After Saturday’s post, commenter Alex said:
| But surely nothing can hold a candle to all the bizarre right-wing conspiracy theories that are floating around out there. Like the one about the UN being part of some evil plan to undermine the US and create a single world government. Or the one about the liberal-bias of the media. Or the one about how American universities conspire to keep out conservative academics. |
No one can deny that the Right has hosted a fever swamp of conspiracy theories, from the Illuminati to the Trilateral Commission.
But the elephant in the room on this issue is the Great Global Zionist Conspiracy, which used to be the exclusive property of the far right. In the synergy of what David Horowitz has called the “Unholy Alliance” between the Left and the Islamists, the extreme anti-Semitic memes have migrated to the Left. Ariel Sharon has George Bush hypnotized; the Jews control the government and manufactured the “War on Terror” to destroy Islam; globalization is a plot by the Jews to control the world. With “neocon” a code word for “Jew”, the Left has taken over the salient features of Jew-hatred and made them their own, and so made common cause with misogynistic, bloodthirsty, totalitarian theocrats and terrorists.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
I recall Mother Jones trumpeting the Trilateral Commission theories as well. There is often a convergence between the Loonie Left and Extreme Right, they just use the same tool for different purposes. Secretive organizations serve best for this purpose. But the post denying bias in academe and the Media is ridiculous. Their bias is no secret, it is literally published and broadcast out in the open. Even my liberal siblings do not dispute it, they just defend it as being appropriate — their bias being that “liberalism” is the natural position of the “enlightened.”
Scott, a lot of what Alex said could qualify as statements of fact as opposed to conspiracy theories. After all, something is keeping conservatives off the faculties of the major universities. Some on the Left have asserted that this is because conservatives are simply stupid. If you don’t believe that, then there must be another reason.
But it doesn’t have to be a conspiracy. It can be the simple process of self-selection, in which people tend to congregate where their views are welcomed. People like to be among their own kind.