Neo-Con & CT Fear Tactics

[parky76]

It sometimes appears to me that Neo-Cons and conspiracy theorists are playing the same fear game. Neo-Cons scare us about the evil Islamic Extremist hordes just waiting to break through the gates and turn the USA into a Khalifa state.

Do I think Islamic extremists are real? Yes. Do I think they pose as big a threat as the Neo-Cons tell us? Hell no. All the damn "terror warnings" have proved that to me time and time and time again. Fear, is a great political tactic for keeping the people willing and able to support....crap.

But the conspiracy theorists do the exact same thing. Not a week passes by when we don't hear about an attack on Iran this day, poisonous chemtrails that day, or evil 666 microchips that day. Its enough to make someone run for the hills. I'm anxiously waiting for the Iran war to start on April 6..I have 100$ saying it won't and daddy needs a new pair of shoes!!

Joking aside, its all about fear. Scaring us into thinking there are Muslems under our beds, or evil Zionist/Freemason/Illuminati in the closet. Its all about fear and it got old 4 years ago and now its just insulting.

I long for the day when politicians and laymen don't feel the only way they can get attention and spread their beliefs...is through FEAR.

[jmercer]

I find it utterly laughable.

They keep postulating these amazingly capable and powerful, secretive, utterly ruthless groups and/or government agencies are committing these convoluted complex schemes. Yet these vastly effective secret organizations seem powerless to stop them from exposing the TRUTH(tm).

Guess what?

If they were right in their theories... they'd never live long enough to present them. :D

[e^n]

Joking aside, its all about fear. Scaring us into thinking there are Muslems under our beds, or evil Zionist/Freemason/Illuminati in the closet. Its all about fear and it got old 4 years ago and now its just insulting.

To an extent I agree with you, but I also think it's about arrogance in both cases too, although more with the CT side. They require no justifications for their beliefs (the worst of them) because they believe themself to be beyond reproach. There's a great Killtown(28th Kingdom maybe?) quote where he's typing and just begins randomly bashing his keyboard and states that his statements are not debatable.

Truly funny stuff.

[T.A.M.]

It sometimes appears to me that Neo-Cons and conspiracy theorists are playing the same fear game. Neo-Cons scare us about the evil Islamic Extremist hordes just waiting to break through the gates and turn the USA into a Khalifa state.

Do I think Islamic extremists are real? Yes. Do I think they pose as big a threat as the Neo-Cons tell us? Hell no. All the damn "terror warnings" have proved that to me time and time and time again. Fear, is a great political tactic for keeping the people willing and able to support....crap.

But the conspiracy theorists do the exact same thing. Not a week passes by when we don't hear about an attack on Iran this day, poisonous chemtrails that day, or evil 666 microchips that day. Its enough to make someone run for the hills. I'm anxiously waiting for the Iran war to start on April 6..I have 100$ saying it won't and daddy needs a new pair of shoes!!

Joking aside, its all about fear. Scaring us into thinking there are Muslems under our beds, or evil Zionist/Freemason/Illuminati in the closet. Its all about fear and it got old 4 years ago and now its just insulting.

I long for the day when politicians and laymen don't feel the only way they can get attention and spread their beliefs...is through FEAR.

I agree alot of the tactic is about fear, but how much of it is actually working. Personally, I still go about my day as I always did. I don't look ove rmy shoulder, I don't have any of my rights taken away...

If it is all about fear, which it maybe, I am not sure it is working as well as either side would like.

TAM:)

[Dog Town]

Guess what?

If they were right in their theories... they'd never live long enough to present them. :D
[/SIZE]

Their answer to that is....wait for it, they are to important! The movement is to huuuuge! Never try explaining to them, why they be allowed, to ever open their traps in the first place. That answer is, the Gubberment underestimated their power.Delusional at the least!

[T.A.M.]

I find it utterly laughable.

They keep postulating these amazingly capable and powerful, secretive, utterly ruthless groups and/or government agencies are committing these convoluted complex schemes. Yet these vastly effective secret organizations seem powerless to stop them from exposing the TRUTH(tm).

Guess what?

If they were right in their theories... they'd never live long enough to present them. :D


Now you've done it. 800 truther deadbolts just went "click".

TAM:)

[Brainster]

It sometimes appears to me that Neo-Cons and conspiracy theorists are playing the same fear game. Neo-Cons scare us about the evil Islamic Extremist hordes just waiting to break through the gates and turn the USA into a Khalifa state.

Do I think Islamic extremists are real? Yes. Do I think they pose as big a threat as the Neo-Cons tell us? Hell no. All the damn "terror warnings" have proved that to me time and time and time again. Fear, is a great political tactic for keeping the people willing and able to support....crap.

But the conspiracy theorists do the exact same thing. Not a week passes by when we don't hear about an attack on Iran this day, poisonous chemtrails that day, or evil 666 microchips that day. Its enough to make someone run for the hills. I'm anxiously waiting for the Iran war to start on April 6..I have 100$ saying it won't and daddy needs a new pair of shoes!!

Joking aside, its all about fear. Scaring us into thinking there are Muslems under our beds, or evil Zionist/Freemason/Illuminati in the closet. Its all about fear and it got old 4 years ago and now its just insulting.

I long for the day when politicians and laymen don't feel the only way they can get attention and spread their beliefs...is through FEAR.

You keep using that word, Neocon (hyphen not needed). I do not think it means what you think it does.

[ktesibios]

I long for the day when politicians and laymen don't feel the only way they can get attention and spread their beliefs...is through FEAR.

And as long as we're dreaming, I'd like a pony and an ice cream soda!

;)

[WildCat]

Do I think Islamic extremists are real? Yes. Do I think they pose as big a threat as the Neo-Cons tell us? Hell no. All the damn "terror warnings" have proved that to me time and time and time again. Fear, is a great political tactic for keeping the people willing and able to support....crap..
I don't think the "terror warnings" are some plot to keep people fearful. It was a response to all the wailing post-9/11 when it was revealed that there was information that al Qaeda wanted to attack. I think they're useless, but it's a damned if you do and damned if you don't scenario.

[parky76]

Neo-Con is just short for neo-conservative, a wing of the conservative movement that believes in spreading and solidifying american power, influence, and interests. war of pre-emption seems to all be their new hall mark.

As to the terror warnings being part of a conspiracy of fear, I dont think its that obvious. But these people are not stupid, they know what fear does to people. FDR was not stupid when he said "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself". I have no evidence that Homeland Security or the Whitehouse perpusefully tried to scare the American people with false terror alerts, but from what we saw with WMDs in Iraq, I wouldn't put it past them. Yet I understand this is still not EVIDENCE.

but what we do have evidence of, is all the terror alerts that turned out to be outdated info, or arrests of low-life punks in Miami who were as threatening as a mosquito. When I see things like this I ask myself "if they knew the threat was so pathetic...what is the point of releasing it?..what is accomplished by it? all that is accomplished in my mind is that Americans stay fearful and are more willing to support warrentless wiretaps, the erosion of habeas corpus, etc etc.

as to the massive amounts of warnings in comparison to pre-911, i agree some of it may be a reaction to the complete absense of warnings leading up to 9-11. but they have gone from no warnings...to warning us about everything under the sun. there needs to be a rational, logical, reasonable, middle ground.

[David Wong]

It sometimes appears to me that Neo-Cons and conspiracy theorists are playing the same fear game. Neo-Cons scare us about the evil Islamic Extremist hordes just waiting to break through the gates and turn the USA into a Khalifa state...

...While liberals use FEAR of global warming to do the EXACT SAME THING. Also, FEAR of Neo-Cons. Painting an absurdly evil Darth Vader portrait of everyone from Bush to Rove to anyone who dares work with them. They use FEAR of poverty and starvation the moment government cuts ANY social program.

Face it, every political movement in the history of the world has used fear to solidify its power. The founding fathers used fear of the British.

Don't act like the Republicans invented it.

[parky76]

I totally agree when it comes to the Global Warming issue. I am suspicous of any political or scientific theory that talks about total gloom, doom, and the like. Seas level rising 20 ft? Im not so sure about that. But we all know that the world is getting hotter..thats not gloom and doom..just reading your thermometer.

But you are right, fear isn't just a tool of conservatives, but all the terror warnings, the war in iraq, and the erosion of various civil rights was initiated by conservatives, not liberals.

[The Silver Shadow]

I'm a Muslim, am I killing anyone yet? I work for the student government at my university, am I killing, or have I killed anyone?

I think that both sides are greatly exaggerating. Islamic extremists aren't as dangerous as the government likes to put it, and the government isn't as big, bad and all knowing as the CTers like to put it. I would put myself in the middle ground, but LCF apparently doesn't allow for middle ground...

[Brainster]

Neo-Con is just short for neo-conservative, a wing of the conservative movement that believes in spreading and solidifying american power, influence, and interests. war of pre-emption seems to all be their new hall mark.

Bzzzzt!

The neoconservative Republicans became influential in the 1970s and early 1980s. They were for the most part people who had been very liberal, perhaps even socialists or Trotskyites, who became disillusioned with liberal projects when they failed to succeed, and indeed in some cases seemed to make things worse. They clustered around the magazine Commentary, and writers like Irving Kristol. Their central tenet was The Principle of Unintended Consequences, which held that the unintended consequences of government action were frequently equal to and opposite from the intended consequences.

The neoconservatives do not have significant power within the Republican Party, although individuals may have some power. Dick Cheney is not a neoconservative. George W. Bush is not a neoconservative. Donald Rumsfeld is not a neoconservative. Douglas Feith and Paul Wolfowitz (who I believe have both left the administration) may have been.

And it's not as if there was this huge wing of the Republican party that opposed the Iraq War. Shoot, half the Democrats supported it. There was a tiny, right-wing fringe led by the Buchananites who opposed it, but they've gone so far right they've made common cause with the far left on a lot of things.

The part that bugs me about the "neocon" thing is that I suspect that Buchanan has sold the Left on the notion that they're running the show for his own purposes. But what Buchanan really means when he talks about neoconservatives is Jewish conservatives. And the Left is learning. A couple years back the anti-capitalist magazine Adbusters published a list of those conservatives who had backed the war effort. As a helpful hint to their readers, they marked the Jewish ones with a star.

[parky76]

I saw that Adbusters article. That was a little offensive. But is it completaly inappropriate to recognize the Jewish origins of many neo-conservatives and wonder how this has influenced their beliefs?

I mean, I can totally see right-wing Jews being supportive of American military action against Iran, Iraq, and Syria. These are Israel's enemies. Does having right-wing Jewish beliefs become dormant when you work for the governmant? Please.

Mind you, I also think it is worth while to look into how evangelical and fundamentalist Christian beliefs have influence Christian neo-cons. Though the fact that no one really does this, is troubling. Its almost like they are saying "only jewish neo-cons are driven by their religous ideologies, christian ones are purely driven by politics". that way of thinking is prejudiced.