just play on this and create more people wanting to lash out. When the liberal authoritarians allow the rest of us to have a say in society, in education-yes maybe local communities can decide how to educate their kids, in economics (sorry no crony capitalism, no bailouts, no "green" or agricultural or any subidizes to well connected folks, and so on...to allow people to run their lives with minimal "elite" oversight...you will see all this go away. the more the nanny state rams their views on everything on the citizens, the more people will get marginalized and that is a very bad thing...

jase

6/12/2014 07:40:54 pm

"Similarly, we have no major networks making the case for communism,"

Jason, I think that MSNBC makes that case pretty much on a daily basis. They normally do not advocate for the establishment of a dictatorship of the proletariat, but in terms of ideology and worldview, they are certain;y

6/12/2014 07:52:12 pm

Sorry, 2:51 am and I am half asleep and I hit the wrong keys and do not know how to edit my previous post. I was trying to make the point that MSNBC is at least on the same level as Fox News in promoting political propaganda that attracts extremists. If I remember correctly, MSNBC was pretty aggressive in promoting the Occupy Wall Street Movement, which included a fair amount of communist and anarchist ideology and also the demonization of Jewish bankers, and there were some radicals attached to that ideology who were caught by law enforcement planning some significant acts of violence, such as destruction of bridges, etc.

6/13/2014 11:56:39 am

Adam Kokesh has just waded into the mass media coverage...

http://www.salon.com/2014/06/12/libertarian_pundit_adam_kokesh_defends_las_vegas_shooters_for_not_necessarily_unjustified_violence/

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/12/libertarian-host-who-inspired-vegas-killers-they-were-victims-murdering-cops-saves-lives/

http://wonkette.com/551517/adam-kokesh-your-gun-fondling-gandhi-explains-why-las-vegas-cops-had-it-coming

http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2014/06/09/alleged-las-vegas-cop-killers-in-patriot-movement-warned-of-sacrifices/

https://www.facebook.com/ADAMVSTHEMAN

JaredMithrandir link

7/4/2014 05:23:10 am

And using these isolated incidents to demonize "Conspiracy Theorists" is what the State wants. Just like they want us Demonizing Muslims as Terrorists who 'Hate us for our Freedom"

careers link

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