If the Seventies were the nursery of conspiracy theories, the Noughties were when they grew into pimply adolescents, due in no small part to the advent of the Internet.

<< Paranoia is a kind of narcissism that makes us feel important, even if at the same time we are terrified. >>

That's certainly as true today as it was in the Seventies. It's evident in the spittle-flecked ravings of the 9/11 'Truthers' and in the convoluted imaginings of AGW denialist mob, not to mention the mad purveyors of fantasies about Green politics and 'communism', who mutter darkly about 'socialism by stealth' and other paranoid twaddle.

<< Paranoia, like other forms of mass delusion, is a highly infectious mind virus. “The mixture of panic, paranoia, and pessimism that characterised the 1970s engendered a peculiar hybrid mood - gloomy yet feverish, torpid yet hysterical”. >>

So true, particularly in online forums - of which OLO is one of the more moderate, despite the feverish hysteria posted here all too frequently. Still and all, it's quite entertaining - so long as you don't take it too seriously.

ha that's so funny Cj, you post all your paranoid fears as examples of other people's paranoia - I'm surprised you didn't put up the AGW conspiracy theory that all skeptics are being funded to be so.
Yes, I saw your attempted flame-bait "deniers", never let a chance go by eh? Do you think the "deniers' are out to get you ..?

After all the hysteria and exaggeration we see on AGW here .. you find skepticism of it to be a conspiracy .. hahaha

That's absolutely classic delusional paranoia .. the skeptics are conspiring .. oooh!

The article's point proven by cj ..well flushed out Simon, some people never got over the seventies, eh Cj?

Wow! I'm so glad I spent most of the 70s out in the Pacific Islands, where I could continue my simple innocent 50s/60s life. You know the one, where we believed in truth & justice, & that it was dispensed by our authorities.

Perhaps it was. Most of what I see that is wrong with the world today, developed since those simple times.

Even the latter part of the 70s, which I spent in far North Queensland were not much different, at least up there in hicksville.

It was a great life for a hick, who was too busy enjoying life to bother to see all that was wrong with it.

rpg - I was referring to 'Climategate', i.e. the AGW denialist conspiracy theory so enthusiastically taken up by you and your fellow travellers, and so completely debunked by subsequent investigations. Also, I guess you must turn a blind eye to the garbage that's frequently posted here by those who claim that the Greens and other political environmentalists are really a front for 'communists' etc.

CJ, you are kidding,aren't you?

You must be just looking for a bite, surely.

Well, nip.

CJ,
I take strong exception to your unfair characterisation of 9/11 'truthers': clearly the CIA, under Colin Powell, planned the whole thing, fired a missile into the Pentagon (probably with Rumsfeld's connivance), wired up the towers with five thousand tonnes of explosives, hijacked two planes and drugged their crews - God, it's so obvious !

And who was he working for ? It's as plain as day that he has been working all along for the Swedes ! Why, you ask ? Clearly, to embroil the US in Iraq, as well as Afghanistan: working hand in hand with Hans Blix, playing a very clever double game between them, they skilfully drew the US into a pointless war (dependent on Swedish aircraft parts) - which is why they had to invent this concoction, 'al Qaida', when clearly there is no such thing, just CIA stings, and all orchestrated by the Swedish secret police. And what sort of name is 'Rumsfeld', or 'Rumsveld' or 'Rumsvjold' - is that Swedish or not ?

CJ, you might say, in your naivety, where's the evidence ? Exactly ! We are dealing with such a clever enemy that they hardly ever leave any traces, you have to look for just hints of evidence. For example, they have now destroyed the career of Tiger Woods with their planting of an agent right in his home ! So she walks away with half a billion dollars and their work is done. Now they have conned the Chinese into taking over the troubled operations of SAAB and Volvo. They might look dopey but boy, are they clever !

And what were their ships doing in the Indian Ocean at the time of the 2004 Tsunami, if not secret underwater nuclear testing that went horribly wrong ?

And we thought that they were only about refrigerators and clocks, chocolate and gloomy films !

If this is my last posting, don't say I didn't warn you.

Loudmouth">> They might look dopey but boy, are they clever<<

Like our Taswegans? They will be running the country from down there soon, independant by independant, green by green, bob by bob.

Son of Gloin,

Don't get me started on the secret links between the Swedes and the Greens !

People can scoff, but look what they tried to do to Assange. And it's well-known that if you play an Abba record backwards, it sounds exactly the same ! That has to mean something damaging to our culture. After all, they even tried to infiltrate MacNamara's Band ! B*stards !

And what's with 'grassy knoll' ? 'Knoll' - isn't that Swedish ?

You've been warned.

cj .. so you don't like greenies being called, quite rightly, commies or even the lesser socialist?

yet you find it acceptable to flame skeptics with "deniers" whenever possible

BTW - 'Climategate', i.e. the AGW denialist conspiracy theory so enthusiastically taken up by you and your fellow travellers, and so completely debunked by subsequent investigations.

We don't need to do anything here, the world took it up and it destroyed Copenhagen, all on it's own - because people are always suspicious of others who want to control them.

Your "conspiracy" is all in your own mind, some emails and data were released into the wild .. there was no conspiracy .. has anyone been charged yet? Who released the emails, there is suspicion it was an inside job .. more conspiracy! Who are the conspirators, how many are there? How do they organize?

haha

No, not a conspiracy, just skeptical people .. unorganized.

Not at all like you watermelons eh .. why you even try to get control of government!

rpg, you seem to have the wrong end of the stick as usual.

'Climategate' was the name given by the media to the alleged conspiracy among climate scientists that was supposedly revealed by the release on the Internet of thousands of emails from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit in the lead-up to the Copenhagen Summit.

Although subsequent inquiries proved that there was no such conspiracy, intransigent AGW denialists like you persist in claiming there was. I use the term 'denialist' because it's more accurate than the neutral term 'skeptic', since you continue to deny the very high probability of AGW in the face of overwhelming evidence.

Do try and get your facts straight. This might help:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climatic_Research_Unit_email_controversy

Come on CJ, you're smarter than that.

You can see just as well as I can, what a pile of rubbish the goings on at the CRU & the IPCC, & elsewhere have been. You do yourself, & your mates a disservice in pretending you can't.

It is now time to come out from behind the camouflage, & start talking facts, not fabrications. You & your mates, Will get a lot further if you talk sense, & try to get people on side with the truth, & your real goals, rather than this concocted scare campaign, to which increasingly large numbers have awakened.

If you can't openly discuss your objectives, & your reasons, with the public, your cause is totally illegitimate

"I use the term 'watermelon' because it's more accurate than the neutral term 'Green', since you continue to spout this absurd rubbish."

there .. fixed cj

In a separate post, someone very kindly provided links to the analysis of what happened at the so called investigations into the CRU scandal. I don't bother linking to it, find it yourself if you really are open minded, but I know you're not.

CRU a conspiracy of skeptics, just the opposite, a conspiracy of academics who broke the law in the FOI case, but were beyond the limitation statue to be charged .. they still broke the law, and that's no conspiracy, it's fact admitted by the investigations .. which by the way, did not cover the science ... why not?

We skeptics continue to oppose the taxing of everyone for the socialist goals of the watermelons

I'm not skeptical about man made climate change, I am skeptical that it's CO2 that is the culprit and that giving money to watermelons to redistribute will have any effect except to inflate their egos.

Many thanks to Hasbeen and Amicus for illustrating my point perfectly.

It's you denialists who subscribe to the conspiracy theory that for some dark reason (e.g. communism or whatever) the world's leading climate scientists are perpetrating some kind of massive fraud by generally agreeing that AGW is very probably true. However, despite the fact that your conspiracy theory has repeatedly been shown to be false, you cling to it.

You're looking every bit as silly as the 9/11 nutters, only you don't know it. I guess that's why you can't help being nasty in exactly the same way that they do when disagreed with.