Stephen Masty Explains Why We Don't Need Conspiracy Theories...
to understand the elite consensus.
It is class analysis that is the key: the elite attend the same cocktail parties, read the same editorials, send their kids to the same schools, and just naturally come to understand the world in the same way. Sure, conspiracies take place from time to time, but it is otiose to posit a conspiracy every time the elite agree on some issue: of course they agree, they are acting in their class interest!
It is class analysis that is the key: the elite attend the same cocktail parties, read the same editorials, send their kids to the same schools, and just naturally come to understand the world in the same way. Sure, conspiracies take place from time to time, but it is otiose to posit a conspiracy every time the elite agree on some issue: of course they agree, they are acting in their class interest!
You must choose your hero. There is no third way.
ReplyDeleteBetween Alex Jones, Jesse Ventura, and David Icke, I choose none of those nutjobs, although I really enjoyed that interview that unlikable Piers Morgan gave with Jones. He honestly deserved the trashing that Alex Jones gave him, even though Jones made himself look like a lunatic.
ReplyDeleteConspiracy theories are just fearmongering tools.
I take Stephen Masty's point about social milieus (though tax-eater and tax-payer are not exclusive categories). But to think same-sex marriage matters that much is a form of moral panic.
ReplyDeleteAnd could you not tell exactly the same story about elites going first on every single civil rights struggle? Starting with the (British) fight against slavery, then on to Catholic emancipation, Jewish emancipation, female emancipation, black civil rights ... With conservatives making the same "how can you think that?" and "it will ruin Western civilisation!" claims each time?
"But to think same-sex marriage matters that much..."
DeleteHow much? I did not see anything in the article that said same-sex marriage matters "that much"! I think someone is having a moral panic attack, but it's not the author of that article.