Monday, January 18, 2010

It May Be A Conspiracy

The following has some people exercised. E.g., mary-rosh-federal-agent  

Quoting from an academic article by Cass Sunstein, a prominent FOO.
[W]e suggest a distinctive tactic for breaking up the hard core of extremists who supply conspiracy theories: cognitive infiltration of extremist groups, whereby government agents or their allies (acting either virtually or in real space, and either openly or anonymously) will undermine the crippled epistemology of believers by planting doubts about the theories and stylized facts that circulate within such groups, thereby introducing beneficial cognitive diversity. (Page 219.)
-- "Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures." (J. Political Philosophy, 7 [2009], pp. 202-227
Cass Sunstein, Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
Beside showing the low estate to which political philosophy has fallen since Aristotle's day, it raises a peculiar point.
  
To what extent is the response to people convinced that government conspiracies are after them to set up a government conspiracy to go after them?

1 comment:

  1. That is so out of touch it's baffling. End conspiracies by justifying them!

    Here's a more in-depth article from Salon: http://preview.tinyurl.com/yjvqvt5 .

    ReplyDelete

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