Conspiracy Theories, Skepticism, and Critical Thinking

A common trait amongst conspiracy theorists is that they like to brag that they know everything. They've seen the "TRUTH" and this sight has given them perfect knowledge. It does not matter that the knowledge they have will also run counter to other conspiracy theorists, requires a whole new reality, or is just plain bonkers. Conspiracy theorists have this trait of speaking with authority on every subject that comes across their mind.  Cooper, we may remember, was in the Navy and possibly the Air Force. He took some classes in radio but in every other respect, he's just a regular guy. Cooper gets a lot of credit from the UFOlogy circuit and the conspiracy crowd because he worked in Naval Intelligence, but to us--that means nothing. He claims an expertise in everything--but as we're about to see: he has very little understanding of the natural world especially.  In a symposium held in 1957...possibly the Bilderberg meeting that he alluded to last time, the JASON so

We are deep into the UFO stuff, and Cooper has named one. Well, the nickname that was given to it by researchers, and now we are going to get the king of the aliens, Lord Krlll/Crlll. 20 February 1954, Lord Krlll, the omnipotent Highness, landed and met with President Eisenhower who shortly afterward suffered a heart attack.  Cooper tells us that, " In the American tradition of disdain for royal titles he was secretly called Original Hostage Crlll, or Krlll. " I don't know why this is mentioned. When King Charles III comes over, or the Pope; we don't mention that there's a secret nickname for them because Americans do not like royal titles. It's not even true, we just don't as a Constitutional matter award them to our own citizens. Former presidents have had no problems addressing people by their royal titles. The secret nickname doesn't even make sense. He (?) isn't even a hostage.  Cooper presses on detailing a letter from Gerald Light, whom he d

Cooper is going full aliens on us. I've made this observation a few times now but I do feel that it's needed again: this isn't smart of Cooper. Conspiracism in the 90s has two large camps--one is the anti-government/anti-UN usually racist (but necessarily) militia movement. The other is the UFO groups. Currently, these groups are largely blended together. The deeper that one gets into "Q," for example, the more likely that aliens are going to show up in their worldview. This isn't a real problem...unless you are trying to convince people that the thing you believe is real.  I'm sure that most of you out there believe that extra-terrestrial life exists, you probably also believe that extra-terrestrial intelligence exists as well. Some of you may even believe that those UFO/UAP sightings are legitimate- however, a far cry from believing that there is an international conspiracy run by the Illuminati which is controlled by aliens. This is off-putting to us &q

After several short chapters, Cooper begins a very long one titled, "The Secret Government." It's a rather important chapter because Cooper is promising us a deep dive into "Majestic." We need a little background since our experience has been that Cooper is not going to provide in a sensible manner. We'll get it from him, but we'll get it in bits and pieces scattered across the chapter like Legos in my house.  Majestic, is the secret government agency that deals with the UFOs and the reports that they put together. You can read them here . The story of Majestic begins with President Truman at the end of WWII. Right off the bat, one problem with the existence of Majestic is that a different program already existed at the same time called "Project Blue Book." Why the government needed two at the same time is explained easily: Blue Book never turned out proof of aliens and it was the cover story to placate the population. Majestic was the real dea

The Knox contribution is finished and now we move on to another thing that Cooper didn't write--I'm being a little unfair because this is the transcription of a phone interview he did with Randall Terpstra. Cooper does not give any background of Randall Terpstra, so the chapter begins and we are just thrust into the conversation with this individual.  Cooper explains in the very brief preface that in his "Secret Government" video from May 1989, he was tempted to remove his claims about the Nixon resignation. Cooper's claim, along with a variety of UFO claims that he subsequently retracted, that the resignation was a coup against the US. However, he then claims that three people came forward to confirm his belief, and this Terpstra is one of them. Of course, this doesn't mean anything because there's no indication about who Terpstra is. As far as we know, he's just a guy who thinks that Cooper was right...and in the conspiracy world that's good enou