Diamond Crump Stabilizing the Theories

Comment [t1]: Comments given during workshop: 1. Grammar: comma placements in some areas are distracting (run-ons?) 2. Needs to use more entertainment sources 3. Talk about figure world in relation to school communication 4. Section off the enter the conversation 5. Make mention of the conspiracies you're going to discuss in the introduction (kind of to ease the reader into the subject matter) 6. Break up topics in lit review 7. Mention the three categories of conspiracies I'm going to discuss in introduction 8. Discuss and explain new world order 9. Talk about 9/11 (weapons of mass destruction where? not Iraq) 10. Start with entertainment conspiracies and transition into political ones to make it easier for the reader to follow along.

Introduction: I dont remember my exact age or the exact time that I first encountered conspiracy topics but I couldnt have been in any grade above the fifth. There was one computer in my house at the time, in my brothers room and anytime he would go outside I would hop on it and either web surf or get on chat lines. Well, one day I decided to do a web search of hip hop artists and devil worship. The idea had to have sprung up from a conversation Id had with somebody. I remember googling music artists who sold there soul to the devil and being shocked at the listed names mostly because a great deal of them I were familiar with and would have never expected them to be involved in any activity that would be implicated with devil worship. But I decided to read further because of the thrill and shock factor of it all and also because it seemed reasonable enough to me that some people would do anything for money. Whenever the websites would list off a music artist who had allegedly done the deed they would cite specific music lyrics as there source. (Insert snoop doggs murder was the case + some the suspect lyrics and talk about how he played the devil in a movie once). My fascination with conspiracy theories only began with looking into the entertainment aspects of it but was cemented with the political. I would have never thought that conspiracies could stretch far beyond entertainment and into the actual real world until the topic of money was brought up. A lot of times in conspiracy circles you are told to follow the money. On the dollar bill you have a pyramid and all Seeing Eye at the top of it; supposedly thats Gods eye or more specifically the money gods eye (aka the devil). I initially became curious about the meaning behind the pyramid in relation to Jay Zs (a popular rapper) roc symbol. When youre dealing with money and the symbols printed on it youre dealing with the Federal Reserve. When I see a popular a rapper (Jay Z) making reference to the dollar bill stating

that it is evil I then assume that everything in the world is interconnected and like I mentioned before through money. My interest in conspiracies hit a climatic point during president Obamas reelections process. Someone made mention of how back in 2008 things played out like a movie. (Continue later). This is nothing new: It was a paranoid time. In America, it is always a paranoid time. (Walker) . Conspiracy theories are not a result of President Kennedys assassination and Kennedy was not the first president to be killed by an assassin. Of course, another more famous assassination was that of President Lincolns. He was supposedly killed in relation to the emancipation proclamation which was basically declaration to free slaves in writing. Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States which amazes me because nine presidents prior to him you had Andrew Jackson who had a guy named Richard Lawrence attempt to assassinate him on issues related to slavery too. This is amazing to me because it lets you know that slavery lasted a long time which is why its such a integral part to American history. When Richard Lawrence was interrogated about his attempted killing of the president he proclaimed that he was King Richard III and that the Jackson had murdered his father so he wanted to take revenge (research the bogus stories of other assassins (copout)). They proceeded to throw him into an insane asylum. That was the official story. Digging a little deeper though theyre several that would eventually surface. One account was where you had two people saying that the witness Richard leaving out of Senator George Poindexter (google his state) a few days earlier. The connection/assumption (conspiracies are filled with them) was then made by pro- Jackson newspapers that Poindexter was somehow involved in the attacks being that he is an opponent of the Jackson administration. There were also people who believed that Jackson had setup the whole scenario to gain public support (was he looking to be re-elected?) and that explains why even though Lawrence had two weapons that he pulled out on the president that they both misfired. The most plausible scenario given the historical context of the attempted killing of Jackson is the one that involves slavery (look up Jacksons political party and its position on slavery). Another man Sen. John Calhoun of South Carolina was implicated in the setup. John Smith Dye, a republican writer would twenty-nine years later summarize the situation as Calhoun being a part of large force, the slave power that would have something monetarily to

gain from Jackson being dead (follow the money). He also believed that the slave power was responsible for two other presidents deaths (Harrison and Taylor).The term Slave Power was coined by the North and was used to describe the political influence of the planter elite. That in and of itself is not a conspiracy but was giving conspiracy coloring by the public. The Slave powers alleged agenda was to extend slavery into the Free states, possibly to free whites, to destroy civil liberties, control the policies of the federal government and to rule the entire country solely based of a slave economy. The Planter elite were paranoid about slaver rebellions and abolitionist. The Planter elite and people who benefited from slavery period were basically suspicious against anyone who threatened their financial security. (Continue later). Skipped one: My position/point: Basically I dont understand why conspiracies theories are such a radical and taboo subject. The things that are discussed on conspiracy sites are not unfounded I would hope that when people take certain positions on things that they would at least have some sort of evidence to support what their saying or just what they believe period. When people talk about conspiracy theorist they make it seem like we pull our topics out of thin air. No, the world gives us the topics. Sure you do have some conspiracy theorist that give the culture a bad name but thats with anything. There is a way to discuss conspiracy subjects intelligently and no conspiracy people dont purposely evade skeptics questioning its just like with religion though. You either believe or you dont. Like with the Jackson story with a conspiracy youre given and official story. But the problem is the story is so convoluted and yet presented in a simple form by the news only later to be bombarded and muddle up with new commentators opinions that its hard to really believe or take in what theyre telling you at face value ( I can use the 2000 election as an example). So what you do is listen to them and mark down their inconsistencies and check out the patterning of the situation on your own and connect this one isolated incident to an overarching and there you have it everything once again being interconnected. So I guess when people say that people entertain conspiracy theories because they offer a simplified or an explained view of the world theyre right. But so what? Conspiracy thinking is a mentality and its rare that people act out of their feelings of paranoia (in relation to conspiracies) when it

comes down to it. With conspiracies its all about the mental and a persons world view. For me: my goal with this paper is to show conspiracies in a good normal light.