According to Lauren Cox from ABC news, you're all mentally ill!

[David Rothscum]

http://www.abcnews.go.com/print?id=6443988
What's Behind Internet Conspiracy Empires?
As Conspiracy Communities Grow, Mental Health Docs Are Left With Big Questions
By LAUREN COX
ABC News Medical Unit

Dec. 12, 2008—

A man standing on a street corner with a sign reading "the lizard people rule you all," or, "my neighbors are spying on me for the government" isn't likely to get many supporters.

But give that man a Web site template, or let him produce some slick videos on YouTube and, lo and behold, he may have thousands of people across the world supporting him.

Such is the story of several extraordinarily popular conspiracy theorists and theories online today.

Take the victims of gang stalking -- a subculture of people who think their friends and neighbors are all secret government spies ready to turn them over to the authorities. The movement has recently spawned gang stalking support groups, forums and advice Web sites.

Or take the former journalist and BBC sports announcer, David Icke, for example.

Icke was laughed out of the public eye in the early '90s when he started wearing only turquoise and explaining that voices had sent him on an important mission to save the earth.

Decades later, Icke has written books, has fans in 47 countries and can gather a crowd of 2,500 people in a city simply by posting a date for a lecture on his Web site.

The cornerstone of Icke's theories is that a malicious race of lizard people -- the "shadowy elite" -- rules the world and all its political leaders primarily by controlling the media and orchestrating fear-mongering catastrophes, such as Sept. 11. Icke said he already has speeches lined up for 2009 in Los Angeles, Mexico, Croatia, New Zealand and Australia.

"I knew about the mainstream media, and that the mainstream media has a stunning level of myopia so that only that which is in the mainstream will be presented," said Icke. "What the Internet has done [is that it] has allowed information to flow outside of the myopia. ... The Internet has been absolutely essential."

The Internet has always been a forum for fringe ideas, but success like Icke's, and subcultures built on paranoid theories like gang stalkers, points to an understudied corner in psychiatry: Who are the people who believe such theories in the quiet of their homes, and what does such behavior mean for a person teetering on the edge of mental illness?

"It's not an area that has been studied very well," said Angus MacDonald, a spokesperson for the mental health charity NARSAD, and an associate professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

Does Conspiracy Always Equal Delusion?

MacDonald cautioned that not everyone who believes in a conspiracy plot is mentally ill. They just may be suggestible or just suspicious of authority.

For the healthy in mind, MacDonald said, "it's a wild card about whether this is going to improve people's state or not. It may turn out that the value of the community is greater than the destructive nature of the narratives that are spun out of them.

"But on the same point, this is a domain that didn't need more wild cards," he added.

Whether or not conspiracy theories harm people who are susceptible to mental illness is a matter of debate among psychiatrists.

"Most people with major mental illness don't believe in conspiracy theories," said Dr. Ken Duckworth, medical director of the National Alliance of Mental Illness.

Duckworth likes to imagine a Venn diagram with one circle representing people with paranoid psychosis and another circle representing people who believe conspiracy theories.

"They do overlap, but I can't tell you how big the overlap is," he said. "And, lizard people? Many people who are hearing voices would think that's crazy."

Duckworth argued that most mentally ill people create conspiracy theories that are self-centric, such as, "the mailman is after me," not inclusive such as, "the postal workers are all out to get us by 2015."

But others who treat schizophrenics and people with paranoia think there is a risk in circulating online conspiracies.

"Paranoid is wide category -- it's another way of being separate with reality -- but in our culture, we've made it synonymous with persecutory delusions," said MacDonald.

The Making of a Conspiracy: Delusion or Not?

According to MacDonald, most delusions begin with general, unexplained feelings of discontent that are caused by a problem with the brain. It's only when someone tries to search for an explanation for their feelings that a delusion forms.

"Then over time, the delusions become crystallized -- meaning they take on particular narratives, story lines and people's motives begin to be fleshed out," said MacDonald. "When one thing isn't explained, it's never abandoned. The plot just thickens ... and you credit your persecutor with a tremendous amount of power."

MacDonald said it can make it difficult to do talk therapy when delusional people feed their story from outside sources or find evidence with other conspiracy plots.

"You're sitting across from your therapist and they say, 'Well why would they do all of this?' And you've got the answers because you've studied online," he said.

Icke said that sort of danger is not his responsibility.

"You can't stop information because it might be misused by people," he said.

"What people think of my information is none of my business; it's their business," he added. "I'm not saying, 'This is how it is, you must believe it.' I'm saying, 'This is another way to look at the world. What do you think?'"

Icke said he has run into psychiatrists analyzing why people believe his theories in television interviews.

To them, Icke says, "Check it out. Check it out. Then [decide]: Do the facts stand up? Don't go into this psychological babble after you first dismiss the information by reflex action."

Icke believes his popularity on the Internet is a testament to the validity of his ideas, and that people feel that his predictions have come to pass.

"What you do as you continue to research and you continue to travel is you hone it down," he said. "I've never come across anything that questioned the themes of what I'm talking about. ... With every day that passes, you just get more information."

"If the information over a period of time does not stand up to scrutiny and fact checking, it doesn't matter how far it will circulate, it's going to be dropped," he said.

After studying conspiracy theorists, Michael Barkun, professor of political science at Syracuse University and author of the book, "Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America," said he thought image and packaging is actually key to attracting followers.

"Even someone whose ideas are deviant can produce a Web site that looks sleek and professional," said Barkun. "Those who have conspiracy theories to peddle can do it very easily. And if they're reasonably sophisticated, [they] can do it in a way that gives those ideas the appearance of validity."

Whether those who make conspiracy theories for the masses are themselves mentally ill, Barkun said it depends on the conspiracy theorist.

"I don't think you can generalize," he said. "Certainly, in terms of conspiracy theorists, they're all quite different."

As for Icke, he has long heard people accusing him of being a mentally-disturbed conspiracy theorist.

"I went out on a limb," he said. "What's happened within a period of 20 years is that the world has come to me. ... As people have seen it coming to pass, the laughter has stopped.


"I take a different view," he added, "and if that's at odds with mainstream society to the point of being crazy, then I'm fine with that."

Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures

Basically she needs 1200 words to say that we're mentally ill and a danger to society. If realizing that the same inbred families that ruled the planet openly until the early 20th century (European Monarchs all related to eachothers, American robber barons and international bankers) still rule the planet today but hide behind proxy's like round table groups and tax free foundations makes me a conspiracy theorist, then I'm a conspiracy theorist. I'd say people who believe the lies we're told are mentally ill.

"There are no elite's, nobody wants to rule the world, you can trust multinational corporations to take good care of your health." Those ideas are signs of mental illness, to the point of becoming a danger to your health. It's a mental illness if you believe cell phones won't damage your health when former EPA employees and ministers of Defense are openly discussing how to spread disinfo when new studies prove they're dangerous.

It's like people smoking thinking it won't harm them because they had some grandfather who died when he was 88 and smoked a lot. It's magical thinking, you're bordering on insanity. We're the realists.

[stangrof]

She does what she can to please " master " and get her paycheck of course

[larsonstdoc]

  Just because she is misinformed and uninformed doesn't make us mentally ill.  Mental iiiness is arbitrary. 

[squarepusher]

I'm not even going to bother registering an account there to reply - the mainstream media has lost all creditibility in my opinion - why would they resort to posting an article linking conspiracy theorists to mentally ill people if we were a fringe group? It's obvious we are growing in numbers - that's why these ad-hominem articles are currently being dragged out by a corporate media that has flaunted their creditibility.

And honestly, the guy on there referring people to the Popular Mechanics article - he was actually being serious about it. Obviously, he has never watched Citizen Kane or heard of Hearst - or the USS Maine connection.

What a sorry lot these people are. I almost feel sorry for them.

[Dig]

We are mentally ill because we know that controlled demolition broght down 3 buildings on 9/11/2001, but people who believe that 250 stories of concrete, steel, and glass can blow up in 26 seconds due to fire are mentally sane.

We are mentally ill because we know the bullshit bailout has been misreported, totally lied about, coerced, voted against the will of the people, but those that believe the CFR/Bilderberg disinfo articles are mentally sane.

We are mentally ill because we know that the JFK assassination involved more than one person, but the lone gunman believers are mentally sane.

We are mentally ill because we know that the government does not give a shit about us, but those that believe less than 1,000 fat cats in the District of Columbia (not a "State" in the United States) are so concerned about the day to day issues facing 305 million American citizens are mentally sane.

I think the author needs a dictionary. Her definition of "mentally ill" ironically reveals that she most likely is completely whacked out of her mind bonkers.  That is the only mentally sane diagnosis and the only cure is for her to try reading a non CFR/Bilderberg sanctioned book once in a while.

[Geolibertarian]

The more that authority-worshipping, straw-man bashing coincidence theorists try to mindlessly deny out of existence things they don't have the courage to face -- e.g., the laws of physics, the government's admitted history of false flag terrorism, etc. -- the more they destroy their own credibility in the eyes of the millions of people whose lives are now being utterly ruined by the sacred myths they (coincidence theorists) want so desperately to convince everyone are sacred truths, and the more they demonstrate for all to see that their canned insults and childish smear attacks are nothing more than Freudian Projection:

"A defense mechanism in which the individual attributes to other people impulses and traits that he himself has but cannot accept."....

"Attributing one's own undesirable traits to other people or agencies, e.g., an aggressive man accuses other people of being hostile."

"The individual perceives in others the motive he denies having himself. Thus the cheat is sure that everyone else is dishonest."

-- http://www.heretical.com/sexsci/bpsychol.html

Among the "undesirable traits" that coincidence theorists routinely project onto so-called "conspiracy theorists" are irrationality, gullibility, a chronic fear of reality, and an obsessive-compulsive need to protect themselves from that reality by living in their own delusional world of make-believe.

Would anyone like to add to the list?

[heavyhebrew]

"coincidence theorists"! Damn I love it!

Oh and who the hell is Lauren Cox? Let's find out! Be back later with more information on Boston born ABC "science journalist" Ms. Cox.

Just a tidbit (with a picture!): http://www.sciencemetropolis.com/category/specials/
Got to love the global warming and my Dad is stupid angle. See the trend even back then?

[David Rothscum]

You see, the thing is, as someone mentioned before on this forum, a lot of most people's thinking is based on stereotypes and feelings, not on facts. This probably goes for us as well, but I see this even more clearly in the general public, the type of people who support Obama. What this article does is talk about mental illness and conspiracy theories at the same time, so you start to associate the two. It starts feeling like it belongs together.

If you just repeat something enough, people start to accept it as normal and the way things are. Because the majority of television shows portray white lean women as some kind of price the male hero earns, usually after performing a heroic deed, people start to believe in these stereotypes as fact. They know that when they want you to believe them when they say a new study has disproven the links between cell phones and cancer they have to take an old balding man with gray hair in a doctors outfit and put him on TV to talk about it.

They sell the products by using the stereotypes as well. They take a man with a tough sounding voice and make a commercial with a bunch of young good looking women running around to sell you on the idea that drinking beer is what makes you manly. The agent provocateurs work like that as well. They walk around dressed up like magicians and acting bizarre for a reason.

The people that control the media can make the stereotypes. Break through them. Knowing that Fluoride is bad for you doesn't mean you're a teethless redneck. Being black doesn't mean you support Obama. Drinking beer is not what makes you a man, it's defending your tribe.

You're the men and women of all colours, nationalities, religions and backgrounds who know the truth, their stereotypes and rolemodels they want you to fullfill do not affect you.
You're the people in the nice suits, the people with a college degree and a happy family, the people who go to the library to read books and do community service because they like human beings. They're the narcissistic aristocrats who try to fake charisma and fake their accents and earned their power by being born to the right families. They're the ones with a deep hatred for humanity, who brag about how many of us they're murdered and radiate little children to death. They're the mentally ill ones, not you. Don't ever let them try to tell you otherwise.

[Dig]

OMFG...Lauren Cox is a talented disinformation artist that ends an expose on BPAs with a quote implying that food and nourishment is more unhealthy than toxic BPAs...WTF?

She must be a very useful idiot for the FDA and other corrupt government organizations that conspire against its own people on a regular basis


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=5809117&page=1

Doctors Say BPA Shows Up Too Often in Diabetics and Heart Patients
By LAUREN COX
ABC News Medical Unit

Sept. 16, 2008—

An ubiquitous ingredient in plastics has been linked to diabetes and heart disease in adults, according to a study being released today, heightening concerns about the widespread use of the chemical BPA.

Otherwise known as Bisphenol-A, BPA is the chemical once studied as a synthetic form of estrogen, but more recently known to leach out of some plastic water bottles and baby bottles, and that is found in all kinds of plastic products.

"We're talking about pacifiers, sippy cups, spoons, the bath toys, the chew toys ... everything," said Sommer Poquette, mother of two toddlers and author of the blog Green and Clean Mom.

"It's hard to get a BPA-free product," said Poquette.

The concerns of people like Poquette will likely be heightened by a study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association in which researchers found a connection between BPA and diabetes and heart disease in adults. Scientists reviewed the health of 1,455 American adults and found that people with higher concentrations of BPA in their urine were slightly more likely to have heart disease and diabetes.

The researchers also estimate that most Americans are exposed to a higher level of BPA each day than the current Environmental Protection Agency recommendation.

In an accompanying editorial, Frederick S. vom Saal and John Peterson Myers take the government to task, asking the United States and Europe to follow Canada's lead and regulate BPA.

"The FDA and the European Food Safety Authority have chosen to ignore warnings from expert panels and other government agencies and have continued to declare BPA 'safe,'" wrote the authors.

The release of the study comes on the same day that the Food and Drug Administration's Science Board will have an open meeting about BPA.

Stephanie Kwisnek, a spokeswoman for the FDA, said the meeting is being held "in part, to listen to comment from the public." However, members of the medical profession and the public are already at odds over what to do with the information.

Avoid BPA, Label BPA, or Just Study It

"If this does not close the door on the use of BPA in consumer products, I don't know what will," said Dr. John Spangler, professor of family and community medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Until now, Spangler said the most well-known research done on BPA confirmed that the chemical could damage rats and monkeys. But those studies could only hint at danger in people, since humans may process BPA differently than animals.

On that current evidence, the FDA decided in April of this year to not label BPA as dangerous.

"At this time, FDA is not recommending that anyone discontinue using products that contain BPA while the agency continues its safety assessment process," Kwisnek said.

While today's JAMA study was one of the largest BPA studies done in humans, it could only provide convincing circumstantial evidence that, where high levels of BPA lurked, so do diabetes and poor heart health. The study's authors wrote that their work could not definitively prove that BPA had a part in causing the diseases.

For some scientists, that's not enough to convince them that governments should begin regulating BPA in products.

"This type of research is valuable to point to potential toxins in the environment -- only further studies will confirm if this is a concern or not," said Dr. Gordon Ewy, chief of cardiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson, Ariz.

However, Spangler and other doctors don't agree with the cautious watch and wait approach when it comes to chemicals.

"There has always been an argument, similar to the tobacco companies' arguments, that a link between this product and adverse health outcomes 'has not been proven,'" Spangler said.

Stanford University School of Medicine professor of health research and policy, Dr. John Farquhar, agreed.

"Cigarette use was not proven to be harmful through evidence gained via a randomized clinical trial -- the gold standard for proof in clinical medicine," said Farquhar. "But through numerous associative studies that were complemented by animal and cell culture studies.

"In issues of human safety, an agent which can be avoided and which has no redeeming features is 'guilty until proven otherwise,'" he said.

For many moms in Poquette's circle, that hint of danger was enough.

"It was actually a few years ago. My father told me not to use the plastic Advent baby bottles," said Poquette. "At first, I didn't believe him ... but you have to do some research and make some decisions of what is going to work for your family."

Once Poquette decided to avoid BPA, she discovered a trip to the grocery store became a lot more complicated. Manufacturers don't have to label goods that contain BPA unless the FDA requires it.

Labeling Danger

"I don't think you're going to get everything out, but you can take steps," said Poquette.

Step number one: Check with online advocates. Poquette recommends reading TheSoftLanding.com for information on products with BPA. Or, people at the store can just text the product into the Z-Recommends texting service and quickly learn whether a product contains BPA.

Step number two: Just eliminate products that are likely to have BPA.

"We have definitely have limited what we drink out of," Poquette said. Now, her family uses glass and stainless steel water bottles. "We just try to limit the canned food that we do buy and just eat as fresh as possible."

Regardless of whether the FDA will decide to regulate BPA, doctors say [Which doctors, how many, what is the consensus, do they have a conflict of interest?] the practice of avoiding foods that come in plastic containers or plastic-lined cans may have even more important health implications than BPA exposure.

"Unfortunately, in this country, I don't think BPAs in food containers pose a fraction of the threat to heart health as most of the food products that they contain," said Dr. Daniel Edmundowicz, director of Cardiovascular Medicine at UPMC Passavant Hospital in Pittsburg, Pa.

"Said another way -- I think the BPAs in a container of butter pose less risk than than butter itself," Edmundowicz said.

Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Disinformation artist extraordinaire....

2 + 2 = 5

War = Peace

Work Will Make You Free



Arbeit Macht Frei

[heavyhebrew]

And the person she quotes about BPA...is he a specialist in neurology and hormonal genetic expression? No, he is a cardiovascular surgeon.
Dr. Daniel Edmundowicz MD
Butter, taken in large quatities and without any exercise, is bad for you. But at least it doesn't feminize men and cause estrogen related cancers in women.

But to a disinformation specialist, M.D. is sufficient enough to appear 'official' and collecting a nice, fat check is enough to assuage what passes for her soul.

Trying to find out how Cox is related to Edmundowicz.

[madworld21]

When they bring up the reptilian theory, it shows you that they're desperate. I like David Icke and believe that he's genuine but I don't think his reptilian theory helps the 'truth' movement. Most of his information is documented and solid.

They won't focus on the numerous declassified government documents that show false flag terrorism and they won't speak about organisations such as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission, Bilderberg Group, etc. They also won't speak about the UN's depopulation agenda and the British Ministry of Defence report.

[heavyhebrew]

You know, Icke gave us the Problem, Reaction, Solution framework.
We all have our own ideas on the who. But what is of paramount importance is the what. What is a global elite organization intent on taking over the world so they can have more for themselves and nothing for the rest of us. Once the What is figured out, it is easy to figure out the How.

[Dig]

When they bring up the reptilian theory, it shows you that they're desperate. I like David Icke and believe that he's genuine but I don't think his reptilian theory helps the 'truth' movement. Most of his information is documented and solid.

They won't focus on the numerous declassified government documents that show false flag terrorism and they won't speak about organisations such as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission, Bilderberg Group, etc. They also won't speak about the UN's depopulation agenda and the British Ministry of Defence report.

Reptilian theory?  WTF?  The only way David Icke is alive is because he put that shit in.

Anyone ever hear of a metaphor?

The NWO is a small group of animals that are cold blooded.  They could just be intergenerationally, intermarried, f-d up, morally corrupt, psycopathic, and genocidal humans!

Rod Sterling and many others have been forced to use metaphors to spread truth.  What makes Icke any different?

He has admitted often that he has never actually seen a reptilian.

But nevertheless...Icke uses more logic, common sense, and mentally sound principals than Lauren Cox could ever fathom.  And she still uses him as a basis for her pro-coincidence theory witings rather than Rockefeller, Haas, or other CFRers that repeatedly admit there indeed is a conspiracy and one of the techniques used is enrolling disinfo artists like Lauren Cox to dilute the truth.

[jkm1864]

suspicious of authority


Yes repeat after me the government loves You and they have Your best interest at heart. So go back to sleep because they will take care of everything.

[DireWolf]

If memory serves me correctly the first sign of mental illness is believing you are the only normal one and everyone else is crazy.

[madworld21]

Reptilian theory?  WTF?  The only way David Icke is alive is because he put that shit in.

Anyone ever hear of a metaphor?

The NWO is a small group of animals that are cold blooded.  They could just be intergenerationally, intermarried, f-d up, morally corrupt, psycopathic, and genocidal humans!

Rod Sterling and many others have been forced to use metaphors to spread truth.  What makes Icke any different?

He has admitted often that he has never actually seen a reptilian.

But nevertheless...Icke uses more logic, common sense, and mentally sound principals than Lauren Cox could ever fathom.  And she still uses him as a basis for her pro-coincidence theory witings rather than Rockefeller, Haas, or other CFRers that repeatedly admit there indeed is a conspiracy and one of the techniques used is enrolling disinfo artists like Lauren Cox to dilute the truth.

Icke has said many times that he believes in reptilians in the most literal sense of the world. He states that even though he's never seen one himself, he knows that they exist.

When the media refer to this theory, it shows you that they aren't able to discuss the facts that are easily proved. By bringing up the lizards, they believe that most people will dismiss him as a nutjob, when the vast majority of his information can be proven.

[cathiasus]

Oh nooz mommy, the conspiracy theorists are out in the streets again, I'm sooo scared.

She's such a scared child, worse even.

[nofakenews]

How about Lauren Cox is mentally ill! 

[Freeski]

Icke has said many times that he believes in reptilians in the most literal sense of the world. He states that even though he's never seen one himself, he knows that they exist.

When the media refer to this theory, it shows you that they aren't able to discuss the facts that are easily proved. By bringing up the lizards, they believe that most people will dismiss him as a nutjob, when the vast majority of his information can be proven.

But maybe like Sane implied, he wants to come across as kooky in the mainstream media - so he won't be thought of as a threat, and they leave him be on the alternate side. Maybe he knows we're smart enough to eventually figure that out?

I hear people say they love what he has to say but they just can't get beyond the reptile thing. But they still learned a crapload!

[Sub-X]

But maybe like Sane implied, he wants to come across as kooky in the mainstream media - so he won't be thought of as a threat, and they leave him be on the alternate side. Maybe he knows we're smart enough to eventually figure that out?

I hear people say they love what he has to say but they just can't get beyond the reptile thing. But they still learned a crapload!

Well put Freeski 


I have read a few of Icke's books and can definitely say lizards (again)that the shape-shifting reptiles theory is about 1% of his work.Alex believes its Satan,Icke believes its lizards once we get past these little issues there is a galaxy of useful information to be had.

I always got the impression from reading Icke's work that he was speaking metaphorically,though either way doesn't really matter. 

[clearmyst]

If anyone is slow to realize it,
it ought to be clear now that mental illness and its labellers thereof are tools of the state and there is no such a thing as a mental illness but merely behavour that others deem obnoxious or inappropriate or disloyal.
www.szasz.com

[Geolibertarian]

I hear people say they love what he has to say but they just can't get beyond the reptile thing.

Good for them, because that means they're less gullible and more discerning than the establishment liberals who obviously can "get beyond" the fact that the Bush administration lied the U.S. into war, and believe wholeheartedly that the administration didn't lie about what happened on 9/11.

"Nonsense!" the establishment liberals retort, "Only a crazy person would be nutty enough to believe that someone who's willing to do something as trivial as, oh, say, lie an entire country into a needless, unjust war would also be willing to lie about how a steel-structured building that wasn't even hit by a plane managed to collapse symmetrically into the path of most resistance at virtual free fall speed.  

[madworld21]

Well put Freeski 


I have read a few of Icke's books and can definitely say lizards (again)that the shape-shifting reptiles theory is about 1% of his work.Alex believes its Satan,Icke believes its lizards once we get past these little issues there is a galaxy of useful information to be had.

I always got the impression from reading Icke's work that he was speaking metaphorically,though either way doesn't really matter. 

From my interpretation he means it literally, hence the reason he made a DVD with Credo Mutwa and interviewed Arizona Wilder. Some believe it's the devil or reptilians, whereas others believe that it's simply a bunch of psychopaths (this makes the most sense to me).

Unfortunately, most people have been conditioned to mock anybody who promotes an 'alternative' view. If David Icke is mentioned, most people will say 'he believes lizards rule the world' or 'he believed he was the son of god'. This is unfortunate, as he has a lot of great information to share.

I don't dismiss anything but I can only go off what I can prove.

[Freeski]

If anyone is slow to realize it,
it ought to be clear now that mental illness and its labellers thereof are tools of the state and there is no such a thing as a mental illness but merely behavour that others deem obnoxious or inappropriate or disloyal.
www.szasz.com

Excellent point! Is the link safe to click? (looks ominous for some reason)

[Volitzar]

Like anyone with a brain cares what Bilderberg media skirts tell us.   

[Freeski]

I always got the impression from reading Icke's work that he was speaking metaphorically,though either way doesn't really matter. 

Funny, I never knew what to make of it when I first encountered Icke, but after a couple of years, I wrote him off or grew disinterested (probably because of the lizards), but then something hit me that while on the surface, the reptilian agenda is obvious fantasy, you think about how we refer to the reptilian part of our own brains, that the Devil himself is often depicted as a dragon, Medusa, that birds are among the oldest living animals and that they have some connection to the dinosaurs (lizards), and you have to wonder - even from a biological perspective - than anything really might be possible.

I poopooh stuff less quickly.

[ES]

If we go by the definition of mentally ill as, "doing the exact same thing over and over again expecting different results", than aren't those who continue to vote Republican and Democrat the ones who are mentally ill?

[Avers]

Mentally ill? Pah... Probably nothing that a few hundred volts to the cahonies won't solve...

[Freeski]

If we go by the definition of mentally ill as, "doing the exact same thing over and over again expecting different results", than aren't those who continue to vote Republican and Democrat the ones who are mentally ill?

Yes.

And "Mentally Ill" means "Programmed/Brainwashed"

So it's not mental at all: it's purely defensive.

[chris jones]

I beleive its time to get her a ticket to Iraq, gather the families of the victims and have her explain to them she feels that those of us who are against the war, torture, and inprisoment on a grand scale are absolutly crazy. I wonder, if 890,000 civilians were slaughtered how many people have been directly effected by this genocide.

In any event.

The responce she would receive would be very intersting.

[rustygunn]

What's Behind Internet Conspiracy Empires?

As Conspiracy Communities Grow, Mental Health Docs Are Left With Big Questions

By LAUREN COX
ABC News Medical Unit
Dec. 12, 2008—


A man standing on a street corner with a sign reading "the lizard people rule you all," or, "my neighbors are spying on me for the government" isn't likely to get many supporters.

But give that man a Web site template, or let him produce some slick videos on YouTube and, lo and behold, he may have thousands of people across the world supporting him.

Such is the story of several extraordinarily popular conspiracy theorists and theories online today.

Take the victims of gang stalking -- a subculture of people who think their friends and neighbors are all secret government spies ready to turn them over to the authorities. The movement has recently spawned gang stalking support groups, forums and advice Web sites.

Or take the former journalist and BBC sports announcer, David Icke, for example.

Icke was laughed out of the public eye in the early '90s when he started wearing only turquoise and explaining that voices had sent him on an important mission to save the earth.

Decades later, Icke has written books, has fans in 47 countries and can gather a crowd of 2,500 people in a city simply by posting a date for a lecture on his Web site.

The cornerstone of Icke's theories is that a malicious race of lizard people -- the "shadowy elite" -- rules the world and all its political leaders primarily by controlling the media and orchestrating fear-mongering catastrophes, such as Sept. 11. Icke said he already has speeches lined up for 2009 in Los Angeles, Mexico, Croatia, New Zealand and Australia.

"I knew about the mainstream media, and that the mainstream media has a stunning level of myopia so that only that which is in the mainstream will be presented," said Icke. "What the Internet has done [is that it] has allowed information to flow outside of the myopia. ... The Internet has been absolutely essential."

The Internet has always been a forum for fringe ideas, but success like Icke's, and subcultures built on paranoid theories like gang stalkers, points to an understudied corner in psychiatry: Who are the people who believe such theories in the quiet of their homes, and what does such behavior mean for a person teetering on the edge of mental illness?

"It's not an area that has been studied very well," said Angus MacDonald, a spokesperson for the mental health charity NARSAD, and an associate professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.


Does Conspiracy Always Equal Delusion?
MacDonald cautioned that not everyone who believes in a conspiracy plot is mentally ill. They just may be suggestible or just suspicious of authority.

For the healthy in mind, MacDonald said, "it's a wild card about whether this is going to improve people's state or not. It may turn out that the value of the community is greater than the destructive nature of the narratives that are spun out of them.

"But on the same point, this is a domain that didn't need more wild cards," he added.

Whether or not conspiracy theories harm people who are susceptible to mental illness is a matter of debate among psychiatrists.

"Most people with major mental illness don't believe in conspiracy theories," said Dr. Ken Duckworth, medical director of the National Alliance of Mental Illness.

Duckworth likes to imagine a Venn diagram with one circle representing people with paranoid psychosis and another circle representing people who believe conspiracy theories.

"They do overlap, but I can't tell you how big the overlap is," he said. "And, lizard people? Many people who are hearing voices would think that's crazy."

Duckworth argued that most mentally ill people create conspiracy theories that are self-centric, such as, "the mailman is after me," not inclusive such as, "the postal workers are all out to get us by 2015."

But others who treat schizophrenics and people with paranoia think there is a risk in circulating online conspiracies.

"Paranoid is wide category -- it's another way of being separate with reality -- but in our culture, we've made it synonymous with persecutory delusions," said MacDonald.


The Making of a Conspiracy: Delusion or Not?
According to MacDonald, most delusions begin with general, unexplained feelings of discontent that are caused by a problem with the brain. It's only when someone tries to search for an explanation for their feelings that a delusion forms.

"Then over time, the delusions become crystallized -- meaning they take on particular narratives, story lines and people's motives begin to be fleshed out," said MacDonald. "When one thing isn't explained, it's never abandoned. The plot just thickens ... and you credit your persecutor with a tremendous amount of power."

MacDonald said it can make it difficult to do talk therapy when delusional people feed their story from outside sources or find evidence with other conspiracy plots.

"You're sitting across from your therapist and they say, 'Well why would they do all of this?' And you've got the answers because you've studied online," he said.

Icke said that sort of danger is not his responsibility.

"You can't stop information because it might be misused by people," he said.

"What people think of my information is none of my business; it's their business," he added. "I'm not saying, 'This is how it is, you must believe it.' I'm saying, 'This is another way to look at the world. What do you think?'"

Icke said he has run into psychiatrists analyzing why people believe his theories in television interviews.

To them, Icke says, "Check it out. Check it out. Then [decide]: Do the facts stand up? Don't go into this psychological babble after you first dismiss the information by reflex action."

Icke believes his popularity on the Internet is a testament to the validity of his ideas, and that people feel that his predictions have come to pass.

"What you do as you continue to research and you continue to travel is you hone it down," he said. "I've never come across anything that questioned the themes of what I'm talking about. ... With every day that passes, you just get more information."

"If the information over a period of time does not stand up to scrutiny and fact checking, it doesn't matter how far it will circulate, it's going to be dropped," he said.

After studying conspiracy theorists, Michael Barkun, professor of political science at Syracuse University and author of the book, "Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America," said he thought image and packaging is actually key to attracting followers.

"Even someone whose ideas are deviant can produce a Web site that looks sleek and professional," said Barkun. "Those who have conspiracy theories to peddle can do it very easily. And if they're reasonably sophisticated, [they] can do it in a way that gives those ideas the appearance of validity."

Whether those who make conspiracy theories for the masses are themselves mentally ill, Barkun said it depends on the conspiracy theorist.

"I don't think you can generalize," he said. "Certainly, in terms of conspiracy theorists, they're all quite different."

As for Icke, he has long heard people accusing him of being a mentally-disturbed conspiracy theorist.

"I went out on a limb," he said. "What's happened within a period of 20 years is that the world has come to me. ... As people have seen it coming to pass, the laughter has stopped.

"I take a different view," he added, "and if that's at odds with mainstream society to the point of being crazy, then I'm fine with that."


Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/Story?id=6443988&page=1

[rustygunn]

They are making the case to round us all up and put us in the funny farm. 

[donnay]

Well she is a conspiracy colluder--what these shills don't get that after they try rounding us up they are next!

[Revolt426]

"The Internet has always been a forum for fringe ideas, but success like Icke's, and subcultures built on paranoid theories like gang stalkers, points to an understudied corner in psychiatry: Who are the people who believe such theories in the quiet of their homes, and what does such behavior mean for a person teetering on the edge of mental illness?"

She got one part right, "points to an understudied corner in psychiatry", yea it does. it's called scientific research, she should study this understudied corner, then she will be forced to either A) Call herself crazy and admit herself to a mental institution , B) Admit she was wrong and apologize, or the likely answer C) Put a smile on and lie through her teeth

[squarepusher]

OK, so far we have established the following:

- She's a con artist peddling for the pharmaceutical companies. (judging by her previous articles)
- She chastises her father for not believing in global warming, when a detailed, 220-page study was just released before the US Senate Committee with 600 scientists (that's more than the IPCC scientists) DEBUNKING global warming and saying an increase in carbon dioxide levels doesn't make one iota of difference one way or the other.
- Pardon me (I don't wish to judge people by their appearance), but she looks like the kind of rotten 'good little Democrats' that think they're all that - the kind that think they're all superior and smart and cute when in fact they're dumb as bricks and more brainwashed than anyone else.

Also interesting that this 'conspiracy theory' article is at the frontpage of ABC's Medical section. Remember that other lady from some other newspaper that was also attacking the truth movement? There's a concerted effort out there in the corporate media to try to associate conspiracy theories with mental illness and lunacy. Too bad they're all going bankrupt and nobody gives a shit.

[clearmyst]

*So says this ABC News hitpiece, also notice how the definition of mental illness/delusions is applied throughout(the wonders of "expert" only applied labels). *

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/Story?id=6443988&page=1



What's Behind Internet Conspiracy Empires?
As Conspiracy Communities Grow, Mental Health Docs Are Left With Big Questions

A man standing on a street corner with a sign reading "the lizard people rule you all," or, "my neighbors are spying on me for the government" isn't likely to get many supporters.
Icke
Of all the conspiracy theories and conspiracy theorists, David Icke has built one of the largest followings for his ideas that a race of reptilian people secretly control the world.
(ABCNews Photo Illustration)

But give that man a Web site template, or let him produce some slick videos on YouTube and, lo and behold, he may have thousands of people across the world supporting him.

Such is the story of several extraordinarily popular conspiracy theorists and theories online today.

Take the victims of gang stalking -- a subculture of people who think their friends and neighbors are all secret government spies ready to turn them over to the authorities. The movement has recently spawned gang stalking support groups, forums and advice Web sites.

Or take the former journalist and BBC sports announcer, David Icke, for example.

Icke was laughed out of the public eye in the early '90s when he started wearing only turquoise and explaining that voices had sent him on an important mission to save the earth.

Decades later, Icke has written books, has fans in 47 countries and can gather a crowd of 2,500 people in a city simply by posting a date for a lecture on his Web site.
Related
Have Personality Disorder? Test May Tell
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The cornerstone of Icke's theories is that a malicious race of lizard people -- the "shadowy elite" -- rules the world and all its political leaders primarily by controlling the media and orchestrating fear-mongering catastrophes, such as Sept. 11. Icke said he already has speeches lined up for 2009 in Los Angeles, Mexico, Croatia, New Zealand and Australia.

"I knew about the mainstream media, and that the mainstream media has a stunning level of myopia so that only that which is in the mainstream will be presented," said Icke. "What the Internet has done [is that it] has allowed information to flow outside of the myopia. ... The Internet has been absolutely essential."

The Internet has always been a forum for fringe ideas, but success like Icke's, and subcultures built on paranoid theories like gang stalkers, points to an understudied corner in psychiatry: Who are the people who believe such theories in the quiet of their homes, and what does such behavior mean for a person teetering on the edge of mental illness?

"It's not an area that has been studied very well," said Angus MacDonald, a spokesperson for the mental health charity NARSAD, and an associate professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

Does Conspiracy Always Equal Delusion?

MacDonald cautioned that not everyone who believes in a conspiracy plot is mentally ill. They just may be suggestible or just suspicious of authority.

For the healthy in mind, MacDonald said, "it's a wild card about whether this is going to improve people's state or not. It may turn out that the value of the community is greater than the destructive nature of the narratives that are spun out of them.
Related
How We Beat the Mental Health Stigma
Watch Your Back! Paranoia on the Rise

"But on the same point, this is a domain that didn't need more wild cards," he added.

Whether or not conspiracy theories harm people who are susceptible to mental illness is a matter of debate among psychiatrists.

"Most people with major mental illness don't believe in conspiracy theories," said Dr. Ken Duckworth, medical director of the National Alliance of Mental Illness.

Duckworth likes to imagine a Venn diagram with one circle representing people with paranoid psychosis and another circle representing people who believe conspiracy theories.

"They do overlap, but I can't tell you how big the overlap is," he said. "And, lizard people? Many people who are hearing voices would think that's crazy."

Duckworth argued that most mentally ill people create conspiracy theories that are self-centric, such as, "the mailman is after me," not inclusive such as, "the postal workers are all out to get us by 2015."

But others who treat schizophrenics and people with paranoia think there is a risk in circulating online conspiracies.

"Paranoid is wide category -- it's another way of being separate with reality -- but in our culture, we've made it synonymous with persecutory delusions," said MacDonald.

The Making of a Conspiracy: Delusion or Not?

According to MacDonald, most delusions begin with general, unexplained feelings of discontent that are caused by a problem with the brain. It's only when someone tries to search for an explanation for their feelings that a delusion forms.

"Then over time, the delusions become crystallized -- meaning they take on particular narratives, story lines and people's motives begin to be fleshed out," said MacDonald. "When one thing isn't explained, it's never abandoned. The plot just thickens ... and you credit your persecutor with a tremendous amount of power."

MacDonald said it can make it difficult to do talk therapy when delusional people feed their story from outside sources or find evidence with other conspiracy plots.

"You're sitting across from your therapist and they say, 'Well why would they do all of this?' And you've got the answers because you've studied online," he said.

Icke said that sort of danger is not his responsibility.

"You can't stop information because it might be misused by people," he said.

"What people think of my information is none of my business; it's their business," he added. "I'm not saying, 'This is how it is, you must believe it.' I'm saying, 'This is another way to look at the world. What do you think?'"

Icke said he has run into psychiatrists analyzing why people believe his theories in television interviews.

To them, Icke says, "Check it out. Check it out. Then [decide]: Do the facts stand up? Don't go into this psychological babble after you first dismiss the information by reflex action."

Icke believes his popularity on the Internet is a testament to the validity of his ideas, and that people feel that his predictions have come to pass.

"What you do as you continue to research and you continue to travel is you hone it down," he said. "I've never come across anything that questioned the themes of what I'm talking about. ... With every day that passes, you just get more information."

"If the information over a period of time does not stand up to scrutiny and fact checking, it doesn't matter how far it will circulate, it's going to be dropped," he said.

After studying conspiracy theorists, Michael Barkun, professor of political science at Syracuse University and author of the book, "Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America," said he thought image and packaging is actually key to attracting followers.

"Even someone whose ideas are deviant can produce a Web site that looks sleek and professional," said Barkun. "Those who have conspiracy theories to peddle can do it very easily. And if they're reasonably sophisticated, [they] can do it in a way that gives those ideas the appearance of validity."

Whether those who make conspiracy theories for the masses are themselves mentally ill, Barkun said it depends on the conspiracy theorist.

"I don't think you can generalize," he said. "Certainly, in terms of conspiracy theorists, they're all quite different."

As for Icke, he has long heard people accusing him of being a mentally-disturbed conspiracy theorist.

"I went out on a limb," he said. "What's happened within a period of 20 years is that the world has come to me. ... As people have seen it coming to pass, the laughter has stopped.

"I take a different view," he added, "and if that's at odds with mainstream society to the point of being crazy, then I'm fine with that."

[Monkeypox]

So...we're all crazy, huh?

 

[Elvis]

In my best Jimmy Durante voice:

"Now, that's what I call propaganda - Ah-Cha-Cha-Cha!"

[Rock]

Look at the picture they used

[OldSchool]

Apparently the ones that don't play along are disturbed. What a MSM crock! But that's social programming for ya