Althouse: "There is something darkly comedic, and readily mockable, about the conspiracy theorist considered as a type..."

November 22, 2013

"There is something darkly comedic, and readily mockable, about the conspiracy theorist considered as a type..."

"... the lonerism, eager dot-connecting, and thinly-veiled death curiosity masked by a supposed quest for the truth."

Several great clips at the link, but let me single out the one from (one of my all-time favorite movies) "Slacker":

33 comments:

madAsHell said...: The photo-gray glasses say it all.; 11/22/13, 6:56 PM
PeterK said...: Brilliant. the archetypcal conspiracist. reminds me of the many who would show up at the Dallas library to do "research"; 11/22/13, 7:25 PM
traditionalguy said...: Is this about Cedarford's mind?; 11/22/13, 8:10 PM
Robert Cook said...: A great, great movie.; 11/22/13, 10:00 PM
Anonymous said...: Jackie Kennedy. Yoko Ono. Both Right By Their Man While He Was Killed. I Have Made My Point.; 11/22/13, 10:07 PM
mccullough said...: The Crying of Lot 49 is a great novel dealing with conspiracy; 11/22/13, 10:33 PM
AlanKH said...: Is Lot 49 anywhere near Area 51?; 11/22/13, 10:54 PM
somefeller said...: Conspiracy theory is the sophistication of the ignorant.; 11/22/13, 11:29 PM
tim maguire said...: Foucalt's Pendulum.

As a movel, it has its boring parts, but as an examination of the mind of the conspiracy theorist, it's really good. It shows how, once one is in the conspiracy frame of mind, absolutely any fact can easily be brought into the theory, any person can be made part of the conspiracy, making it impossible to talk the sufferer out of it. ("Sufferer," a word just chosen, is apt, I think. Conspiracy Theoricism can be thought of as a kind of mental disorder.); 11/23/13, 5:40 AM
Rusty said...: mccullough said...
The Crying of Lot 49 is a great novel dealing with conspiracy

In my opinion the best thing he wrote.; 11/23/13, 7:13 AM
Carl Spackler said...: At the "breakfast of infamy".."Oswald didn't like his eggs and used foul language". lol!
Conspiracy a-go-go..
love this scene, and the whole movie is a riot.; 11/23/13, 7:40 AM
Anonymous said...: Althouse Conspiracy Theory is True.; 11/23/13, 8:30 AM
Anonymous said...: The Current "Althouse" is a Cunning Imposter.; 11/23/13, 8:31 AM
Anonymous said...: Notice that Cafe Posts Used to Be Artistic Photographs of Flowers and Desktops and the Occasional Robot. Now it is Dogs Dogs Dogs. Use This Evidence and Work Backwards.; 11/23/13, 8:34 AM
Anonymous said...: Remember the Posts Where 'Ann' and Meade were 'Renovating' the Room in their House -- Floors, Fresh Painting, etc? Destroying the Evidence at a Crime Scene: Obvious. There is Truth Beneath the Floorboards.; 11/23/13, 8:38 AM
Wince said...: Believes his JFK conspiracy "work" will one day get him laid.; 11/23/13, 8:40 AM
Anonymous said...: Occasionally the new 'Ann' will Taunt Us with Tantalizing Clues. Example: Professor Rufus. Simply a Cute Dog?

Look Deeper.

Rufus Backwards is "Sufur". The Imposter 'Ann' is Plainly Telling Us She Made the Real Professor Althouse 'Suffer'. It Was Probably Not a Pretty Sight. How Could it Have Been Otherwise? They Had to Paint the Walls to Cover the Blood. It All Connects.; 11/23/13, 8:46 AM
Anonymous said...: 11/21: "At Daisy's Cafe...what Are You Sniffing Out?"

'Ann' Knows That Some May Be Closing in on the Truth. She is Toying With Us.; 11/23/13, 8:49 AM
Anonymous said...: 11/21: "She’s not alive, honey."

Mocking Us. Telling the Blatant Truth Believing No One Will Ever truly Know.; 11/23/13, 8:59 AM
Anonymous said...: Would the Real Althouse Have Let the "Gatsby Project" Just Stop and Wither? Lost Interest? All That Passion Just Stopped Like the Flick of a Switch?

Or:

Did the Imposter Althouse Just Not Bother to Continue?

The End of the Gatsby Project Cearly Pinpoints the Time Frame When The Imposter Took Over.; 11/23/13, 9:08 AM
Anonymous said...: March 11, 2013:

"The mouth was wide open and ripped at the corners, as though she had choked a little in giving up the tremendous vitality she had stored so long."

A garish image of death... in today's ripped-out-of-context sentence from "The Great Gatsby."

We picture the soul tearing out of the body. And the grisly, horrible corpse. Is it laughing at us?

This Post Was Near the End of the Gatsby Project Sentences. Is This the Imposter Ann Taking Over and Telling Us in Code What Transpired? Is She Telling Us That She Saw the Real Althouse "giving up the tremendous vitality she had stored so long?"

This was Followed the Next Day by this Post: "A non-"Gatsby" sentence.".

The Change Has Transpired. Indeed, the Imposter Ann Even Gives it a New Tag: non-Gatsby. In this Moment She is Negating the True Althouse, and Signifying it with a Tag that is NEVER USED AGAIN.; 11/23/13, 9:22 AM
Anonymous said...: I Have an Errand to Run, But Fear Not: I Will Be Back with More Nefarious Evidence.; 11/23/13, 9:30 AM
PB said...: A conspiracy theory is like a fine wine.; 11/23/13, 9:47 AM
Anonymous said...: The 'Gatsby' Post Following the non-Gatsby Post is This:

Are you "wasting the most poignant moments of night and life"?

In the Eyes of the Imposter Is this the Crime She Believed Althouse Committed?

From this Post:

"Enchanted and haunting speak of bewitching and ghosts."

The Imposter Ann is Telling Us Much, Here. And then this:

"But where is the pain?"

I Think We Know Where the Pain Was, and Was Painted Over.; 11/23/13, 10:12 AM
Anonymous said...: On March 18 the Gatsby Post Talked of "The unreality of reality... the world... founded securely on a fairy’s wing...."

We Are to Know that the "Reality" of Althouse is Now "Unreality": there is Now an Imposter. This is Followed By:

So... I Googled "unreality of reality," and the second thing that came up was a Wikipedia article titled "Reality in Buddhism."

Some consider that the concept of the unreality of "reality" is confusing. They posit that, in Buddhism, the perceived reality is considered illusory not in the sense that reality is a fantasy or unreal, but that our perceptions and preconditions mislead us to believe that we are separate from the elements that we are made of.

The Imposter is Letting Us Know That The Reality of Althouse is Now an Illusion: Bold.; 11/23/13, 10:13 AM
Anonymous said...: The Act of 'Being' Althouse Must Obviously Have Psychological Ramifications for the Imposter.

On March 27, 2013 there is the last 'true' Gatsby sentence post as it Fades to Black. Yet on July 9, 2013 -- three-and-ahalf months later! -- the Imposter Ann Posts the Following:

"Some writer over at The Atlantic intrudes on my "Gatsby project" territory."

Does the Imposter Really Believe that the True Althouse's "Gatsby Project" is Hers, Now, or is it a Cunning Ruse to Make Us Believe This is Still the True Althouse? The Post Follows with:

"You remember the old Gatsby project, where I'd isolate one sentence from "The Great Gatsby" and deal with it as complete in itself — a narrative arc, a container of meaning enough, a jumping off point for wild ideation."

The Imposter Feels the Need to Explain What it Was, Since it Was Not Hers to Begin with; the True Ann Would Have No Need for Such an Explanation -- She Would Expect Her Readers to Be Prepared.

More from this Post:

"...and that just makes me want to open my hulking cabinets full of Gatsby sentences..."

So: There are Hulking Cabinets of Gatsby Sentences. It is Obvious: the True Ann Wrote More, but Was Replaced by the Imposter Before They Could All Be Used. It is This Kind of Slip-Up By the Imposter That Shows the Complexity of This Conspiracy.; 11/23/13, 10:33 AM
Anonymous said...: On October 15, 2013 the Imposter Writes the Following:

After 19 years of schoolin', it took 20 years of professing — looks liked or not — to get to blogging, which included, inter alia, The Gatsby Project, which never officially ended, so here's another sentence:

If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away.

Replace "Personality" with "Blog' and "Gestures" with "Posts" and You Have:

If a Blog is an unbroken series of successful Posts....

This is the Imposter Implicitly Stating That She has Every Right to Be Althouse: She is Keeping an unbroken series of successful Posts, and Thus IS the Blog. The Blog is Whoever Runs it: Whoever is Running it is Now Althouse. The Layers are Complex.; 11/23/13, 10:41 AM
Anonymous said...: Also From the October 15 Post:

"Naturally, after 12 years of schoolin', I went to art school. After 16 years of schoolin' and 5 years unschooling, I went to law school. There's a "Bringing It All Back Home" song with the word "lawyers"...

Note That she Later Lines Out "Bringing It All Back Home" and Inserts the Correct Album, "Highway 61", but Still Doesn't Use the Full Title of "Highway 61 Revisited."

Would the True Althouse Not Really Know Which Album a Particular Early Dylan Song Was On? Or Not Use the Correct Title in Full? Of Course Not: the Imposter Shows That She Has a Lot of Catching Up to Do to Continue the Ruse.; 11/23/13, 10:48 AM
Left Bank of the Charles said...: Maybe it was the men's room attendant at the White House. The butler did it! It's all in the new Oprah movie.; 11/23/13, 10:59 AM
Anonymous said...: November 20, 2013: Ann Comments the Following on Her Own Post:

Blogger Ann Althouse said...

This post is a confession, but I'm not giving any more clues.

Tantalizing. The Imposter is Finding That Keeping a Secret Can Consume One's Self.; 11/23/13, 11:03 AM
Anonymous said...: Another Clue: the Betamax3000 Tag. The True Althouse Used it Liberally, then -- Since July 14 -- Not at All. The Imposter Does Not Understand Me, or Perhaps Fears That I Am Too Close to the Truth. Brick by Brick.; 11/23/13, 11:12 AM
Anonymous said...: Note That the Imposter Has Not Tried to Refute Any of This Substantial Evidence. Silence = Guilt.; 11/23/13, 11:18 AM
madAsHell said...: Colonel Mustard
in the library
with the lead pipe; 11/23/13, 12:13 PM