Conspiracy Theories, Skepticism, and Critical Thinking

 We begin the third chapter with a new villain: Francois Noel Babeuf. I have never heard this person’s name until this book. He gets a mention in the last chapter, but Webster is devoting the entire chapter 3 to this man. A quick jaunt over to Wikipedia reveals an interesting facet about Babeuf: he seems to be some kind idealist about the French Revolution. He believe in the principles of the revolution and when the revolutionary government’s ideals met reality—he still wanted them to hold to those ideals. He fomented revolution ideals during the revolution against the government, and in the end he was arrested and executed. That’s the story Wikipedia tells us. This chapter is going to be interesting because Webster is going to have to work to frame this person as our villain. So far she’s argued that the Revolution was not about helping the poor or even the common people, rather it was a plot by the Illuminati to take control of Europe and further oppress the people. This is the k...

 “ The conception of France rising like a phoenix from that great welter of blood and horror is as mythical as the allegory from which it is taken and has existed only in the minds of posterity.” No notes, I just like that sentence. Webster wants us to believe that the revolution failed. Not that the aristocrats retook power, but that the revolution never helped anyone. This is an interesting take, so we’ll have to consider her evidence for it. If you’ve been following along, she doesn’t have any. She has the people’s suffering during the terror, the counter-revolution, and the numerous groups fighting for control in this period. This is to be expected, and I don’t think any historian really believes that everything was just oysters and baguettes for the French during this period. Webster is playing on the ignorance of English history lessons that do not get into the nitty details of what it was like to live through the revolution. Indeed, the American revolution had periods of unc...

 One of the most perplexing accomplishments that the conspiratorial right wing has pulled off over the last century was in convincing the poor to vote against their own interest. In contemporary times, this has been done by called the ultra-wealthy “job creators” even though they don’t really do that. People like 2012 US presidential candidate Mitt Romney, tried to frame his money as coming from all of the labor that he created when in fact most of his money came from investments whose value increased when companies were bought, gutted, and sold piece by piece. Jack Welch, infamously did this at GE, which once employed something like 1/5 of the US population. The stock goes up when there is less overhead, so it’s in the investors’ interest to lessen overhead at the expense of the quality and quantity of jobs. Just look at Circuit City’s demise. Those examples are symptoms. That people cheer for this is also a symptom. The cause is the demonization of the worker’s interest. Today’s ...

 We’ve learned that Robespierre was in the Illuminati but then so was everyone else that ran the French Revolution, this includes the people that executed the other people that were also in the Illuminati. Just remember for Webster, everyone is in the Illuminati unless there’s a direct connection to someone that can tell her she’s wrong. Then it’s not. If you think that’s confusing then try this, “ Thus Robespierre clearly recognized the necessity for the vast social revolution indicated by Weishaupt; but whilst Weishaupt fixes his eyes on the explosion and ‘smiled at the thought of universal conflagration,’ Robespierre regarded anarchy simply as a means to an end — the reconstruction of society according to the plan he had evolved with the cooperation of Saint-Just, which was an embryonic form of the system known later as State Socialism.” Webster has two footnotes at the bottom of this page and neither have to do with the quotation she’s making. At this point in the book I feel t...