RiverDog wrote:What I object to is theories that are based on nothing but pure supposition based on the ability of a person or organization to do something (drone assassinations, mind altering drugs, etc) and make the jump from a random possibility to what they claim to be a viable hypothesis to explain certain events without any direct evidence other than circumstantial. "Prove that it can't happen" is an argument that I hear used all the time. They do not take any responsibility for the burden of proof. They tend to focus in on just one or two of the three elements of a crime, ie means, motive, and opportunity, and fail to complete the circuit.
Drone assassinations are not speculation. It is occurring. Did you give consent for it? Did I give consent for it? Do you think drone assassinations conducted by secret courts are a ok? No moral or ethical problems with them? How is that not a something of questionable legality and ethics that was put in place by powerful people to pursue their interests under the guise of protecting the United States that we don't truly know is used strictly for this.
My point is do you simply buy everything sold to you and trust it is being used responsibly? Or do you question the ethics and moral responsibility of something you see as something open to gross abuse? Do you question this possible gross abuse when you see it occurring rather than wait until after people have been wrongly murdered and it is proven so years later?
At the moment we do not have information on the targets of the drone assassination program. Same as C.I.A. black operations. Or much of what is done in our name internationally paid for by our tax dollars.
You ask for this "Prove it can't happen" without stating has anyone even proved these programs are necessary for our safety? Who approved them? What is the oversight?
I understand why you choose to live in the dark. That is why so many of these conspiracies are so effective. They know that as long as they do not disrupt the lives of regular Americans or citizens, they can mostly do what they want. Same as the monitoring we talked about can be conducted on a world scale and is known to be continuous conducted is not generally allowed at home by our agencies, even why foreign governments conduct these operations on us all the time stealing our data, hacking our information, and tracking what goes on here.
The proof is open. It's there for you to see. Most of the best conspiracies are done right in front of Americans, in the open, but they don't have the moral will or desire to resist them. That's fine. I get it. It's far easier if these activities are ignored than to really spend energy to question the ethics of if something is right. The powerful rely on this aspect of human nature to do what they do. They are definitely conspiracies of questionable legality and ethics that we would never allow in our own nation for ethical and legal reasons. But we Americans don't like to apply the same moral reasoning when it comes to outside the country even when we cannot be sure.
It is well documented that the war we supported between Iraq and Iran led to a million deaths. It is well documented we encouraged Saddam to this war as part of our world manipulating philosophy at the time. But because America kept the majority of the issues outside of the nation, we ignored it until the Iran-Contra Scandal which was already after the damage had been done. The number of people that suffered any consequences for selling weapons to another nation that led to the deaths of tens of thousands of people was minimal at best.
It was a conspiracy caught long after the most dangerous parts of it were already completed with minimal fallout to the people involved and they were once again protected by powerful people within the government likely in both parties.
This is all documented. Even with proof that you requested, the legal blowback on the powerful was minimal because enough people provided protection to the main decision makers or hid it from the main decision makers if you so believe. Either way Iran-Contra was a mostly successful conspiracy for which Americans suffered minimal punishment for the deaths of thousands.
I don't understand why you think because a conspiracy is caught it was not already successful and if the blowback on Americans, especially powerful Americans, is minimal, then why not continue to do it? Regular Americans like you or I can't stop them too often. Closest we got is what? Nixon? Jeffrey Epstein was stopped after he already did much of his damage and had his fun. But who else was caught with him? Maxwell? Almost none of his clients are going down. Do you think they don't exist? Or they are well protected and will never stand trial even though I'm pretty sure even you can see that Epstein had a lot of rich and powerful clients.
There have been a lot of conspiracies even in your life time which are successful even if you learn about them later. That very few if any suffer the consequence for partaking in. It's fine if you want to ignore them. It's better for your sanity.
Me? I've decided that conspiracies are real. Some theories are whacky and I don't see them as true. But quite a few are real, often done right in front of us, and even if we objected they would just ignore us unless we had enough of a critical mass to force them to listen. Which few people can accomplish. I don't plan to unravel my sanity like some to try to resist every conspiracy that is questionable or legal origin. It would take up too much of my life and time as too many people are engaged in them on a small and large level. Even a group of workers covering for each other at a fast food restaurant to steal food is a small conspiracy up to a group of powerful government workers who use a drone assassination program to ostensibly protect the United States while getting fed enemies from their Saudi Arabian allies to work in a few kills that help the political position of Saudi Arabia. If we don't find out until years later, oh well. Milk is spilled and we can't do much about it any way.
So keep your sanity and don't think too much about conspiracy theories or conspiracies. You'll be better off for it.
But don't sell me this stuff isn't documented. It's documented. The proof has been provided. The people who made the decisions are often well-protected and suffer minimal consequences. That part is also documented. Powerful folks in this world are always engaged in some conspiracies and are far more successful at them than you think or they wouldn't keep doing them.