Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Top Ten Conspiracy Theories of 2004

Every year produces its own raft of new conspiracies and conspiracy theories. Perhaps because we are living in a post-9/11, terrorism-suspicious, politically divisive, ultra-conservative environment, this year seemed to produce more conspiracy theories than usual.

As someone who tends to get involved in these and enjoys speculating on the dark forces at work in our society, I decided it was time to collect the best of the conspiracies of 2004 into one place.

Here are the rules for making the list:

A) It has to be a real conspiracy theory, that is, enticing possible, and with a hint of dark, nefarious forces at work, but not overblown political rhetoric (the media is a 'liberal' or 'conservative' conspiracy), and not something actually proven to be true.

B) It has to be specifically related to events in 2004 or newly postulated in 2004 - not a general conspiracy that comes up every year about time travel, the mark of the beast, or the end of the world.

C) It has to be something that has been fairly well circulated, on the internet, in news stories, etc., and with relevance to current events.

D) Ranking is determined by several factors, including seriousness, implied audacity, popularity, persuasiveness, and historical importance.

Naturally, the lions share of the list this year falls to the political realm. However, there was a good business conspiracy (from our usual suspect, Microsoft) as well as a couple of big media fiascos. Here then, is the list:

10. It was EITHER the Kerry campaign OR actually the BUSH administration ITSELF that was behind the fabricated anti-Bush documents aired on CBS.

9. The Janet Jackson bared breast fiasco was actually carefully planned in advance by both Jackson and CBS.

8. NASA is hiding the discovery of evidence of life on Mars.

7. The 9/11 commission has conspired to hide Bush's foreknowledge of the attacks.

6. In an effort to slow down the rise of the open-source software movement, it was actually Microsoft that was behind the SCO lawsuit claiming ownership of the Linux operating system.

5. Thanks principally to Michael Moore, we have a whole raft of Bush/Bin Laden innuendo, ranging from: The Bush family is financing Osama bin Laden, or just historically involved in a deep web of suspicious bin Laden activities, or merely behind the bin Laden's being whisked out of the country after 9/11.

4. It was a U.S. anti-aircraft missile, not a jet airplane, that hit the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. This one even comes with it's own, popular, short film.

3. Bush was wired with a hidden microphone giving him answers to questions during the Presidential debates.

2. Ariel Sharon and The Bush Administration assassinated Yassir Arafat.

1. Rigged Deibald machines stole the election in Ohio.

Hope you enjoyed - and I welcome any comments and especially your own additions to the list!