Profits of Doom

Earlier I wasted about a half an hour watching a ridiculous program on the History Channel which made my criticism of Drudge yesterday seem petty. Called “Prophets of Doom,” it started out with Michael Ruppert — notorious conspiracy theorist who has lurched from Iran Contra conspiracies to 9/11 Trutherism to his latest — which is simply that human civilization is doomed because we will soon run out of fossil fuels. Ruppert, BTW, has left the United States because he believes there are plots against him; his life history summary on Wiki is itself a conspiracy theorist’s dream. Especially for those who get a chuckle out of “citation neededs”:

Michael Craig Ruppert was born in Washington, DC. His father was an Air Force officer and later an aerospace executive who worked on projects which included the Titan III.^{[citation needed]} His father’s cousin, Barbara Burges and her husband Sam, are both retired from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).^{[citation needed]} Mr. Ruppert’s mother was a cryptographer for Army Intelligence at Fort Meade, MD, during the Second World War.^{[citation needed]}

Ruppert was raised a Republican. He has jokingly said that from 1969 to 1973, he was one of two “living” Republicans on the UCLA campus. During that time, Ruppert was chosen, as an honors student in political science, to intern for Chief Edward M. Davis of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).^{[citation needed]}

After graduation from UCLA, he was assigned to Wilshire Division patrol, and excelled at patrol work and was subsequently sent on detective assignments, including burglary and homicide. He was later recommended by the narcotics officer-in-charge to attend a two-week DEA training school held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Narcotics was Ruppert’s chosen specialty, and he has given expert court testimony on the subject 27 times.^{[citation needed]}

In 1977, Ruppert discovered an extensive drug trafficking operation run by the CIA and went on record about this ongoing criminal activity.^{[citation needed]} He resigned from the LAPD in 1978 despite earning the highest rating reports possible, over the tolerance of continued CIA drug dealing activities.^{[6][dubious – discuss]} Ruppert’s personal experience with death threats, 3 shooting attempts on him, aggressive intimidation over his attempted exposure of these illegal drug activities within Los Angeles, and his ethical conflict with tolerance of these activities, was the catalyst for the resignation.^{[7][dubious – discuss]}

Ruppert filed an official complaint with FBI Special Agent Stan Curry of the LA Field Office on December 4, 1978. This was after Ruppert left the LAPD on November 30, 1978.^{[citation needed]}

Not the sort of guy I would rely on for anything.

The rest of the people on the show are a rogue’s gallery of conspiracy theorists, and they include James Howard Kunstler — a man whose claims Justin used to be very fond of “debunking” back in the day when that was believed possible.

The entire gang of “prophets” is listed here:

The History Channel aired a two-hour program entitled ‘Prophets of Doom’. My kind of programming! Assembled were five experts in Apocalyptic scenarios; Michael Ruppert, Nathan Hagens, John Cronin, James Howard Kunstler, Professor Hugo De Garis and Robert Gleason. Each shared their views with one another and compared notes on how they think civilization will collapse. And to think I could have been watching ‘The People’s Choice Awards’ instead!

Kunstler and Ruppert are notorious; the others are relatively milder by comparison. Hagens, who prophesies economic doom, is billed as an “economist” even though I could find no evidence that holds a degree in Economics. 

As to the rest, John Cronin is a doom-and-gloom environmentalist who screams we are running out of water. Hugo de Garis believes there is a coming World War between Cosmists (advocates of robots who are smarter than humans) and Terrans (rabidly opposed to the Cosmists whose plans they consider a deadly threat to Earth). He predicts billions will be killed and it will happen by the end of this century. As he will likely never live to see it, he won’t ever have to worry about being proved wrong. I won’t live to see it either, and as I have a poor track record of predicting presidential nomineess, I think I’ll take a pass on predicting a World War over “Artilects.” As to Gleason, he’s into Mayan 2012 type doom, so his being proven wrong clock is ticking away fast. While I think I can fairly predict that he will be wrong, events in Japan are probably giving Mayan Doomsday Theorists a much-needed infusion of hope.

What’s interesting is that this stuff is not being sponsored by the Conspiracy Channel, but by the History Channel, which is a subsidiary of A&E Television Networks — “a joint venture between Hearst Corporation, Disney-ABC Television Group, and NBC Universal.”

No matter how you slice it, that’s MSM.

Deliberately sponsoring  conspiracy theorists.

My immediate temptation (and that of many other people) would be to assume there has to be an intentional plan, with probably sinister motives.

Why might the MSM be promoting conspiracy theories?

Because they are elitists who want to keep the “little people” down? When he took issue with 9/11 Truther Michael Ruppert, David Corn offered an explanation along similar lines:

they distract from the nefarious deeds our leaders actually do perpetrate.

Well, maybe they do. But I am thinking that sometimes the easiest explanation is the simplest. These people we call the MSM are in business to make money. They have obviously determined that there is a market for this stuff, so they pander to it. That way they can sell advertising, boost ratings, etc. It is the nature of the entertainment business. Concluding that they are deliberately plotting to mislead the “little people” is little more than a conspiracy theory about a conspiracy theory. It’s similar to the conspiracy thinking by people who think Hollywood and the entertainment industry promote violence, indecency, profanity, Jersey Shore and gangster rap as a grand plot to deliberately ruin American culture. I don’t doubt that some Hollywood types do in fact want to ruin the country. Michael Moore is a good example. But a more likely explanation for most of the rot that’s cranked out is that they know people will watch or listen to it and they can sell advertising.

In light of the unbelievable devastation recently in the news, I don’t know why anyone would need conspiracy theories about the end of the world. Escapism, perhaps? Might conspiracy theories offer something akin to drugs? I don’t mean to be too judgmental about these things, but it’s one thing to enjoy them, and another to believe them.

Conspiracy theories have become the modern equivalent of P.T. Barnum’s freak shows.

If only people took them less seriously.