Where Most Conspiracies Come From

Eric was discussing how vocal opposition to a political position (where most people have no opinion) can lead to support for the opposed position.

There was a link in something Eric quoted to the "disturbingly amoral network of fundamentalist operators" which led me to this review:

Sharlet's discoveries dramatically challenge conventional wisdom about American fundamentalism, revealing its crucial role in the unraveling of the New Deal, the waging of the cold war, and the no-holds-barred economics of globalization. The question Sharlet believes we must ask is not "What do fundamentalists want?" but "What have they already done?"

1. - unraveling the New Deal? - Good
2. - waging and winning the cold war - Good
3. - globalization - Good long term with a fair amount of present pain

Evidently I have quite a bit in common with social conservatives. Where we part company is (this is going to be hard to take no doubt) social issues.

I keep hearing that because social conservatives get the above listed items right they must be right on everything. Not even Libertarians are that good.

In an Amazon review of the book ("disturbingly amoral network of fundamentalist operators"):

The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power

One reviewer says:

This is one of the very few books of recent years that has kept me up most of the night reading. Those who discount the power of the type of schmoozing Sharlet describes have not spent much time working in and around government.

So the danger is that they talk to each other? Uh. Well then. I talk to them. And I have made some progress in talking some of them out of the Drug War.

In the end the vast majority of "conspiracies" are just people with similar interests talking to each other.

Which is why I'm continually working to make my conspiracy bigger. Besides. It raises my Google score.

Cross Posted at Classical Values