Re:
The only "gripe" I have with the person suggesting "Conspiracy Theory is For Money" link is this...
Until the internet, exposure at a wide scale that is economically feasible was D A M N near impossible. We take it for granted that a message can get out so easily, but let's consider for one moment what we would do to disseminate information at a large scale without using the net?
-Fliers? (cost money/time/person must work to supply money)
-Newspaper/Print?
-Books?
-Appearances/Interviews?
-Meetings?
I suppose a person COULD just go door to door, but then he would be walking, and in order to reach the MOST people, he would have to quit his job, or start up funding. Moreover, going door to door is HIGHLY inefficient. For a movement of thought to gather steam, it needs a little bit of inertia. Most people being lemmings, any new movement needs a base of confidence upon which "less sure" people can grasp and join.
Of course, that isn't the exact following you want, but as long as it spreads, you will gain exposure.
Keep in mind, Print exposure via newspaper/fliers was very cheap, until Civil Wars drove prices up.
Then came Radio, and anyone could broadcast information, and in walks the FCC, NBC, and ABC, who come to govern 90%+ of all communications.
I don't expect content to cost alot, but I don't expect it to be free. I can empathise with someone telling me that it OUGHT to be free so that you know the intentions are PURE. However, if something similar to Net Neutrality fails, we've lost our greatest medium, or greatest connection across the globe, and the free dispursement of information will be lost.
Current generations take for granted how efficient the internet is, and its THANKS to the internet that people have the chance to think for themselves. Prior to the widespread flow of information, you had to "hope" you encountered a revolutionary idea or book, or find the obscure book at a library or maybe random newsletter. But how?
All this GLOBAL information, and no SINGLE source to retrieve it from?
Its easy to DEBUNK conspiracy info because it was inhibited by high barriers to entry...money, time, collection, dispersion. Even if some Ex-Army General had tons of information, who would give him the opportunity to publish it? If it wouldn't make much, no one would take on the project?
You can say "well, if it's true, people will buy it."
Not so,
How are people to know what's true, if they are told what's false most of the time?
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/index.htm
Read that. Or at least review it. I own it. It has innumerable references. Make sure you keep a dictionary handy, he has a very prodigious vocabulary.
If, since the induction of Government-run schools and compulsory education, combined with corporate controlled and owned media, we have been lied to, and for a SPLIT second were to hear the truth....would we know the difference?
I very much think we would not.
If you are lied to from a VERY early age, and the lies are SO widespread, so ingrained in every aspect of life, the truth would appear to be MORE of a lie, than the lies would appear to be Truth.
It's very much like the "Matrix's" example of how humanity was given the chance at a MENTAL UTOPIA MATRIX, and because their basic structure was not built for it, they could not assimilate it, so, too is this true.
So what makes such information anymore TRUE? Because they have numbers on their side? The Earth was once flat and the center of the solar system, too.
It's illogical and entirely egotistical of mankind to think that ALL conspiracy theory is junk. In fact, that was a psychological campaign used to DISCREDIT it immediately, the same type used to make marajuana and illegal drug and liken it to heroin. Marajauna, the plant, never was illegal, but because it is such a resilient, useful, and untaxable plant, it had to be banned. There was no money to be made. It can be grown anywhere, and its uses are many.
However, to get rid of it as a plant, they found incidents where people died using pot, much of it lies and hyperbole. They then advertised and campaigned that it was a "killer". Thus, it was made illegal.
By Creating a category known as "conspiracy" theory and providing all the hype and marketing around it, as well as the visually programmed images which often show depressed, crazy, antisocial, or homicidal maniacs, anytime ANYTHING is against the majority, against the "established", its conspiracy theory. ANYtime anything is against the norm, against the established media, or not presented on mainstream outlets, it is discredited. It can't be allowed to grow. If it does not have the power behind it that major networks bring, its not "real." The only real things are those told to people by newsoutlets, politicians, figureheads, celebrities, etc. EVERYONE but their own instincts.
Heck, even sosuave could be conspiracy theory at a minor level, since its very much against the grain, and its form of distribution is not entirely 'normal.' I guarantee you that most of the people in your life would not find this thinking 'normal', nor would they find it cool or exciting. They may even discredit the possibilities that such a website and service provides, on the basis that it 'isn't common or known.'
A-Unit