machete squad hq

I’ve been meaning to start blogging again for awhile as I remember really liking it in High School when people would comment and insult me and all that good shit.  I think its time I gave it a more serious try and see if anyone takes in interest in the various things I occupy my time with other than my girlfriend, Qdoba and my substantial VHS collection.  That’s right, I still watch VHS.

Anyway, I don’t really have any idea where I’m going to take it other than I’m going to write about and explain myself regarding issues that bother me or excite me.  Of course by ‘excited’ I mean that they titilate me, get my rocks off, and may even tickle my whistle in the most disturbing and bizarre manners.  Mostly I just write about whatever is on my mind and typically I do not have an erection while doing so.  I don’t want to alienate you before you’ve even gotten a chance to know me.

I just wrote a pretty substantial blog post for one of my courses on a person I have a great deal of problems with and his tactics which I think give alternative media and its growth as legitimate discourse a bad name.  That person is conspiracy theorist and radio host Alex Jones.  I’m very critical of him and the culture surrounding him as I am of 9/11 conspiracy culture which operates on assumptions that should immediately destroy their implied credibility and “quest for truth”.  I am this critical because I remember almost being suckered in by their backhanded and manipulative tactics early in high school.  I had enough sense to keep prodding until I had a perception not wholly informed by a radio host with access to far too nice camera and editing equipment.

The unedited post is included below and is about Jones’ film The Obama Deception which claims to reveal the true motivations and desires at work in the current administration.  The class I wrote this for is a media studies course on conspiracy culture as a psychological, sociological and social cultural practice and this week’s topic is current events and Obama in particular.  Jones makes some pretty sweeping and far-fetched claims and hilariously, he started doing so less than 6 months after Obama’s election.  *Sigh*.  Just read it.

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I just wanted to clarify a bit on where I stand with Alex Jones and his techniques of evidence and portrayals in his films.  As I said earlier this semester, I actually sort of like Alex Jones.  I think he’s wholly misguided and his community is a self-fulfilling prophecy for him that allows him recognition and adoration for his supposed research and efforts but I still respect his misguided dedication to promoting a fair and just world.  In his set of assumptions, he is completely correct and enlightening people everyday.  I admire his upfront honesty and his disdain for our current governmental systems and current social disparity but I do see him as an incredibly problematic figure and a figure with a great deal relying on his theories propagating and spreading.  With that being said I am critical of Jones and his supporters for their complete non-action and heavy reliance upon non-factual and theoretical or hindsight oriented evidence.  Ultimately, Jones and his supporters have done no more than picket various political events and pamphlet every average joe that could use a bit of attention.  They haven’t introduced a succinct argument or lawsuit that directly implicates or illustrates anything other than hearsay and circumstantial evidence.  It’s a social crutch just like any other in this occasion because even the most cursory research forces The Obama Deception to completely fall apart.

The point by point rebuttal at ConspiracyScience.com is the first tool I used as I started to get into TOD.  I supplemented it with blogs and independent researchers over the film’s techniques and apparent evidence.  I understand the perception of so-called conspiracy truthers to say “Why trust them?” but to think this way is illogical upon looking into the site itself in a pretty cursory manner.  After watching and actually following up on his arguments, the real question should be “Why trust Alex Jones?” when his techniques are so often based on false assumptions and the blatant cherry picking of evidence.

ConspiracyScience.com is run by a husband and wife on their own time and money and although they do plea for donations, they do so because the research put into their work is pretty exhausting considering it requires painstakingly reading cited articles, interviews, and transcripts as well as watching relevant footage.  Check out their rationale here.  Furthermore, they actually dedicate a well thought out and rather revealing expose on the business of conspiracy culture using the example of Zeitgeist, the conspiracy “documentary” I mentioned in class.  That’s here and as you can see, there’s a huge difference between asking for small paypal contributions on a plain text site with google adsense than a multi-faceted infomediary web of sites such as those that Jones operates running with multiple banner sponsors of cash for gold or fine metals companies, non-HMO specialized meals, various online stores for conspiracy merchandise and DVDs as well as sections for appearance requests.  Jones and his pantheon of sites, media, and various programming may have a beautiful and aesthetically pleasing site design with apparently legitimate reporting but ConspiracyScience and his various detractors have something much better: perceptions of reality based on all available and logical evidence.

The rebuttal is fairly easy to follow and the research at work is fairly exhaustive considering each of his points is reinforced with contextually important information and cited adequately, something Jones films rarely do honestly.  Take for example his use of the Rahm Emanuel’s quote apparently endorsing a civilian military with “required basic training”.  What he fails to show is that the video was actually in regards to increasing funding for peace corps civilian programs that would require proper training and preparation.  He does this throughout the movie and the fact that he seems to think that the apparently corporate and government controlled media allowed their own puppet Chief of Staff managed to accidentally blow the lid off the whole thing is absurd and a gross leap of logic.  Also, considering his apparent disdain for mass media, he seems awfully comfortable citing their reports and often cites them improperly or in a manner that displays a clear and pre-existing bias.  Furthermore, his listing of various cabinet members as CFR, Bilderberg and EU members or what not are more often than not falsely cited and the member are not associated with the organizations as alleged or are being connected due to some unconfirmed and secondary relation.  Couple this with the fact that his films have no coherent and mapped trajectory, they change and morph from film to film and often from scene to scene and his arguments become less pleading for people to see the truth and more screaming “look at me” and “visit my website”.  Sometimes the government is a great shadow organization where everyone is a pawn and other times its only a select few that are moving the pieces.  Wikipedia’s list of Bilderberg group participants is fairly well researched and well cited, check that out here.

I think what it comes down to is that Alex Jones has a very romantic and sweeping notion of our actually more mundane and bureaucratic society.  The Bilderberg Group as an institution is very sweeping and seems so diabolical just because of its implications of power relations but the fact that he’s so shocked that this sort of thing exists is so bizarre to me.  These are the real merchants of change in our culture, they have the resources, understanding and scope to look and discuss the direction of our civilization.  Why wouldn’t they meet once a year?  Why not a couple more times?  Alex Jones has zero faith in the people that have the power and while I understand that perception and possess a strong disdain for what I see as an often grossly inefficient government that does not adequately represent the people, I think to assume that these meetings of people of all different backgrounds, values, desires and motivations would all be working together towards some unclear and outlandish goal that requires cooperation on every possible level of society is misguided and requires a great deal of faith in perceptions that do not contain solid and necessary evidence.  That was a long and roundabout sentence but I think you get my rant and frustration.  I guess I’m calling a spade a spade.  We deal with a great deal of pertinent and important discourse in this class (Iran Contra, JFK, Watergate, etc) but TOD is an example of profiteering and misguided whistleblowing at its core.  The fact that its production and release followed so soon after his election is reason enough to see that a thesis was mapped for this long before Jones got in touch with KRS One for an interview.

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While I understand that some of that probably made little sense if you aren’t in this class with me, I still think the critique holds up against a vast majority of conspiracy culture.  Especially titles such as Loose Change and the various other ludicrous shit that floats throughout this bathroom wall of an informational superhighway we call the internet.

I’m going to be writing frequently and about topics so diverse, you’ll probably shit the bed.  If you do, I apologize.  The truth can have that effect on people.