Conspiracy Theories, Skepticism, and Critical Thinking

 So, we’ve come to the end of the Cooper book. What we learned is nothing. Cooper’s work is stranger than the previous works we’ve covered ( None Dare Call it Conspiracy and Proofs of a Conspiracy… (both are wordpress links because I didn’t use Substack then)) because Cooper includes work by other authors. In fact, this book is primarily work from other authors with Cooper supplying maybe 30% of the work. This makes the “by William Cooper” a bit misleading. The most generous conception here would be “Edited by William Cooper” since he’s written so little of it. I’ve attempted to make the claim that the NWO conspiracy theorists were more earnest in their belief than the modern-day Deep State conspiracy theorists; they care more about what they let in to their worldview and kept out the real kooks. This book completely contradicts that claim. The difference, I have asserted in the past, was that the 90s era conspiracy theorists had to measure their time. If Cooper is going to writ...

 In this last appendix I have no idea what is happening. This is appendix G: Kurzweil vs Hopkins. If you remember way back in chapter 12 “The Secret Government” Cooper detailed the arrangement between the US government and the secret aliens overlords…or at least that is what he said he was going to do. Instead it was just meandering tale of anecdotes with little to no factual claims. You might be thinking, “I’ve heard this story prior to this blog, and it seemed weird but coherent.” If you do think that, it’s because you’re remembering Chris Carter’s version of the conspiracy that he pushed on the X-Files when star Gillian Anderson became pregnant and they needed to create the meta-story to explain her character’s disappearance. On page 230 (231 on the PDF) we get this line, “ I have discovered that Whitley Strieber is a CIA asset, as is Budd Hopkins.” Cooper explains that he felt that Strieber was not right because he couldn’t look Cooper in the eye. Strieber had taken the positio...

 Conspiracy theorists have a strange relationship with “drugs” as a concept. On the one hand people like Bill Cooper seem to want a very limited government, a very hands-off police, and very few laws that are about the most basic of crimes. If it isn’t hurting anybody then there shouldn’t be any issue with it. On the other hand, they really hate the drugs. There are two reasons for them to hate the drugs: the first is simple racism. Drug crimes typically focus on the poor. The history of the United States’ drug laws is not only classicist but it also overtly racist. Drug laws targeting crack were far more strict than the ones targeting cocaine. The other reason that drugs are a focal point is that they offer proof of the grand conspiracy. Drugs provide an example of a problem that everyone sees, that makes lots of money, but no one seems “willing” to fix. In the conspiracy theorist’s mind, fixing the drug problem is as simple as sending in the military to destroy the cartels like i...

We continue to grind at the appendices, reading one of the people responsible for pushing the idea that FEMA was going to throw us in camps, take away our guns, and let the UN take over the United States (chapters 5, 6). Appendix E is supposed to be about the New World Order but the document on page 459 has nothing to do with it. This is a letter titled “S_T_A_T_E_M_E_N_T” (the letter was likely written on a typewriter, and this was the attempt at underlining). The author of the letter claims that between 1972-74, when Nixon was in trouble, a directive came through that messages from the White House were to be reported to the base commander. That’s it. This is the salient point in the signed letter [it looks like the person’s first name is either David or Daniel E. but I can’t be sure]. The writer refers to an article that he read saying, “ I recall that reason this article was so interesting was that some of us were trying to determine whether we believed that President Nixon would re...

 We’ve left the HIV/AIDS conspiracy and now we’ve moved on to the New World Order. You know, the thing that the entire book has allegedly been about, so we’re back to this topic. I know I sound like I’m beating a dead horse’s drum here, but the only justification for this appendix is that Cooper thinks that he needs one. He doesn’t understand what they are for but the “smart books” have them. Is this going to be evidence or different conspiracy theories that are supposed to prove his point. The first document is a scanned version of the front page of John Robison’s “Proofs of a Conspiracy Against All the Religions and Governments of Europe, Carried on In the Secret Meetings of Free Masons, Illuminati, and Reading Societies (Collected From Good Authorities).” It’s literally just the front page of the book. I spent a good year or so reading this book ; and it’s not the proof of anything. It’s just Robison complaining that Masonry in Europe isn’t how he remembered it, the Illuminati w...

 In the context of this book, the AIDS crisis had crested. Not to say that it was gone, or that the epidemic was over; but that the initial wave had receded. Thanks to the efforts of people like Surgeon General C. Everett Coop; the American population learned a great deal of how AIDS/HIV was spread and how to prevent it. The population learned this despite protests from the Reagan administration and their evangelical base. When Cooper sits down to write the book a few things have occurred: the information about AIDS is out, everyone feels confident about how the disease is spread, and the long tentacles of a Soviet disinformation campaign have worked their way into the American counterculture. Cooper is doing one of two things, and neither of them are good. He’s either adopted the conspiracy theorists’ strategy of just denying every mainstream or he’s lost the ability to be incredulous about claims that fall into his view. I doubt that he’s a willing player here. What Cooper is cla...

Writing about Cooper's book has the advantage of being nearly 30 years after the fact. We know that most of the things he's claimed have not happened. There was no nuclear reaction on Jupiter to turn it into a second star. The JASON project either never existed or it failed in its attempt. Cooper has closed the book on what was allegedly proof of aliens at Area 51 in Appendix B, and now we've moved on to Appendix C titled "Alien Implants."  90s Alien conspiracies centered around the idea that aliens were going to put things in our bodies. Why? Not sure. In some cases it was for mind control, in other cases it was to track us, and then there was some kind of hybridization role (I think...it's hard to remember). No matter why, the alien implant idea was invasion of bodily autonomy claimed by the people most likely to vote against people wanting to preserve bodily autonomy. Aliens were kidnapping us and then inserting something inside us, that's the fear. It...

 Quick correction: last week should have ended on page 420. Appendix B would make more sense if we learned about the government coverup of extra-terrestrials and UFOs in any significant manner during this book. We just haven’t and it makes this extra-long part just an add-on. Cooper is like, “hey look, alien stuff, it’s all true.” It would even make sense if it had a place in the narrative, but this stuff does not. I sincerely wonder if Cooper had an idea for a UFO book but abandoned the project and this is the stuff that’s left over. This week begins with a letter from Col. L. Gordon Cooper (USAF) to Ambassador Griffith of Grenada. Cooper is legitimate astronaut, he flew in the Mercury and Gemini missions, and just missed out on being the commander of Apollo 13. The story that Col. Cooper tells is that he saw some UFOs over West Germany in the 50s, and that even other Air Force and Astronauts are reluctant to share their stories. That’s it. It’s a lot of nothing, and because this ...

 There is an interesting balance that one must strike when discussing aliens. If you see something in the sky, you can admit that it was a UFO. You can even admit that you think you saw an alien spacecraft, but as soon as you start getting specific about what kind of alien spacecraft it was—you start to look like a crank. The balance is between just enough knowledge to imply what it is that you saw, but not enough that you know what it was. In the UFOlogy world this presented a problem, the conspiracy theorists needed to constantly toe that line because eventually the blurry photographs just lose appeal. We are still in Appendix B, and we’ve been provided with one person’s testimony that they built storage warehouses for aircraft crash recovery. I’m using the word “aircraft” in the loosest sense of the term; it was a craft that used to be in the air. I am giving the unnamed writer the benefit of the doubt that he’s not lying. Then we were treated to two really blurry and poorly cop...

 The appendix in a written work (not that horrible little organ that put me in the hospital a few months back) is supposed to be where we add things to the work. This is either reference materials printed in full that didn’t make sense to include in the main body, like letters or in modern times social media posts. It’s also where some authors will make a commentary in a second edition to their work. For Cooper, it makes sense to include his military record. He spent way too long in the beginning of the work informing us about it, but placing his military record is an thing for an appendix. The section titled “Appendix B: UFOS and Area 51,” is an addition that makes little sense. The first document is just someone’s letter to some people (it’s addressed in the plural), the Cooper has just reprinted here. Given how disjointed the book has turned out to be, it’s not the inclusion of the letter that vexes me it’s the inclusion of the letter in the appendix that confuses me. Why not ju...

 I’m going to be honest, I was a bit surprised but here we are at the last chapter. Yes, the very last chapter in this book. The chapter is going to provide us with documentation, but no commentary, that the US Army Intelligence has some kind of link with the Satanic Church. The documentation that he provides, I’ll assume is legitimate, but this chapter ends up seeming like a waste of time. Well, we haven’t skipped a chapter yet so let’s dive in… The first document claims that a San Francisco PD officer came across proof that the leader of the “Temple of Set” was a Major in the US Army Reserve’s Intelligence division. Two other members, according to SFPD were also intelligence officers in the Army. The document confirms that the names listed are Army Intelligence Reservists, but “ since it was not a criminal matter, military intelligence would be advised and likely contact her. ” The date on the document is 1981. This is important, I’ll mention why later. The next document is from...

 May continues with a non-sequitur about the American government’s debt in general but toward “Arab Countries” in particular. Conservatives love bringing up the debt when they are not in charge of the government; conservative conspiracy theorists love bringing it up all of the time. They do this because it is boring, but it seems important. Only economists like talking and hearing about national debt, business people do—but in specific venues, everyone else just likes to complain about it without understanding any of it. Debt ceiling conversations are a solid example of this. It sounds like a legit argument—we should stop spending money we don’t have. However, that’s not the debt ceiling, the debt ceiling is about paying money that’s already been spent. People think that not raising the debt ceiling is the same as not buying that new television, when instead, it’s more like no longer paying your utility bill. You already used the electricity, now you have to pay for it. That’s all ...

 If you get that reference, you’re as old as me. Jonathan May has now decided that England isn’t for him and moved, as all international businessmen do—to Oklahoma. I’m not knocking the state of Oklahoma, but this is an odd move for someone like May. The entire section so far is a humble brag and his move to Oklahoma seems like a letdown for what he’s claimed so far. He’s trying to claim that, well I’m not sure what he’s trying to claim. What we know from him is that he inherited some money from Charles I, then made thousands of tiny businesses, was a successful middleman, and then earned the ire of some local police. All of this prompts the move to the United States to get away from the harassment in the UK. Why doesn’t he move to New York, or, since the story is taking place in the early 80s, San Francisco? Or try Chicago…of course, I’m missing that he’s not providing a detail—where in Oklahoma did he move? It’s a big state, it’s not Alaska but Oklahoma is huge. We can assume he ...

Last week we discovered that an ancestor of Jonathan May’s was given a benefit by King Charles I, and no one in his family ever knew this. He then began to invest and set up charters for thousands of different businesses (?) in order to collect on it or something. He was, as he claims, already a successful businessman and this was just more money for him. We left off with his claim that, “ I discovered that a minute cartel controlled all banking policies worldwide, and that the provision or non-provision of ‘money’ was all controlling.” Because we just finished reading the Protocols inside this book, I have a certain expectation for what May is going to claim (hint: I think he’s going to blame the Jews), but I do have to suspend that. So far we know very little, and what we do know is very difficult to verify. This is largely because May likes to brag alot. He’s a very successful businessman, even though he has no education. He claims that he is known for finding things at good price, ...

No more Protocol numbers. We leave Cooper’s inclusion of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion for new writing. This chapter is titled “The Story of Jonathan May,” and I assumed that it would be Cooper reporting some conspiracy about this person. However, it’s not that at all: it’s a letter from May to Cooper. Rather, it’s a letter that May sent to five members of congress pleading his case. This is a 26-page long letter, and I almost feel bad for the congressional aide that had to read it, though it must have made for a good discussion over drinks. How Cooper acquired the letter is never explained. I don’t know if he was also sent a copy. My first complaint is that this is 26 pages long. I read, I read a lot. At my side gig I am known for the fact that on long breaks I sometimes have a book. My complaint isn’t the length because it’s too long for me to read. My complaint is that I want to read Cooper’s book, not an anthology of weird conspiracy documents he found on a BBS service back i...

The strangest thing about this post is that I do not know exactly how to write it. I’d always intended to cover this book—in fact, it was going to follow Behold a Pale Horse. However, the framing of this book within another book changes things because of the context. I had also known that the Protocols were in this book as well, but I assumed they were abridged in some fashion and not just plagiarized entirely. That changes things a little bit, but by that much. The first thing I want to say about it is that this is definitely a case of something I would like to call “the Mona Lisa Effect.” Think of the Mona Lisa. Ok, how big is that painting? In most people’s heads it looms large, but it’s about the size of a normal portrait (it’s actually 30 by 21), not tiny but not the wall covering monolith that we picture it because of its reputation. This is similar to Machiavelli’s “The Prince.” That book can be read in a few hours, it’s very short; but it has a reputation. The Protocols are li...