There are two diaries currently on the rec list. The first, in part, promotes the conspiracy theory that "Federal officials" are behind the OWS crackdown. The second debunks it.
I think it very important for all of us to be much more careful about what we rec, about what we promote as true, as opposed to what we suspect may be true.
It all gets down to the kind of thinking that can only be described as the paranoid style of thinking. The paranoid style of thinking asserts a conspiracy and demands its refutation. It goes like this:
I hold X. Prove me wrong.
The problem with that logic is plain, as the following example shows:
There are aliens in Area 51. Prove me wrong.
Relatively harmless, to be sure. But often not. A recent example of that kind of thinking in action went like this:
Saddam has WMD and he's gonna nuke your baby's face. Prove me wrong.
I despise and fear that kind of conspiracy thinking. So should you. It is the kind of thinking that allowed Bush to take us into Iraq. It is the kind of the thinking at the root of demagoguery. Of Hitler's "Stab in the Back." It is the brick and mortar for the Enemies of Reason.
Let us all be a bit more skeptical. When you hear something, as story, that really raises your blood pressure, or seems to confirms something you suspect to be true, there is a good chance that story is not true.
So take the time to double check and make sure someone is not taking you for a ride.
'Cause, I just happen to know that the real reason for Meteor Blade's precipitous departure as our community moderator was that he needed to parachute into Libya. To help out.
You heard it hear first.
*UPDATE!!!*
'Cause it turns out that one of Ronald Reagan's favorite hobbies was having sex with virgins and not giving them orgasims.
Link
You heard it hear first.