people in r/conspiratard are downvoting comments criticizing alex jones and upvoting comments citing infowars (x-post r/conspiratard)

10  2013-08-16 by minimesa

People in r/conspiratard are now downvoting comments criticizing alex jones.

And this post citing infowars received a lot of upvotes.

I thought the post was well done, but if /r/conspiratard is going to take infowars seriously when it's being used to debunk theories like "craft international did the BB" then it also needs to be taken seriously when it's suggesting that the BB was a false flag, saudis are suspects, or that the tsarnaevs had cia connections.

People in r/conspiratard have also been systematically downvoting the vast majority of posts I've made about conspiracy theories being disinformation. See this, this, this, this, this, and this.

There are a few exceptions which suggests to me that there are some people there that are really just skeptical of conspiracy theories.

However, there are clearly a lot of people there that are really made uncomfortable by the idea that some big conspiracy theories (like "9/11 was an inside job") are true, and that a lot of false conspiracy theories are disinformation being spread by the government/infowars.

If r/conspiratard is about making fun of false conspiracy theories then people there should have no problem with this. But everything I just linked to strongly indicates that something more is going on there.

People there are even accusing me of being a shill, and when i ask who would pay me to say what I'm saying as infowars wouldn't hire me because i'm a leftist and think alex jones is a double agent, i'm met with silence and downvotes.

If there are shills, they are playing on us-them divisions, and it's worked to play /r/conspiracy and /r/conspiratard against each other beautifully.

29 comments

8  nighthawk1961 2013-08-16

Does it really matter what /r/conspiratard thinks or does ?

-2  minimesa 2013-08-16

yes because it would be amazing if /r/conspiracy and /r/conspiratard could unite on the issue of 9/11 truth and false conspiracy theories that are being spread as disinformation

2  nighthawk1961 2013-08-16

Ideally, yes it would. Human nature, however, doesn't work that way. They have a separate sub for a reason. It is called fragmentation. Or forking, in IT terms. The best we can do is take the lies one at a time. Complaining about the other sub is pointless.

1  minimesa 2013-08-16

Engagement helps, and taking the lies over there is the best way to do that. I'm not complaining, just drawing attention to this (and the alex jones double standard in particular)

3  nighthawk1961 2013-08-16

Well, the effort wouldn't do any harm. But I get the impression that those in the other sub don't seem to have any motivation to be reasonable. As such, I ignore them.

0  minimesa 2013-08-16

Fair enough. Fwiw, it's helped me refine my theories too so you might find it beneficial for other reasons as well.

1  nighthawk1961 2013-08-16

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

           -Albert Einstein

2  minimesa 2013-08-16

What I am saying though is that going over to "the other side" for a little bit and engaging in discussion over there might be a good way to change things up for a lot of people that frequent this sub.

I actually learned a lot about all of the theories I am interested in and the process was really rewarding. Exposing your claims to counter-arguments will help you strengthen them and get closer to the truth.

You might even find that you and some of the people you talk to will change your minds about some things.

Protip: don't accuse anyone of being a shill. You don't really know, and substantive engagement will always turn out better.

1  [deleted] 2013-08-16

[deleted]

1  minimesa 2013-08-16

I agree, but there are some exceptions. This is why I wrote this post.

-1  TheGhostOfDusty 2013-08-16

Not going to happen. Check out /r/NolibsWatch for a glimpse of the history and ideology of the r/conspiratards. This old comment of their oft-banned patriarch sums it up nicely.

They're neocon trolls.

In my time on Reddit I've employed the Thermonuclear Downvote less than a dozen times. The first was by accident, and I felt bad. The second was against jcm267, a right-wing troll who builds up his karma by having sock-puppet discussions with himself (herkimer) in /r/conspiratard. When I encountered him the first time (delivering onto me an obscenity-laden screed about my stupidity and lack of sexual prowess for saying an untoward word about Antonin Scalia) he had about 400 karma. I spent three days carefully dismantling him in publicly amusing ways until he was at -500 comment karma. It bought a great deal of quiet for Reddit at large and now he's careful to badmouth me only when he thinks I can't see him.

Even the leader of the infamous "JIDF" want's nothing to do with them, probably because of displays of psychopathy like these.

1  minimesa 2013-08-16

i'm having trouble believing that that list was crafted seriously, i think they're just doing that to piss libertarians off

there are people out there that actually do believe that

but not everyone in /r/conspiratard is like that

1  TheGhostOfDusty 2013-08-16

Oh, they are quite serious. Here's some of their most recent declarations, over two years later:

2  minimesa 2013-08-16

okay yeah, you've convinced me. i guess i just have trouble sometimes believing that people like this actually exist

1  TheGhostOfDusty 2013-08-16

At least most of them are probably just fake "personae" and shill sockpuppets of zealots.

2  minimesa 2013-08-16

yeah, and then there's this: http://wakeup-world.com/2012/10/03/pay-for-comments-confessions-of-a-paid-disinformation-internet-shill/

4  SovereignMan 2013-08-16

Please, please please don't give that subreddit any attention here, especially links to it. All you're doing is giving them page hits and possibly even new subscribers which in turn gives them more undeserved credibility.

1  minimesa 2013-08-16

i don't think this is a productive attitude to have, an us-them mentality will get us nowhere and engaging w/ people that disagree with you is an important way to figure out what's going on

0  SovereignMan 2013-08-16

The sole premise for the creation of that sub was to troll /r/conspiracy and that is precisely what they've been doing ever since. It's never anything new. It's always the same disinfo, logical fallacies, name calling and other trolling tactics. They aren't simply people that just "disagree", though that is what some of them claim nowadays... kind of like what you're doing now.

-1  minimesa 2013-08-16

some of them are just people that disagree, i spent a lot of time in there talking to people about 9/11 and have had plenty of productive conversations. Also there are probably shills there too.

3  [deleted] 2013-08-16

[deleted]

-2  minimesa 2013-08-16

if alex jones is a double agent that's pretty important to know, especially if you're interested in 9/11 truth

2  Doctor_Brain-Wave 2013-08-16

My conspiracy to paint Alex Jones as controlled opposition so the shills will up vote him thinking he spread lies is working!!!

VIVA LA ALEX JONES!!!

-3  minimesa 2013-08-16

except this isn't what's happening which is what the entire post was about. these comments are being downvoted in a subreddit dedicated to making fun of alex jones.

maybe he is, maybe he isn't, but it's possible and worthy of discussion

2  phroztbyt3 2013-08-16

Here is my opinion on Alex. I personally think he agrees that 9/11 was a setup. However, based on the fact that none of our truthers are actually doing anything (since its more than 10 years later) he is focusing his energy in other arenas.

It is a lost battle. True alternative media understands that battles can be lost, just don't lose the war.

-1  minimesa 2013-08-16

He definitely does, he was one of the first to make the claim.

I'm not sure if we should be so fatalistic about 9/11. I think it is tactically very important. Realizing that it was an inside job may be a tipping point for a lot of people who would otherwise be dismissive of conspiracy theory.

It may not be long before this one breaks through into the msm.

2  [deleted] 2013-08-16

i genuinely like this post. i think alex jones is a double agent, too. he has discretely incited people to violence in his videos (i can offer a link and explanation if you would like). i also admit that i have responded to hostility i've seen on /r/conspiratard with hostility, which only furthers division. this is NOT what our country needs right now

1  minimesa 2013-08-16

Thanks, I really appreciate the positive response and am kind of surprised there hasn't been more interest in this here. It seems pretty important to the realization of our goals to figure out who is manipulating conspiracy theory to its and our detriment.

2  [deleted] 2013-08-16

oh i see so much of that sort of manipulation going on every day. even in /r/conspiracy alone, posted by people who probably don't even realize they are being fed propaganda

1  TheGhostOfDusty 2013-08-16

I can't believe you're not banned there yet.

1  iamagod_ 2013-08-16

That sub is dedicated to making a mockery of those who don't believe the lies. The exact same objective as the actor Alex Jones. They are most certainly in bed together.