The Tea Party: ‘The People Who Hate People Party’
(image by ragesoss, used under a Creative Commons license) There's an old joke about Irish politics: that the second item on the agenda of any new political movement's first meeting is the split. The Tea Party, the notional emerging third party of American politics, already seems to be heading in the same direction. The Glenn Becks and Sarah Palins don't seem to be able to string together a coherent narrative for the Teabaggers (beyond hysterical screaming about Obama's nefarious hidden agenda) and, almost as though playing out an old Bill Hicks joke about 'the people who hate people party', the in-fighting has started. And how. The following text is taken from an e-mail sent by Sherry Phillips, a leading light in the anti-bailout, anti-BigGov, anti-Obama, anti-everything Teaparty whose first convention is due to happen next week. From David Weigel at the Washington Independent: 'We have refrained from responding to many...
The Map Is Not The Territory
(image by Thristian, used under a CC license) If the internet were a town on a map, what would it look like? Alfred Korzybski said that 'the map is not the territory'. That said, sometimes a 'notional map' might help us visualise that which defies classification. This is a map showing four 'towns' in cyberspace - Cyberia: a place of infinite possibilities and anarchic fun, Cyburbia: a landscape of twitching curtains, paranoia and suspicion and Deadwood: a lawless outpost where the rules of 'netiquette' simply don't apply. Finally, we have Disturbia. Well, you'll figure out what that's about... We suggest that you click on the view larger map option so that you can see all the embedded content. View The Map Is Not The Territory: Visual Artefact in a larger map Related The Haiti Conspiracy Theories Tracking the Protocols of the Elders of Zion Blather.net's Map of the Weird
The Haiti Conspiracy Theories
(image from the UN Development Programme, used under a CC license) Would-be ethnographers of the web such as ourselves are often advised to try to take a neutral stance on conspiracy theories, seeking to take a position of 'negative capability', resulting in the publication of posts which take a reasonable, balanced and calm approach to the issue at hand. This is not one of those posts. 'If you think you know what the hell is going on, you're probably full of shit' - Robert Anton Wilson It took less than a week for the Haiti conspiracy theories to gather a head of steam, culminating in a series of claims so bizarre, random and clearly bonkers that they make the 9/11 Truthers and the Birthers look like an emminently reasonable bunch. Contrary to what the foaming-at-the mouth fundies are saying, the Haiti earthquake was not the result of the Haitians doing...
Fata Morgana: Mirage
.... with photographs by Dave Walsh, music by Dacianos. There is something unnerving about watching reality bend before one's eyes. There is what one "knows" to be true, and that which one can see through a telephoto lens or binoculars - with Fata Morgana, the two are difficult to reconcile. Something is happening on the horizon. Icebergs twist and change shape, move, disappear, elongate. Islands rise from the sea. The earth warps. The 18 images of Fata Morgana, or complex "superior" mirages, in the slideshow below were made between July and September 2009, off the coasts of both northwestern and northeastern Greenland, while I was part of a Greenpeace expedition to investigate the effects of climate change in the Arctic. Some of these photographs show the landmass of Canada's Ellesmere Island in the distance - the air is incredibly clear in the Arctic, and the only way to capture the...
For Sale: Old Fashioned Skullduggery
Secret societies, alleged grave robbing, little black books, Thor, the possible skull of Geronimo, grizzly human remains, shadowy establishment figures, ex-Presidents, conspiracies, the CIA and supreme court judges. While these may certainly sound like the frustrated ramblings of DeCount O'Blather on a wet-wristed Wednesday wankathon (TM) , they also happen to be involved in an upcoming lot for sale at Christies which has quite a few people in a bit of a tizzy. Sale em's Lot Lot 157 contains memorabilia from the infamous Skull & Bones secret society, based at Yale University. Home of America's elite, the societies members have included a veritable 'who's who' of establishment figures throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, including both George Bush's, and John Kerry. Founded in the 19th century, the society owns its own windowless fortress property, as well as a 40-acre Island in upstate New York, where members can get away from...
Tracking the Protocols of the Elders of Zion
(Henry Ford - one of the Protocols most ardent supporters and publishers) The Protocols of the Elders of Zion has often been called the 'original conspiracy theory' - a known anti-semitic forgery which, despite an abundance of research showing that it is a fake, continues to replicate and spread. The following map is part of a project (for a course at the University of Edinburgh) which attempts to understand how poor research, multi-located narratives and the 'will of the web' can ensure that dangerous, patently false ideas can continue to thrive and thrive. This map attempts to track the spread of the 'Protocols' - a forgery which purports to be the 'secret agenda' of the Jewish people and their plans for global domination. To properly view the embedded content, I suggest you click this view in a larger map option:View Tracking the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in a larger map
Nicking the Bones of St. Nick
It seems a Norman Family, relocating to Kilkenny brought more then just their suitcases of French perfumes, fine wines and strings of garlic. Apparently the French penchant for durty, cheating, va va vooom, thievery has a long historical precedent, as evidenced by their alleged translation of the relics of St. Nicholas to Ireland sometime during the 12th century after having nicked them from the 'Holy Land'. As previously reported here at Blather Lost in Translation Much as I love the idea that the Irish are secretly compiling a veritable Aladdin's Cave of holy relics of feast days (Well, we do have dem bones, dem bones, of that Valentine fella), there is unfortunately no historical or archaeological truth to the entire story. First of all, there are several independent accounts of the actual bones of St. Nick being swiped, robbed, "removed" (under divine direction) from Myra and spirited away to their...
2012 And The New Wave Of Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theory
(image by spike55151, used under a Creative Commons license) The Birthers, Truthers and Teabaggers may be getting the headlines, but for pure unadulterated lunacy they don't hold a candle to the new wave of anti-semitic conspiracy theorists. Don't believe us? Take a gander at this... Rummaging around in conspiracy theories can be a testing thing. You try to keep a calm head, try to remain objective and, above all else, make no judgements: retaining what Keats called a condition of 'negative capability': '...when man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.' But, as recently discussed in my talk 'Blather, Rinse, Repeat: An Ethnography of Conspiracy Theory', this is proving increasingly difficult in recent times. But why? Have the Birthers, the Truthers and other right-wing US-based lunatic fringes jumped the shark so spectacularly that you just want to scream until your head...
Blather, Rinse, Repeat: An Ethnography of Conspiracy Theory
(image by Aaron Escobar, used under a Creative Commons license) This is the video of the talk I did at the Dublin Paracon 2009 on the subject of 9/11 and conspiracy theories. This talk resulted from a course called Digital Cultures, part of the MsC. in e-learning at the University of Edinburgh, where we were encouraged to carry out a 'virtual ethnography' on a community of our choice. I chose, for reasons passing understanding, the 9/11 conspiracy theorists, choosing some of the recent 9/11 films as a field site. Press play. And this is the presentation with all of the materials. Press the play button, let it load and the choose the full screen option in the bottom-right corner to properly view all the embedded materials. For some context on how this all came about, you can rummage through my blog for the university course. Hat-tip Thanks to Mark Guerin...
Blather.net at Dublin Paracon 2009
The 2nd Dublin Paracon will take place at the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Golden Lane, Dublin 8 on Saturday November the 7th 2009. I'll be there giving a talk entitled 'Blather, Rinse, Repeat: An Ethnography of Conspiracy Theory'. Update: online scrapbook from the talk added. Update 26/10/09 I've wanted to try out Prezi for a while and thought this might be a good chance to muck about with it. This is a 'Prezi scrapbook' which will eventually become the basis of the talk. It also overlaps with some of my university work at the moment. Wonderful when two previously completely un-related fields you move about it wander together. Suggest you go full screen to see it properly. Press play first. Then click More and Fullscreen. The Dublin Paranormal Convention is Ireland's largest event for those interested in ghosts, hauntings, ufology, unexplained phenomenon, spirituality, mediumship, cryptozoology, paranormal investigation and much much...