Legally, a conspiracy is defined as: An agreement between two or more persons to engage jointly in an unlawful or criminal act, or an act that is innocent in itself but becomes unlawful when done by the combination of actors. These are “Little c” types of conspiracies and they occur all the time. Yet, the term “Conspiracy Theory” does not attach. What does it take to elevate a run-of-the-mill “Little c” conspiracy into a full fledged “Conspiracy Theory“???
Most dictionaries define Conspiracy Theory as “a theory that explains an event or set of circumstances as the result of a secret plot by usually powerful conspirators.” Using this definition, it is easy to see how the 9-11 Truthers and Moon Landing Deniers fit the mold. Only POWERFUL conspirators could have pulled these tricks off. After all, there were videos of both events.
But, I would argue that a really good Conspiracy Theory needs at least two more elements to rise above the simple “Little c” conspiracy level. First, a relatively large number of conspirators to participate in the cover-up activities. Second, the conspiracy needs to be about something important and out of the ordinary which requires a lot of cover-up activities. Once again, applying these criteria to the 9-11 Truthers and Moon Landing Deniers, show they fit easily into this enhanced criteria.
Both 9-11 and the Moon landing were important events and out of the ordinary, and any conspiracy would have required a lot of participants and cover-up activities. It would have taken a large number of active conspirators to plant bombs in the World Trade center, and steal aircraft, and crash them. It would have taken a lot to cover it all up. It would have taken large numbers of active conspirators to act in the Moon Landing re-enactment, and film it, and design all the props. Plus, it would have required large numbers of silent onlookers willing to just keep their mouths shut about what was really going on, and help cover it up. For example, the people sitting at their computer screens and looking at blinking lights in Cape Canaveral pretending something real was going on.
And, the large numbers of conspirators is one of the things which make the real Conspiracy Theories hard to swallow in the first place, because people like to talk. The more active conspirators and the more silent onlookers involved, the less likely the story is true, or even possible. Plus, the more activity required to make the conspiracy work, the more people who must be involved. From the carpenters and electricians down to the people delivering pizzas to them. All this extra activity also make the Conspiracy Theory seem more bizarre and implausible. With that behind us, let us examine Birtherism to see if ever fit any of the criteria for a genuine Conspiracy Theory.
Birtherism, insofar as it relates to an overseas birth, would have required a fake or phony birth certificate be filed in 1961 in Hawaii. This would have required but two conspirators. One, presumably a grandparent, and two, a willing participant at the Bureau of Vital statistics. Once a fake birth certificate was placed into the files in 1961, it would require little or no further activity from that point forward. Any driver’s licenses or bar applications or passports would have required no active conspirators or silent onlookers. Yet, the Obotski have repeatedly portrayed Birtherism as implicitly requiring these unnecessary participants.
How much activity would it have taken to pull this off? Not much. No carpenters behind the scenes. No, directors or scripts. No actors or extras. No pyrotechnics or stunt doubles. No criminal mastermind to put it all together. No, document fraud was pretty easy in those days of 1961. In fact, birth certificate fraud itself is pretty easy. Doubt it??? Here, is a link to a 31 page government report about Birth Certificate Fraud:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/54392994/Birth-Certificate-Fraud
Would faking a birth certificate require powerful conspirators??? Nope. Just a grand parent and a clerk. Would faking a birth certificate require large numbers of people acting to cover anything up??? Assuming a birth in a third world country in 1961 would have even resulted in a birth certificate, maybe a bribe or two to lift it from the files. Such things happen regularly, and are not anything out of the ordinary. But strictly speaking, even this would not have been required.
Would it have required large numbers of silent onlookers to fake an Hawaiian birth certificate??? Again, no. Was Obama’s birth in 1961 an important event??? Not outside of his family. Yet, again the Obotski take this opportunity to mis-characterize Birtherism as requiring the fakery be tied to Obama’s presidential aspirations 50 years after the fact. This is a blatant attempt to mislead. Few, if any Birthers, have ever maintained the fakery was done so that Obama might one day be president. Frankly, I have never seen it set forth that way outside of Obotski scribblings. There were good reasons for Obama’s family to want him to be an American citizen in 1961 which had nothing whatsoever to do with running for president.
Might a politician or two, or some other people, have become involved in this along the way??? It is possible, but not necessary. Only one or two people in Hawaii have ever seen the actual original paperwork. If they were involved in some way, it would only have been 50 years years after the fact, and in more of the cover up role. And still, the number of conspirators could be counted on one hand. This is less than the number of people who helped cover up Arnold Schwarzenegger’s love child for ten years. Sometimes these things just take on a life of their own for political or other reasons.
This branch of Birtherism, the one questioning where Obama was born, was about possible document fraud. Document fraud is easy. It is occurring now, on a massive scale in our country. Some admit it. Some try to cover it up. Some, are employees of the government. These things have a life of their own.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/05/former-lps-employees-allege-30-to-78-error-rate-in-borrower-mortgage-records-contradicting-bankerregulator-cover-up.html
Summing this all up, it is clear that among the Birthers who questioned whether or not Obama was born in Hawaii, there was never a need for a Grand Unified Conspiracy Theory to tie it all together. The Obotski who said there was, were simply lying, or carelessly parroting the lies of others.
Squeeky Fromm,
Girl Reporter
[Note: My BFF, Fabia Sheen, proofread this for me and added a few things. Thank you!!!]
No comments:
Post a Comment